New Orca3D Version (2.0.24) Available

We are happy to announce the release of Orca3D Version 2.0.24. This is a free update to Version 2 license holders. If you have a Version 1 license, please click here to purchase an upgrade to Version 2.

To update a previous installation of Orca3D Version 2, use the Control Panel to uninstall your current version. Next, download the installation file from this page. Double-click on the downloaded file to run it, and follow the instructions.

Following is a summary of what is new in Version 2.0.24, as well as the previous releases Versions 2.0.23 and 2.0.22. For information on previous releases, please see the Release Notes.

Release 2.0.24 (August 2023)
Enhanced Features

  • Made several changes to the CFD post-processing command, OrcaCreateCfdRender, including (a) handling simulations that use a user-specified towing point that is different from the CG, (b) handling the new SimericsMP spro file format where the up/fwd/CG directions have been eliminated, (c) adding logic to import streamlines exported from SimericsMP, (d) changing the command arguments to improve user interaction, (e) adding a command argument for filtering the free surface mesh to permit greater user control

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue in Holtrop resistance calculation that occurred when the Orca3D area units were not the Rhino length units squared (e.g., using mm for length units and m^2 for area units). Also fixed a bug in Holtrop Analysis where trying to define a Design Condition dynamically while in the Holtrop command.
  • Fixed an issue that occurs in certain cases when performing stability criteria analysis using a criterion that includes a stability limit based on “Hybrid Ratio.”
  • Fixed an issue in the direction of the surface normal when using the Lofted Developable Hull Assistant in Rhino 7.
  • Fixed an issue in Orca3D Marine CFD in which if a CFD simulation has been set up and saved with Orca3D, and then at some later time the model is opened without loading Orca3D (or opened by another user that does not have Orca3D installed) and the model geometry is transformed in some way (e.g., scale the geometry), when that transformed model is opened later with Orca3D the transformed geometry is not recognized by OMCFD. This fix will only work for Rhino 7 SR 20 and later.
  • Added logic to trim white space from the OMCFD project file and project path so that folders/files with extra spaces are not created.
  • Fixed several issues in the Orca3D CFD reporting functionality including (a) issues related to current language settings and case-sensitivity, (b) modified the powering report functionality when there are multiple propellers to ask the user to confirm the propellers are the same in terms of performance and geometry, (c) added logic to determine symmetry of the Simerics simulation since the new .spro file format has eliminated the attributes Orca3D had been relying on, (d) allow for arbitrary “Propeller ID” rather than assuming the ID is 1.
  • Made several changes to the Orca3D Grasshopper components (related mostly to including an initial float plane height as input).
  • Fixed a bug in the STIX analysis related to the threshold used between
  • categories C and D.
  • Modified hydrostatics calculation output (a) in the report so that the VCG is properly formatted for non-SI length units, (b) in the CSV output to list “None Available” for the VCG if no VCG was required for the calculation.
  • Fixed a bug which kept the Orca3D RUI file from updating to the latest distributed version in Rhino 7.


Release 2.0.23 (June 2022)
New Features

  • Additional Orca3D Grasshopper components have been developed. The new components (still a Work-in-Progress) expose the Orca3D hull assistant functionality as well as the planing and displacement hull resistance analysis functionality. All feedback is welcome.
Enhanced Features
  • Modified the default geometry meshing parameters used to create the CFD CAD geometry to be more aggressive (i.e., finer) to improve model resolution.
  • Added persistence of the real-time hydrostatics parameters between Rhino/Orca3D sessions.
  • Modified Orca3D Marine CFD propulsor definition form to change “Thickness” to “Hub Length” for clarification.
Bug Fixes
  • Fixed several issues related to using non-US keyboard settings (e.g., comma as a decimal character including:
    • Fixed an issue in the OrcaCreateCFDRender command in which heave and pitch were not properly parsed.
    • Fixed an issue in writing out Orca3D Marine CFD refinement zone information.
    • Fixed issues in stability criteria evaluation including expression evaluation.
  • Fixed an issue in which the hydrostatics free float logic could sometimes fail to converge with an input starting flotation plane that does not intersect the model geometry.
  • Fixed several bugs in the Orca3D Marine CFD reporting command:
    • Fixed an issue in which the real time history sampling number used to compute average values was one more than specified (e.g., the default sampling value of 10 resulted in 11 actual samples being averaged).
    • Fixed an issue in which a regular expression matching pattern could cause more resistance components than intended to be
    • matched, such as when air/water resistance component output is enabled.
    • Added a check to make sure the user has not changed the mass of the model in the simulation from what it was when generated from Orca3D.
    • Fixed a consistency check for comparing hull data across multiple simulation results.
  • Fixed a bug in the scriptable version of the Savitsky planing hull analysis in which the incorrect displacement and lcg were being retrieved from the design condition. This only affected the scriptable command version.
  • Fixed an issue where a negative righting arm could incorrectly be interpreted as an invalid value when computing the steady equilibrium condition.
  • Fixed an issue in STIX analysis where the wind moment factor was not being computed correctly.


Release 2.0.22 (August 2021)
New Features

  • A new set of Orca3D Grasshopper components have been developed. These components are currently a Work-in-Progress and are being distributed in WIP form as part of the main Orca3D release. The current set of Grasshopper components are focused on the intact stability functionality of Orca3D. See the Orca3D Help File for additional information about the components along with some examples demonstrating their usage.


Enhanced Features

  • Made several changes to the Orca3D Marine CFD user interface including: (a) modified the “Launch Simerics Simulation” form to use a list control instead of a dropdown control so that the complete list of created simulations is visible and set the default selection to the file with the latest creation date/time; (b) implemented a requirement to choose a “Hull Type” in the OrcaSimericsAnalysis command to reduce likelihood of users running with an incorrect (default) Hull Type; (c) modified the CFD face attribution logic to collate all meshing errors for a selected object into one message since the mesher can sometimes create many "bad" meshes for a given Rhino object; (d) added a warning if user chooses CFD Mesh Size below Normal so that the user is aware of the implications of this choice; (e) added help text to the "asymmetric run" check box via a link label.
  • Extended the OrcaCreateCFDRender command to allow the user to control the free surface filtering that is applied during the command
  • (i.e., whether to filter and the filter magnitude).
  • Made the property list form used for selection of real-time hydrostatics values alphanumerically sorted.


Bug Fixes

  • Modified the logic that keeps track of Rhino geometry objects used by Orca3D (i.e., for sectioning) to be more efficient; this addresses long wait times for operations on large numbers of objects (like deleting many points).
  • Fixed an issue in Orca3D Marine CFD when calculating the flotation plane for submerged bodies using non-SI units.
  • Fixed a bug in stability criteria evaluation when evaluating certain mathematical expressions in the criteria.
  • Fixed a string globalization issue in writing a Simerics .spro file with refinement zones.
  • Fixed an issue in the Simerics Options form when adjusting the Rhino CAD surface meshes in which any modifications to other parts of the form were lost when returning from the mesh adjustment.
  • Modified the OrcaCreateCFDRender command to allow meshes to be selected for the geometry to be rendered.
  • Fixed a bug in the scriptable variant of the OrcaHoltropAnalysis command which would prevent it from working properly.
  • Fixed a file parsing issue in the CFDReportGenerator when parsing direction vectors from the Simerics .spro file using the local culture instead of the invariant culture
  • Fixed a serialization issue related to units for hulls with bulbous bows.

 

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