The Orca3D Marine CFD Module combines the Orca3D marine design plug-in for Rhino with SimericsMP CFD to provide a fast, accurate, and easy-to-use computational fluid dynamics solution for naval architects and marine designers. It is built for users who need to go beyond empirical prediction methods and gain higher-fidelity insight into vessel hydrodynamics, while still working within a workflow tailored to real marine design practice. Orca3D Marine CFD is designed to make advanced simulation more accessible to designers who are not full-time CFD specialists. By pairing a specialized Orca3D interface with a custom marine template in SimericsMP, the package gives users a more direct path from their Rhino/Orca3D model to detailed hydrodynamic analysis. This allows designers to study vessel performance earlier in the design process, reduce dependence on physical model testing, and evaluate hull forms and features that are not well suited to traditional parametric methods. The module supports a broad range of marine CFD applications. Users can run resistance and self-propelled analyses for both displacement and planing hulls, study monohulls and multihulls with or without appendages, and include hull features such as steps, trim tabs, spray rails, and other details that often fall outside the limits of simplified prediction methods. Orca3D Marine CFD can also be used to study longitudinal dynamic instability such as porpoising, compute water and air streamlines, and review vessel motions, dynamic pressure, wave behavior, sinkage, trim, and other simulation outputs that provide a much richer picture of performance. A key strength of the Orca3D Marine CFD workflow is its balance of automation and control. Orca3D helps automate the setup of the simulation environment, while SimericsMP performs the CFD solve. The package includes automated CFD volume meshing using Rhino surface meshes as input, as well as automated setup of the computational domain and wave refinement zones based on Orca3D inputs. It also includes a morphing domain grid, which allows the mesh to adapt as the vessel heaves and pitches during the simulation. This makes it possible to capture more realistic dynamic vessel behavior while still keeping the workflow manageable on a desktop workstation. The solver itself is built for practical turnaround times. Orca3D Marine CFD is positioned as a fast, capable tool that uses all available processor cores, with up to 16 cores included in the base commercial package and additional cores available when needed. It includes multiphase flow capability to model free-surface effects accurately, which is essential for marine applications involving waves, spray, dynamic trim, and resistance prediction. Results can be reviewed through 2D and 3D visualizations that show pressure, free-surface elevation, sinkage, trim, and other behaviors, along with animations that make it easier to interpret acceleration, porpoising, and transient performance. The package is especially valuable in cases where empirical methods may not be enough. Designers can use CFD to analyze hulls with unconventional geometry, study appendage configurations, compare design alternatives, and explore performance tradeoffs with more confidence before committing to physical testing or production decisions. Orca3D Marine CFD has also been benchmarked against public-domain hulls, proprietary hulls, model tests, full-scale data, and other analysis tools, helping reinforce its credibility as both a practical design aid and a technically sound simulation environment. There are two parts to the Orca3D Marine CFD package: the Orca3D plug-in for Rhino and the SimericsMP CFD solver. Both are required to run a CFD simulation. The Orca3D CFD interface is included in the broader Orca3D workflow, while SimericsMP is licensed separately, with options such as 3-month, 6-month, 12-month, and intermittent project-based licenses. This gives firms flexibility in how they adopt CFD depending on workload and project needs. Because CFD is computationally intensive, the package is intended for reasonably capable Windows workstations. Typical recommendations include Windows 10 or 11, at least 16 GB of RAM, adequate storage for simulation results, and a multi-core processor for practical turnaround times. Storage needs can vary significantly depending on whether the user is saving large result sets or animations, and finer grids may require more memory than default evaluation cases. Overall, the Orca3D Marine CFD Module gives naval architects access to a higher-fidelity simulation workflow without forcing them into a generic CFD environment built for non-marine use cases. By combining marine-specific setup, automated meshing, free-surface modeling, dynamic motion capture, and strong visualization tools, it helps designers gain deeper hydrodynamic insight and make better-informed performance decisions earlier in the design process.
