Makai Upgrades Cable Installation Simulation Software
Makai has released version 6.0 of MakaiPlan Pro, software for planning and simulating subsea power and telecom cable installations. MakaiPlan Pro includes the tools of MakaiPlan GIS cable route engineering software. In addition, MakaiPlan Pro allows the user to perform powerful and precise 3-D, dynamic simulations of a submarine cable installation. The operator can quickly simulate an entire cable lay in advance from the comfort of the office at up to 50 times faster than real-time. This is useful for developing Ship Installation plans, performing pre-lay and post-lay analysis, and also for operator training. The operator can run advanced simulations for conducting Installation Feasibility Studies and Equipment Selection. A detailed simulation aids installers in understanding how to control cable seabed slack/tension during dynamic cable laying situations such as starts and stops, repeater deployments, sharp alter courses, and dealing with irregular seabed.
“We are continuously improving our products to satisfy the evolving needs of our users, whether it is new tools to address power cable installations or adding automated features to make our users’ lives easier,” said Venkata Jasti, Manager of Submarine Cable Systems at Makai. “This release is part of our ongoing effort to upgrade all of our products to take advantage of the increased computational capabilities of the next generation of PCs. A major MakaiPlan upgrade was released last year. Now we are releasing MakaiPlan Pro and we intend to release an upgrade for MakaiLay later this year.”
Makai provides tools for each of the three primary phases of a cable project: Route Planning and Engineering (MakaiPlan), Installation Planning and Simulation (MakaiPlan Pro) and Real-time At-sea Cable Installation Control (MakaiLay). Each tool has been thoroughly validated and used successfully on cable projects for over 16 years, Makai noted. Information flows seamlessly from one product to the next, and cable projects that were planned using MakaiPlan can be directly opened with MakaiPlan Pro, preserving the information richness of the plan (GIS layers, geo-referenced notes, etc.). After planning and simulating the installation, the entire output (including final ship plan, installation notes and more) is passed onto MakaiLay, which is installed on the cable ship. This smooth and hassle-free transition from planning to installation minimizes the chance of errors, by totally eliminating the need to use a host of individual Excel spreadsheets, databases, and simulation tools that were not designed specifically for subsea cable lays.