The SENER engineering and technology group has finished its ninth FORUM (the FORAN Users Meeting) designed so that FORAN users from all over the world can share their experiences and concerns, exchange points of view and suggest new functionalities. This event, which is held every other year in Spain, took place this year in the Parador Hotel Atlántico in Cádiz from June 1-3.
The various shipyards and technical offices in attendance—many of which are veterans from previous FORUM meetings—were able to get first-hand information on the new functionalities that are available in the latest FORAN version that was recently launched onto the market, and with regard to the developments currently in progress and the medium- and long-term strategy. They also had the opportunity this year, for the first time in FORAN history, to actively participate in panels that discussed high-interest issues selected by FORAN users themselves.
On a technical level, the improvements in the new FORAN V80 version were presented, with new welding management capacities and the application of new virtual reality technologies using tablets.
In addition to this, a different FORAN vision was also presented regarding how it can optimize the naval industry, together with an economic study on implementing FORAN in a new generic shipyard. Lastly, as usual, SENER announced its upcoming strategy for FORAN development.
The participatory panels discussed how to use FORAN in early design stages, opening the system to connect it to other applications, and the FORAN challenges and strategy as a long-term product. It ended up with comments being made regarding the latest trends in collaborative engineering.