TheSwamp
CAD Forums => Vertically Challenged => Topic started by: JNieman on November 26, 2012, 10:59:59 AM
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So it looks like in my hiatus from this company, they invested in Plant 3D for our facility design software. They have plans to get some formal training for us once we've cut our teeth a bit on it.
I'm about to start my first project with it, soon, and I'm curious if anyone has experience with it or knows where to find some decent resources out there for an "Intro to Plant 3D" type thing, other than the help file, quickstart guide, and other supplied lit that comes with it.
It seems the Autodesk blog for Plant 3D gets updated like 3 times a year or something, and is barely helpful at all, contrasting with some of the helpful stuff from the more popular software blogs.
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I'll see what I can scare up in a bit, I know some folks ...
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Until others show up <cough Brian> I was informed by a good friend that this is a useful resource:
http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=plant_home
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Until others show up <cough Brian> I was informed by a good friend that this is a useful resource:
http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=plant_home
Well, pewp, I hadn't actually managed to find that page until now. Thanks.
I've come across some youtube videos that seemed to be done by AD employees, that were good for basics, but they were limited, and I prefer text to videos. They're easier to skim and skip through than a youtube video. I read much faster than I listen.
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You're welcome Josh. My primary contact (with Autodesk) is just on his way to AU and not in a position to be able to respond to the thread at present. He's working directly with the P3D product, and had significant experience prior to landing his Autodesk gig (I used to work with him) so I've every confidence he'll be able to help you out and have some good info to share.
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We're likely going to be jumping into that pan as well in the future and training will definitely be an issue. We will likely be going through our reseller for that training. We went to a seminar hosted by a competing reseller and they had a couple Autodesk guys running the show. They were pretty good! We're anxious to get the software in here, but know there will be lots of work to prepare for that to happen.
MP, was your buddy Brian in on this project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU8WHTjWPmk) (first name in the credits, if I remember correctly)? If so, he was the guy who did most of the demonstation of the software and when he was talking about past his experience, I wondered if there was some chance that he would've at least worked in the same places you've worked at.
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Yea, I think our training would be through our reseller as well, but I have no idea if that'll be any good. When I did a Revit Architecture class a while back, they brought in a guy from another office up in Arkansas or Oklahoma or something like that - he mainly traveled for classes like this. He was pretty knowledgeable and experienced, I could tell. So it seems they're open to bringing in someone who knows it well rather than just having a warm body walk us through a generic manual without knowing much about what he's doing. Hope it goes as well as the Revit class did.
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MP, was your buddy Brian in on this project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU8WHTjWPmk) (first name in the credits, if I remember correctly)? If so, he was the guy who did most of the demonstration of the software and when he was talking about past his experience, I wondered if there was some chance that he would've at least worked in the same places you've worked at.
<didn't watch the video> Yep, Brian. I worked closely with him for about a year and a half. We also worked together (technically) at another place but had scant opportunity to actually work collectively on anything, so I guess we go back 4 years +/-.
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Well, that Brian did most of the demo for the seminar we attended and he was great.
I had him send me one of the slides from their presentation (I think it should be fine to share this one). Josh, you might find help in one or more of them.
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Beautiful. Thanks guys, that should be a good start. I got pulled back to tidy up some loose ends that the other guys couldn't tackle, before I move on to my new project, so it'll be a few days before I get into Plant 3D unfortunately.
I'm eager to move into something beyond vanilla CAD's 3d capabilities, and start working better faster stronger blah blah blah whizbang futuretalk.
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Good Luck!
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http://www.cadstudio.com/ (http://www.cadstudio.com/) has for sale a very good manual which the company I work for bought.
Not sure of the price but it's not cheap, over $100 and well worth it.
Title is "AutoCAD Plant 3D Advanced - Metric" published by CAD STUDIO ABCOM GMBH
The isostyles and catalog editor parts are well explained.
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Well Hello out there. My first post on the web page.
I am "that" Brian from Autodesk. I have been working in the Oil and Gas Industry for 15 years both as a designer and as a Admin for CADD products. I am now a SME for Plant 3D at Autodesk. Feel free to contact me directly through this web page if needed. I will do my best to reply when I can but I do travel a lot and at times it can be hard to keep up.
There are lots of resources available. This web page is one and there are many others as well. I will do what I can to help or point you in the direction you need.
Brian Lister
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Welcome to the swamp Brian. :)
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Awesome. :)
Welcome to theSwamp, Brian! I hope (and believe) you will enjoy your time here.
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MP, was your buddy Brian in on this project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU8WHTjWPmk) (first name in the credits, if I remember correctly)? If so, he was the guy who did most of the demonstation of the software and when he was talking about past his experience, I wondered if there was some chance that he would've at least worked in the same places you've worked at.
Yes this was something I worked on with a group of other admin/designer types a few years ago for Autodesk. I was the project manager and helped with some of the design. take a look if you have time, it is Piping in the dramatic but still a good vid.
Plant 3D has come a long way since then and can be fully utilized on any size project.
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Welcome to theSwamp "that" Brian. I am "that" Se7en from theSwamp. Enjoy yourself, if you have any questions at all feel free to ask.
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Well Hello out there. My first post on the web page.
I am "that" Brian from Autodesk. I have been working in the Oil and Gas Industry for 15 years both as a designer and as a Admin for CADD products. I am now a SME for Plant 3D at Autodesk. Feel free to contact me directly through this web page if needed. I will do my best to reply when I can but I do travel a lot and at times it can be hard to keep up.
There are lots of resources available. This web page is one and there are many others as well. I will do what I can to help or point you in the direction you need.
Brian Lister
Amazing! Welcome, and thank you so much for extending your correspondence to include our neck of the woods. I appreciate your involvement!
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Well, we had a demo yesterday to try to get the powers that be on board with it. I think it went well. Now, we get further into the nitty-gritty to make sure we aren't going to run into any big road blocks along the way. One, being Adept, our document management software. From what I understood in our meeting, it's doable, but with some consideration.
Has anyone heard any buzz about an instrumentation package that could maybe one day be associated with the Plant software? It seems that it would tie in well with P&ID...
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The Plant 3D package at this time doesn't have an integrated Instr package. What we recommend is a software designed by a company called Elecdes. It is fully integrated with the P&ID program and from all reports does a great job. They also provide a bolt on solution for Electrical Tray design that works together with P3D.
http://www.elecdes.com/
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Nice! Thanks for the tip. I'll look into it. :)
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One thing a couple of our guys are thinking about is a how to tie in with our many existing ISO's. Is there a recommended 2D Piping package that does automatic BOM's? The ISO's generated by the new software will be quite different from the ones we have now and there will be some resistance to that. I'd like to avoid that if possible, but I want them to be happy with the solution(s) we end up with.
Many moons ago, we used to have CADPipe in here...
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Quite limited (not sure if it does iso's or not), but there is a free 2D piping software from CADWorx. Essentially the 2D part of the old CADWorx Piping release.
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Quite limited (not sure if it does iso's or not), but there is a free 2D piping software from CADWorx. Essentially the 2D part of the old CADWorx Piping release.
Thanks!
I think we have the necessary people convinced to take the 3D route. It's (understandably) a bit scary, but it's the direction others in the field seem to be going as well.
Thanks again!
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Well it looks like I'm finally getting back to where I was /meant/ to be starting in on Plant 3D before being put on a "special" project that was recently wrapped up.
Now I'm finally going through some basic help files, examining the structure of a project, and the source of it's files. I've already got some good questions/needs/desires to see out of this, but the documentation is a bit lacking in some regards, so far. It is possible I'm just not looking in the right places.
I am still trying to wrap my head around "how it thinks" more or less, before I get to bothered about not knowing how to do something I want it to do.
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I know AutoCAD Beta just wrapped up (I'm testing several products this year), but wanted to inquire about Plant 3D's Beta... Where is it, and where do I sign up?
FWIW - I'm an ADN Standard member, and can't find anything on this. We're considering implementing it (Plant 3D) to make up for many of the shortcomings of Civil 3D, and I'd like to evaluate the 2014 product, as that is what being deployed throughout the enterprise this year (i.e., AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Map 3D 2014, etc.)
Cheers
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Plant 3D is available right now on the normal download site. Use the 30 day trial to get a feel for it. Be sure to check out the Plant Home page here http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=plant_home for some videos and other information
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Diving into piping modeling, finally, and I'm starting to hate the "Cannot connect parts" error. It seems like Plant3d doesn't care to give you any hints about /what/ could be wrong, or allude to what caused the error - just a simple "NOPE." "CAN'T DO THAT." and a cold shoulder.
Currently trying to trouble shoot creating custom parts as the catalog has no expansion joints that I saw. They basically look like "Inline Valve, Sphere" but it's not a valve, so I didn't want to use an aesthetically similar but functionally different element. ///ETA - ok, well, solved that problem. :) /ETA///
Very frustrating at times, but overall it's been good. I had high hopes for the structural modeling aspect of it, but it's unrefined to the point of being unusable. Online statements seem to indicate that the structural modeling is not actually a core feature of Plant 3D but rather there for simple augmentation, rather than for structural modeling, detailing, etc. That's very disappointing if you ask me, as it was a selling point to some of the decision makers, from the reseller and much of the Autodesk media. I don't know how you can call a software package a "Plant design" application if you can't even do walkways, stairs, or crossovers accurately. I'm relegated to doing them the old fashioned 3d way in regular Autocad, and xref'ing them into Plant3D - or if I have a 2d-only drafter do the structurals, I'll use Plant3d to whip up quick mass-elements to get a good layout indication, until the other drafter can finish his drawings and I can model something from his plans (not ideal, but necessary sometimes)
Piping and equipment has been reasonably impressive so far, however, though the learning curve is a challenge for custom parts.
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I don't have anything to ante up myself Josh -- I'm not a Plant3D user/apologist (yet).
You may find info / the community here ...
http://www.davetyner.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?96-Autodesk-Plant-Design-Suite (http://www.davetyner.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?96-Autodesk-Plant-Design-Suite)
... helpful. I don't frequent said forums, I just know if them. FWIW, good luck; cheers.
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So it would seem that you are trying to place items that are not in your spec. That is the simple answer. The items 'might' be in the catalog but are still not in the spec, simply add them from the filters and they should then place in the drawing with no issues.
As for the Structural package that is included with the piping. The intent was never to have it used as a primary design tool for structural items. It is simply a "Temp" steel tool, which can be be adjusted to be sized accordingly. Doing walk ways and stairs along with rails is completely possible with the Struct package, but again it was never intended for use in Design, but rather an outline for the Struct designers. Once the Prelim design is done in the PIPING module you can export that steel out to an SDNF file (neutral format) then import it into a design software for further design or fabrication
Not sure I have answered your questions, but sure hope that you can get some help and sort it all out. P3D is doing very well in the market and we are always wanting to be sure people are satisfied.
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I have nothing to add to this current conversation, but just thought I'd say that I'm expecting our software to arrive in the mail today or tomorrow! I'm sure the flood gates will soon open and there will be questions-a-plenty coming through here. :)
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Not sure I have answered your questions, but sure hope that you can get some help and sort it all out. P3D is doing very well in the market and we are always wanting to be sure people are satisfied.
Absolutely - I appreciate the pointers. I totally understand the purpose of the included structural features - I was misinformed previously or misinterpreted, but I've since seen it quite openly stated exactly how you put it. I'm still in the newb phase so to speak where I'm still getting my bearings and learning how to even ask an intelligent question. I'm not sure when the boss has planned it, but eventually we'll be getting some professional training - we're just giving it a try and getting our bearings to try and get a jump start. It's been great so far.
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...It's been great so far.
This is what I like to see! :)
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We just finished two weeks of training. Now, to implement it all and get rolling. Really looking forward to it.
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Favor time: Can anyone post a zip with a couple Plant 3D files / models ... P&ID, Piping, Structural -- whatever you have and can share.
Abundant thanks!
Michael.
:-)