Customer challenge
Cadmatic solution
“In the development of our design process, we aim to leverage the full suite of Cadmatic tools in all phases from basic design through to building.” – Spencer Phare, Business Development Consultant
In 2020, Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards embarked on a transformative journey by selecting Cadmatic as its future design tool. Vancouver Shipyards is part of Seaspan Shipyards (Seaspan), a proud and strategic partner in Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). Seaspan’s services include new constructions, conversions, refits, repairs, life-cycle maintenance, and refurbishments that cater to a diverse array of naval, research, and commercial vessels, including cruise ships, deep-sea vessels, and submarines.
The strategic software partnership aligns with Seaspan's vision of modernizing and enhancing its design and production processes as part of its commitment to the NSS. The NSS aims to create a sustainable Canadian shipbuilding industry, ensuring long-term employment opportunities and equipping the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy with the next generation of non-combat vessels.
As part of Seaspan's new design process, it has implemented a full suite of Cadmatic software tools for basic, functional, and production design. The Cadmatic design tools have been actively utilized in both Seaspan’s Heavy Polar Icebreaker and Multi-Purpose Vessel (MPV) programs, which are progressing well. Under the NSS program, Seaspan has also built and delivered Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels, and is currently constructing Joint Support Ships and an Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel.
Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards and outfit pier
According to Spencer Phare, Business Development Consultant at Seaspan, one of the main reasons Seaspan selected Cadmatic as a strategic software partner was the need for a data-driven approach to bolster the shipyard’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) processes.
“The data-driven and integrated modelling tools in Cadmatic create a digital thread between all design disciplines that extends to building. It provides a more structured and efficient way of handling the vast amounts of design data, ensures greater accuracy and consistency throughout the design and building stages, and allows connections with other systems like PLM,” Spencer explains.
He also highlights the software’s seamless distribution of design work across multiple sites as another key reason for the decision to implement Cadmatic.
The ability to work collaboratively on complex shipbuilding projects, irrespective of geographical boundaries, was crucial for Seaspan, given the scope and scale of their operations. On the Heavy Polar Icebreaker project, for example, five different organizations in Canada and Europe have worked simultaneously on the ship model, which Spencer describes as a “huge step forward”. See here for more information about Cadmatic’s distributed design solutions.
At the design level, Seaspan has greatly valued the implementation of automated production drawing creation in Cadmatic. According to Spencer, this is an aspect they aim to fully leverage and optimize within their processes.
“Creating production drawings used to be a massive job, so automated drawing creation is highly valued; the more we automate the better. It not only reduces the overall time from design to production, but we also cut out inaccuracies and inconsistencies that come with manual work.”
The automated creation of production drawings is part of a larger digital workflow that allows for a more seamless flow of information and a more coordinated approach to shipbuilding.
One of the challenges experienced before at Seaspan was that electrical design was not connected with 3D modelling. This changed with the implementation of CADMATIC Electrical, which is seamlessly connected with other Cadmatic design applications for P&IDs, cable routing, and outfitting.
Connecting electrical design with ship modelling has various advantages. It reduces the risk of design errors, ensures efficient space utilization, and enhances communication between electrical design and other design disciplines. Importantly, it greatly eases change management.
“Once you have electrical design connected with 3D modelling it eases your change management processes significantly. Any changes that are made in electrical design are immediately reflected in the 3D model and connected drawings,” says Spencer.
He adds that it was also a great benefit that Seaspan was able to replace three fragmented software programs used for various parts of electrical design with a single tool that covers all their electrical design needs.
As part of the software implementation, Seaspan has adopted the use of the CADMATIC eShare digital twin platform. It is currently being used for model visualization and during planning and review meetings.
Spencer indicates that they are also investigating the use of CADMATIC eShare for rule-based planning and assembly planning.
Seaspan’s Heavy Polar Icebreaker is a modern, multipurpose, heavy icebreaker capable of year-round operations in Canada’s Arctic waters and northern Economic Exclusion Zone.
Read more about Cadmatic ship design solutions.
