Taking advantage of project data from SSI allows Cloudis to focus on making the design, routing, and installation of cabling more efficient, without losing sight of how it fits in with the rest of the project.
Choosing the right cable management solution
Modern projects are incredibly complex and can have hundreds of thousands of meters of cabling. As IoT, autonomous technology, and other digital innovations become commonplace onboard vessels, there will be even more electrical and fiber optic cabling to route and manage. The shipyard needs a solution that can manage the complexity of cabling, take advantage of information from the rest of the product model, and make it simple to reference related information downstream.
Cloudis are experts in cable management for shipbuilding. Built up since the first implementation of their software in 1996, there is no other organization with as much experience developing cabling solutions in the industry. With such a specific focus, Cloudis provides functionality to shipbuilders beyond the functionality everyone expects such as automatic cable routing, status management, or change control. For example, the ability to work across sister ships using configuration management functions enables the yard to manage cabling across any number of vessels in a class; a massive time and cost saver. Cloudis software also encompasses the entire production process of cabling including material availability, cable cutting and installation and cable terminations.
Cloudis’ focus on an open approach means that their system is able to speak seamlessly with SSI’s solutions. Decisions and data made in one place can be referenced by either system and in either direction. Most importantly, your teams can be confident that the cabling database and the rest of the model are in sync. Specifically, this means that changes made in the SSI solution will be recognized and implemented in the Cloudis software to minimize rework, unless these changes would compromise the status of cabling already carried out.
We work closely with SSI because we are both experts in our specific areas, and SSI, like ourselves, has a long history in shipbuilding.
Ian Barnes, Director, Cloudis
Cloudis and SSI joint shipyard successes
The Independence class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is an advanced combatant designed and built by Austal USA at their Mobile, Alabama shipyard. The advanced vessels feature state of the art systems.
Austal is using SSI ShipConstructor for the design and engineering of the vessels, including for the modeling of cableways. Their original cable database was developed in-house and while Austal had a good idea of the start and end points for the cables, the work of routing them was essentially manual. This manual process was error-prone, time consuming, and made it difficult to manage required changes – both within a project and across multiple hulls.
Implementing Cloudis’ solutions to work in conjunction with Austal’s existing SSI engineering solutions has allowed the shipyard to seamlessly integrate cable design, installation, routing, and management into their projects. It allows Austal to schedule the creation of devices and cables, cable routes, route approvals, generation of pull sheets in a highly disciplined and more automated way. For the team, the integration between the solutions is truly seamless and makes it easy to manage cables across Independence-class sister ships and within the project.
SSI World Shipbuilding Conference Sponsor
Cloudis is a proud sponsor of SSI and the World Shipbuilding Conference. See how Cloudis supports shipbuilders and their community.
