In the Pipes

Join our Plant 3D “Hadrian” Beta 1 testing program

Woo hoo!  We have a Plant 3D 2011 “Hadrian” Beta!  My first Beta release as a Product Manager – very exciting!

You are cordially invited to participate in a Beta Program for Autodesk Plant 3D software. All feedback and software downloads will be handled through the Autodesk Feedback Community. The Hadrian Beta Team will closely monitor this Beta zone and will address your feedback accordingly.

Autodesk introduced a new Beta system during 2009, referred to as the Autodesk Feedback Community. Passwords and usernames from the legacy MyFeedback Community are no longer applicable and all Beta users are required to register an account for the new Autodesk Feedback Community in order to participate in the Beta program.

For previously registered Autodesk Feedback Community participants: Follow these steps if you have participated in a recent Beta Program:

Step 1: To log in, go to https://beta.autodesk.com and use your username and password to login.

Step 2: Once logged in, click the About Me button located in the Personal Profile menu on the left hand column of your home page. On the About Me page in the Beta Code Name field, type HADRIANBETA1, and then click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

The Hadrian Beta team will review your updated profile to ensure all data is filled in then grant you access to the Hadrian Beta zone.

For new Autodesk Feedback Community participants: To sign up, please visit the Autodesk Feedback Community at https://beta.autodesk.com/signup/

Step 1: Complete the Anti-Spam Verification and enter a valid email address for the Email Verification process. Please select Submit upon completion. This process will trigger an email to be send to you.

Step 2: Please select the link within the email (see Step1) to continue the signup process. Fill out your profile information and enter HADRIANBETA1 in the Beta Code field, and then click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

Make sure to complete the signup form. The Beta coordinator will review your profile before you can be granted access to the Hadrian Beta zone. Upon acceptance, the project will appear on your Autodesk Feedback Community Home page.

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Note: All discussions in the forum are Autodesk Confidential Information as defined in your Pre-Release Products Testing Agreement.  Therefore you are required to keep these discussions confidential and protect them in accordance with the terms of the Pre-Release Products Testing Agreement.

Los Angeles - Test Drive Plant 3D 2011 Beta 1

Are you in the Los Angeles/Orange County area and interested in checking out AutoCAD Plant 3D firsthand? Please join us for a test drive of our Plant 3D (code name “Hadrian”) Beta software. The test drive will be Friday, February19, 2010 9 am - 12 pm, with option to continue in the afternoon. (Limited Seating)

Test drive the new AutoCAD Plant 3D Beta software at KETIV training center in Fullerton California (Map: http://bit.ly/b9gr2X). This hands-on test drive will let you experience how AutoCAD Plant 3D can be used for 3D Plant design.  AutoCAD Plant 3D features specification-driven software for the modeling of piping, equipment, and support structures. From the model you can then create annotated plans & sections, isometric drawings, or component reports.

We’re very interested in your expert opinion on the workflows and functionality of the software. We’d like your feedback on topics of modeling, drawing production and piping spec creation. If you would like to participate, please drop me a line.  ursula.sadiq@autodesk.com. I hope to see you there!

Video: Adding Symbol to AutoCAD P&ID

I also did a video for that last post.  The 3-1/2minute video introduces the supported workflow to add a Symbol to a AutoCAD P&ID Project. 

You can find this video as well as videos on AutoCAD Plant 3D in our AutoCAD Plant playlist.

Introduction to Adding Symbols to AutoCAD P&ID

AutoCAD P&ID is now on its 4th release. I had to think about that number, but the code names help: Guinness, Harp, Cork, Grizzly. Currently we’re working on release 5 codenamed Hector. Anyway, since the first Guinness release it has been a completely supported, expected workflow for users to add their own symbols to AutoCAD P&ID. We know that while users might use a lot of standard symbols, they will also have some custom symbols to add to the system. So we were sure to support the adding of customer symbols to AutoCAD P&ID from the start.

What we did not expect was the plethora of inventive ways people would use to add symbols. All sorts of creative methods have been reported, and needless to say, some of these techniques cause some very strange responses from the software.

The supported way to add a symbol to a P&ID project is to

1. With the project loaded in AutoCAD P&ID, open Project Setup. I do this by rightclick on the Project name in Project Manger and selecting Properties.  Or you can type PROJECTSETUP on the command line.
2. In Project Setup, under P&ID DWG Settings node, browse to the class of item that this symbol defines. The classes are found under the node P&ID Class Definitions.
3. With the class selected, press the Add Symbol… button found toward the upper right.

4. In the Symbol Setting, enter a Symbol Name then browse to the Block defining the symbol

5. Press OK to close Symbol Settings.
6. Pressing Add to Tool Palette… button to add this symbol to your active tool Palette. (Oops, forgot to mention step 0 is to have your tool palettes open to the tab you want to add a symbol to.).  

Now press OK to close project setup. Your new symbol should be available on the Tool Palette and is ready to be placed.  

You can find more about adding symbols properly, along with other things you can setup to control symbol behaviors in Project Setup Help under AutoCAD P&ID 2010 User's Guide > Create and Configure a Project > Configure AutoCAD P&ID DWG Settings > Set Up Class Definitions for Components and Lines > Set Up Symbol and Line Settings

Do you want to help us build a Plant Community?

Are you interested in having a voice in building a Plant community? Would you be interested in a community that helps you to be more productive in your Plant designs? A community that helps you to build relationships with your peers and enables you to have conversations with the designers and developers of AutoCAD P&ID and AutoCAD Plant 3D?

We are very interested in hearing your thoughts about how an organized Plant design community might benefit you and make you more productive.

Eileen Foran, our Plant Community Program Manager, will be conducting a first round of interviews December 14-18. She'd like to spend 20-30 minutes with you on the phone to understand what you might want to see in a Plant community.

If interested in talking with Eileen, please respond to her at eileen.foran@autodesk.com.

Autodesk University 2009 – Day 2

Some time back a friend of mine coined a phrase Heisenblogging, by which he meant you can either stop and blog about an event or you can experience it.  Doing one counteracts the other. And Autodesk University is one of those great experiences that is jam backed with learning, connecting, exploring. I didn’t make that up.

Learn Connect Explore is the AU2009 tag-line. But it is so true! I’ve been so busy experiencing AU that it has been hard to find a quiet moment to blog.

Right now there is a Intro to Plant 3D class going on -- but it is packed! So instead of attending the class, I’m hanging out in the AEC lounge. There is no one to talk Plant to – everyone appears to be in the class :-(  Perfect posting time :-)

New this year we have a Virtual AU in case you couldn’t make it here in person. You can stream the best of AU right to your desktop, including classes, keynotes and main stage presentations. Check out how you can participate in Autodesk University Virtual here http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=virtual_home&pre=1.  But be quick, day one is already half over!

I’d post photos, but that would require hiking back to my room to get the camera cable. (and I’m in heals. stupid me!)  Vegas = Sprawling convention centers. But we do have a cool Plant-photos-at-AU flickr site – check it out http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantexchange.  More photos are being added as the week progresses.

PS:  Lots of tweeting going on.  Search for the tag #AU2009.

AutoCAD Plant 3D - Where’s my Bill of Materials ?

Finally, a quiet hour to put a blog post up. This post will cover how to get a Bill of Materials (BOM) from AutoCAD Plant 3D. It’s is easy, as long as you know where the button is !

In AutoCAD Plant applications, the place to find data is the Data Manager window. In this window you can get data on items modeled in the current drawing or in the whole project. You launch Data Manager from the ribbon Home tab.

The data can be shown grouped and filtered in various ways. Unfortunately, the default setting for how the data is presented is a bit strange – it is grouped by area and then line number. This view may be interesting for some, but mostly I want to see something that looks more like a BOM.

Fortunately, it’s easy to change to the BOM view.  First, launch Project Setup, which you find on the Home tab under Project Manager fly-out.

In Project Setup, navigate to the Plant 3D DWG settings – Data Manager Configuration node. Once there, change the Default Data Manager view to be by Object Type.  

That’s it! Press the Ok button to close Project Setup and save your changes. Now in the Data Manager window you should see a view that is more like a BOM part listing.

The node that reports back just the pipe and fittings is the node labeled Pipe Run Components. As always, you will want to rearrange some of the columns, sort by clicking on the header row and/or use the hide blank columns button. You also may want to change to Plant 3D Project Data from the dropdown in the upper left so you see all the parts in the project, not just the ones in the current drawing.  

From here, you can sort, filter or edit values. As always, you can export the data view to Microsoft Excel then you can use all you MS-Excel skills to format, share and report on the data.

Konnichiha and Oyasuminasai

I think that title means “hello and good night”. And yes, I’m back in Japan. I’m here visiting EPCs and Owner-Operators to chat about AutoCAD Plant 3D. It has been a good trip so far; we’ve gathered a lot of feedback on 3D wants and needs.  Also, I’d like to report that I’ve survived Typhoon Melor, blowfish sashimi, and a lot of kanpai! without issue.

Tomorrow is our last day of meetings. Then I’ll fly back in the states and hopefully stay put for a few weeks. I’m looking forward to having time to write some more substantial posts. Following some of the customer questions here, I have plans for  a number of posts on AutoCAD Plant 3D, including ones on how to handle spec updates, how to set up data manger to show a decent Bill of Materials, and how to get line list data from excel onto an isometric. But those type of posts take time and a clear head to write. So for now I’ll just sign off from the hotel in Kokura so I’m well rested for tomorrow’s meetings.  Oyasuminasai!  

Southern Europe Intro tour – It’s a Wrap!

OK, I’m back home, and now more or less recovered from the 20+ hours of travel from Madrid to San Francisco. The Plant Solutions demos in Milan on Thursday and Madrid on Friday went rather well (The hotel experience in Milan went not so well, but that is a story better told in person after a few drinks.). There appears to be genuine interest in the Plant Solutions software – AutoCAD P&ID, AutoCAD Plant 3D, and Navisworks. It was a pleasure to be able to go over and show the applications. Thank you to everyone who came out and for all the support we got in hosting these events.

Looks like we are going to authorize sales in this region very soon and we are already moving on some pilot projects in the region. Speaking of sales, we just released Plant 3D on 09-09-2009, and we already have had some orders (Mike even sold some before it was released). How exciting! Again, if you are interested in taking a look, you can find links to the getting started YouTube videos or download a 30-day trial of AutoCAD Plant 3D from the Plant Group on AutoCAD Exchange.

I’m way behind on answering my email. This 3-cities in 3-days tour didn’t leave much time for correspondence. So if you wrote me while I was traveling, I promise to get back to you soon.

It’s Wednesday so it must be Milan

iWe had a great turnout in Paris for the Plant Solutions briefing – close to 40 people!  It wasn’t the best demo I’ve ever given, but our EMEA Business Development Manager extraordinaire, Mike Malkin, made sure we stayed on track.  People appeared to understand what AutoCAD P&ID and Plant 3D is all about and they quickly moved on to questions of the greater suite of products needed in Plant design – what about MEP, what about Inventor, what about Electrical and Instrumentation?

I’ve uploaded a better demo for Milan . . .ahhh, Milan.  My Milan adventure started when we decided to take a taxi from the Milan airport to the hotel – THAT was a 70 Euro adventure.  And I get dropped at my hotel (in the rain, of course) only to find it was closed. Dark. Cerrado. Padlocked and bolted. (thanks Travelocity!)  Panic, scramble, phone calls and frantic emails ensue. There is not another hotel in the area to be found for under 400 Euros, but eventually we find rooms across town.

(We means me and my boss, Jeff. Actually, We means me because Jeff had nothing to do with the new hotel choice, which he refers to as the youth hostel in the wrong part of town. Mike, being the extraordinaire traveler that he is, had a different hotel booked with absolutely no issues.  Show off.). 

Ok. I’m off to dinner.  Pizza – go figure.  Ah well, when in Milan . . .