AutoCAD Plant 3D

AutoCAD Plant 3D has unique 3D solutions to help create process pipelines. The interface is logical and clear by which the start with the software is simpler, and the time of issuing the first project is shorter. The space is created so that the user has the most important functions and commands “at hand”, others can be freely configured.

AutoCAD Plant 3D has built-in specifications and catalogs for pipes, elbows, valves, and other components needed to design an industrial plant. Creating new components and editing existing ones is very easy, making component catalogs virtually unlimited. The program has internally built-in DIN, AME, ASME, and AWWA type standards. Thanks to the great popularity of the program and the activity of its users, new standards DIN EN, Georg Fischer, GOST, and many others have also been created, available at https://apps.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/pl/Home/Index

AutoCAD Plant 3D is first and foremost a program for creating pipelines armed with many options for creating or changing their route, including dips, offsets from walls, creating pipelines from a straight AutoCAD line, and much more.

The entire modeling process is very intuitive, and the most difficult part is the proper preparation of technical specifications of the inserted elements.

In addition to modeling pipelines in AutoCAD Plant 3D, we also can create apparatus and instrumentation. There is a one-way connection with Autodesk Inventor in the form of importing apparatuses created there into the AutoCAD Plant 3D space. Modeled steel structures can be quickly and easily exported and imported from specialized programs such as Autodesk Revit Structure Autodesk Advance Steel or Autodesk Robot.

AutoCAD Plant 3D gives us the ability to create ISOmetric documentation. It is a fully automated system for creating drawings. We set the entire configuration in the wizard and the IsoConfig.xml file gives us virtually unlimited possibilities to customize the documentation to our own needs or the investor’s guidelines. It is possible to prepare such documentation in different languages, including Polish.

The process of creating Isometrics is fully automated, the whole difficulty lies in the proper preparation of the drawing format and the elements to be included in it.

Ortho documentation, that is, projections from different planes of our model also from a user-specified angle. The documentation is linked to the actual model and any change affects the update of the previously created view. Placing dimensions is not a problem, and characteristic descriptions are generated from the project database which eliminates design errors. We also can create a BOM (material) table where a special generator will find the element placed there and mark it on the drawing.

AutoCAD Plant 3D has a built-in P&ID module, and such previously created technological diagrams can very easily be used to create a 3D model of the plant. In a special window, we have all the information added by the technologist, such as connection points, descriptions, specifications, and numbers of pipelines and fittings on them. Such a solution means that the resulting 3D model has all the data read from AutoCAD P&ID.

AutoCAD creates files in the .pcf extension when creating isometric documentation. These files allow data exchange between modeling and calculation programs. AutoCAD Plant 3D cooperates with such programs as AutoPIPE, CEZAR, and many others. The cooperation consists not only in exchanging the model but also in exchanging all the properties of a given pipe, such as its mass or geometry.

Autodesk Navisworks is a program that opens design files in almost any extension available on the market. Files from AutoCAD Plant 3D, when loaded into the Navisworks environment, additionally have all the information applied earlier in the model. Piping specification, valve or tank number – all this can be transferred. In addition, after loading the model into Autodesk Navisworks, the user can check for inter-object collisions, and a fourth dimension – time – can also be added to the 3D model and a simulation of the construction process can be created. A wide base of rendering materials also allows to create of photorealistic models of installations.