Neutral Product Models for Ship Hull Geometry and Their Use in Data Exchange

This paper reports recent developments in the shipbuilding industry toward a neutral description of the geometry of ship hulls on the basis of the product modeling standard ISO 10303 (STEP). In ongoing German research projects first experiences are gained with these models and their use in prototype implementations for data exchange between heterogeneous shipbuilding CAD systems. Simultaneously international standardization advances toward the ISO Application Protocol for Ship Molded Forms.