Once you have created a plate, defined its UCS, added any required templates and calculated the developed plate shape, there are different views in the Part window which can be used to check the plate’s shape. The Plate sub-menu in the Display menu can be used to control which view is displayed in the Part window.

The possible views are –

·  Development View –shows the 2D developed shape of the plate.

·  Plan View – plan view in the UCS of the plate. Also allows display of girth length and diagonal information on the plate.

·  Profile View – profile view in the UCS of the plate. Also allows display of the sightline along the tops of the templates.

·  Body Plan View – body plan (cross-section) in the UCS of the plate. Also allows display of templates on the plate.

·  Template View –similar to the Body Plan view but offsets each plate template downwards so that you can clearly view the shape of each individual template.

·  Pin Jig View –displays a plan view of the plate and displays the location and height of each pin supporting the plate.

·   Shell Expansion View – displays the shell expansion.

Shows the 2D developed shape of the plate.  This is the shape that you would cut out of a flat sheet of metal.  The plate will only appear in this window if the plate has been developed by one of the Calc Plate commands from the Plate menu.

The Plan view allows you to view the edges, centreline, baseline, girth distances and diagonal distances along the plate. If the option to display Plate Girths is turned on in the Structure dialog, then Workshop will display a series of labels on the diagram which show the cumulative girth measurements away from the baseline and the centreline with the distances marked to each contour. The girth display will use whichever contours are currently displayed. This means you can display any of the standard sections, waterlines etc as well as the plate templates. The result is a complete summary of girth information for the plate.

If the option to display Plate Diagonals is turned on in the Structure dialog, a number of 3D straight line diagonal measurements are shown on the plate. This provides a useful set of checks when checking the accuracy of plate forming. The diagonals run from plate corners to centreline and baseline ends and to the first template each side of the centreline.

The Profile view allows you to view the plate from side on and displays the longitudinal locations of the plate forming templates, the height of the sight line of the templates above the plate, and the angles of the templates to the plate baseline. If frames are displayed, this view will also display lines showing the orientation of each frame relative to the plate.

Also see

Plate Templates on page 72, for the definition of the plate baseline.

The Body Plan view shows a cross section view of the plate in the plate UCS. This is useful for checking the shape of the templates of the plate.

Also see:

Plate User Coordinate Systems  on page 71.

The template view shows the same orientation as the body plan view but each template is offset downwards to that you can clearly see the shape of each template. When exported to DXF for cutting or plotted at full size, this view provides shapes which can be cut out to create the templates for the plate.

The pin jig view is a plan view on the plate or plate assembly. The view displays the height of each of the pins in the grid of pins which support the assembly. You can set the spacing of the pins using the Preferences dialog in the Edit menu.

In addition to the height of each pin, this view also displays the height and the horizontal distance of each row and column from the edge of the plate. All of these heights and edge distances are also displayed in the Pin Jig table in the Data window.

To display the shell expansion drawing, activate the Parts window and then select the Display | Plate | Shell Expansion or use the button on the Part toolbar.

If you require the plate thickness displayed in the shell expansion drawing check the “Display plate thickness” box in the bottom right of the Structure Visibility dialog. Plate names, stringer names, frame names and deck names may also be displayed in the shell expansion drawing, this flag is also set in the Structure visibility dialog.

All colours in the shell expansion are taken from the associated part colours. For example the stringer expanded contours are the same colour as stringers. These colours are set from the Colour Picker dialog (View | Colour…).

Go to Shell Expansion on page 74 for information on how to create shell expansion drawings.