AutoCAD Plant 3D Large Projects | Microsoft Sql Server | Databases

Aut CAD Plant 3D – Ho

to

anage Lar e Pr  jects

Large pro ects are not handled by a single desig er and so co rrespondingly, a large pro ject should not reside in

single DWG. Sounds logical, but how do you divid e up a large roject so th t many desi ners

can work together as   team. Split it up into lot  of DWG’s! Sounds easy, but how? This paper will give yo some ideas as to how to organize yo r Plant 3D project so that the project remains as a single pr  ject for reporting and yet has many dr awing / mod el files, so th t designers f different disciplines can work together and yet response remains good. The way

ork with ma nageable da a sets so that modeling

e will do thi  is through e xtensive use of XREF’s.

And just s no two pro jects are the same, there are many dif  erent ways to organize a project. We’ll suggest one way, but ou can modify these sug estions in or der to suit your project b tter.

Contents Getting Started .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Setting Up Your Project ................................................................................................................................. 3 Controlling Rights Between Disciplines .................................................................................................... 4 Working With Xref’s. ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Simplifying Working With Xref’s ............................................................................................................... 5 Modeling Using Xref’s ............................................................................................................................... 6 Managing Drawing Sizes With Xref’s ........................................................................................................ 7 Data Management ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Working In a Distributed Environment ..................................................................................................... 8 Managing Deliverables.................................................................................................................................. Deliverables.................................................................................................................................. 9 Piping Isometrics ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Orthographic Drawings ........................................................................................................................... 11 Working with a Master Model .................................................................................................................... 13 Working with Navisworks ....................................................................................................................... 14 SQL Server ............................................................................................................................................... 17 Vault ........................................................................................................................................................ 18 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 18 Appendix 1 – Managing Drawing Rights Access ......................................................................................... 19 Windows Folder Structure ...................................................................................................................... 19 Plant 3D Project Folder Structure ........................................................................................................... 21

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Getting Started Before you start to create the project in Plant 3 , take a big tep backwards and look t the project as a whole. T ink about h w to logicall  split it up. •

If it is a big sit , mostly all o n one level, like a refiner , then look a t a site plan nd divide it p i to areas. Each area may e a process unit, or it ma y be a logical sub-division of a process unit, but consider it as an AREA.

•

I  the case of

multi-story plant, you may want to tr eat each floo r as an area nd then

s bdivide into physical are s. In this ex mple we will be working on a refinery-like project.  We have a site plan that we have bro en into 14 areas:

In the mi dle is a pipe rack which j ins up the s parate areas (Area 2). Thi s is consider d a separate area since we

ant a desig er to be res onsible for considering t e layout of only the pipes  in the rack. Area

13 is a se vicing area and contains o ‘plant’ ite s (i.e. the m odels in this area are AEC models, not Plant 3D models) and so there are no P&IDs and no Plant models i this area. Within each area we have to consider Equipment, Structures and Piping. And if we ha e different designers focusing on each discipline, we proba ly want to d ivide up our reas into th disciplines.

Setti g Up our Pr  ject Using the example ab ve we have ecided that

e will have 14 areas. Each area can

anaged by a lead

designer, but each area has a desig n team comprising equip ent layout d esigners, Structural layout designers, and piping esigners. In the case of P&ID’s

e have split he project u  into three rocess area  plus one util ities area which

will contain all the Utility P&ID’s (o ULD’s). The fact that the P&ID area areas is not important as Plant 3D

ill span seve al of the Pipiing

ill track and manage all t he lines and equipment in the project.

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So the pr  ject will loo  like this in P lant 3D Project Manager:

Note we have 4 P&ID Area’s and 13 Piping Are s. We have lso allocate folders in ‘R elated Files’.  Here we will store or referenc  the site pla n drawings i  the ‘Civil’ folder. Since Area 13 does ot contain a ny Plant 3D

odels (it is EC) we have

placed Area 13 in the Related Files section of the project.

e

also created a Navisw orks folder s o that we ca store the associat d .nwf files

hich will all w us to assi n materials to the

model files in order t  create realistic renderin s of the mo el while we are designin g. We can also place the .nwd files he e for project r view sessio s. This allo s project reviews to take place while de ign work pro ceeds, without interrupting design work. Now loo ing at Area  as an exam le:

We have created a Structural file in the Structures folder, an Equipment

odeling file in the Equip ent

folder, and 2 Piping fil s in the Pipi g folder. This structure keeps t e file content small and

anageable a nd yet allow  maximum flexibility in

working i  the project. By using Xr f’s, the desi ner can focus on the par  of the model he is partic larly intereste  in at any m ment by unloading the Xref’s he does n’t need. Then when he needs more information, simply reload the Xref s for full mo el realizatio n.

Contr lling Rig ts Between Disciplines In some organizations, CAD Manag rs feel more comfortable controlling

ho has writ -access to

drawings based on the discipline. (So Structural designers ca n’t change piping configu ations and v iceversa.) Many CAD Managers (or Project Admini trators) do t his by settin  access rights at the folder level. In the above ex mple, the hi rarchy is ar a-based and disciplines a re sub-folders of the area. In this case, the administrator will ne d to set righ s for every d iscipline in e ery area. N te that this

ould

be done t the project setup and the rights would only need to be changed when proj ct personnel change.

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An altern tive approa h could be t create a folder structure with the dis ciplines at th  top and areas as sub-folders for each discipline. In this approach the rights ne ed only be s t at the discipline folder l evel. Plant 3D olders do not need to exactly match t e Windows f older structure, so it is possible to set up the proje t folder to be hierarchical based on ar eas (as show n above) but have the Wi dows folder structure be set up ba ed on disciplines. See Appendix 1 for more information on how to set this up.

Wor ing Wi h Xref s. Plant 3D is designed t  work intelli  ently  with Xref’s. Pipes nd Piping Co mponents will connect to pipes and piping components, and ven equipment nozzles, i n Xref models. For exam le, when using the Rout  Pipe comm nd, by clicki g on the equipment nozz le in the Xref , the connection will be m ade and the correct comp nents will be placed as shown here:

N te that the ump is in th  equipment Xref and tha si ce we were routing an 8 line and con necting to a 10” n zzle, a 10” mating flange with a 10x8 reducer was placed in the p iping model.  Also note the connection was al o placed which will give s the correc  bolts and ga sket.

Simpli ying Working Wi h Xref’s One usef  l way of ma aging the Area Xref’s is t  have a mas er area dra ing. This is essentially an empty m del file with all the area

odels loaded as Xref’s. In this examp le, Area 6 in he master a ea

drawing i Area6.dwg: It is important that these X ref’s be load d as Attach ents. We r commend t at you use a  relative pat  as shown b low. (As the files are part of a project, relatiive path will make movin  a project easier):

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The Area Master file is maintained y a project lead who ens ures that all he model fil s in that are a are attached.  The reason we use attachment refer nce type, ra her than the usual overla , is that we

ill

be using these Area Master files as Xref’s in the Master Mod l (see later) and we want the nested ref’s to display. By creati g these Area Master models, we make managing m odel files in the area sim ler. Now an designer

orking in that area simply attaches this one file as an Xref, but in this case i Overlay m de,

and he will be sure th t all the models in that area are attached. (A warning message etecting circular references may be dis layed; simply click Continue.) If worki ng across ar as, for example connecti g pipes to a pipe rack that may be in a separate area (for exam ple attachin  to pipes in P ipe Racks), t en attach th t Area Mast r drawing a d then detach (or unload ) when no lo ger needed. Word of

arning re Circular Refer nces: If you follow the g idelines abo ve, then circ lar referenc s

(file referring back to i tself as a lower nested Xr f file) will be  taken care of by AutoCA . The danger arises when you need to Xref a file in another area. In this case if you att ch the external area file o your model file as an ttachment, ou will create circular ref erences in the Master Model file (see below) or in the Orthographic Dra ing master

odel files. T o avoid this roblem, bes practice is to use

the overl y reference type for these external fil s. Designer can turn on or off any lay ers in the re erence files r unload th  whole refer nce file as needed.

Modeling Usin  Xref’s Xref’s make it very easy to work in large model . Here the piping designe r is concentrating on pipi g around a pump:

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By unloa ing the structure and tur ing off some of the pipin  layers, a better view is obtained making piping ea ier:

Mana ing Dra ing Size  With X ef’s The opti um size for  model file i   5-10MB. D pending on the hardwar  you are usi g and the ty e of plant mo el, it may be better to ke p the model size smaller. This can be especially tr e if you hav objects that are not Plant 3D objec s (e.g imported from Inve ntor or Revit). This will r sult in more dwg files, but ood model

anagement will maintai  good perfor mance. It d esn’t matter how many files

you have in the project, AutoCAD Plant 3D project manager can manage l arge numbers of drawing . With exp rience, you’ll be able to uesstimate how many lin s or how m ny equipme t items will e in each model file in ord r to keep th  sizes down, but there is no problem dding more

odel files a the

project d velops. This is especially true for pipi g files. Some users like to put all equipme t in an area into one dwg . Others like to split them up into sub- areas where ot ers may split the equipment up by levels on a stru ture. In the case of structur s, many use s will place a ‘single’ stru ture into a single model f ile. This is so the structure can be expo ted for analysis and then replaced wit  a detailed s tructural model after the detailed ngineering has been don . In some cases, the stru cture may actually extend across an area boundary. This is not  problem, si ply place t e structural model in one area and th n have the master area model of the other area(s) xref this structural m del. Pipe Racks are typicall  handled se arately too.  This is to all w the pipin  designer to optimize the space available on the rack and this is its own la out proble . Thus the Pipe Rack are may also co ntain AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managing Large Proje ts

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sub-racks which will encroach into process areas. The best practices approach discussed so far handles this approach easily. Managing piping models can be done in many different ways. Since Plant3D allows intelligent connections across Xref’s. Thus piping models can be divided into sub-areas or by line numbers, with each designer allocated a certain number of lines. There are no constraints on how to divide up the area.

Data Management AutoCAD Plant 3D uses an SQL database to manage non-graphic data. The default SQL database engine delivered with Plant 3D is SQLite (www.sqlite.org) Everything you need to manage the data within a Plant3D project is delivered with Plant 3D and you do not need to be a database expert nor do you need to understand SQL databases in order to use SQLite. SQLite is a simple and effective solution for managing data in smaller projects where integration with enterprise databases is neither necessary nor desirable. Thus small companies can use SQLite for their projects and Plant 3D Data Manager will be an effective interface to the project and drawing data. For more information on SQLite visit http://www.sqlite.org/about.html For larger organizations who have large amounts of data stored within Enterprise Databases, Plant 3D will support SQL Server. The inclusion of SQL Express in the Plant 3D allows you to select whether to use SQLite or connect to your corporate database. When should I stick with SQLite and when should I use SQL Server? This is a difficult question to answer and it depends more on how you use the data than on how many users need to access the project database. If you are already using corporate databases and want to share the Plant 3D data with other database applications, then SQL Server is definitively the correct answer. If your project users are distributed geographically, then SQL Server may be the best solution as the database server will manage the distribution of the database, or manage the c entralization of the data. Regardless of whether you use SQLite or SQL Server, the Data Manager allows you to extract data to Excel spreadsheets for non-CAD users to manipulate the data.

Working In a Distributed Environment Buzzsaw (www.buzzsaw.com) offers a very useful way of placing files in a central server to allow distributed users to access these files if you do not have a central server and WAN for project collaboration, or if you have external people/companies working on a project and you do not want to grant them access to your local network.  Autodesk ® Buzzsaw ® software as a service (SaaS) delivers document, data, and design management solutions to architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms and owner-operators. Autodesk Buzzsaw helps organizations centralize and more securely exchange project information inside and outside their organization. And with proven SaaS technology, your company can focus more on project delivery and less on managing costly IT infrastructure. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managing Large Projects

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Buzzsaw omes with a Buzzsaw Sync utility which allows you to sync local folders with those on Buz zsaw. Although Buzzsaw Sync allows you to have continual syncing, you may fin d it more ma nageable to nly perform yncing at certain times of the day. (This avoids con tinual messa ges to reload Xrefs.)

Man ging Delivera les The most common deliverables that are generated are Pipin  Isometrics nd Piping Or thographic drawings.  Generally, isometrics ar  generated per line numb er and ortho graphics (ortho’s) are generate  per area, with additional  drawings being generated for sections and elevati ns. They ar managed differently.

Piping Isometrics AutoCAD Plant 3D Pro ect Manager manages all the isometric drawings fo r you. It has separate fol ers for all the iso styles you need to create, and setting up the st les and the l ocations for these drawings is managed through Project Manager > Properties:

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Isometrics are created by line num er and are s rted by Iso tyle in the P oject Manager:

Isometrics can be created just from a drawing, i which case only those pi ping compo ents in that drawing

ill be extrac ed to the iso, or for the

model fil s perhaps)

hole project. In this case the whole li e (across se eral

ill be extracted into the single isometr ic. Note that an isometric drawing ma be

split into several sheets. Each sheet will be a se arate dwg. Because he isometric is extracted from the 3D model, mos  CAD Managers do not allow isometrics to be edited in any way. This prevents inconsistencies betwee  the model nd the isom tric.

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Ortho raphic rawings Orthogra hic drawing are created from a selec ion of files t at are avail ble in the Pl nt 3D Drawi gs under So rce Files. Th files are selected in the rtho creation process, and may be sel ected to cre te Area plans, or master lans. Sections and details include few er files since they are showing smaller areas of the overall pr  ject.

Layering or the generated view is ontrolled by Ortho DWG Settings.

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Layers ca  be used from the 3D models, or obje ts can be pl ced accordi g to specifie  layer settings.

To updat  the orthographic drawings, the model must be ch nged first. T hen the user can open th ortho, select a viewport and use th  Update Vie  command.

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The abov  process may look like w will have m ny files to m anage, and this may be true. But by managin  them in this way, drawings can be created at any t ime, even w ile modeling is going on a nd then dra ings can be pdated con istently.

Wor ing with a Master M del Project Managers often want to ch ck on progr ss. By main aining a Proj ect Master the Area

odel (similar to

aster mod l) this process can be sim le and will b ecome the basis for project reviews.

he

Master Model is creat d by creating a model fil  that Xref’s LL the Area Master model files. By following the rules stated earlier as to when to ttach Xref’s nd when to overlay Xref’s, circular references can be avoided. Here is an example:

By simply reloading the Xref’s at certain times in the project, you will hav  a project Review model

hich

can be exported to Navisworks. Depending on t he size of a project, mast r files may become too l rge for AutoCAD to open. In these cases, a master n f (.nwf) sho uld be creat d that merg s all of the a rea models t gether.

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Worki g with

avisworks

Depending on whether you want to work at a project level o at an area l vel, the process is the sa e. Simply st rt with the

aster Model or the Area Model.

The first time you set p for a Navi works revie , open the

aster Model DWG  file. Now after

performi g any opera ions you wa t to do, save the model a s a NWF. In uture revie s, open the WF file and c mments, m terials are retained even after the DWG files which  are referenced have bee updated. Sometim s you want to do reviews at a particul r milestone and want to save the project for furth r reviews even though the project design is conti uing. In the e cases, open the Master Model or Ar ea Master D G in Navis orks, and then save as N D.  All the

odel entitie s are now sa ed in a singl e

source m del which c n be viewed using Navis orks. For bette  performance, make sure the nwc or nwd files get losed after they are read.

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You also hould enabl  occlusion c lling, and to gle the Hardware Accele ation, and

PF Hardwar

Acceleration if you ha e having performance issues.

As a rule, only 3d model objects sh uld be shown under rend er style. Enable other object types only if necessar . Limiting th se enhances walking perf ormance.

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You may revent Navi works from ven loading these objects at all under the following options.

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SQL Server The decision to use SQL Server is driven by the number of users modifying project data at one time. The default database type, SQLite is valid for up to 2 TB per file, so the project file size is not the issue. Because the SQLite database is a single file, successful read/writes depend on fast access. When more users access the database at one time, they have a higher chance of hitting the database at the same time (or close enough). Due to network configurations, server performance, computer performance, network loads, and a host of other factors, a precise number of users cannot be given. However, through experience with various clients, most people start to see performance degradation with between 6 - 10 users. If you know you will have more than 10 active users, you should implement SQL Server Express or SQL Server. You must also use SQL Server if you plan to use Plant 3D with Vault.

Database Types SQL Server – An enterprise-level product offering from Microsoft that includes a database server with administration tools for replicating databases between sites, and other advanced features SQL Server Express – A free product offering from Microsoft that includes a database server without advanced administration tools. You can still configure backups. SQLite – An open source file-based database used by developers wor ld-wide. The database engine is fast with good performance.

Versions AutoCAD Plant 3D has been run with SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2012. Articles on setting up SQL Server Express and creating backups are available here: http://www.pdoteam.com/series/plant3d-on-sql-express/

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Vault Autodesk Vault (http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-vault-family/features ) is document management software that integrates with many pr oducts in the Autodesk portfolio. In 2014, Vault became integrated into the Plant Project Manager. Vault should be used in the following conditions: •

You have multiple sites that need to share data

•

Your Plant project structure contains all external r eferences.

•

You can use SQL Server or SQL Server Express.

Vault allows you to store the drawing data in a central location, and have satellite offices check in/out drawings on an as-needed basis. Currently, all xrefs must reside within the project structure, as Plant uses it’s own working directory for Vaulted projects.

Conclusions This document is a guide to help you set up and manage a large project. It is a guide, not a bible, so feel free to adjust the recommendations to suit the way you work. And remember, designers need to have exclusive access to a model file while they work. So you need to have at least as many model files as you have designers!

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Appendix 1  Man ging D awing Rights Access In this ap endix we will give an exa mple to sho

how you ca n manage a l arge project

here differ nt

disciplines will have re ad-only acce s to other discipline dra ings. In ord r to manage this the Win dows folder str cture is diff  rent to the Plant 3D Proj ct folder str cture.

Wind ws Fold r Struct re Since we

ant to give Structural Designers Writ  Access to t eir designs a nd read-only access to th

Piping an Equipment Layout designs, then it m kes sense to create a fol er for the Structures and a different older for Piping Designer . If we also

ant to man ge files at a  area level, then we will c reate

area fold rs as well:

The folder organizatio  could be extended to in lude area su b-folders wit hin the disci line folders. However, a naming fo mat which i cludes the area could be used so dra ing files can be 3easily associate  with the ar a.

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Use the s andard Win ows Folder ecurity features to assign rights to the folders:

In the ab ve example

e have assumed the user is a structu al designer s o we are denying him wri e-

access to the Equipment and Pipin   Folder. Wh n this user o pens a Pipin g or Equipme nt drawing, the following message will appear:

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Plant D Proje t Folder Structur In the pro ject we wan to create a tructure by rea and the  by disciplin  as follows:

However, we want to nsure that t e equipment and Piping drawings are stored in th  project Equipme t and Piping folder and that all the str ctural drawi ngs are held in the struct res folder (as we created i the previous section) We do th s by creatin a new folde  for the area and then lin ing this fold er to the discipline folder

e

created previously:

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Now when we create  new piping drawing in a  area (in this  case Area 2  the Project

anager will

show it a a member of the discipli e folder in t at area but he actual dr wing file is h eld in the discipline folder and a sumes the rights access of the folder:

Although this seems a complex process, it only as to be don e at project etup time. fully set up in Project

nce the project is

anager, the drawings will automatica lly be create in the correct folder.

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