Our Software Products
For over 40 years, the Wolfson Unit has been providing marine design software to naval architects worldwide. Backed by our expert advisory services and continuous software development, we offer various license options: permanent, time-limited, or bespoke to suit your project’s needs. Explore our software packages below.
How to order
- Purchase via the Wolfson Unit Online Store.
- Confirmation of payment is automatically emailed to you.
- Hardware lock (USB dongle) and installation instructions are couriered to you.
- The latest version of the software and release notes can be downloaded from the customer download area.
Need a quotation or require an invoice to purchase? Please contact us.
Price list and conditions
All prices are excluding VAT.
Hydrostatics and Stability
| HST | Hydrostatics, Tank Capacities, Cross Curves, Intact Stability | £1435 |
| HST Loading | Weights & Centres, Longitudinal Strength, Intact Stability, Maximum KG Criteria, Inclining Experiment Analysis & Reporting | £1725 |
| HST Damage | Floodable Compartments, Damage Cases, Damage Stability, Damage Maximum KG Criteria and Floodable Lengths | £1725 |
| HST Onboard | Weights and Loading, Longitudinal Strength, Max KG and Stability Criteria | from £2870 |
Hull and Scantlings Design
| HullScant First Module (mono or multi) | Hull scantlings to ISO 12215-5:2019 (monohull) or ISO 12215-7:2020 (multihull) | £1610 |
| HullScant Second Module (mono or multi) | Requires HullScant First Module | £1290 |
| HullScant Rudder | Hull Scantlings ISO 12215-8:2009 Requires HullScant First Module | £500 |
Propeller Design and Power Prediction
| Propeller Design | Propeller sizing tool | £870 |
| Power Prediction | Powering requirements tool | £1230 |
| Propeller Design & Power Prediction | £1870 |
Sailing Yacht Velocity Prediction Program
| WinDesign4 First Module (mono or multi) | Sailing Yacht Velocity Prediction Program | £2820 |
| WinDesign4 Second Module (mono or multi) | Requires WinDesign4 First Module | £735 |
Ship Motions
| Ship Motions | Ship Motions Prediction Tool | £1845 |
Graph Plotting
| GoPlot | Graph Plotting Software | £256 |
Conditions
- Second copies available at 80%, subsequent copies at 60% of price.
- Educational establishment discount of 33% on total price.
- Network package allowing 50 licenses priced at equivalent of five copies, i.e. 3.6 times list price.
- Courier delivery free for orders over £1,000, otherwise optional. Please be aware that the customer is liable for any local import duties and/or taxes applicable.
- V.A.T. will be added at the current rate where applicable.
- Please be aware that the hardware dongle is your license for our software. Replacements for missing, lost or stolen dongles will be charged at the current additional license rate and for this reason may we suggest that you insure this item appropriately. Replacements for faulty or damaged dongles will be charged at a nominal rate on receipt of the original dongle.
- Transfer of hardware dongle from a registered purchaser to a third party, following for example onward sale, does not entitle the third party to updates, upgrades or support from the Wolfson Unit MTIA.
- University of Southampton alumni discount of 10% on total price for orders received within 2 years of graduation.
Help and support
All of our software packages (except freeware) come with free software help, direct from the Unit’s staff of engineers. Optional technical support contracts are available covering technical help, training and consultancy.
For any queries in the first instance please refer to the program manual, online tutorials and/or the Frequently Asked Questions page for your Wolfson program.
Make sure you are running the latest version of your Wolfson software package, as your issue may have been addressed in a recent service release. You can obtain the latest version of our programs from the Customer Download Area. You should be able to sign up to the Customer Download Area by providing an email and password. This is to allow you to download updates (not upgrades) to our software programs.
Software queries should be emailed to wumtia@soton.ac.uk. Please attach any files relevant to your query.
Customer Download Area
Licence System
The USB hardware lock (dongle) is your license for our software. Replacements for missing, lost or stolen dongles will be charged at the current additional license rate and for this reason may we suggest that you insure this item appropriately. Replacements for faulty or damaged dongles will be charged at a nominal rate on receipt of the original dongle.
All Wolfson software products can be purchased with two licensing options: a Single License dongle or a Network dongle.
Single License Dongle
This hardware lock is a USB 2.0 key holding a single license for your Wolfson software. The dongle can be used on any Windows machine and is compatible with Windows versions up to and including 11. If the dongle is removed, the software will not run. Single License dongles are for local use only ie will not work over Remote Desktop connections
.
Network Hardware Dongle
This hardware lock is a USB 2.0 key for up to 100 licenses. Any machine within the network can act as a license server. Licensed Wolfson programs run seamlessly both on the server and the clients. If the dongle is removed, the client/server connection fails, or the maximum number of licenses has been reached, the software will not run. Instructions for setting up a network license for our software is provided in this technical note.
Windows and macOS Compliance
Expand the relevant operating system to read about our software’s compliance.
Microsoft Windows 10 & 11
Q. Is Wolfson Software Microsoft Windows 10 & 11 compliant?
A. The Wolfson Unit suite of Windows programs has been tested on computers with Windows 10 & 11 Enterprise 64-bit installed. The latest releases of our programs all function correctly.
Note that our latest software requires new hardware locks (dongles). For more information please read the ‘Hardware Dongles’ section.
If you have any further questions that are not answered below, then please contact the Wolfson Unit.
Windows 10 updates
Running Wolfson software on Windows 10 version 1709 requires the latest HASP dongle drivers, which are supplied with our latest software releases. We recommend updating your copy of Windows 10 and, subsequently, reinstalling your Wolfson program/s. To obtain the latest Wolfson installers please go to the Software – Latest Releases section within our Customer Download Area.
Clients using older Wolfson software and Softlok dongles should consider an upgrade, please contact the Wolfson Unit for a quote.
For more information on Windows 10 updates, please see the Windows 10 update history web page.
CHM Help Files
The .CHM help file format supplied with the latest releases of Wolfson software is fully supported in Windows 10. The operating system, however, may disable the right-hand side panel of the help file viewer, and as a result help pages may appear empty. The issue may be resolved by unblocking the help file:
- Go to the installation folder of your Wolfson software, normally found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Wolfson
- Right-click the .CHM file being blocked and select Properties.
- In the General tab of the Properties dialog, click the ‘Unblock’ button.
- Click OK to accept changes.
This only needs doing once.
Hardware Dongles
Note: All Softlok dongles (USB and Parallel Port) are being phased out, as that protection technology is now end-of-life. The latest installations of our software require new Sentinel HASP USB hardware locks, which have enhanced security and functionality. The cost of upgrading to a single license Sentinel HASP dongle is £110.00, which includes secure and trackable shipping. The new dongle will be shipped on receipt of payment and the old dongle.
Single license Softlok dongles are unstable on most Windows 10 platforms. Network Softlok dongles do not comply with network platforms such as Microsoft Server 2012 and newer.
HST Suite
The Wolfson Unit’s hydrostatics and stability suite HST has now been upgraded to HST Release 2, and the new suite is Windows 10 compliant. Clients using CalComp digitising tablets should be aware that compliance is reliant on Calcomp to update their drivers. For more information please read the ‘Digitising Tablets’ section.
‘Security Warning’ pop-up dialogs
The Wolfson Unit has obtained a digital Software Publisher Certificate (SFC) from a trusted Certification Authority, which has now been built into all our installations and executables in the form of a Microsoft Authenticode® digital signature. This ensures that the software downloaded from our website and the programs supplied in the Wolfson Software CD Rom actually come from us and have not been tampered with since their publication.
The digital signature of our programs can be inspected by right-clicking any Wolfson executable and then selecting Properties > Digital Signatures.
Depending on the personal User Account Control settings, the operating system may now bring up a dialog asking for permission to continue and showing a link to our Software Publisher Certificate. Just click ‘Yes’ to continue.
Digitizing Tablets
Some of our software is compatible with digitizing tablets. At present there is no support for this option in Windows 10 as most digitizer manufacturers have not yet released Windows 10 drivers for their products (see screen capture near the bottom of this page). Our HST program has been updated to use third party drivers for using the digitizing tablet and compliance is now reliant on them to update their drivers accordingly.
Apple macOS
Q. Can I use my Wolfson programs on a MAC ?
A. The answer is yes, as long as a virtual machine and a recent Windows operating system are installed. All Wolfson software has been tested on a MAC machine with macOS Mojave and Virtual Box 5.2 installed and the programs all appear to function correctly. See our Microsoft compliance pages if Windows Vista or Windows 7 are used as guest system.
Virtualization tool: Virtual Box 5.2
All Wolfson software is developed for Windows/PC only but can run on a MAC if a recent Windows environment is installed. Virtualization tools such as Virtual Box allow one or more unmodified copies of Windows to run on MAC alongside the existing MAC operating system. Virtual Box is the only general-purpose virtualizer that is also freely available as Open Source Software. Virtual Box supports PC/Windows operating systems up to Windows 10.
Guest Windows OS: Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit
Our trials were conducted using Windows 10 Enterprise as a guest operating system. Prior to running any Windows software, a licensed, unmodified version of the guest Windows OS must be installed in the host machine and adequate disk space must be reserved for it. Please see the Virtual Box user manual for more information on the guest OS installation.
USB filter for HASP USB dongles
The guest OS must detect our USB dongle in order to run the licensed versions of our software. This does not happen by default and requires setting up a USB filter for the dongle from the Settings panel of Virtual Box, where the dongle is normally listed as ‘Safenet Inc. Sentinel HL’. For more information please see Section 3.11.1 ‘USB Settings’ of the Virtual Box user manual.
Is there a free or trial version of the ship stability software?
Yes. A free demo is available for our software through the customer download area. You can register for the download area with an email address and password.
The demo lets you assess whether the program suits your work before committing to a licence. Full versions are licensed by USB hardware dongle and are purchased through the Wolfson Unit online store.
What is HullScant and what does it calculate?
HullScant is our scantlings program for builders and designers carrying out scantling assessments, and it is used worldwide by designers, structural engineers and regulatory bodies. It calculates a vessel’s scantling structural properties and compares them against the requirements of ISO 12215, including all published errata, giving a direct pass or fail against the standard.
It covers pressure and scantling equations for fibre reinforced plastic, metal and wood boats up to 24m. Features include 3D IGES import, an extensive materials library, laminate stack analysis for panels and stiffeners, and results output as HTML, PDF or CSV. Monohull licences work to ISO 12215-5:2019 and multihull to ISO 12215-7:2020, with a separate rudder module to ISO 12215-8:2009.
How do I buy, license and download the software, and is there an academic discount?
Software is purchased through the Wolfson Unit online store. Payment confirmation is emailed automatically, and the USB hardware lock and installation instructions are couriered to you. The latest version and release notes are then downloaded from the customer download area. If you need a quotation or an invoice to purchase, contact us directly.
Yes, there is an academic licence. Contact us for a quotation.
Which operating systems are supported and how are licences protected?
Our software is developed for Windows and has been tested on Windows versions up to and including Windows 11. It can be run on a Mac using a virtual machine with a licensed Windows guest operating system installed, though you will need to set up a USB filter so the guest system can detect the dongle.
Licences are protected by a USB hardware lock. The dongle is your licence: if it is removed, the software will not run. A single licence dongle holds one licence and is for local use only, so it will not work over a Remote Desktop connection. A network dongle holds up to 100 licences, and any machine on the network can act as the licence server. Our installers and executables carry a Microsoft Authenticode digital signature so you can verify that what you have downloaded came from us.