RhinoMarine^TM Release Notes

Please consult the Release Notes each time that you install a new release of RhinoMarine, to get a summary of the changes and improvements that have been made.

Release 4.0.3

• Updated RhinoMarine for Windows Vista and x64 compatability.
• Updated the RhinoMarine sample models to have correct and consistent RhinoMarine data.
• Modified the command, RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis, to account for a change in behavior of the Rhino 'Sections' command from version 3 to version 4. The Rhino 3 sections command joined sections by polysurface by default whereas in Rhino 3 the default behavior is to leave them unjoined. This sometimes caused the Planing Analysis to fail for certain models.
• Modified the command, RhinoMarineHydrostatics, to fix a calculation error for certain model orientations. RhinoMarine 4 allows any model orientation as long as that orientation is correctly specified in the RhinoMarine settings. Prior to this release certain unusual orientations were incorrectly interpreted for critical point calculations. This command was also modified so that when the user chooses to insert a surface representing the computed flotation plane, padding is added to the plane to expand its extents.

Release 4.0.2

• Modified the registry storage location for default RhinoMarine settings to be in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. This was done since Windows permissions may deny access to the local machine branch implying that a restricted user could not save default settings.
• Fixed a bug in which RhinoMarine object user data, specifically weight and cost properties and RhinoMarine section flags, were not persisting with the Rhino model.

Release 4.0.1

• This represents the initial release of RhinoMarine 4 for Rhinoceros 4. All functionality in RhinoMarine 3 was migrated to maintain functionality in RhinoMarine 4.
• For consistency within RhinoMarine, all high-level settings such as units, project description, company name, and others were moved out of the specific RhinoMarine commands that used them and are now set using a new command, RhinoMarineSettings. The interactive version of this new command opens a dialog box where the user can set units and other values that apply to all other RhinoMarine commands that require them. This command is accessible from the RhinoMarine menu and toolbar. Users should realize that the scriptable version of the command RhinoMarineHydrostatics has changed as a result of this new approach to settings. Anyone using hydrostatics macros based on this command will need to update their macros accordingly. The new approach to settings also has implications when reading in Rhino files saved with RhinoMarine 3 data. Since RhinoMarine 3 allowed users to set different units and other settings for hydrostatics and planing analysis (a feature we felt was potentially confusing to the user and one which is removed in RhinoMarine 4) the chosen behavior is to use the hydrostatics settings values as the global settings for any common values.
• A new command, RhinoMarineAbout, was added to display current version information.
• The "AdjustMeshes" functionality of the RhinoMarine Hydrostatics dialog box was extended to allow detailed meshing controls in addition to the simple slider bar control available in previous versions.
• The RhinoMarine Explorer control was modified to include a functioning "X" button to allow the user to more easily close the explorer window.
• The RhinoMarine licensing dialog behavior was modified to provide more descriptive messages when licensing problems occur. In addition, the licensing dialog user interface was changed to eliminate the dialog box menu and incorporate pushbuttons with more intuitive descriptions for license modification.
• The initial implementation of RhinoMarine weight and cost properties in version 3 used unitless properties. RhinoMarine 4 implements unitized weight properties based on the user-selected units in RhinoMarine settings (as well as Rhinoceros length unit settings). When any of the unit settings are changed by the user, the user is given  the option to scale all RhinoMarine values (including weight properties) to reflect the change (so that their physical dimensions remain unchanged) or to leave the numerical magnitudes of RhinoMarine values unchanged (so that their physical dimensions change). Cost properties are still unitless due the difficulty in trying to implement any meaningful conversions between different cost currencies.
• Fixed a bug in the weight editor when using the "Displacement/CG/Trim" floatation plane hydrostatics option. If using the weight editor with this option the computed LCG was being copied to the "TCG" field instead of the computed TCG.

Release 3.5.3

• In July 2006, Proteus Engineering became part of Alion Science and Technology, Incorporated. RhinoMarine was updated to reflect this change with a new license agreement and new support email address.
• A change was made to the planing analysis output to MS Excel to support international system locales. In prior versions of RhinoMarine, planing analysis output to Excel would sometimes quit before generating charts when running on systems with non-US locales.
• Modified RhinoMarine toolbar scripts to use English command names to ensure they work on international versions of Rhinoceros.
• Made a minor change to the distributed sample models to ensure that the "Perspective" viewport has the correct name. In some cases the "Perspective" viewport had been incorrectly called "Planview".

Release 3.5.2

• Enhanced the performance of the RhinoMarine Explorer parts tree so that large files open more quickly. In previous releases, event callbacks on the parts tree and the associated recursive tree searching algorithm caused file opening to be very slow for models containing many (thousands) objects. This algorithm has been improved dramatically speeding up file opening times on these large models.
• Modified the Drag Prediction Library to improve input error handling. This addresses the issue in which certain incorrect input would cause an unhandled exception in the Drag Library requiring the user to close and restart Rhino in order to avoid "Error 429".
• Enhanced the ability of the RhinoMarine Model Management module to work with "attached files" added with the Worksession Manager. Objects read into the model via attached files are considered "reference objects" and show up in the RhinoMarine parts and layers trees but are not editable in the tree. Currently they show up in the RhinoMarine parts tree directly under a node named for the attached filename. They do not preserve the hierarchical structure they have when the file is opened directly (not attached). The users also cannot change the RhinoMarine weight or cost properties for referenced objects. The Export Weight/Cost properties dialog box and the Weight Editor have been modified to include a checkbox to allow the user to include reference geometric objects in those tools.
• Modified the commands RhinoMarineCreatePlate, RhinoMarinePlaningWizard, and RhinoMarineSailboatWizard so that the resultant new surface is created on the current layer as opposed to the layer "Default". Also modified each of these commands to zoom extents after surface creation.
• Modified the RhinoMarineSailboatWizard command to allow straight deck sheerlines.
• Modified the RhinoMarineCornerWrap command to update RhinoMarine sections if dynamic sections is turned on.
• Modified the RhinoMarine License dialog to hopefully make the license status and activation process more clear.

Release 3.5.0

WIP Release 3.2.9

• RhinoMarine commands have now been organized into separate modules in preparation for an upcoming release. The four modules are called Hydrostatics & Sections, Hull Design, Performance, and Model Management.
• Several user interface enhancements have been made including new bitmaps for RhinoMarinePlaningWizard and RhinoMarineSailboatWizard, new organization of the menu and toolbars to reflect the new modularization of RhinoMarine, and new toolbar icons. Toolbars and menu items are now enabled/disabled depending on the authorization level of the current license.
• Numerous modifications were made to the command, RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis, to improve robustness. Sloped transoms have been addressed. The check on the user-specified OPC was modified so that if it is outside the expected range, a warning is issued but the user is allowed to continue.
• Modified the command RhinoMarineCornerWrap to handle the case where the 4 control points at the corner are colinear. The command now places the corner point proportionately between it's two neighboring control points.
• Fixed a bug in critical point calculations related to positive vertical direction.
• Fixed a bug in rollover hydrostatics for fixed trim calculations (upright or freefloat) in which the LCG was not correctly computed for the heeled conditions.
• Made the logic for adjusting the meshes to be used for hydrostatics calculating more robust to handle cases where "bad" surfaces were selected. By "bad" surfaces we mean those that the Rhino analysis tools would indicate are bad objects. These would sometimes cause our meshing logic to fail but this has now been corrected.
• Fixed a bug in the "Transform Model" hydrostatics option which previously meant that once a calculation had been performed and the model transformed the Hydrostatics dialog had to be closed before doing another calculation. Now repeated calculations can be performed with the Transform Model option selected and without closing the dialog although the user may need to adjust some of the input values to account for the fact that the model moved.

WIP Release 3.2.8

• A new command, RhinoMarinePlaningWizard, was added to allow the user to create simple planing hull shapes by entering key parameters. The command, currently not scriptable, opens a tabbed dialog box requesting input of gross dimensions, angular dimensions, and shape factors. The resulting planing hull surface is not intended to be final product but does provide a fair surface with a simple enough control net that it can be easily manipulated to incorporate the desired features. See the RhinoMarine Help file for more details.
• A new command, RhinoMarineSailboatWizard, was added to allow the user to create simple sailboat hull shapes (canoe body only) by entering key parameters. The command, currently not scriptable, opens a tabbed dialog box requesting input of profile dimensions, plan dimensions, and shape factors. The resulting sailboat hull surface is not intended to be final model but does provide a fair surface with a simple enough control net that it can be easily manipulated to incorporate the desired features. See the RhinoMarine WIP Help file for more details.
• Enhanced the command, RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis, to support Microsoft Excel output. This spreadsheet output option not only provides tabular results similar to the HTML output option but also provides charts of important output values.
• Extended the command, RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis, to allow the user to specify an overall propulsive coefficient (OPC). This is used to compute engine brake power as a function of ship speed from the effective power determined by the Savitsky calculation.
• Extended the command, RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis, to include better reporting of warnings and errors. For each speed several checks are made to ensure validity of the calculation, and warning messages are provided in the output.
• Many new sample models were added to the RhinoMarine distribution representing a variety of recreational and commercial boat hull shapes.
• Modified the behavior of the command, RhinoMarineDynamicSections, so that if curvature quills are enabled for a RhinoMarine section, then they remain enabled after surfaces are edited. Currently the section curvature quills do not update in real-time like the section curves themselves do but they are updated when the surface editing operation is completed.
• Fixed a problem in the Weight Editor dialog in which a total TCG of -0.000 caused a data validation error and would not allow the user to exit the dialog. This could occur due to precision issues related to summing transverse moments for selected geometry.
• Modified the command, RhinoMarineHydrostatics, to be more robust in accommodating non-US locales.

WIP Release 3.2.7

• We have added a new property to Rhino objects, which allows you to attach labor and material cost information to them. Labor and material costs may be specified as exact values or as cost per unit volume for solids, cost per unit area for surfaces, cost per unit length for curves, or cost per unit weight assuming the object also has a weight property specified. The RhinoMarine Cost Properties can be accessed from the Object Properties dialog box.
• A new command, RhinoMarineWeightAndCost, has been added. This command allows the user to export RhinoMarine weight and cost property information to Excel. Weight and cost properties are placed on separate worksheets in the Excel workbook. The dialog box associated with this command allows user to export objects with or without weight and cost properties and to include non-geometric weight and cost items as well. Non-geometric weight and cost items may be added in the grid control in the same dialog box. A total of all selected weight and cost properties is provided at the bottom of the dialog as well as in the exported Excel spreadsheet.
• A new command, RhinoMarineCornerWrap, has been added. This command allows the user to modify a surface at a corner to obtain slope and curvature continuity around the corner. The selected surface must be at least degree 2 in both parametric directions. Currently this functionality is limited to trimmed and untrimmed Rhino surfaces but a future version may allow surfaces within a polysurface to be modified.
• Fixed a bug in the grid control of the weight editor which did not allow scrolling of weight items if the number of geometric items with weight properties gets longer than the size of the base size of the grid control.
• Made several more changes to the RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis command. These include reporting density and viscosity in units that are consistent with the user's selected length units, fixing a bug in specifying water density in lb/ft^3, and implementing functionality to allow the user to get weight and CG information from the most recently performed hydrostatics calculations.

WIP Release 3.2.5

• The implementation of the RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis command has been improved. Orientations other than the standard x-forward, z-up orientation are now accommodated. Length units other than the current model units are correctly handled. Error reporting includes additional details to help in correcting problems, and more checks are made in the calculation logic, especially with regard to a valid speed range. The need for the user to select station locations and to define the transom location has been eliminated. Command documentation has been enhanced and the Help button has been properly connected to the appropriate help topic. The Savitsky planing hull calculation assumes prismatic planing surfaces. The RhinoMarine drag calculation algorithms have been extended to account for "warping" of the planing surface. Additional improvements in this area are planned for future releases.
• Fixed an issue in reporting critical point vertical coordinates and distances above waterlines. For some model orientations other than "xyz" incorrect heights above waterline and z locations had been reported in earlier versions.

WIP Release 3.2.4

• A new command, RhinoMarinePlaningAnalysis, was added to the RhinoMarine plug-in. This command uses the HydroComp Drag Prediction Library to apply the Savitsky planing hull algorithm for computing drag as a function of speed. The user must select those surfaces in the model defining the planing surface. It may be necessary to split the hull at the chine or explode the model in order to define the planing surfaces. The output consists of total drag and effective power vs. vessel speed. Note that the effective power is the power that the propeller must deliver to the water for the specified speed. Required engine power will be substantially higher (sometimes as much as twice the effective power) because it must account for the propulsive efficiency. Currently this command assumes that the model orientation has the global x-axis oriented longitudinally, the global y-axis oriented transversely, and the global z-axis oriented vertically. A future version of this command will allow more flexibility in model orientation similar to the RhinoMarineHydrostatics command.

WIP Release 3.2.3

• Converted the RhinoMarine Explorer to a tabbed control bar where the RhinoMarine tree and Rhino Layers tree are on separate tabs.
• Added "Zoom Selected" menu item in the RhinoMarine Explorer to allow users to zoom to selected objects in the tree.
• Allow InsertNode to work from the RhinoMarine Tree when right-clicking on an object. In this case a node is inserted as a sibling of that object.
• Changed default format for printing values in the Weight Editor.
• Reduced delay interval before scrolling occurs in RhinoMarine Explorer.
• Modified the Options dialog box in the RhinoMarineSections command so that when changing from single layer for all sections to layers for each section type, default layer name of "Sections" changes to "Stations".
• Modified size of message box informing user of analysis mesh computation in progress to suit higher screen resolutions.
• Updated the security library to Crypkey build 6.134

WIP Release 3.2.0

• In order to simplify the process of creating a simple flat surface, with a specified number of rows and columns and overall dimensions, we have added a command RhinoMarineCreatePlate, which is similar to creating parts in FastShip/FastYacht. You can specify the degree in both directions, the number of rows and columns, the orientation (parallel to the horizontal, transverse, or longitudinal planes), and by specifying the coordinates of opposite corners you specify the size and location of the surface. In addition, you can give the surface a name (a standard Rhino property). Once the surface is created, it can be used like any other Rhino surface.
• A new function, RhinoMarineDynamicSections, allows you to watch the stations, buttocks, and waterlines in a surface update dynamically as you edit the hull surface. The section locations are defined using the RhinoMarineSections function, just as in the current RhinoMarine release. While you are actually dragging one or more control points, the dynamic sections are being computed by RhinoMarine from a surface mesh, and you may adjust the density of the mesh to control the smoothness of the curves. Once you put the control point down, Rhino re-computes the sections in the usual fashion, using the tolerance settings that you have defined in Rhino's Properties dialog.
• A new function,  RhinoMarineExplorer, has been added. This is a tree control to help organize your model hierarchically, separately from the layer paradigm. For example, while your layers might be organized by material, your RhinoMarine Tree might organize the model by location or function (hull, deck, interior, machinery, etc.). FastShip and FastYacht users will recognize the approach; objects in the model are given names (Rhino assigns default names when objects are created, but you can change them to something useful), and you can create folders and drag and drop the objects into these folders. Just as with organizing your hard disk, you can create as many folders and subfolders as you like. The RhinoMarine Explorer displays both the Rhino Layers and the RhinoMarine Tree. In the Rhino Layers tree, you can expand a layer to view all of the objects in a layer. Right-clicking on an object gives a context menu of functions (Hide, Inverse Hide Show, Rename, Set Color, Properties, etc.). The same is true in the RhinoMarine Tree. One very nice feature of this is the ability to quickly display a single object, layer, or folder; simply right click on it, and select Inverse Hide. Everything in the model, except your selection, will be hidden.
• Other Rhino functions that are useful for hull fairing have been grouped together on a single toolbar called the RhinoMarine Prototype Toolbar. These include buttons to add/delete net row or column, turning on control net markers, etc. Some of the toolbar icons are a combination of Rhino commands (essentially small scripts). For example, the Lines Plan icon uses the Rhino command make2d, but puts the results on a new layer, and hides all other layers. Buttons to set the Rhino cplanes to standard standard planes as in FastShip (i.e., station, buttock, and waterline planes) have also been added.
• We have added a new property to Rhino objects, which allows you to attach weight and center of gravity (CG) information to them. The weights and CG's are then totaled in the weight editor dialog in the RhinoMarine Hydrostatics dialog box if the user chooses (there is a checkbox in the weight editor to allow the user to include or not include geometry objects in the weight tally). The RhinoMarine Weight Properties can be accessed from the Object Properties dialog box.
• As a result of the addition of RhinoMarine Weight Properties, the behavior of the weight editor has been changed. In earlier versions when the weight editor checkbox was checked, the displacement and CG fields were disabled because the weight and center of gravity values came directly from the weight editor. With the addition of RhinoMarine Weight Properties, we felt this to be a potentially undesirable behavior because if a user modified the geometry of an object with attached weight properties, the weight and CG of that object and therefore of the entire vessel would change automatically. The user might not notice this in subsequently performing a hydrostatics calculation if the displacement and CG fields were disabled. Therefore, we have modified the weight editor to serve as a weight and centers calculator. The weight editor checkbox has been removed and when you select the weight editor you can choose the "Accept" button to have the resultant weight and CG copied to the hydrostatics dialog box. This way the user has to make a conscious decision to apply the new weights resulting from a changed geometry to the hydrostatics calculation.
• RhinoMarine hydrostatics computations rely on the analysis mesh(es) computed for the selected object(s). Depending on how complex the model is and what the meshing parameters are set to, the process of computing an analysis mesh can take a long time. We have added a pop-up message to inform the user of when the analysis mesh is being calculated.
• Modified the RhinoMarineSections command to assign default names to the resulting sections. The names include the section type and section locations, e.g. "Station @15".
• Fixed a bug in the scriptable version of the RhinoMarineHydrostatics command which had caused certain calculations to fail.
• Added a check to see if the specified HTML file path for hydrostatics output is valid. Issue a warning if not.
• Added checks to the RhinoMarine user data stored in the .3dm file to make sure that when reading the .3dm file the version of the RhinoMarine data being read is not newer than the current version of the plug-in. This ensures that if the user tries to read a .3dm file containing RhinoMarine data that is more current than is supported in the user's version of the plug-in (which is generally an unsafe operation) a warning is issued and default RhinoMarine values are set instead of crashing.
• Added the RhinoMarineHelp command to the RhinoMarine menu.

Release 3.1.1

• Several organizational changes were made. In previous releases, Phaser and Slicer were two separate plug-ins, each with a single command, for computing hydrostatics and sections, respectively. Now the two have been merged into a single Rhino plug-in, RhinoMarine, with multiple commands. The commands Phaser and Slicer have been replaced by the commands, RhinoMarineHydrostatics and RhinoMarineSections. In addition, RhinoMarineLicense and RhinoMarineHelp commands have been added. New menu items and a new RhinoMarine toolbar have been added as well.
• As a result of the organizational changes described above, the default installation directory has been changed to C:\Program Files\Proteus Engineering\RhinoMarine. This is important to existing Phaser users because the default XSL style sheet for HTML pages is now also in this new location. Any files which were saved with reference to the old default Phaser installation location for the XSL style sheet may have to be updated to the new location before they will run. In the Output area of the Calculate tab, click on Browse next to the XSL Style Sheet location field, and locate the new style sheet in the new installation directory. In addition, any section locations stored in a 3DM file using the old Slicer plug-in will not be preserved in the new RhinoMarine plug-in.
• A new licensing mechanism has been added to RhinoMarine. This mechanism is no longer tied to the Rhinoceros serial number, providing increased flexibility in our license model. Floating network licenses are now supported as well. See the online help for a more complete discussion of the RhinoMarine licensing functionality.
• Modified the hydrostatics and sections commands to be scriptable. RhinoMarineHydrostatics is fully scriptable including all input and options. RhinoMarineSections can be called from a script or by right-clicking on the Sections icon in the RhinoMarine toolbar to force automatic update of the sections defined in the sections list. However, definition of the sections must be performed interactively. See the RhinoMarine help file for additional documentation.
• RhinoMarineSections has been modified to use an internal Rhino call to compute the section cuts instead of using the command line Sections command. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the time required to compute and display sections, in some cases over 200%.
• Added the option to compute an equilibrium flotation plane from an input displacement and CG but with fixed trim.
• Modified the default HTML output to include the company name. Also the project description has been moved to the header portion of the output.
• Added reporting of heel and trim values for upright hydrostatics calculation with fixed trim to the Excel output.
• Added reporting of critical point information including distance above waterline to the Excel output.
• Fixed a units conversion error in the calculation of displacement-length ratio.
• Fixed a units conversion error in the calculation of critical point locations during rollover computations.
• Fixed a problem with the weight editor which had caused it to be non-functional.

Release 3.0.6

• Modified the logic for computing section-based hydrostatics properties, namely Cp, Cx, and the sectional area curve, to eliminate the erroneous negative area values and zero coefficient values which resulted for certain geometries.

Release 3.0.5

• Moved much of PHASER logic into its own DLL. This allowed us to reinstate the 30-day fully-functional evaluation as in PHASER version 2.

Release 3.0.4

• Extended the PHASER hydrostatics calculation to include computation of displacement-length ratio, metacentric shelf slope and intercept, and neutral axis of waterplane. The HTML and text output style sheets were modified to include the results of these computations.
• Extended the Excel hydrostatics output to include all of the data output to the HTML and text formats. Some new plots were added to the Excel output as well.
• Moved the PHASER GUI resources into a separate file to facilitate internationalization in a future release.

Release 3.0.3

• Added evaluation capability with March 1, 2003 expiration date for the evaluation.

Release 3.0.2

• Fixed a bug which caused hydrostatics computations to sometimes fail when the user has a non-standard model orientation (standard orientation has x axis as longitudinal, y axis as transverse, and z axis as vertical).
• Fixed a units error which occurred when the user chooses the option to insert the resultant floatation plane and anything other than SI units are being used. The plane extents were not taking user units into account and the resultant plane was being drawn too small or large requiring the user to manually resize the plane. This should no longer be necessary.

Release 3.0.1

This is the initial public release of Phaser 3.0 which is compatible with Rhinoceros 3.0. Several enhancements have been added since PHASER 2.0 including:

·        A new tabular weight editor has been added to allow the user to specify a list of weight items which are summed when choosing the Displacement/CG input option.

·        A new option to insert a plane representing the resultant waterplane, rather than transforming the model has been added.

·        A new summary format has been added to the HTML output, when specifying multiple waterplanes. Furthermore, the default XSL stylesheet for PHASER HTML output has been made consistent with the FastShip HTML output stylesheet as of FastShip release 6.1.13.

·        The ability to specify the filename of the Excel file when doing Excel output has been added.