In the Pipes

Network disconnection - how to prevent yourself for data corruption for Plant projects

Not the best scenario: You are working on a network project but the network connection will get lost. But you are still working on this project. After awhile you will close the project and you are re-opening. But what has happened? All Plant components of specific drawings (which were still in use in our scenario before) have lost their Plant properties. In Property Palette you will see only plain AutoCAD properties for these components. In this situation sometimes the only solution might be to restore the project drawing from a backup - like Volume Shadow Copies. 

Best is if you can pretend this scenario. Currently you have to follow this workflow to avoid data corruption because of network disconnection:

 

 

The messages and the procedure will be improved in a future release. But of course we cannot prevent a future network outage in your company.

AutoCAD Plant 3D - P&ID Quick Tip for Annotations

When creating P&ID drawings it's not often that you have all the information available to enter on the first revision. In these situations there will be data fields that are left null or blank. Unfortunately, this causes a dot or question mark to appear in the annotations which also shows up when plotting the sheets.

There is a quick and simple workaround to avoid this behavior which is outlined in an updated article on the Autodesk Knowledge Network.

Visit the link below for complete details:

How to place nothing instead of the dot in AutoCAD P&ID annotation tagging

 

How to create a multi-line tag for valves in isometric drawings

A customer of mine came to me and asked me how to setup a multi-line tag for isometric drawings. We noted that the normal symbols for a line break like for example <br> or >/p> doesn't work in the isoconfig.xml. But we have the map schemes which we can use for multi-line annotations in isometric drawings. In the scenario of the customer there was also an additional custom valve property used and we have a tag of 3 properties (all are properties of the valve class): Code, Number and the custom property "Zeichen". 

The solution is here a bit complex because you have to adopt the class "Valve" by this custom property. Also these files are affected: iso.atr, isoconfig.xmll and isosymbolstyles.dwg (here are the isometric blocks saved). But it is a good example how to use MapSchemes in isoconfig.xml for your isometrics.

The outcome looks like that:

To look for the whole solution, look for this article

 

 

AutoCAD Plant 3D 2019 is live!!

AutoCAD Plant 3D 2019 is live and available through Autodesk Desktop App or Autodesk Account.

 

See here the new features of AutoCAD Plant 3D.

Also, see here the list of issues which are fixed in this new release.

And if you want to have an overview what are the new features and fixes of 2018, update 2018.1.1, then look here.

 

 

 

Webinar Series: Configuring AutoCAD Plant 3D Isometrics

In Technical Support we get a lot of questions about how to configure isometric drawings for specific needs. Indeed you have to configure xml-files and other configuration files as well. This is challenging. Here is now a webinar series about several specific tasks when configuring isometric drawings. From an overview about the different specific configuration files or the structure of the isoconfig.xml-file to specific short tasks, e.g. to show and configure insulations in the isometric drawing.These short videos (the largest one is about 15 minutes, mostly they are about 5 minutes) are now published for everybody and can be watched from here. Hope you enjoy and they help...

How to add an instrument to a catalog and a spec

When clicking "Create New Component" in the Catalog Editor, it is not possible to select an instrument in the "Component Category" or in the "Piping Component" selection lists. Is there another way to make it possible to create an instrument to a catalog? At the end the component should be added to a project drawing and when looking on its properties, the class "InlineInstrument" should be shown. 

To solve this challenge we need to go an indirect way. The indirect way uses the Catalog Builder.

These are the steps:

• In the Spec Editor select from menu "Tools - Launch Catalog Builder..."
• In the section "Catalog Templates" of the dialog click "Create New"
• Select a path and type a name for the template and set the unit type

• Create a new valve

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• Select a parametric graphic of your choice and fill the values
• Click "Export to Excel"
• Open the Excel-file
• Select all columns and choose from context menu "Unhide"
• Select tab "Review" and click there in group "Changes" the command "Unprotect Sheet"

• Search for column "PartCategory" and replace the value "Valves" with "Instrument"
• Search for column "PnPClassName" and replace the value "Valve" with "InlineInstrument"
• Save the file
• Go back to the Catalog Builder and click "Build Catalog"
• Browse for this Excel-file
• In the dialog "Build Catalog" click "Save as New"
• Enter a name for the catalog and click "Save"
• Open a spec of your choice in the Spec Editor
• Open the new catalog in the Spec Editor and add the new instrument component to the spec

In the project you will note that the instrument is listed in the category "InlineInstrument" in the tool palette. 

 

Look also for this article to include the instrument to the isometric BOM:

How to include instruments in the isometric BOM in AutoCAD Plant 3D

 

 

How to export specific class properties to a pcf-file

You may need to use pcf-files for data exchange with other applications. By default only some specific class properties, like material and pressure class, are included as information for the pcf-file. I want to show you how you can include other properties like the wall thickness to the pcf-file.

Therefore you have to modify the iso.atr-file of your used iso style. Open this file with a simple editor. You will note here two sections: ATTRIBUTES and BOM-ATTRIBUTES. The section ATTRIBUTES is for more  general information which are properties from the project, the drawing, from LTD or from the pipeline group. All other properties can be set in the second section BOM-ATTRIBUTES. 

The Wall Thickness is a property of the class "Piping and Equipment". This class will be named in iso.atr as EngineeringItems. There is a second exception: Project will be named as General in the iso.atr. All other classes will be named as they are written in the project setup (without a space if there is one). 

So for this example you have only to add the row "EngineeringItems.WallThickness" to your iso.atr-file.

 

How to enable editing of dimensions for inserted spec components

Maybe you have noted that components which are inserted via PLANTCUSTOMPARTS can be edited for their dimensions but components which are inserted via a spec can't.

You can enable the dimensions also for the spec components. This behavior will be controlled by a property called "Component Designation" which can be set in the spec and in the catalog. Insert here "Custom" and the dimension properties are enabled in your Plant 3D project for this spec.

How to customize an unique double tag in AutoCAD P&ID

By default the line number has to be unique for the whole project in a pipeline segment tag. For some reasons you want to customize that two properties in combination have to be unique in a pipeline segment tag. How can you do this?

For example a pipeline segment was already inserted with property A which has value "1" and property B with the value "a". So the tag is 1-a. The next pipeline segment tag can have values like 1-b or 2-a but not 1-a.

To get the solution you have to know that only these properties in combination have to be unique which are part of the tag-definition of the pipeline group. So you have to modify the tag-definition of the pipeline group. In the example below the "Service" was added to the tag definition of the pipeline group:

Afterwards you have to ensure that both properties are inherited to the pipeline segment class and that both properties are used in the pipeline segment tag:

Which components in AutoCAD P&ID have to be unique

If you try to tag a component which is already available in the project you will get a message:

If you want to know for which components you need an unique tag, you can open the processpower.dcf of your project with a SQLite Browser like SQL Expert Personal or SQLite Database Browser.

But be aware that modifying direclty dcf-files is not supported. Make always a backup before.

Here you will find a table called "PnPTagEnlistedColumn". There are all fields listed which have to be unique. So it is by default the tag-field of the tables:

• Equipment

• Hand Valves

• Instrumentation

• PipeLineGroup

• Nozzles

You can modify this list if you want but be aware that, if you delete for  example the pipeline group tag from this table, the security and quality aspect of P&ID will be bypassed by you.