Integration of ship design software modules utilizing the superapplication concept

Abstract

Computer systems for ship design generally consist of many functional modules. These systems should balance the requirement for tight integration with that for flexibility. Designers require a system with versatile functions which are tightly coupled to support the design process. At the same time, they require the system to have flexibility so that any individual design module of the system can be accessed at any design stage and given different input data. To support the engineering design process, a computer system is developed which provides not only an integrated design model for cooperative work but also a flexible model to cope with a changing environment. A conceptual design system is developed by reorganizing the functions of an existing system. The identities of the system modules are maintained so that each module can be executed separately. The superapplication concept, which refers to the control of functional modules at a higher level, has been implemented using Unix C shell scripts.