Ecolution.

A ship to live on, around the world

The Ecolution was built on the initiative of Wubbo Ockels — physicist, astronaut, pilot and professor († 2014). Like all of his projects, it stood for modernisation and innovation: an ‘autonomic’ ship, suitable to live on, that could sail around the whole world.

The 77-foot schooner is full of technical innovations never applied to sailing ships before. For Tobias it was a big challenge that needed the combination of all his knowledge and skills.

One integrated model

The design and much of the engineering were done in one integrated 3D model. Every discipline appears in Tobias’s central concept model — and he takes care of the output: screenshots as discussion starters, printed 2D drawings, production DWGs and photo-realistic renderings.

Because he collected all the information and added it to the model, he had an excellent overview of the project as it developed. That naturally made him the integrator: the one putting it all together.

Interior and Rhino scripting

The design and construction of the interior were also done by Tobias, together with Jan des Bouvrie and Joos and Wubbo Ockels.

To give his integrator role some structure, Tobias wrote a component-management script that binds information to objects in the model: exact model numbers, links to documentation stored locally or on a server, phone numbers and annotations. Combined with that information, the model becomes a guide the owner can search to find any element of the ship.

The model as the key component

The 3D model was the key component of the Ecolution’s design and engineering process — and, with the scripted information attached, a lasting guide to the ship for its owner.