Shipbuilding is a highly integrated technology and belongs to fabrication industry. A ship is a bulky and complex structure and consists of hundreds of thousands of members. It is built by a lot of material processing and fabricating and takes a long term to be completed. The verification of design, schedule plan and production is necessary before beginning of fabrication in order to confirm the optimal fabrication and high productivity. However, it is very difficult to apply this process in the shipbuilding because it is impossible to make a prototype of a ship.
The 3D simulation is a high technology that can realize the entire fabrication processes in the virtual world and verify the highest productivity and best quality of them. Object modeling technique is also an useful tool to implement the shipbuilding process into the computer world.
This paper deals with the 3D simulation of assembly process based on the object oriented information modeling technique. A lot of information of shipbuilding, especially assembly was analysed and modeled in the view point of object oriented modeling technique. This information model was constructed graphically using 3D CAD system, CATIA. On the basis of this graphic model, the assembly process was simulated using 3D simulation system, DELMIA. This 3D simulation recommended optimal assembly process and could show a possibility of the next generation technology of shipbuilding.