Fourth Orca3D WIP Released!

Feel free to send comments and suggestions as you use the WIP. We appreciate your interest!

Orca3D Release Notes 

Orca3D is a plug-in for designing and analyzing marine structures in Rhinoceros. These release notes describe the status and updates included in the current release of Orca3D.

Orca3D Requirements

• Rhino Version 4, SR 3 or higher
• Hardware: See Rhino hardware requirements (http://www.rhino3d.com/4/systemrequirements.htm)
• Operating Systems tested: Windows XP , Vista
• Operating Systems not tested: Windows XP 64-bit, 2000
• Operating Systems not supported: Windows ME, 98, 95, NT
• Mac: The Intel Mac with Bootcamp or Parallels has not been tested
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (the Orca3D installation will install it if it is not already on your computer)
• Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 (the Orca3D installation will install it if it is not already on your computer)
• Valid license key (without this, Orca3D will operate as a 30-day fully functional evaluation copy, not required for WIP releases)

WIP Release 4 (August 29, 2008)

New Features:

• OrcaOffsetTable: A new command, OrcaOffsetTable, allows users to create traditional offset tables from a selected set of planar curves. When the command is run the user is prompted to include all curves, include Orca3D sections, or to select the curves to use for the offset table. The command opens Excel (must be installed on end-user machine for command to work) and generates the offset table output.
• OrcaPlaningAnalysis: A new command, OrcaPlaningAnalysis, provides a method to compute the hull resistance and power of a planing hull model. The command uses the HydroComp Drag Prediction Library and is based on the Savitsky method for computing resistance. A propulsive efficiency is entered by the user to compute propulsive power.
• Licensing: Added Orca menu item to start Orca3D License Manager as well as shortcuts to the Start menu. Also added current license status to Orca3D About box.

 Enhanced Features:

• OrcaCreateLinesDrawing: Several enhancements were made to the Orca3D lines drawing functionality. Instead of having to specify the page size, dropdown lists of connected printers and available page sizes are presented. A custom paper size option is still offered. Portrait and landscape page orientation options have been added as have options to display/hide the title block, page border and section labels. Labeling of section curves is a new functionality. For station curve labeling, the user is provided the option to input station spacing and a station 0 location. The title block has been enhanced with more detail and available input. If the user has defined a "Design Hydrostatics Condition" an option to include principal characteristics on the drawing based on the hydrostatic properties at the design condition is included. The body plan view now shows stations aft of amidships mirrored about centerline as in a traditional lines drawing. Lines drawing geometry is placed on a unique "Lines Drawing" layer incorporating date and time of creation. The drawing border, title block, and section labels are placed on their own sub-layers. Finally, if the user tries to create a lines drawing but has not defined any Orca sections, a warning message is issued.
• OrcaCreatePlaningHull: Modified the behavior of this command so that the hull is created as a single surface (in addition to the transom and deck). Previously the hull was created as a polysurface which meant it had to be exploded in order to perform control point editing.
• Hull Assistants: Improved user interface error handling to trap invalid input. Also changed "Stem" text occurrences to "Bow" to minimize confusion ("Stem" sometimes looks like "Stern" with certain fonts).
• OrcaDesignHydrostatics: Inform user if no design condition has been defined when attempting to compute design hydrostatics and provide option to define the design condition.
• OrcaTheater: Modified so that the theater page opens in a modeless form so that the user can continue to work in Rhino while the form is open.
• OrcaSections: Implemented the capability to import Orca section definitions from another 3dm file.
• Persistence: Improved robustness of logic to read and write Orca3D document data to 3dm files.
• Help and Documentation: Updated existing and created new Help Videos documenting the use of many of the Orca3D capabilities. Extended Orca3D Help documentation. Implemented context-sensitive help in Orca3D forms and added Orca commands to Rhino command help.

 Bug Fixes:

• OrcaCreatePlaningHull: Fixed a bug in retrieving/applying Chine Height at Stem input parameter.
• OrcaCreateSailboat: Fixed a bug in sailboat hull assistant in which a manual change to the beam at transom text box did not cause an update when leaving the textbox.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Improved robustness for large heel angles and in handling ranges of input conditions. Modified the computation of LCB/Lwl and LCF/Lwl to be independent of longitudinal location of origin.
• OrcaSections: Fixed a bug in the definition of diagonals which had been using the transverse coordinate instead of the vertical coordinate.
• Hull Assistants: Fixed a bug in the unit labels for dimension input which originated when converting Hull Assistants to modeless forms.
• Orca Toolbar: Changed the location of the Orca3D toolbar from the Orca installation folder to the "Common Application Data" folder. This was done to allow saving of changes to the toolbar location on Windows Vista where the standard user does not have permissions to write to the Orca installation folder. The location of the Command Application Data folder varies with operating system (typically "c:\documents and settings\all users\..." on Windows XP and "c:\program data\..." on Windows Vista).

WIP Release 3 (June 30, 2008) 

New Features:

• OrcaProperties: Implemented the line type functionality for Orca3D control nets, set from the OrcaProperties command.
• OrcaPointsOfInterest: Implemented a new "Points of Interest" functionality in Orca3D. Points of Interest are defined via the OrcaPointsOfInterest command. They are used in any hydrostatics/stability calculation. The hydrostatics output reports the distance of the points of interest to the resultant waterplane. Points of Interest have an activation flag so they can be disabled/enabled at will. They are persisted with the 3DM file.
• OrcaMove: Implemented a new command, OrcaMove. This command allows the user to perform complex manipulations of geometry objects and Orca3D surface control points via a custom user control. This includes absolute or relative translations in either Cartesian or polar coordinates. Use of the up and down arrows permits the user to nudge the selected entities as needed.
• Licensing: Implemented a licensing mechanism within Orca3D. This mechanism will allow the end user to try out demo/evaluation versions, to purchase and activate a licensed version, to move a license from one machine to another, and to perform various other licensing operations.

Enhanced Features:

• Hull Assistants: Added session persistence to the Orca Hull Assistants so values entered will be remembered the next time that assistant is re-opened during the same session.
• Hull Assistants: Add content to Rhino document notes whenever a user creates a new hull via a Hull Assistant to indicate date of creation and parameters used.
• Hull Assistants: Implemented modeless forms for Orca3D hull assistants so that the user can modify the view while working with the assistant.
• General User Interface: Made numerous text, format, and behavioral changes to enhance the user experience.
• OrcaExportCurves: Added a default part name for IDF export since some programs will not accept a blank part name.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Modified hydrostatics calculations so that stations are computed on the surfaces selected for hydrostatics, regardless of what surfaces have Orca3D sections defined. If there is a mismatch between surfaces selected for hydrostatics and the surfaces for which Orca3D sections are defined, a warning message is issued to the user.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Made hydrostatics more robust for unusual resultant flotation plane attitudes.

Bug Fixes:

• OrcaHydrostatics: Only compute section properties for those sections with the "calculation" checkbox set during hydrostatics calculations.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Fixed a bug in computation of section properties for heeled models.
• OrcaProperties: Fixed a bug in the behavior of the Orca Properties form when switching water density.
• Globalization: Fixed a bug which prevented use of Orca3D on computers with non-US keyboard settings. All Orca3D input should use US keyboard settings (decimal separator is "." and list separator is ",") as in Rhino.

WIP Release 2 (May 1, 2008) 

New Features:

• OrcaHydrostatics: Added an option to insert the resultant flotation plane in the hydrostatics command. Also added an option to alternatively transform the model so that z=0 represents the resultant flotation plane. When either of these options is selected, Orca3D places points representing CB and CF. It labels and groups these objects with their associated flotation plane in case multiple flotation planes are being computed.
• Reports: Hydrostatics reporting now uses the Microsoft ReportViewer control. This control makes for faster reporting and has a much smaller installation footprint; User formats are supported through the use of the MS Express Web Developer with the appropriate report designer add-in
• OrcaSections: A new command to refresh the Orca3D Sections has been added (OrcaSectionsRecompute). It is assigned to the right mouse button on the Sections icon.
• Real-time Hydrostatics: The ability to see real-time hydrostatics while editing a surface has been added.  This is enabled via the Design Hydrostatics.
• Export Formats: IDF and PIAS formats can now be exported using the Orca Sections that have been defined.

Enhanced Features:

• Installation: The installation program now opens the default web browser to display the Orca Theater html page, so that installation is not interrupted.  It also now works with a FireFox browser.
• OrcaProperties: The handling of SI, Imperial, and Custom units has been overhauled.  A user can now choose from four pre-defined Orca3D Unit Preferences: SI-kg, SI-tonne, Imperial-lbs, Imperial-LT.  Further, a user can now choose a Custom units scheme, which allows the selection of specific units for different categories, e.g. volume in foot^3 and area in inch^2.  The Custom settings are accessed via the Show Units button.
• OrcaExportCurves: Default file extensions are now added when exporting to IDF or PIAS file formats.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Through the use of report parameters, the project, company, and analysis info is shown on all hydrostatics report pages.
• OrcaHydrostatics: BM, GM, LCF, TCF, and VCG values have been added to the condition summary and the summary has been slightly restructured.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Added button to access Orca3D Properties from the hydrostatics form
• OrcaHydrostatics: Modified the behavior of the Hydrostatics input dialog so that if Model Sinkage is chosen, Model Heel and Model Trim are automatically selected and LCG,TCG are disabled; if Weight is chosen all options are available.
• Orca3D Tree: The Orca Tree now supports multiselect.
• OrcaSections: Orca Sections may no longer be deleted with the Rhino Delete command. They can only be deleted by removing them in the Orca Sections dialog.  They also cannot be edited directly.  You must make a copy if you want a curve that is editable.
• OrcaSections: Made all of the layers created for Orca Sections a child of the "Orca3D Sections" layer. Removed the option to put all sections on one layer; the default color of sections is by layer; right-clicking section(s) and setting color changes the color to By Object or lets user set it to ByLayer.
• OrcaSections: Orca Sections are now given names according to their type and location.
• OrcaSections: The Orca Sections tree now allows multiselect.
• OrcaSections: Behavior has been changed so that the Orca Sections are updated any time a surface is transformed or modified.  Real-time (dynamic) updating still only occurs when editing Orca Control Points.
• Real-time Sections: When moving Orca control points with Sections updating in real-time, after each move the Sections would be selected. This has been corrected.

Bug Fixes:

• General: Verious speeling errers hav bin fixd.
• Orca3D Toolbar: Issues regarding the visibility of the toolbar have been fixed.
• Orca3D Tree: Inserting control points into a surface while the Orca Tree was on caused an error. This has been fixed.
• Orca3D Tree: Fixed an error where the lightbulb indicator in the Orca Tree would be off for items that were just grouped.
• Orca3D Tree: Fixed a bug in the Orca Tree where a layer could remain highlighted in the tree after an object had been selected in the graphical window.
• OrcaCreatePlaningHull: Planing hull assistant did not allow flat sheer line. This is now allowed. Corrected in the Sailboat Assistant as well.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Stability calculations at 90 and 180 degrees are now correct.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Corrected waterplane inertia unit labels in hydrostatics output.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Fixed the reporting of section locations in the Hydrostatics output to reflect the current units.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Hydrostatics reports no longer include blank pages for section and righting arm data if that data is not available.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Corrected error in the reporting of TCF.
• OrcaHydrostatics: Corrected waterplane area calculation in English units.
• OrcaProperties: Removed zoom extents behavior after OK on OrcaProperties dialog.
• OrcaSections: Error caused when Preview was used in the Sections dialog before defining any sections has been fixed.
• OrcaSections: Corrected error that caused the section calculation checkbox to not remain unchecked.
• OrcaSections: The names of Orca Sections now update in the tree to reflect a change in units.
• OrcaSections: The options in the Orca Sections dialog are preserved for each Section type.
• OrcaTree: The Orca Tree was modified so that it no longer slows way down when large models are loaded.
• Real-time Hydrostatics: The units in real-time hydrostatics would not reflect the units of a model that was read in while the real-time hydros window was open. This has been fixed.
• Real-time Sections: Corrected error that when recomputing sections; locked sections and section layers did not get deleted when they should have been.
• Real-time Sections: Corrected a problem that caused the real-time section line types to not be correct.
• Vista OS: Fixed a bug that caused a crash when exiting in the Vista operating system.

WIP Release 1 (Feb 29, 2008)

The Work-In-Progress (WIP) is intended to begin the process of soliciting feedback from the user community. While every attempt is made to release stable code, it does not undergo as thorough a testing process as a commercial release. After receiving feedback, there may be major changes in functionality.