HydroComp upgrades propeller design software

PropCad software offers geometric modelling of marine propellers and creates automated 2D drawings and 3D models, and HydroComp said its 2020 products have been upgraded with a new internal code-and-control set.

The company said this has increased the speed and stability of the programme across existing Microsoft Windows platforms and while the changes are largely behind the scenes, users will notice visual changes in PropCad and HydroComp’s other programmes.

The propeller computer aided design (CAD) software’s import utility includes algorithm revisions to increase supported file-size, import, and feature-extraction speeds. PropCad 2020 also includes the latest updates to classification society rules, which determine blade thickness requirements.

For example, the American Bureau of Shipping classification society has introduced the Marine Vessel Rules set which supersedes many previous classification rule sets. And the Indian Registry of Shipping’s Ice Class HA rule set is now applicable for fixed-pitch and controllable-pitch propellers.

The software’s existing library of propeller materials has also been adjusted to improve the visualisation of curvature and edge details on renderings of blade surfaces and additional rendering options have been introduced, including “hard edges” and other textural details. The 3D render loops have been optimised for increased speed and stability, particularly for older graphics cards.

HydroComp also offers a premium version of PropCad that enables users to quickly import their existing blade designs from inspection points or a full 3D CAD file and includes tools for manufacturers with utilities for creating foundry patterns and machining models for CNC toolpath generation.