Naval architect faces curve ball

A naval architect had prepared drawings using CAD software and needed to send these to a company engaged to cut material using the architect’s drawings.

The naval architect had not previously worked with this company, who advised them that they could not accept files in the CAD format used by the naval architect. As such, the naval architect converted the files to a different format which the cutter could accept. The cutter produced the materials based on the converted drawings. However, it became apparent that during the process of converting the files to the acceptable format, what should have been curved edges were transposed into straight edges. Therefore, when the material was cut, it did not accord with the correct designs.

The material had to be re-cut at an additional cost of approximately US$20,000. Due to the naval architects failure to check that the converted format matched that of the original format they were held liable for this additional cost.

This claim was covered by ITIC.