Makers of MOSES - The Final Answer in Marine Simulation
What Is New In Rev 5.08

General Changes:

This will be the last release of the 5 generation. The main thing with this release is that finally, the unix and windows versions of MOSES have the same look and feel. This was accomplished by writing our own primitives for the two windowing systems. For this release, we only have the basic command input, but we have laid the foundation for a complete graphical interface which will come with the next release. In addition to having the same look and feel, the new interface has quite a bit more functionality than what was previously available. The "unix" tools for dos have been moved. In the past, they were in the directory \ultra\bin\dos_unix. Since we now have some tools specifically for Windows 95 and Windows NT, they now are in either: \ultra\bin\win32 or \ultra\bin\dos. Also, this is probably the last release of MOSES for Windows 3.1 / DOS. To the best of our knowledge, nobody is using MOSES on Windows 3.1. If you are please let us know, or it will be gone in the next release.

Several minor changes have also been made:

  • The name HYDRO_SUM has been changed to COMPART_SUM and a new report has been added, PIECES. This report gives the wind and drag properties of each exterior piece. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • A new option, -NUM_APL has been added to the BEAM, PLATE, CONNECTOR, #WEIGHT, #AREA, #BUOY, #PLATE, and #TUBE commands. This option defines a NUMBER, which multiplies all of the results of something's attributes before they are applied. In other words, the force, mass, drag, added mass and stiffness are first computed based on the properties defined. Then, each of these quantities are multiplied by the number specified before they are applied to the body.

  • A new option, -L_DYNAM has been added to the &CONNECTOR command for flexible connectors. This option changes the length of a connector during a time domain simulation.

  • A new command ST_CLEARANCE has been added to the FREQ_RESP Menu. This command allows one to compute the statistical clearance between a point on a body and the water surface. Also, the difference between the mean and the statistic is reported. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • Also, the report received when one issues BEAM_SUM TUBE has been changed so that the "distance" printed is now in BLENGTH units.

  • The manner in which DXF files are emitted has been changed so that the colors are contained in different layers and the text is now written as text instead of being drawn.

  • Several new actions for the string function &BODY have been added. The action DEFWT_CG returns the center of gravity of the "defined weight", and F_XXXXX returns the value of the force of type XXXXX on the body. Here, XXXXX is the name of the force as used in &STATUS FORCE. Finally, MIN_DOWN return the minimum height of the downflooding points. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • A new type, INTERPOLATE has been added to those available with the string function &NUMBER so that one can interpolate from a table. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • A new command &PI_VIEW and a new string function, &PI_VIEW() have been added so that one can define specific pictures which he wants to plot. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • The use of " has been extended so that one can now have a second level of quoting. This makes if possible to include blanks in things which are already quoted. This is useful with the new options of the emit command discussed below. You can click here to read the documentation.

What No Longer Works:

  • The Automatic Installation Macros for this release will cause errors if used with an install.dat from the previous release. To fix the problem, you should change the line &SELECT :CLASS to &SET CLASS =

  • The -JNTCLASS option has been removed from the &REP_SEL and JOINT commands. It can now be used on the JNT_PROP command.

  • The options: -PERMIABLILTY, -NONE, and -3DDIF on the EMIT_BLOCK command no longer work. See the section below on the &SURFACE Menu for a discussion.

What Answers Will Change:

  • In the past, the variation in pressure on a beam in the frequency domain was ignored. Now it is considered. This leads to small changes (normally) in the results for code checks of tubes which attract Morrison's equation loads.

  • The computation of the bending stress for joint crushing have been changed to account for the curvature of the chord. This results in quite small changes.

  • The entire &SURFACE Menu has been rewritten. Expect some numerical differences here as well as the fact that it is now much more reliable.

Hydrostatics and Stability :

Quite a few minor changes have been made to facilitate the computation of stability and hydrostatics. In particular:
  • A new macro, DLOAD_ALLOW, has been created to compute the maximum allowable deck load for a specified condition. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • A new type of down-flooding point, NWT_DOWN has been created to cover the cases in ABS rules which talk about non weather tight down flooding.

  • A new type for &STATUS, D_COMPARTMENT, has been added. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • A new option -DESCRIPTION has been added to the &DESCRIBE COMPARTMENT command. This is simply something you want printed out. You can click here to read the documentation.

  • Two new options -DRAFT and -POINTS have been added to the &INSTATE command. These options allow one to position a body by specifying either the drafts at a set of draft marks, or the heights above the water of a set of points. If one specifies more that three points, the resulting condition will be a "best fit" to the data given. You can click to read the documentation.

Also, our stability macros have undergone considerable change to make them more reliable and to extend the number of things that they check. You can click to read the new documentation.

Pieces:

In the past, panels only attracted hydrostatic and diffraction forces. Now, they can also attract wind and drag forces. This greatly simplifies producing a model, especially for hydrostatic and stability. You can click here to read the new documentation.

Tubular Joints:

Quite a few changes have been made in the treatment of tubular joints, but most of these changes are transparent to the user. There is now a way to define a minimum SCF for joints, a new way to compute the thickness correction for SN curves, and a way to selectively change the way things are computed for selected joints with the new JNT_PROP command. You can click here to read the documentation. Also, an interim way of defining rings attached to joints is now possible.

The &SURFACE Menu:

The algorithms used in combining blocks have been completely rewritten so that these operations should be more reliable. There is still the problems of them failing when one tries to join blocks that have coincident lines or surfaces. The options used when emitting the results have changed and the old options -PERMIABLILTY, -NONE, and -3DDIF no longer work. You can click here to read the new documentation.