Part Maker Tutorial      

1. Part Maker Introduction    2. Geometry Files    3. Getting Started With Part Maker    4. Making Models in Part Maker   

Maintained by Creative Systems, Inc.,Creators of GHS.    Click here for information about GHS and other fine marine software.

Getting Started

To begin, you will need to have GHS on your computer, and a set of files to assist with the tutorial.

If you have not yet installed GHS on your computer, please refer to the installation instructions in the GHS User's Manual. If you have installed GHS correctly, double click on the GHS desktop icon to open the GHS program.

Please also download the tutorial files by clicking on this link:
Part Maker Tutorial Files

Once downloaded, extract (or unzip) the folder, and then paste the files to your GHS folder.

The Executive Wizard: The Executive Wizard automatically begins when you start GHS, and is a great way to access the many different aspects of GHS easily and efficiently. For the purpose of this tutorial we will skip some of the functions in this wizard, and elaborate on others. If you need further information at any time, just click on the green 'Help' button, and type in the command or topic of which you have interest.

If your Executive Wizard did not come up automatically, you can start it by going to the Wizard Menu at the top of the screen and choosing 'Executive'.



Projects: Project names are used for default file names and for labeling printouts and screens. You will see the usefulness of projects increase with your use of run files. We are not using the CLEAR command because the PROJECT command will similarly clear the program of any geometry and close any report files for the new run.

Click on the 'Project' button, type 'PMDEMO', and then click 'OK'. Select the current directory for your project, click the 'Select' button, and then click on the 'OK' button.

Notice the run file is filled in automatically with the same name as the project.

The Run File: The Run File: The Run File is a text file that contains a series of commands for GHS to read and execute. This means that instead of entering commands one at a time and seeing output for each command, you can write a list of commands and save them to a file for editing, amending, referencing, and running as a batch. Because run files are very powerful tools for accessing all aspects of GHS, we're going to utilize them heavily during this part of the tutorial.

The most important thing to remember about the run file is that it uses the same commands the same way as when you type commands at the GHS prompt, and each new command starts on a new line.

We're going to create and edit a run file with the assistance of the Executive wizard by pressing the 'Edit' button. This should open a file with 'project PMDEMO' already written as the first line.

Next, we want to use the READ command to read a GHS Geometry File (.GF) formatted file. This will enable us to model tanks and appendages that fit the hull. Because we downloaded a GHS geometry file earlier called PMDEMO.GF1, we can simply use the command 'READ' to read this file into memory:

READ PMDEMO.GF1

The last command you write in a run file is END. This command line that GHS will read, terminating the run file. Anything after the END command will be ignored by the program. Type end on the next line so that your run file looks like this:

The last thing you write in a run file is END. This is the last command line that GHS will read, and anything after that will be ignored by the program. So far your run file should look like this:

PROJECT PMDEMO
READ PMDEMO.GF1
END

Save and close your file, then click on the green 'Run' button.

If you get the message 'File not found', it means that your GHS program folder does not have the geometry file PMDEMO.GF1 in it. To fix this issue, download the tutorial files by clicking on this link: Part Maker Files. Please download these files, extract (or unzip) them, and then paste the files inside your GHS folder.

Drag the GHS Executive Wizard away from the GHS screen like in the picture below. If you are successful, you should see the hull shape beneath it. You've read a geometry file!



Part Maker (PM): Part Maker is a command-driven program. That means that you give it commands rather than selecting choices from menus. At first, this may seem more difficult, but in the long run you will find that it is vastly superior to a menu-oriented system. If you want to see a summary of the commands available, you can refer to the Part Maker section in the User's Manual. But that is not necessary at this point.

Part Maker is a separate module with its own command set. To get to it from the GHS command line, you must use the command 'Enter PM'. To quit PM, you must use the command, 'QUIT PM'. These commands will need to be listed in any run files where you use Part Maker, and any commands you would use within Part Maker must be typed between these two lines.

Let's enter Part Maker. Close the Executive Wizard, and type 'ENTER PM' on the command line.

Notice that our geometry file is still active, and you can see written, 'PMDEMO.GF1 read'. If you cleared GHS of your geometry file, the READ command also works in Part Maker, and if needed you can use the READ command at this point, too.

See the lower bar at the right says METERS. This is because the geometry file indicated that meters are the preferred measurement for this particular vessel. All of the lineal measurements are expected to be in meters.

Remember the geometry levels discussed earlier? There are commands that will list the parts and the components. First, let's look at the parts by typing the word PARTS. You should see the following display:



Now try the command that lists components. As you could guess, this command is called COMPONENTS. Type the word COMPONENTS and see what happens.



You will find component names always ending in .C or .P or .S, indicating whether the component is symmetrical about the centerplane, is on the port side, or is on the starboard side.

This time you should see a table listing the two components. At the left is the component Name, followed by a column called Effect, which is short for 'Effectiveness'. An effectiveness of 1.0 means that the component displaces a volume of water counted as 100%. Anything less than 1 would be used if the component were porous, such as a load of logs on the deck of a barge. More often, it is used to indicate the effectiveness of the volume inside a tank, in which case it is more commonly known as permeability.

The next three columns give the three coordinates of the longitudinal, transverse, and vertical translation vectors for each component. The translation vector gives you the ability to shift the component to any location without having to modify any offsets.

The last two columns are the Shape column (which tells you the name of the shape used by the component), and the Part column (which tells you the name of the part to which each Component belongs is listed).

Press here to make a model!