Tube and Pipe ISOGEN via pcf

[oldgrey1]

Inventor Tube & Pipe can output ISOGEN files (*.pcf) for manipulation into piping isometrics via 3rd party software. I have done this and the pcf format is very poor on detail that it contains about each fitting. It required hours of manually re-writing the pcf file to get it to produce a result that was "good enough".

The Alias Isogen tool is rubbish - it crashes often, it does not make the changes that one has told it to etc. etc.

I eventually found Autodesk Plant 3D has an amazing piping capability (but it is 2D pretending to be 3D - so it cannot save as parametric solids) - however - it produces great piping isometrics. On studying the pcf from Inventor vs the pcf from Plant 3D for equivalent routes it is clear that Inventor is years behind in their piping functionality.

1. Does Inventor have plans to e.g. make their pcf compatible with Plant 3D so that we can process isometrics in that?

2. Does anyone know of a handy tool to manipulate pcf's to add e.g. welds, supports, notes, insulation, bolts, nipples/sockets/weldolets etc. to produce a comprehensive iso drawing?

[Raider_71]

Ditto...

[mmbguide]

help please. how make workshop drawings from ISOGEN?

[puthumazha]

Is there any way to convert Inventor .pcf file to an Isometric drawing?

[jeanchile]

I've got an interest in this thread here. Is anyone actually using the ISOGEN output from Inventor Tube and Pipe? My reseller told me it would do this but all I'm finding on this forum is everyone complaining that it's garbage and doesn't actually do it and then the thread dies.

Does anyone on this forum actually use the ISOGEN output from Tube and Pipe?

With the proper authoring of components will it show all the data necessary to create accurate drawings?

Do the welds and cut lengths actually show up in the drawings like they're supposed to?

I would like this to work and I purchased software that is supposed to do it. I'm trying to find out if I was lied to (again).

[dgorsman]

Not using it... FWIW you may not have been lied to.  Many products can produce PCF files that are valid, since not all PCF data is mandatory.  Whether a "good" isometric can be created from any given PCF is highly dependant on the program being used to generate the isometric and the settings being used.  There are some piping support personnel who do nothing BUT ISOGEN, PCF, and related configuration - it's a very deep and somewhat undocumented field of work e.g. the PCF format is closed source without any public documentation; the older PCF/ISOGEN documentation is frequently contradictory or missing critical information.

As for other programs, have a look at Spoolgen and ACORN (don't have a link handy) for isometric-only programs.  These are more shop fabrication-oriented programs but may do the job you are looking for.

[Raider_71]

Hi we have tried it a few times and its my opinion that this tool is far from perfect for generating any complex / advanced pcf or isogen files. If you look at the Tube and Pipe module in general it has some serious limitations. We have requested updates and improvements to be made to the tube and pipe module in general as many other people have over the past few years but Autodesk is not interested in developing this module. It has started as such a great tool with so much potential but has limitations and the development has just stopped which is just so sad.
We were once told by an Autodesk representative to purchase Plant 3D if we want to do any advanced piping design! Years ago we purchased Inventor to do Plant design because it was sold to us as a piping design tool. We had hoped that it would become a full fledged piping design tool but have since realised that this is not going to happen and that we would have to buy Plant 3D for piping deaigns. Inentor and Plant dont realy mix well and having to work with both in one project is realy counterproductive.
Anyway my sugestion to you is to look at using a decent piping design tool like Plant 3D. If you need to do other mechanical design as well then you are in the same boat as us, having to use two seperate products to do one job. Your designers will need to be experts on two applications with very different interfaces as well...
We still maintain that one product with many functionalities is the way to go but it does not look like we will find that in Inventor ever. Good luck!

[jeanchile]

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@Raider_71 wrote:
Hi we have tried it a few times and its my opinion that this tool is far from perfect for generating any complex / advanced pcf or isogen files. If you look at the Tube and Pipe module in general it has some serious limitations. We have requested updates and improvements to be made to the tube and pipe module in general as many other people have over the past few years but Autodesk is not interested in developing this module. It has started as such a great tool with so much potential but has limitations and the development has just stopped which is just so sad.
We were once told by an Autodesk representative to purchase Plant 3D if we want to do any advanced piping design! Years ago we purchased Inventor to do Plant design because it was sold to us as a piping design tool. We had hoped that it would become a full fledged piping design tool but have since realised that this is not going to happen and that we would have to buy Plant 3D for piping deaigns. Inentor and Plant dont realy mix well and having to work with both in one project is realy counterproductive.
Anyway my sugestion to you is to look at using a decent piping design tool like Plant 3D. If you need to do other mechanical design as well then you are in the same boat as us, having to use two seperate products to do one job. Your designers will need to be experts on two applications with very different interfaces as well...
We still maintain that one product with many functionalities is the way to go but it does not look like we will find that in Inventor ever. Good luck!

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I appreciate the reply Raider and I apologize for the delayed response. Got into something else for a bit and now I'm back here. If you would be so kind, can you please elaborate on the shortcomings of both the ".pcf"/ISOGEN output and the Tube and Pipe module?

We are certainly not going to purchase Plant 3D to do what we were told Inventor would do. The whole reason we moved to Inventor in the first place is because we wanted to reduce the amount of different software programs needed to complete our projects. We were told during our software implementation study that IV would do all of these different things. As we incorporate IV tools into our worflow we are finding that what we should have been told is that "IV will do all of those things about half way". We've also found that by spending more time researching and planning the implementation of IV tools (tube and pipe for example) the sooner we can pull the plug at an impass or develop a work-around before we've wasted too much money.

Thanks for the help!