CAD for the design of large industrial facilities
In this article, I will present my vision of what stage of development CAD is for designing large industrial enterprises today, what difficulties one has to face in implementation and what trends are outlined in this industry.
A little about your experience. Behind the technical university, working as a design engineer, retraining as a CAD specialist, working as a C # programmer, participating in the implementation, support and adaptation of the AVEVA PDMS complex 3D design system in 5 design institutes: 4 largest design institutes in Russia (design of oil / gas processing enterprises and energy facilities) and one in Ukraine (design of energy facilities). In general, the experience is quite enough to be able to conduct some kind of analysis of the situation.
In spite of the fact that each project organization has its own specifics of work and its own practices developed over the years, all the same, the general features are also visible:
1) In all design institutes, there is now a heightened interest in leadership in the automation of design processes.
2) The first wave of automation has passed.
During this period, there was an automation of the work of engineers in individual departments, through the purchase of specialized software. At the same time, often, the exchange of information between departments was also held in “paper” form. The isolation of departments from each other led to the emergence of one of the most costly design errors - collisions. This problem was solved by the introduction of integrated design systems in organizations for the joint work of the main design departments in a single 3D model via the network (for example AVEVA PDMS, Intergraph SmartPlant 3D, Microstation AutoPlant).
3) Today is the second wave of automation.
The experience gained from the introduction of integrated 3D design systems at the first stage is analyzed, and a clearer awareness of the complexity of the implementation process and the support of such systems occurs. In case of unsuccessful implementation experience, a second attempt occurs, but already with software from another vendor. Inside organizations, by regular programmers, programs are written that extend the functionality of the purchased programs in accordance with the specifics of the organization. They create, again on their own, various data exchange interfaces between the used software. Systems of the electronic project document circulation integrated with the electronic archive of drawings are being introduced. All these steps gradually lead to a transition to a new way of organizing the design process - designing in a single information space (UIS).
It is necessary to separate the UIS of the organization from the UIS of the designed object. The organization's UIS is not related to any particular project and will exist even in their absence.
The following systems can be attributed to the level of organization:
1) electronic document management company;
2) the corporate portal of the company, which includes the staff directory, time management system, task management system;
3) an electronic archive of design and estimate documentation;
4) means of information interaction of employees, including software and technical and organizational and regulatory documents;
5) customer support service (HelpDesk).
Another thing - the UIS of the projected object, in which information on the project is accumulated and stored. This information space consists of the following components.
1) 3D model;
2) 2D documentation;
3) project database;
Let us write in more detail each item. The 3D model can be made in one program (PDMS, SmartPlant 3D) or it can be an assembly from 3D models of different parts of the project executed in various 3D modeling programs (PDMS, products from Autodesk, etc.). Collect the whole 3D model and check it for collisions perfectly with Autodesk Navisworks. More complex combinations are also possible. For example, when 3D models created in specialized programs Inventor, Revit, Civil 3D, etc. are loaded into PDMS. I’ll say that there are only two ways to load these models: through the Mechanical Equipment Interface or using self-written programs for converting 3D models to a set of standard primitives and PDMS surfaces.
Let us turn to 2D documentation, which mainly consists of drawings and text documents and is divided into documents in PDF format (which are sent to the customer) and editable documents (mainly DWG, Word and Excel). The main principle of the organization of the UIS is the coherence of information about the elements in the project. Those. if the same object is present in the 3D model, in the drawings and in the Excel spreadsheet (and / or Word document), then these elements should be linked by links. Naturally, for each project a system of coding elements is created, ensuring their uniqueness within the project (KKS).
So, in order to link all the elements of the project, the third (and main) component of the project UIS is needed - the project database. The easiest way (in my opinion) to do it on the basis of Microsoft SQL Server. By creating a project database, it is possible to synchronize changes in information about an object in all related documents. Due to the fact that in each project organization different approaches to design are used, and different software, there are no ready-made solutions on the market that would suit everyone equally. Therefore, the only way to create an UIS in the project organization is to make the UIS itself (with the help of in-house programmers).
Separately, I want to say about the teams of programmers in the CAD department. Such teams (usually 3-5 people) today have become an integral part of CAD departments. The variety of tasks for such teams is quite large. The most characteristic are:
1) automation of data exchange between specialized software (design, estimated and drawing programs);
2) automating the process of exchanging tasks between project departments;
3) customization of user interfaces of already installed programs;
4) development of programs for obtaining various reports.
To ensure that the development process does not go out of control and the source code is always in a healthy state, you should use different systems for joint development and version control. Having worked with systems such as Atlassian Jira + SVN and Team Foundation Server 2012, my choice is definitely for TFS, since the project management system and the version control system are perfectly interconnected, and all this is integrated into Visual Studio.
A few words about the process of implementing joint 3D design systems. The case is extremely complex and lengthy, since all the main project departments of the organization are involved. People have to learn new software products, change their habits developed over the years. In my experience, I was convinced that change is always found by the majority of employees negatively. If the organization decided to implement the implementation independently (without involvement of specialists who already have experience in this), then the probability of unsuccessful implementation, when funds were spent and time and results were not achieved, increases. Therefore, when making decisions about such global changes in the organization, the wisdom of the people will be very appropriate: “Measure seven times, cut once”.
A little about your experience. Behind the technical university, working as a design engineer, retraining as a CAD specialist, working as a C # programmer, participating in the implementation, support and adaptation of the AVEVA PDMS complex 3D design system in 5 design institutes: 4 largest design institutes in Russia (design of oil / gas processing enterprises and energy facilities) and one in Ukraine (design of energy facilities). In general, the experience is quite enough to be able to conduct some kind of analysis of the situation.
In spite of the fact that each project organization has its own specifics of work and its own practices developed over the years, all the same, the general features are also visible:
1) In all design institutes, there is now a heightened interest in leadership in the automation of design processes.
2) The first wave of automation has passed.
During this period, there was an automation of the work of engineers in individual departments, through the purchase of specialized software. At the same time, often, the exchange of information between departments was also held in “paper” form. The isolation of departments from each other led to the emergence of one of the most costly design errors - collisions. This problem was solved by the introduction of integrated design systems in organizations for the joint work of the main design departments in a single 3D model via the network (for example AVEVA PDMS, Intergraph SmartPlant 3D, Microstation AutoPlant).
3) Today is the second wave of automation.
The experience gained from the introduction of integrated 3D design systems at the first stage is analyzed, and a clearer awareness of the complexity of the implementation process and the support of such systems occurs. In case of unsuccessful implementation experience, a second attempt occurs, but already with software from another vendor. Inside organizations, by regular programmers, programs are written that extend the functionality of the purchased programs in accordance with the specifics of the organization. They create, again on their own, various data exchange interfaces between the used software. Systems of the electronic project document circulation integrated with the electronic archive of drawings are being introduced. All these steps gradually lead to a transition to a new way of organizing the design process - designing in a single information space (UIS).
It is necessary to separate the UIS of the organization from the UIS of the designed object. The organization's UIS is not related to any particular project and will exist even in their absence.
The following systems can be attributed to the level of organization:
1) electronic document management company;
2) the corporate portal of the company, which includes the staff directory, time management system, task management system;
3) an electronic archive of design and estimate documentation;
4) means of information interaction of employees, including software and technical and organizational and regulatory documents;
5) customer support service (HelpDesk).
Another thing - the UIS of the projected object, in which information on the project is accumulated and stored. This information space consists of the following components.
1) 3D model;
2) 2D documentation;
3) project database;
Let us write in more detail each item. The 3D model can be made in one program (PDMS, SmartPlant 3D) or it can be an assembly from 3D models of different parts of the project executed in various 3D modeling programs (PDMS, products from Autodesk, etc.). Collect the whole 3D model and check it for collisions perfectly with Autodesk Navisworks. More complex combinations are also possible. For example, when 3D models created in specialized programs Inventor, Revit, Civil 3D, etc. are loaded into PDMS. I’ll say that there are only two ways to load these models: through the Mechanical Equipment Interface or using self-written programs for converting 3D models to a set of standard primitives and PDMS surfaces.
Let us turn to 2D documentation, which mainly consists of drawings and text documents and is divided into documents in PDF format (which are sent to the customer) and editable documents (mainly DWG, Word and Excel). The main principle of the organization of the UIS is the coherence of information about the elements in the project. Those. if the same object is present in the 3D model, in the drawings and in the Excel spreadsheet (and / or Word document), then these elements should be linked by links. Naturally, for each project a system of coding elements is created, ensuring their uniqueness within the project (KKS).
So, in order to link all the elements of the project, the third (and main) component of the project UIS is needed - the project database. The easiest way (in my opinion) to do it on the basis of Microsoft SQL Server. By creating a project database, it is possible to synchronize changes in information about an object in all related documents. Due to the fact that in each project organization different approaches to design are used, and different software, there are no ready-made solutions on the market that would suit everyone equally. Therefore, the only way to create an UIS in the project organization is to make the UIS itself (with the help of in-house programmers).
Separately, I want to say about the teams of programmers in the CAD department. Such teams (usually 3-5 people) today have become an integral part of CAD departments. The variety of tasks for such teams is quite large. The most characteristic are:
1) automation of data exchange between specialized software (design, estimated and drawing programs);
2) automating the process of exchanging tasks between project departments;
3) customization of user interfaces of already installed programs;
4) development of programs for obtaining various reports.
To ensure that the development process does not go out of control and the source code is always in a healthy state, you should use different systems for joint development and version control. Having worked with systems such as Atlassian Jira + SVN and Team Foundation Server 2012, my choice is definitely for TFS, since the project management system and the version control system are perfectly interconnected, and all this is integrated into Visual Studio.
A few words about the process of implementing joint 3D design systems. The case is extremely complex and lengthy, since all the main project departments of the organization are involved. People have to learn new software products, change their habits developed over the years. In my experience, I was convinced that change is always found by the majority of employees negatively. If the organization decided to implement the implementation independently (without involvement of specialists who already have experience in this), then the probability of unsuccessful implementation, when funds were spent and time and results were not achieved, increases. Therefore, when making decisions about such global changes in the organization, the wisdom of the people will be very appropriate: “Measure seven times, cut once”.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/196328/
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