Bentley Institute Training

MAXSURF CONNECT Edition

Common QuickStart
This workbook is designed to help new users become familiar with some of the common features across all MAXSURF
applications.
To access more great LEARN resources visit http://learn.bentley.com/

Table of Contents
Introducing MAXSURF ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Finding MAXSURF sample files .......................................................................................................................................... 3
Common User Interface Features ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Customizable User Interface ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Viewing your Design ............................................................................................................................................................ 6
File Types and Associations ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Cloud Services with CONNECT .......................................................................................................................................... 8
Command Access ............................................................................................................................................................... 9
Windows ............................................................................................................................................................................ 11

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Introducing MAXSURF
MAXSURF comprises a large number of different applications each of which is specific to a certain aspect of the design and analysis of marine
vehicles. In most cases you will start by designing the vessel hull geometry in Modeler before loading the model into the other applications for further
design and analysis.

Modeler
Multiframe
Where you design your vessel geometry; NURBS
Structural analysis of frame and plate structural models.
surface modeling, geometry import, surface fitting.

Stability
Shape Editor
Where you design the compartment plan and specify
Definition of cross-sections and structural properties of
loadcases. Hydrostatic analysis and stability criteria
extruded section for Multiframe and Structure.
compliance checking.

Structure
Resistance
Design of primary structural elements; geometry of
frames, decks, stiffeners which must conform to the Resistance prediction in calm water.
shape of the hull.

Motions
VPP
Hydrodynamic vessel response. How does your design
Sailing monohull performance prediction.
perform in a seaway?
Finding MAXSURF sample files
MAXSURF is installed with many sample models, these are most easily found by starting at the Desktop and navigating the file structure to “Shortcut
to MAXSURF files” which will take you to the MAXSURF installation folder where you will find a wide range of sample models
Common User Interface Features
Many functions are common across all MAXSURF applications …
Customizable User Interface
The User Interface is fully customizable so the software works the way you want. Layout will be saved on closing and restored on opening. Use
“Restore Default Layout” from the “Windows” menu to restore defaults or to reset all settings, simply hold the shift key down while starting the
applications.
Viewing your Design
The four predefined views are Profile, Plan, Body Plan and Perspective views. They can be accessed from the View toolbar. The Perspective view is
the only view that can be rendered. The model can be dragged, panned and zoomed in all views and rotated in the perspective view.
File Types and Associations
A quick guide to all file types associated with the MAXSURF applications:

Extension Description Created by Used by

(MAXSURF design file) Contains design geometry information. This is the base file All Applications except
.msd from which the other applications will read your designs geometry information. Modeler Multiframe
Hydromax data file. Contains all design information pertaining to Hydrostatics of
.hmd vessel Stability Stability
.hcr Hydromax criteria file. Contains stability criteria for classification society rules. Stability Stability
.wsd Workshop data file. Contains information on structural elements of design. Structure Structure
Shape Multiframe, Modeler,
.slb Section library file. Contains section and material information. Editor Structure
Seakeeper data file. Contains all information describing properties of design and
.skd environmental conditions that affect Seakeeping calculations. Motions Motions
.skr Seakeeper results file. Contains results of Seakeeping analysis. Motions Motions
Hullspeed data file. Contains all design properties associated with predicting the
.hsd resistance and powering of the design. Resistance Resistance
Span data file. Contains all information relating to yacht performance prediction of
.spd design, including Rig and appendage information. VPP VPP
.mfd Multiframe design file. Contains geometry information for structural analysis. Multiframe Multiframe
Cloud Services with CONNECT
Large engineering projects contain large amounts of data. Design responsibilities are spread across members of the design team, and can be spread
geographically across the globe. Storing data in the cloud, versioning and assigning file to Projects is made easy with Bentley Cloud services and
CONNECT.

Why Connect? https://www.bentley.com/en/campaign/why-connect

To access more great LEARN resources visit http://learn.bentley.com/
Command Access
A quick guide to accessing commands common to all MAXSURF applications

Toolbars
Toolbars may be turned on or off by right-clicking in the toolbar area and may also be
customized by clicking on the arrow on the left of any of the toolbars.

There are a number of common toolbars which are used throughout the applications.

 File: Commands for opening, closing and saving files as well as editing (copy,
paste); printing; and help.

 View: Commands for manipulating the view (zoom, shrink, pan, rotate) as well as
managing custom views and displaying the Assembly and Properties panes

 Windows: Used for selecting the active window

 Design Grid: Select which parts of the Design Grid and frame of Reference are
visible

 Visibility: Select visible contours on the design – sections, buttocks, DWL, etc.

 Render: Display in shaded drawing mode and adjust lighting

Menus
These menus contain common commands across all the MAXSURF applications
Windows
The common windows used in the MAXSURF applications are described below:

Design views
The design views show the model from three orthogonal views and the perspective view (which may also be displayed shaded). In some applications
only one view may be displayed at a time. The perspective view has three sliders which are used to control the view direction.

Body-Plan View

The body plan window has a special inset window which is used to select the current control point column and
current section.
The current column control point column is selected by clicking on the appropriate column marker at the
bottom of the window and the current section is selected by clicking on the desired section marker at the top of
the window. When the current column is changed, the current section becomes the section closest to the new
current column automatically.

Taking Measurements
In the design views, other than the perspective view, a number of co-
ordinates and measurements are displayed in the bottom-left corner of
the window.
These give you the horizontal and vertical co-ordinates of the cursor
and the angle and distance from the last clicked position. These are
displayed in the current units. The angle is measured counter-
clockwise from the positive horizontal axis.
The horizontal and vertical measurements depend on the current
view: If you are in the plan view, they will be the longitudinal and
transverse co-ordinates; in the profile view, the longitudinal and
vertical co-ordinates; and in the body-plan view the transverse and
vertical co-ordinates.
Graph views
Many of the applications have interactive graphs. Clicking on a curve in the graph will display the coordinates of the point in the bottom-left; the point
may be slid along the curve with the mouse. Double-click anywhere in the graph to get a table of plotted data which may be copied to the clipboard
with Ctrl+C. Right-click anywhere in the graph to access a further range of graphing options including legend, text size and color, line thickness and
gridline options.
Table views
The table views are used to present tabulated data. They are similar to the Worksheets in MS Excel, however, in many cases the cells are read only.
In some cases a single table will be in a window, in others, multiple tables are available in the same window.

Example of single table in a window. Example of multiple tables in a window, switch between the tables by clicking on the tab of
the desired table at the bottom of the window. Use the scroll arrows in the bottom left hand
corner to view more tabs. The scroll bar on the bottom right is used to scroll through the
currently displayed table.

Selection
There are a number of ways of selecting data from the tables. You may wish to select data for copying or pasting to or from another application.

Click: single cell Drag: adjacent cells Click: single row Click: single column Click: whole table
Column width
The width of the columns may be adjusted, they will be saved when you exit the program. When you re-start the program, they will be restored.

Drag border of selected column(s) to resize; multiple columns will be resized to the same width. Size the selected columns to the width of the text

Row Sorting
In most tables it is possible to sort rows by the data in a column.

Sorting by row data is possible in some tables. Double click in a column header to The row order can be sorted or manually adjusted using the
step through sorting option: ascending, descending, none. Or choose from the commands in the Edit menu in the Loadcase and Room tables
right-click context menu. in Stability.
Column Hiding
In most tables it is possible to select the visible columns. Some applications e.g. Stability also have additional features (these are typically found in
the Edit or Display menus).

To hide a column or selection of columns, select To unhide the columns, select the columns on If all the columns are hidden, right-click in the
the columns and right-click in one of the grey each side of the hidden columns, right click top-left grey cell and choose Show All
header cells of one of the selected columns. and choose Show Column/s. Columns from the menu.
Choose Hide Column/s from the context menu.

Editing the Contents of Table Cells

There are several tools which aide editing data in a table. These are described in greater detail below.

Typing
Data may be typed in a cell by clicking in the cell and typing in the new data. This will overwrite the original entry in the cell. If you wish to edit the data
in a cell, double-click to place the cursor at the position in the cell where you wish to start typing. Once editing, you can use the mouse to move the
cursor by clicking once at the new insertion point or you can use the left and right cursor keys. If you wish to select certain characters in the cell, click
and drag the mouse over the characters to be selected, these will be highlighted with a blue background and white text.

Copy
The entire contents of a cell or group of cells may be copied to the clipboard for pasting into another application or table. Select the cells to be copied
and choose Copy from the Edit menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Ins.
If a group of cells have been selected, they will be copied in tab delimited format which enables direct pasting into applications such as MS Excel.
When you copy data, you will not automatically copy the column headings. If you also wish to include the column headings, hold down the Shift button
whilst selecting Copy or using the standard keyboard shortcuts.

Paste
Data may be pasted from other tables or other applications such as MS Excel. Once the data has been copied, select the top-left cell of the area you
wish to paste the data into. Choose Paste from the Edit menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V or Shift+Ins.

Fill Down and Fill Right

The data from a cell, or group of cells, may be copied into the cells below it. Select the group of cells you wish the new data to be copied into; include
also the cells which contain the data you wish to fill down with. Right-click and select Fill Down or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F. In a similar
manner, data may be filled to the right using the Fill Right command:

Selection and data before Fill Down Modified data after Fill Down Selection and data before Fill Right Modified data after Fill Right