Auto How oCAD w to M Plant Manag 3D – e
Transcription
Auto How oCAD w to M Plant Manag 3D – e
oCAD Plant 3D – Auto How w to Manag M e Largge Pro ojects Large projjects are not handled by a single design ner and so coorrespondingly, a large pro oject should n not reside in a single DWG. Sounds logical, but how do you divid e up a large p project so thaat many desiggners can work together as a team. Split it up into lotss of DWG’s! SSounds easy, but how? This paper will give you u some ideas as to how to o organize youur Plant 3D prroject so thatt the project remains as a a single pro oject for reporting and yet has many drrawing / modeel files, so thaat designers o of different disciplines d can work togetther and yet work w with maanageable datta sets so that modeling response remains good d. The way we w will do thiss is through e xtensive use of XREF’s. And just as a no two pro ojects are the same, there are many diffferent ways tto organize a project. We’’ll suggest one way, but you y can modify these sugggestions in ordder to suit yo our project beetter. 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.................................................................................................................................. 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 AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managing Large Projects Page 2 Getting Startted Before yo ou start to cre eate the proje ect in Plant 3D D, take a big sstep backwarrds and look aat the project as a whole. Th hink about ho ow to logicallyy split it up. • • If it is a big site e, mostly all on o one level, like l a refineryy, then look aat a site plan aand divide it u up nto areas. Eacch area may be b a process unit, or it ma y be a logicall sub-division of a process unit, in but consider itt as an AREA. In n the case of a multi-story plant, you may want to tr eat each floo or as an area aand then su ubdivide into physical areaas. In this exaample we will be working on o a refinery--like project. We have a site plan that we have brokken into 14 arreas: In the mid ddle is a pipe rack which jo oins up the se eparate areass (Area 2). Thiis is considereed a separatee area since we want w a design ner to be resp ponsible for considering c thhe layout of o only the pipess in the rack. Area 13 is a serrvicing area and contains no n ‘plant’ item ms (i.e. the m models in this area are AEC models, not Plant 3D models) and so there are no P&IDs and no Plant models inn this area. Within eaach area we have to consid der Equipmen nt, Structures and Piping. And if we havve different designers focusing on each e disciplin ne, we probab bly want to diivide up our aareas into thee disciplines. Settin ng Up Your Y Pro oject Using the example abo ove we have decided d that we w will have 14 areas. Eacch area can m managed by a lead prising equipm ment layout d designers, Structural layout designer, but each area has a design team comp d designers, and piping designers. w have split the t project up p into three pprocess areass plus one utillities area wh hich In the case of P&ID’s we will span severral of the Pipiing will contain all the Utility P&ID’s (orr ULD’s). The fact that thee P&ID area w areas is no ot important as Plant 3D will w track and manage all t he lines and eequipment in n the project. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts Page 3 So the pro oject will lookk like this in Plant P 3D Proje ect Manager: Note we have 4 P&ID Area’s and 13 Piping Areaas. We have aalso allocated d folders in ‘R Related Files’. Here we will store or reference e the site pla n drawings in n the ‘Civil’ fo older. Since A Area 13 does not n contain a ny Plant 3D m models (it is A AEC) we have placed Area 13 in the Related Filess section of th he project. W We works folder so o that we can n store the also created a Navisw ed .nwf files w which will allo ow us to assiggn materials tto the associate model files in order too create realisstic renderinggs of the mod del e are designin g. We can also place the .nwd files herre for while we project re eview sessionns. This allow ws project revviews to take place while dessign work prooceeds, witho out interrupting design wo ork. Now lookking at Area 6 as an examp ple: We have created c a Stru uctural file in the Structure es folder, an Equipment M Modeling file iin the Equipm ment folder, and 2 Piping file es in the Pipin ng folder. This structure keeps th he file content small and manageable m a nd yet allowss maximum flexibility in working in n the project.. By using Xre ef’s, the desiggner can focuus on the partt of the modeel he is particu ularly interested d in at any mo oment by unloading the Xref’s he does n’t need. Theen when he n needs more informatio on, simply reload the Xref’s for full mod del realizationn. Contro olling Righ hts Between Disciiplines In some organizations, o , CAD Manage ers feel more e comfortablee controlling w who has writee-access to drawings based on the e discipline. (So Structural designers ca n’t change piiping configurrations and viceM CAD Managers (or Pro oject Adminisstrators) do t his by settingg access rightss at the foldeer versa.) Many level. In the t above exaample, the hie erarchy is are ea-based and disciplines arre sub-folders of the area.. In this case, the administrator will nee ed to set rightts for every d iscipline in evvery area. No ote that this w would a the project setup and th he rights would only need tto be changeed when projeect personnell be done at change. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts Page 4 An alternaative approacch could be to o create a fold der structuree with the discciplines at thee top and areeas as sub-folders for each discipline. In this approach the rights neeed only be seet at the disciipline folder level. Plant 3D folders f do not need to exaactly match th he Windows ffolder structu ure, so it is po ossible to set up the projecct folder to be e hierarchical based on are eas (as shownn above) but have the Win ndows folder structure be set up bassed on discipllines. See Ap ppendix 1 for more informaation on how w to set this up. Workking Witth Xref’’s. Plant 3D is designed to o work intellig gently with Xref’s. Pipes aand Piping Co omponents will connect to pipes and piping comp ponents, and even e equipment nozzles, iin Xref modells. For examp ple, when using the Route e Pipe commaand, by clickin ng on the equ uipment nozzlle in the Xref,, the connecttion will be m made and the co orrect compo onents will be e placed as sh hown here: No ote that the ppump is in thee equipment Xref and thatt sin nce we were routing an 8”” line and con nnecting to a 10” no ozzle, a 10” m mating flange with a 10x8 rreducer was plaaced in the p iping model. Also note the connection n was alsso placed which will give u us the correctt bolts and gaasket. Simpliffying Wo orking Witth Xref’s One usefu ul way of man naging the Area Xref’s is to o have a mastter area draw wing. This is eessentially an empty mo odel file with all the area models m loaded as Xref’s. I n this example, Area 6 in tthe master arrea drawing iss Area6.dwg: Itt is importantt that these X ref’s be loadeed as Attachm ments. We re ecommend th hat you use a relative path h as shown beelow. (As thee files are part of a project, p relatiive path will m make movingg a project easier): AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts Page 5 The Area Master file iss maintained by b a project lead who ensuures that all tthe model filees in that areaa are ence type, ratther than the usual overlayy, is that we w will attached. The reason we use attachment refere be using these t Area Master files as Xref’s in the Master Modeel (see later) aand we want the nested X Xref’s to displayy. By creatin ng these Area Master mod dels, we make e managing m model files in tthe area simp pler. Now anyy designer working w in that area simply attaches this one file as an Xref, but iin this case in n Overlay mo ode, and he wiill be sure thaat all the mod dels in that area are attachhed. (A warniing message d detecting circcular reference es may be disp played; simply click Contin nue.) If workiing across areeas, for example connectin ng pipes to a pipe rack thaat may be in a separate arrea (for exam ple attachingg to pipes in P Pipe Racks), th hen attach thaat Area Maste er drawing an nd then detacch (or unload)) when no lon nger needed. Word of warning w re Circular Refere ences: If you follow the guuidelines abovve, then circu ular referencees (file referring back to ittself as a lower nested Xre ef file) will be taken care o of by AutoCAD D. The dangeer arises when you need to Xref a file in another arrea. In this caase if you attaach the external area file tto your mod del file as an attachment, a you y will create circular refeerences in the Master Model file (see below) orr in the Orthographic Draw wing master model m files. TTo avoid this p problem, bestt practice is to o use the overla ay reference type for these external file es. Designerss can turn on or off any layyers in the refference files oor unload thee whole refereence file as needed. Modeling Usingg Xref’s Xref’s make it very eassy to work in large modelss. Here the piiping designeer is concentrating on pipin ng around a pump: AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts Page 6 By unload ding the structure and turn ning off some e of the pipingg layers, a bettter view is obtained makiing piping eassier: Managging Draw wing Sizess With Xrref’s The optim mum size for a model file iss 5-10MB. De epending on tthe hardwaree you are usin ng and the typ pe of plant mod del, it may be e better to kee ep the modell size smaller.. This can be especially tru ue if you havee objects th hat are not Plaant 3D objectts (e.g importted from Inveentor or Revitt). This will reesult in more dwg files, but good g model management m will maintain n good perforrmance. It do oesn’t matterr how many fiiles you have in the projectt, AutoCAD Plant 3D proje ect manager ccan manage laarge numberss of drawingss. With expe erience, you’lll be able to guesstimate g how h many linees or how maany equipmen nt items will b be in each mod del file in orde er to keep the e sizes down, but there is nno problem aadding more m model files ass the project de evelops. Thiss is especially true for pipin ng files. Some use ers like to put all equipmen nt in an area into i one dwg . Others like to split them m up into sub--areas where oth hers may splitt the equipment up by levels on a struccture. In the case of structure es, many userrs will place a ‘single’ struccture into a single model ffile. This is so o the structure can be exporrted for analyysis and then replaced withh a detailed sstructural model after the detailed engineering e has been done e. In some caases, the struccture may acttually extend across an areea boundaryy. This is not a problem, sim mply place th he structural m model in onee area and theen have the master arrea model of the t other are ea(s) xref this structural moodel. Pipe Rackks are typicallyy handled sep parately too. This is to alloow the pipingg designer to optimize the space avaailable on the rack and thiss is its own layyout problem m. Thus the Pipe Rack areaa may also contain AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts Page 7 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 centralization 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 Page 8 Buzzsaw comes c with a Buzzsaw Syn nc utility which allows you to sync local folders with those on Buzzzsaw. Although Buzzsaw Sync allows you to t have continual syncing,, you may find d it more manageable to o only perform syncing s at cerrtain times of the day. (This avoids con tinual messagges to reload Xrefs.) Manaaging Deliverab bles The most common deliverables that are generatted are Pipingg Isometrics aand Piping Orthographic e generated per p line numbber and orthoographics (ortho’s) are drawings.. Generally, issometrics are generated d per area, with additionall drawings be eing generated for sectionss and elevatio ons. They aree managed differently. Piping Isometrics AutoCAD Plant 3D Projject Managerr manages all the isometricc drawings fo or you. It has separate fold ders e iso styles you need to cre eate, and settting up the styyles and the llocations for tthese drawin ngs is for all the managed through Project Manager > Properties: AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts Page 9 Isometricss are created by line numb ber and are so orted by Iso sstyle in the Prroject Managger: Isometricss can be created just from m a drawing, in n which case only those piiping compon nents in that drawing will w be extractted to the iso o, or for the whole w project.. In this case the whole lin ne (across sevveral model file es perhaps) will w be extracted into the single isometr ic. Note thatt an isometricc drawing mayy be split into several s sheetts. Each sheet will be a sep parate dwg. Because the t isometricc is extracted from the 3D model, mostt CAD Managgers do not alllow isometriics to be edited d in any way. This preventts inconsisten ncies betweenn the model aand the isomeetric. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 10 Orthoggraphic Drawings D Orthograp phic drawingss are created from a selecttion of files thhat are availaable in the Plaant 3D Drawin ngs under Sou urce Files. The e files are selected in the ortho o creatio n process, an nd may be selected to creaate Area plans, or master plans. p Sections and details include few wer files since they are showing smaller oject. areas of the overall pro f the generaated view is controlled c by Ortho DWG SSettings. Layering for AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 11 Layers can n be used from the 3D mo odels, or objeccts can be plaaced accordin ng to specified d layer settings. To update e the orthographic drawings, the mode el must be chaanged first. Th hen the user can open thee ortho, select a viewport and use the e Update View w command. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 12 The above e process may look like we e will have maany files to m manage, and tthis may be trrue. But by managingg them in this way, drawinggs can be created at any tiime, even wh hile modeling is going on aand then draw wings can be updated u conssistently. Workking witth a Master Mo odel Project Managers M often want to che eck on progre ess. By mainttaining a Project Master M Model (similarr to the Area Master M mode el) this processs can be simp ple and will bbecome the baasis for project reviews. TThe Master Model M is create ed by creatingg a model file e that Xref’s A ALL the Area M Master modeel files. By following the rules statted earlier as to when to attach a Xref’s aand when to overlay Xref’s, circular es can be avoiided. Here is an example: reference By simply reloading the e Xref’s at certain times in n the project, you will havee a project Reeview model w which epending on the size of a pproject, masteer files may b become too laarge can be exported to Navvisworks. De CAD to open. In these cases, a master nw wf (.nwf) shoould be createed that mergees all of the area for AutoC models to ogether. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 13 Workin ng with Naviswor N ks Dependin ng on whether you want to o work at a prroject level orr at an area leevel, the proccess is the sam me. Simply staart with the Master M Modell or the Area Model. The first time t you set up u for a Navissworks review w, open the M Master Modell DWG file. N Now after performin ng any operattions you wan nt to do, save e the model a s a NWF. In ffuture review ws, open the N NWF file and co omments, maaterials are re etained even after the DW WG files which are referencced have been n updated. Sometime es you want to t do reviews at a particulaar milestone and want to ssave the project for furtheer reviews even though the project de esign is contin nuing. In thesse cases, open the Masterr Model or Area Master DW WG in Navisw works, and then save as NW WD. All the m model entities are now savved in a singlee source mo odel which caan be viewed using Navisw works. For betterr performancce, make sure the nwc or nwd n files get cclosed after tthey are read. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 14 You also should s enable e occlusion cu ulling, and togggle the Harddware Accelerration, and W WPF Hardwaree Acceleration if you havve having performance issues. As a rule, only 3d model objects sho ould be show wn under rendder style. Enable other object types only if ese enhances walking perfformance. necessaryy. Limiting the AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 15 You may prevent p Navissworks from even e loading these objectss at all underr the followingg options. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 16 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 world-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/ AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managing Large Projects Page 17 Vault Autodesk Vault (http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-vault-family/features ) is document management software that integrates with many products 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 references. 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! AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managing Large Projects Page 18 Appe endix 1 – Manaaging Drrawing Rights Access In this app pendix we will give an example to show w how you ca n manage a large project w where differeent disciplines will have read-only accesss to other discipline draw wings. In ordeer to manage this the Wind dows folder stru ucture is diffe erent to the Plant P 3D Proje ect folder struucture. Windo ows Folde er Structu ure Since we want w to give Structural De esigners Write e Access to thheir designs aand read-onlyy access to thee Piping and d Equipment Layout designs, then it maakes sense too create a fold der for the Structures and a different folder f for Pip ping Designerss. If we also want w to manaage files at an n area level, tthen we will ccreate area folde ers as well: The folder organization n could be exxtended to incclude area su b-folders within the discip pline folders. However, a naming forrmat which in ncludes the area could be used so draw wing files can be 3easily associated d with the are ea. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 19 Use the sttandard Wind dows Folder security s featu ures to assign rights to the folders: In the abo ove example we w have assu umed the user is a structurral designer s o we are den nying him writteaccess to the Equipment and Pipingg Folder. Whe en this user oopens a Pipingg or Equipmeent drawing, tthe following message willl appear: AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 20 Plant 3D 3 Projecct Folder Structure e In the pro oject we wantt to create a structure s by area a and thenn by disciplinee as follows: However, we want to ensure e that the equipmen nt and Piping ddrawings are stored in thee project Equipmen nt and Piping folder and th hat all the stru uctural drawi ngs are held in the structu ures folder (as we created in n the previouss section) We do thiis by creatingg a new folderr for the area and then linkking this foldeer to the disccipline folder w we created previously: AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 21 Now when we create a new piping drawing in an n area (in thiss case Area 2)) the Project M Manager will o the disciplin ne folder in th hat area but tthe actual draawing file is h held in the show it ass a member of discipline folder and asssumes the rights access of o the folder: Although this seems a complex process, it only has h to be don e at project ssetup time. O Once the project is fully set up u in Project Manager, M the drawings willl automatica lly be created d in the correect folder. AutoCAD Plant 3D – Managging Large Projeccts P Page 22