New Orca3D Version (3.1.5) Available

We are happy to announce the release of Orca3D Version 3.1.5. This is a free update to Version 3 license holders. If you have a Version 1 or 2 license, please click here to purchase an upgrade to Version 3.

Highlights of this release include .NET Core compatibility, so it's no longer necessary to add the /netfx switch to the Rhino 8 shortcut icon, and Rhino 8 may be opened by double-clicking on a .3dm file. It is still compatible with .NET Framework, so if you have other plugins that are not .NET Core compatible, Orca3D will run in .NET Framework mode.

Other highlights include a new Tonnage calculation, updating of the STIX stability calculator, a new graphical clipping box in Advanced Stability, and termination of the righting arm calculation in Stability Criteria evaluation at the first angle past the angle of vanishing stability. Please see the Release Notes below for a more complete list of additions, improvements, and bug fixes.

To update a previous installation of Orca3D Version 3, 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 3.1.5, as well as the previous releases Versions 3.1.4 and 3.1.3. For information on previous releases, please see the Release Notes.

Release 3.1.5 (November 23, 2024)

New Features

  • Orca3D V3 is now multi-targeting to be compatible with both Microsoft .NET Core and Microsoft .NET Framework (which it has always been compatible with). This means that for Rhino 8, whichever .NET mode you are currently running in, Orca3D will automatically choose the correct version of the plug-in to load (see McNeel documentation at, https://www.rhino3d.com/en/docs/guides/netcore/). You no longer need to use “/netfx” on the desktop icon or the Rhino command SetDotNetRuntime to load Orca3D (although other plug-ins may still have this requirement). For Rhino 7, Orca3D V3 should continue to run with .NET Framework as is required.
  • A new command, OrcaTonnage, was added providing the ability to compute and report Net/Gross Tonnage according to the 1969 International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships. Orca3D spaces now have a tonnage attribute allowing them to be identified as “Enclosed Spaces,” “Cargo Spaces,” or “Excluded Spaces.” The command, OrcaSpaceProperties, allows users to set the tonnage type on one or more selected spaces. The View tab of the Orca3D Panel has been extended to include an option to display spaces by tonnage type. The colors used for tonnage type display can be set in Orca’s property settings. The report options have been extended to allow the user to toggle reporting of graphics for individual spaces in the tonnage analysis.
  • The legacy command, OrcaStixCriteria, was added providing the ability to perform the stability index (STIX) calculation according to the ISO 12217-2 International Standard. In the new implementation, the user has several input options including (a) specifying the height of the center of effort and center of lateral resistance directly or selecting points in the model representing the locations, (b) specifying sail area directly or computing it from selection of 3 points defining a triangle, (c) specifying Lh,Lwl,Bh,Bwl directly or computing them from hydrostatics, (d) specifying a separate load case defining the Minimum Operating Condition or using the primary load case for this condition. Output is provided via Orca3D’s new reporting tool.
  • Added two new Orca3D document settings that allow the user to override the maximum heel angle and heel angle increment used in the stability criteria evaluation. Specifying a value of 0 for either of these implies Orca3D should use the default value.
  • The legacy command, OrcaStraightenPoints, has been implemented in Orca3D V3 to support aligning selected control points along a user-specified input line.
  • Added the ability to display Points of Interest for the current Orca3D Design. The View tab of the Orca3D Panel now includes a checkbox to enable/disable display of POIs in the Rhino views. In addition, POI visibility can be toggled in the Orca3D window that shows the progress of a stability analysis, and a new report option was added to enable POI display in stability reports.

Enhanced Features

  • Developed a graphical clipping box control to allow the user to adjust the Orca3D clipping box interactively using gumball controls in the graphical view. As part of this addition, a new view option to “Clip to Frames” was added on the View tab of the Orca3D Panel to snap interactive changes to the clipping box to frames in the current frame system.
  • Modified the stability criteria analysis so that the default righting arm curve calculation ends at the first angle past the angle of vanishing stability, GZ0.
  • Modified the behavior of the Heeling Moment form so that selecting the option to "Apply IMO Pressure" (which can only be selected when both applying wind gust and specifying wind pressure) the Gust Factor is automatically set to 1.5 and the heeling moment Distribution is set to constant in accordance with IMO requirements. These settings are disabled so the user cannot change them without unchecking Apply IMO Pressure
  • Modified the command, OrcaCrossCurves, to (a) open the Orca3D simulation window to show analysis progress when running this command interactively, (b) fix a bug where the reported sinkage values were not correct if the equilibrium heel angle did not match the first heel angle in the sorted list of heel angles, (c) made the input form contents persistent across command invocations, (d) added "P/S" labeling to heel angles and righting arms both in the chart and the table of values in the output report.
  • Moved the chart legend for stability criteria righting arm plots to the left side of chart.
  • Added Points of Interest (POI) and Curves of Interest (COI) to hydrostatics and stability CSV export, including their height above waterline during rollover calculations.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug in some hydrostatics calculations used in the context of the Holtrop/Mennen and van Oortmerssen analyses as well as the lines drawing principal particulars.
  • Fixed a bug in the logic for computing free surface properties of tank fluids in cases with large trim/heel angles when tank quantity is defined by sounding/ullage.
  • Addressed issues in the resizing behavior of the OMCFD Propulsor Performance form.
  • Fixed a bug in the Savitsky Analysis form when specifying the shaft angle by clicking the Place button.
  • Fixed a deserialization issue in which the open water data for OMCFD propeller actuator disks was not properly updated in some cases.
  • Fixed a bug in which Rhino block instances could not be used as input for hydrostatics analyses.
  • Fixed an issue when computing righting arms for a fluid load case that uses virtual free surface corrections for one or more tank loads and also is defined by a fixed float plane.
  • Fixed a units conversion bug when the user specifies the moment of inertia in the Orca3D Marine CFD input form with unit settings other than SI.
  • Fixed a bug in computing transverse project area for wind heeling moments that occurred when a closed area region was entirely above or below the static waterline.
  • Fixed an issue in plotting the GMt line in the report output for certain combinations of equilibrium heel direction and model orientation.
  • Fixed an issue in the Orca3D Hull Assistants in which section-based hydrostatics (e.g., Cp, Ax) were not being computed.
  • Fixed a bug in the Orca3D Stability Criteria and Stock Materials libraries in which it was possible to inadvertently overwrite the persistent library when exporting the library data.
  • Fixed a bug in the scriptable version of the command, OrcaHydrostatics, in which the heel angle input for rollover calculations was not being properly converted to internal orientation in certain cases.
  • Modified several of the default Orca3D unit settings for specific dimensions (e.g., moments, mass moment of inertia) in some of the unit systems.

Release 3.1.4 (July 24, 2024)

New Features

  • Implemented functionality to automate evaluation of the IMO Weather Criterion and other stability criteria that use a wind heeling moment with a wind gust. This includes automated calculation of the IMO rollback angle and a user-specified wind gust factor in the wind heeling moment definition. The user can define the bilge shape information and bilge/bar keel area as well as optionally override the hull characteristic input (which is computed from the equilibrium hydrostatics by default) for computing the IMO rollback angle. Orca3D stability criteria evaluation now recognizes the keywords ImoRollback and SteadyEquilNoGust as angle definitions for stability criteria limits. ImoRollback is the heel angle to which the vessel rolls back from the steady equilibrium angle with steady wind (and not the change in angle). SteadyEquilNoGust is the heel angle at which the heeling moment due to steady wind (without the gust) matches the righting moment. In cases with a wind gust, SteadyEquil is the angle at which the heeling moment with the gust matches the righting moment. Stability criteria report output now include display of the IMO rollback angle and steady wind equilibrium without gust when used in the evaluation.
  • Added the ability for Orca3D users to choose which modules they wish to use in a network license environment. Also updated the network license server installation to (a) include a server that allows “per-machine” licensing in which  multiple Rhino instances on the same machine will only consume a single license seat in a network license environment and (b) to include batch files to perform common network license server operations.

Enhanced Features

  • Implemented the ability to cancel a long-running stability analysis that was started via the command, OrcaRunStabilityAnalysis. When the analysis is started via the UI, the form that opens showing the progress of the analysis has a Stop button to stop the computation.
  • Added the ability to optionally display fixed loads (including fixed load groups) in the Rhino viewports via a checkbox on the View tab of the Orca3D panel, as well as in the Stability Analysis form via a new checkbox on the form. The colors used for this display is set by the user as part of the Orca3D Design view options in the Orca Properties form. A display color key is shown in the Rhino viewports. This can be disabled via a checkbox in the Orca3D panel.
  • Extended the Orca3D stability report output to add the ability to drill down into fixed load groups in the load case details to see child loads. If a fixed load is a load group, a '+' sign appears next to it in the report details. Clicking on the ‘+’ expands the group to show the child fixed loads. Clicking the ‘-‘ sign contracts the group to just show the load group. Note that the operation could take a little time because the report must be reformatted.
  • Added the ability to include full detailed hydrostatics output for heeled conditions in stability (righting arm) analyses through a new report option.
  • Made several modifications to the Orca3D stability criteria report output including, (a) adding a pass/fail summary at the beginning of the report with hyperlinks to the corresponding detailed report section, (b) adding equilibrium condition information to detailed stability criteria output, (c) adding new reporting of damaged tanks/compartments when there are any in the analysis.
  • Modified the scriptable version of the command, OrcaFrameSystem, to add the ability to remove all frames in a specific direction using the keyword 'All' when asked for the frames to remove.
  • Modified the OrcaPlaningAnalysis command to be more robust in computation of the transom location and to provide clearer indication of any issues that occur during the analysis.

Bug Fixes

  • Implemented a workaround to address an Excel issue in a recent update which prevents Orca3D Marine CFD reports from generating plots.
  • Fixed a bug in the command, OrcaCreateLinesDrawing, in which successive lines drawings created after the initial one caused things using the lines drawing annotation style, like text fields and section labels/dimensions, to be incorrectly removed.
  • Fixed an issue displaying tank face colors when running in Rhino 8.
  • Fixed a bug in defining stability limits where the angle unit dropdown control in the form could be empty.
  • Fixed issues in deserialization of the Orca3D product model.
  • Fixed issue in command for creating CFD report for resistance simulations that include actuator disks and/or body forces (Resistance w/Propulsors) when there is more than one propulsor.
  • Fixed a bug in defining a heeling moment for beam winds with icing in which a pressure-based moment (vs windspeed-based) was not being accepted.
  • Fixed a bug in the beam wind heeling arm so that the wind gust factor is only checked for being valid if the wind gust factor is being applied. Also allow wind gust factor when using wind speed as input.
  • Fixed a bug in Orca3D Marine CFD when creating a propulsor (actuator disk, body force, or wake survey) by copying an existing propulsor, in which the location/orientation of the source propulsor was being used instead of a new copy of the location/orientation.
  • Fixed an issue in Foil Assistant when computing the solid properties of the foil, where choosing ‘None’ for the solid material did not set the material density and hence foil weight to zero.

 

Release 3.1.3 (May 30, 2024)

New Features

  • Added the ability to optionally fix trim at the equilibrium trim value during righting arm calculations. This option was added to both the OrcaHydrostatics command (interactive and scriptable) as well as to the OrcaRunStabilityAnalysis command (interactive and scriptable).

Enhanced Features

  • Modified the scriptable version of the OrcaRunStabilityAnalysis command to allow the user to choose from a list of available stability analysis types.

Bug Fixes

  • Addressed an issue that could cause Orca3D to fail to load in Rhino 8, Service Release 7.
  • Fixed two issues in the command, OrcaPlaningAnalysis. In the interactive command, the option to write output to a CSV file did not function properly. The scriptable command could fail to execute properly.
  • Fixed a localization issue in defining stability criteria when the decimal separator is a comma.

 

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