11 replies to this topic

[pjadams]

Hi everyone,

I participated a project review yesterday, at the meeting the presenter used a 3D modeling software to show the whole plant in great detail. He can literally walk into the plant, showing ever pipe, ever piece of hardware in the building in the virtual reality world. Everything is so real and I just sit there and listen. I even don't know what the software they are using.

Anybody know what is the most polular 3D software in the market for Chemical Egineering?

Is InterGraph one of them?

Sincerely,

PJ

[ankur2061]

Hi everyone,

I participated a project review yesterday, at the meeting the presenter used a 3D modeling software to show the whole plant in great detail. He can literally walk into the plant, showing ever pipe, ever piece of hardware in the building in the virtual reality world. Everything is so real and I just sit there and listen. I even don't know what the software they are using.

Anybody know what is the most polular 3D software in the market for Chemical Egineering?

Is InterGraph one of them?

Sincerely,

PJ

PJ,

Intergraph PDS and PDMS are the two most widely used 3D softwares in the chemical engineering field. Wikipedia has even a short description on PDMS:

http://en.wikipedia....nagement_System

The link for Intergraph PDS is:

http://www.intergrap...ds/default.aspx

Personally I have some exposure of preparation of P&IDs using Intergraph PDS. The P&IDs are 2D P&IDs and the notable features are as follows:

1. Complete line list can be extracted from the P&ID including operating pressure/temperature, source/destination if the attributes are provided in the .MDB (master data base) files by one click from the PDS station.

2. Instrument List, Valve List, Special Item List can be similarly extracted if the attributes are inputted correctly in the .MDB files.

3. The operating platform for PDS is microstation.

Saves you a heck of a time, but the initial legwork demands great attention. Immensely useful in terms of time/cost savings if you are doing repetitive jobs and the only thing that changes are the plant capacities.

Most grass root large scale petrochemical plants today demand that the licensor/engineering onsultant provides all CAD drawings in either PDS or PDMS base.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Ankur.
Ankur.

[pjadams]

Ankur,

I really appreciate your detailed, instructive information.

Thank you very much,

PJ

[pjadams]

Anybody know what is the most polular 3D software in the market for Chemical Egineering?

Is InterGraph one of them?

Ankur or Any Expert in this area,

I am still a little confused. For instance, now I know Intergraph (PDS) and Aveva (PDMS) are two most popular 3D modeling software packages. I think Integraph Corp is a US company and Aveva is located in Cambridge UK, actually the creation of Avera (Old name is CADCentre) made Cambridge what they are today.

But recently I heard from my company that we switched to SmartPlant 3D, it is also from Intergraph. Also the SmartPlant is a series, it has 2D software as well. We are supposed to enter all the information into a database, once it is done, the 3D software can extract all the info into the 3D model, save a lot of time.

So my question are: Is SmartPlant 3D (SP3D) a new version of PDS? I also heard people complained about PDS uses Microstation, so the competitor (PDMS) uses PC platform? Is SP3D a PC based software? How does this compare with the PDS or PDMS?

This is very interesting topic. If any of you can post your comments, I will do my part and post all the info I got, lets share the information if you guys are interested in.

Have a nice weekend,

PJ.

[Jiten_process]

Just to add one more. There is a PRO PLANT which is quite similar to PDMS. But the utility of this software is limited.

[Austro]

THey use solid works at my job. It is pretty good and you can even use the 2d and maybe even 3 images of items to create a file that you can put on an automatic waterjet, mill, lathe, etc. and the machine will automatically be programmed to manufacture the item.

[ankur2061]

PJ,

I haven't been personally involved in SamrtPlant P&IDs but you can have a look a the following link. Seems to be fairly informative:

http://www.intergrap...id/default.aspx

Regards,
Ankur.

[Jiten_process]

PJ,

I haven't been personally involved in SamrtPlant P&IDs but you can have a look a the following link. Seems to be fairly informative:

http://www.intergrap...id/default.aspx

Regards,
Ankur.

In my previsous company, we have bought Smart Plant P & ID and we had a tough time in implementing it to our day to day job.

We havent found it user friendly, moreover you need to have proper training and practice on it. Just P & ID draftsman cannot sit on it coz it needs engineering knowledge of not only process but also piping to fill up various attributes of piping components and equipments. At the same time process engineers found it boring at times sitting on it and putting lot of efforts just to prepare one p id because unlike other softwares its help will not actually be very helpful. I am telling you all these things through my personal exp. ya but if one can utilize this software properly then it can reduce lot of errors and time as well and probably that is why it is called as 'smart'.

[pjadams]

Thanks you all. All these are the things I would like to know. My friend is shipping around for a software package.

It looks like that SmartPlant 3D is the one they rolled out to replace the PDS. It needs more training, it's not user friendly.

I also heard they still use their own PC Station (not Microstation, though). Is this a good thing or bad thing. Why can't they use PC? Because it too complicated, PC can not handle it?

What about PDMS, does it use just normal PC?

Thanks,
PJ

[hamidreza_m85]

i work with PDMS and i'm expert in all modules of it
pdms can run with a simple PC
but maybe your software would be autoplant
are you sure about that software?

[Michael_K]

Dear pjadams,

also interesting software is AutoCAD Plant 3D from Autodesk to prepare 3D models of the plant containing AutoCAD PI&D, and also the Navisworks is used for presentations.
According to my experience, as beginner user, it is quite simple and user-friendly, assuming some knowledge about process and equipment that has to be applied.
Here is some tutorial presenting the program:


Regards
Michael

[Technical Bard]

There are a number of 3D CAD systems that can do process plants on the market. These include:

• Intergraph SmartPlant 3D (plus SPI, SPEL, SPPID, SPF) which replaced PDS
• Aveva PDMS (plus P&IDs, etc.)
• Dassault Solidworks
• Bentley AutoPlant
• AutoCAD Plant 3D

Many engineering companies have tried to choose one and standardize, but owners who want to maintain a 3D model through the plant life are often making the decision what tool to use, and thus the engineering houses need to be flexible. It would be nice if the ISO standard for data interchange was actually implemented so you could "cleanly convert" one model type to another, but no conversion I've seen is easy or perfect.

Edited by Technical Bard, 23 February 2012 - 10:03 AM.