Model menu

Model browser

Determines the visibility of the model browser.

New vessel

New line

New 6D buoy

New 3D buoy

New winch

New link

New shape

New constraint

New turbine

Create new objects. The mouse cursor changes to the new object cursor, . The object is placed at the position of the next mouse click within a 3D view. A three-dimensional position is generated by finding the point where the mouse click position falls on a plane normal to the view direction and passing through the view centre. Vessels are always placed initially at the sea surface.

Show connections report

Display a spreadsheet containing information about all object connections in the model.

Delete unused types

Delete any types (e.g. line types, clump types etc.) that are not in use. This is sometimes useful to simplify a data file, or to find out which types are in use.

Delete unused variable data sources

Delete any variable data sources that are not in use. This is sometimes useful to simplify a data file, or to find out which variable data sources are in use.

Edit data as text

Displays a text editor window in which the data in the current model is presented in YAML format (the same format as an OrcaFlex text data file). This text representation of the model can be edited in situ and, if valid, will result in the model data being updated accordingly.

Show restart parent information

Displays information (analyses types, stage numbers, simulation times, etc.) for the chain of parent models defining the basis for the current restart analysis. This action is only available for restart analyses.

Convert to standard model type

Converts the current variation model or restart analysis into a standard OrcaFlex model, so that all the data is held within the current model rather than simply tracking the changes compared to a parent model. This action fundamentally changes the meaning of the model when applied to a restart analysis (i.e. it will no longer restart from an existing simulation file), so care should be taken to ensure that it is used appropriately.

Use calculated positions

This menu item is available after a successful statics analysis or when the simulation is finished or paused.

• If the model is in the statics complete state, this sets the initial positions and orientations of free buoys, calculated vessels, free line ends and calculated constraint DOFs to be their calculated static positions and orientations. This can be useful in the process of setting up a model, since the positions and orientations found are likely to be good estimates for the next statics calculation.
• If the model is in the dynamics paused or complete state, then it sets the initial positions and orientations to be the latest positions and orientations in the simulation. This can be useful if OrcaFlex statics fails to find an equilibrium configuration: in such a case, you can run a dynamic simulation with no wave motion to find the static equilibrium, and then click use calculated positions to set the initial positions appropriately.
• If a replay is active then this menu item sets the initial positions and orientations to be the those at the latest replay time.

Use specified starting shape for lines

This is an extension of use calculated positions. As well as setting the initial positions and orientations of free buoys, calculated vessels, free line ends and calculated constraint DOFs it modifies data for all lines in the following way:

• their step 1 statics method is set to user specified
• their user specified starting shape data are set to the calculated node positions. As above, these positions are either the results of a statics calculation or the results of a dynamic simulation.

Use static line end orientations

This is only available after a successful static analysis. Clicking the menu item sets the line end orientation data, for all line ends in the model that have zero connection stiffness, to the orientations found by the static analysis. This is done as follows.

• For any line end with zero bend connection stiffness, the end azimuth and end declination are set to the azimuth and declination of the end node found by the static analysis.
• If the line includes torsion and the line end connection twist stiffness is zero, then the end gamma values are set to the gamma of the end node found by the static analysis.

This action can be useful if you want to set the line end orientation to that which gives zero end moments when the line is in its static position. To do so, set (temporarily) the end connection stiffness values to zero, run the static analysis, and then click the use static line end orientations menu item. You can then return the end connection stiffness to their actual values.