Gondan – Hull & outfitting design and design review tool eBrowser

Scaling new heights with Cadmatic

Spanish shipbuilder increases capabilities with CADMATIC Hull, Outfitting, and the eBrowser project review tool. 

Customer challenge

  • Need for more powerful software to allow shipyard to work with external designers and increase its capabilities.

Cadmatic solution

  • Implementation of CADMATIC Hull and Outfitting modules as well as review tool eBrowser allows shipyard to improve delivery times without losing quality.   

“We don’t see any disturbances in our daily work, and we have complete control of the whole model. We think this it is the best way to improve our delivery times without losing quality.” – Javier García Llaneza,Technical Office Manager

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Spanish shipbuilder GONDAN has a rich maritime history that stretches back more than 90 years. The family-owned company has built over 300 vessels with greatly diverging specifications. In May 2017, the shipyard took the leap to invest in more powerful design software with the implementation of CADMATIC Hull, Outfitting and the design review tool eBrowser.

GONDAN operates from three facilities within the environmentally-protected area of the Eo River estuary. The facilities are in the town of Castropol; the main shipyard is in the port of Figueras, while it also has a steel-cutting workshop and large equipment warehouse in the Barres Industrial Park. Altogether, GONDAN’s facilities cover 43,000 m² with an annual processing capacity of 3,000 MT of steel.

In mid-2017, after more than 20 years of working with a first-class Spanish naval design software, GONDAN decided to take a leap of faith and change to Cadmatic.

After studying different options and managing the doubts and fears, the decision was taken to bet heavily on Cadmatic and sign the contract to implement Hull, Outfitting and eBrowser,” says GONDAN Technical Office Manager, Javier García Llaneza.

The VILJA icebreaking tug was delivered in June 2019. It does duty in the of the northern Gulf of Bothnia.

The VILJA icebreaking tug was delivered in June 2019. It does duty in the of the northern Gulf of Bothnia.

Javier adds that the biggest challenges in implementing Cadmatic were changing from Spanish to English and overcoming the natural resistance to change.

It is natural for people to want to stay in their comfort zone and use familiar tools and processes, so this is something you have to manage with any change. After a reasonable adaptation period, the implementation was fast and smooth.

Noticing improvements

Javier indicates that they have been able to boost their capacity with the use of Cadmatic.

GONDAN is a medium-sized shipyard, and even though it has a sizeable technical office, our ability to increase capacity locally is limited. Projects are more complex nowadays and delivery times are shorter. We therefore felt that a new powerful tool was needed to allow us to work with external designers and to increase our capabilities. Cadmatic has helped us to achieve this goal. Cadmatic’s ability to distribute design work seamlessly to our partners is one of the most appreciated features.

Javier adds that the entire process of distributing design tasks works smoothly.

We don’t see any disturbances in our daily work, and we have complete control of the whole model. We think this it is the best way to improve our delivery times without losing quality.

VILJA icebreaking tug project

The design of the icebreaking tug VILJA was the first Cadmatic project at GONDAN. The hull of the vessel was launched in October 2018 and the vessel was delivered in June 2019.

The compact icebreaker is the most powerful hybrid escort tug of this size in the world. It is equipped with an innovative hybrid propulsion system featuring diesel main engines, shaft motor/generators, and batteries. The provides great operational flexibility and results in lower maintenance costs, reduced emissions and fuel savings. The tug is fully customized to operate in extreme climate conditions in the icy waters of the northern Gulf of Bothnia.

“I don't know if Cadmatic is the best naval software, but it's probably the one that best suits our needs today.”

GONDAN was responsible for all the structural and outfitting design of the vessel.

Besides being the first project in Cadmatic of a new complex vessel, we had the added challenge of a generational change with several people who were working in critical design phases. Curiously, the senior draftsmen adapted very easily to the new tool, which shows how easy it is to learn.

Javier García Llaneza indicates that GONDAN has managed to boost its capacity with Cadmatic.

Javier García Llaneza indicates that GONDAN has managed to boost its capacity with Cadmatic.

Steady increase in Cadmatic use

Since the first implementation of Cadmatic there has been a steady increase in the use of the software. After starting with Hull, Outfitting and eBrowser, GONDAN is currently testing the Cadmatic information management tool eShare to gain more control over project statuses. The shipyard also plans to start using CADMATIC Diagram in future projects.

GONDAN is currently designing two fishing stern trawler designs with Cadmatic. The 77m and 70m vessels will do duty in Norway. The basic design was performed externally. GONDAN is collaborating with an external company to conduct the steel detail engineering, while the outfitting detail design is being done exclusively in-house.

After the delivery of VILJA and with the two new fishing vessel projects we can say that the implementation of Cadmatic has been a success, despite the expected challenges. We have reached a very important level of development and with new growth objectives in Diagram licenses, eShare, and connection implementations with our ERP system.

3D model of fishing stern trawler designed by GONDAN.

3D model of fishing stern trawler designed by GONDAN.

Read more about Cadmatic solutions

Read more about Cadmatic ship design solutions.