How does Orca3D compare to RhinoMarine?

Orca3D is being actively developed and supported by a team of naval architects. Since its initial commercial release in October of 2008, there have been a number of new updates. These minor updates are free to our hundreds of users.

The feature list of Orca3D is similar to RhinoMarine, but Orca3D is sold in two configurations:

• Level 1: Hull design & Fairing, Hydrostatics & Intact Stability
• Level 2: Level 1, plus Speed/Power Prediction, Weight & Cost Tracking

License management

Orca3D uses a robust licensing system which allows users to activate the license over the Internet without having to provide a Site Code. A license can also be de-activated over the Internet, in order to move it to another computer without our help. The Orca3D License Agreement allows users to activate the software on their home computer or laptop without purchasing another license (as long as both computers are used primarily by the same person and are not running Orca3D at the same time).

Hull Design & Fairing

• More hull assistant (wizard) types
• Hull assistants are dynamic; as changes are made to the settings, the user can see the hull update in real-time. The hull can be rotated in the background while the assistant is open.
• Hull assistants include real-time hydrostatics; as changes are made to the settings in the hull assistant, hydrostatic values are updated in real-time
• The user has the ability to save hull assistant settings, to use as a starting point for your next design
• "OrcaMove" control gives the user an easy way to precisely place control points, in either an absolute or relative coordinate system, and in either Cartesian or polar coordinates. This can be done graphically or numerically.
• Section locations can be imported from another Rhino model
• The Lines Drawing command includes advanced features such as borders, title blocks, section labeling, drawing scale, bodyplan split location, etc.
• Table of Offsets export to Excel
• Export of section curves to IDF and PIAS (text files of coordinates on the curves)

Hydrostatics & Intact Stability

• Real-time hydrostatics: While you are moving a control point, you can see various hydrostatics parameters update in real-time. The default values that are displayed are displacement, LCB, LCF, and waterplane area, but the user may select any four hydrostatic parameters to display.
• Added flexibility in defining the flotation condition (i.e. combinations of weight, center of gravity, sinkage, trim, and heel)
• "Design Condition", where the user can define the design (default) condition once, and then compute hydrostatics with a single button click (a convenience feature)
• Improved solver that converges in difficult cases
• Points of Interest (critical points) may be defined either by entering longitudinal, transverse, and vertical coordinates, or by placing them graphically.

Resistance and Power Prediction

• Orca3D licenses the resistance library from the same company that provided the RhinoMarine resistance library (HydroComp, Inc.). Orca3D contains all of the updates that HydroComp has provided over the past two years.
• Orca3D includes the Holtrop & Mennen method for displacement hulls, in addition to the method for planing hulls.

Weight & Cost tracking

• Orca3D allows the user to create a library of weight and cost materials (for example, 5 mm aluminum plate, a particular fiberglass layup schedule, or specific items like an anchor, an engine, etc.). These library properties can then be assigned to objects in the model for weight, center of gravity, and cost calculations.
• All weight/cost items have some type of geometry, even if it is just a point object. Orca3D includes a selection feature, to allow you to select all of the objects in the model that have weight or cost assigned to them, or all of those objects that do not. This makes it easier to check that you have assigned the appropriate properties to all of your model.

Features Not Found

• Object Tree: The object tree in Orca3D displays the Rhino layer view of the model, and does not have a "free-form" tree. However, it does display all of the objects in the hierarchical Rhino layers, allowing you to drag and drop objects from one layer to another, and to set the View Part. Layer visibility, color, etc. may be easily controlled as well. A more flexible and powerful tree function will come in a later release (most likely not the next release).
• Network licensing: Network licensing has been implemented, but not yet fully tested and released. As soon as the next update is released, we will begin thorough testing, and will subsequently release a network version. If you have a network license for RhinoMarine, we can provide multiple standalone licenses for you until we've completed testing on our network licensing.