Development

This page provides information about features of Fairway that we are currently developing. From time to time we will post status updates and images of its progress.

Status

Currently, both new and old generation Fairway are being linked into the same application program, which makes it possible to switch between the two without leaving the program or saving the model. This has enabled us to test the new generation on real projects before it is feature-complete. The new generation, although not yet completely on par in features to the previous generation, is functionally already quite powerful and an improvement in usability. Therefore it has been released to our customers on March 1st, 2013.

Images

Screen shots and video's are listed in reverse chronoligical order. If you are new here you may find more introductional information at the bottom of this page.

May 27, 2011, relevant sessions from SARC-Day

Non-Disruptive Development of the Next Generation Fairway (narrated in Dutch):

Basic hull design demonstration (without sound):

Principles of fairing (without sound):

March 17, 2011

Rendered shell in the modelling area and
a sequence of selected frames with curvature plots. 

 

 

 

 

Another rendering, this time in perspective view. 

 

 

 

 

  

Close-up of the action panel for curve manipulation, in this case floating on top of the main window, together with a detail of the modelling area showing a translation dragger for grahical manipulation. The action panel has a configurable background colour, to make it stand out from the rest of the GUI. Points marked with an outlined up-arrow are omitted during fairing. A solid down-arrow marks a point as counting a thousand-fold relative to other points, pulling the curve real close. The Deviation column in the table is colour-coded in proportion to the mean fairing deviation, to make it easy to identify points that deviate most from the curve.

On the status bar the dragger displays operation instructions for its current context, followed by its position. The hotspot that is mentioned here is the transparent bubble around the arrows that show the available translation axes. So you don't need to klick exactly on the point, hitting the hotspot is enough to move it. When no mouse button is pressed, the dragger snaps onto the point that is nearest to the mouse pointer. 

This screen-shot demonstrates how we are able to mix both new and old interfaces, as an interim solution. Here is the new interface about to interpolate frames at defined position sets, forwarding the configuration of sets to the old interface. 

 

 

Another image showing the interface being spread across multiple monitors. The modelling area shows a tug where chines are emphasized. The detached panels show the tree of items and the action panel for manipulation of points with colour-coded cells.

 

 

 

 

November 10, 2009

The interface panels may be moved independently from the main program interface and can be positioned on a different monitor in a multiple monitor setup, thereby increasing the available size for the model views.
The image on the right shows a laptop with a larger secondary display and Fairway is using both. In the foreground a SpaceNavigator can be seen with which the model can be moved around in six degrees of freedom simultaneously. 

 

 

July 23, 2009

This is a screen shot of the new user interface to Fairway that we are currently developing, taken on July 23, 2009. The drawing windows are all concurrently updated and you may switch views during any operation without interrupting the current task. The tree view on the upper right shows the structure of the model and illustrates our effort to merge alphanumerical and graphical interfaces. We have redesigned the work flow as well, resulting for example in the panel on the lower right. It has controls for the configuration of the current action, and its contents will change when a new action is started.

Firstly this makes the tools that are applicable in the work context directly accessible both by means of mouse and keyboard, and it gives visual feedback of the tool currently active. Secondly it provides alphanumerical feedback of graphical manipulation and vice versa, as both interfaces are coupled. Finally it ensures that the model is modified in comprehensive change sets, which then may be undone and redone.