Partner Success Story

HOOPS' Powerful 3D Visualization and Experience helps SINTEF Ocean Provide for Their Customers

SINTEF Ocean & Tech Soft 3D

SINTEF Ocean conducts research in the areas of aquaculture, marine environmental technology, fisheries technology, maritime transport, renewable energy, oil & gas, and biomarine processing. SINTEF Ocean is part of the SINTEF Group, which is a broad, multidisciplinary research organization with leading expertise in the fields of technology, the natural sciences, medicine and the social sciences. They conduct contract R&D for the private and public sectors, and are one of the largest contract research institutions in Europe.

Background

”The combination of cutting-edge 3D visualization and a highly competent team with domain knowledge in SINTEF Oceans research areas has made HOOPS a valued partner to SINTEF Ocean.“

Egil Giertsen, Special Advisor , SINTEF Ocean

HOOPS, at the time called CEETRON, was incorporated in 1996 as a spin-off from SINTEF. Ever since, both entities have worked closely on a large number of SINTEF projects, including SimVis for marine operations, USFOS for collapse analysis, and LINKftr for fracture mechanics simulations in offshore pipelines. HOOPS and SINTEF have also conducted a number of joint R&D projects, including SINTEF Digital (Direct Visualization in the Cloud, integrated CAD and Analysis), and SINTEF Technology and Society (Mariana, see separate story). Here is the story about USFOS:

SINTEF Ocean's product in action

USFOS is SINTEF Ocean’s software product in the area of collapse analysis of jackets, top-sides, jack-ups and other frame structures, intact or damaged. The software accurately simulates the collapse process, from the initial yielding, through to the formation of a complete collapse mechanism and the final structural response of the structure.

USFOS was developed around year 2000 by SINTEF Ocean (former MARINTEK) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology through JIPs sponsored by operators and engineering companies. Key members of the team were Prof. Jørgen Amdahl, Dr. Tore Holmås, Dr. Øyvind Hellan and Dr. Ernst Eberg.

SINTEF Ocean wanted to extend USFOS with a pre- and post-processor, later to be called Xact, and HOOPS was tasked with the development work. Xact was built using GLview 3D Visualization API. When CEETRON was acquired by Tech Soft 3D, the partnership between SINTEF Ocean and what are now HOOPS products continued, and continues to this day.

Worldwide marketing and sales of USFOS is done jointly by SINTEF Ocean and DNV Digital Solutions, part of DNV, one of the largest ship classification societies globally, with 400 offices and 16,000 employees worldwide.

Today USFOS licenses are being used by all or most major operators and engineering companies working in the field.

Industry:

Marine

Solution:

HOOPS' 3D Visualization and industry-relevant experience support SINTEF's needs

Results:

Integrating non-core technology (3D visualization) from a global leader

43% of employees with doctoral degrees, compared with SINTEF's 42% of employees with doctoral degrees

Natural industry partner for SINTEF when applying for R&D funds from national or European funding schemes

HOOPS Envision Partner Success Story FAQs

What is HOOPS Envision?

HOOPS Envision is Tech Soft 3D’s all-in-one toolkit for CAE data analysis and visualization. It handles data import, analysis, visualization, reporting, and automation for desktop and native web applications.

What’s the difference between HOOPS Visualize and HOOPS Envision?

HOOPS Visualize is a 3D graphics engine for rendering and interacting with CAD, CAM, and AEC data. It focuses on real-time visualization, scene management, and user interaction.

HOOPS Envision is a CAE data analysis and visualization toolkit for simulation results, such as FEA and CFD data. It extracts analysis models like cutting planes, isosurfaces, and plots from large datasets, and supports automated reporting and dashboards. Choose HOOPS Visualize to display and interact with engineering models, and HOOPS Envision to analyze and present simulation results.

What can HOOPS Envision do for you?

HOOPS Envision extracts data from large CAE datasets and turns it into interactive 3D analysis models, such as animations, cutting planes, isosurfaces, and plots. The Python modules support automated reporting through browser-based dashboards or standalone HTML reports.

Can HOOPS Envision help move a desktop CAE application to the web?

Yes. HOOPS Envision's streamer component reuses existing desktop application logic, which reduces the rework, cost, and risk of moving to the cloud. Its web API keeps data transfer low, giving engineers a desktop-like experience while reducing the need for server-side GPUs.