AutoCAD Plant 3D

[#1]

We defined 1 drawing to build custom geometry parts for both Custom Parts in Plant 3D and for Custom Geometry for the Spec Editor to add these items to the spec. We defined this by:

     "Project”\AutoCAD Plant 3D 2012 Content\CPak ASME\Project Valves Catalog\DWG\CustomPartsModel.dwg

      1.  There is a catalog called Project Valves Catalog under the CPak ASME folder.

      2.  In the Project Valves Catalog there also exists a 200 folder along with the DWG folder.

 This works well as we are using this CustomPartsModel.dwg to add custom valves to the Project Valves Catalog.

 Now we have created a second custom parts drawing as follows:

 “Project”\AutoCAD Plant 3D 2012 Content\CPak ASME\Project Pipes and Fittings Catalog\DWG\CustomPartsPiping.dwg

     1.  There is a catalog called Project Pipes and Fittings Catalog under the CPak ASME folder.

     2.  In the Project Pipes and Fittings Catalog we manually created the 200 folder and the DWG folder.

 We wanted to use this second CustomPartsPiping.dwg to create custom piping components to add to the Project Piping and Fittings Catalog, however, it’s not working. When we create custom geometry in this second file, it creates the png’s for the new parts under the DWG directory, but does not create the “longhexnumber”.dwg file with the blocks defined in it, nor wdo we get a pic when we create it in the catalog, nor will it place in the model as we get the error "Can't find symbol for specified part."

 1.  What are we doing wrong?

 2.  Can you have more than one custom parts drawings where one custom parts drawing adds custom parts to one catalog, a second custom parts drawing adds parts to a second catalog, a third custom parts drawing adds parts to a third catalog…

[#2]

Revise that in the same folder where you have the catalog there are another folder with the same name, like catalog. Revise the name of catalog and the folder, may be there are any space o anything wich is diferent.

[#3]

G'day

Has your ASME catalogue been migrated?

If so, which P3D version was it originally created in, 2011 or 2010?

Bruce

[#4]

Having multiple drawings shouldn't be an issue. I've tested before and it worked fine. From your description, it sounds like you have the paths setup correctly.

Once you've added custom block based components to the catalog, Plant 3D just searches through the catalog folders to find the DWG that was generated containing the block (the 'longhexnumber.dwg')

Thank you,

[#5]

Answer 1: the steps seem ok. But user can try in the way below to see if the creation is working or not.
a. New a catalog and make sure there is a folder with the same name in the same folder
b. New a drawing in any folder, don’t move it after it’s created
c. Create blocks in the drawing just created, then use command PlantPartConvert to add ports for the blocks
d. Open the new created catalog via Spec Editor then go to Catalog Ediotr tab to create block based component
e. Select blocks from the drawing created above and input necessary info for the component then save to catalog

Note: the DWG and 200 folder will be created automaticly in the catalog folder, don’t have to manually created.
 
Answer 2: Yes, this is supported.

-David

[#6]

How and where do you define the parameters and 3d geometry for the custom parts?

[#7]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Jason Drew and I have identified this as an AD issue. Once a project, specs, and catalogs have been migrated from 2011 to 2012, then catalogs created in 2012 will have some of their custom parts placed in the correct folder while other info is placed in the migrated folders (the incorrect place). Again, this is an AD issue that affects custom part creation after migrating from 2011 to 2012.

Mr. Apes

[#8]

I found out today there is a quick solution to this issue. If you move the Migrated Content 2_0 folder out of the Plant 3D Content directory to another location, the Spec Editor will default back to the correct path when creating custom block based components.

Thank you,