ABS for PLANT PIPING

[nisard]

hi friends
i work in a oil company , we do drawings of plant piping -plans,cross sections & isometrics views for Gathering Centers , booster stations , manifolds ,etc. all our work is connected with piping ,pipe size used in plant are from 3/4" to 60".we have different type of valves e.g. ball,gate,globe,plug,check valves etc.we have different type of pipe supports e.g. anchor,sliding,spring supports etc. material used is carbon steel , rtrp etc .we have different type of equipment like tanks ,separators, heat exchangers , compressors etc . we also make P&I.D.(piping & instrumentation diagram ) drawings for above mentioned facilities . Till now we are using vanilla AutoCAD to make this drawings , my question was that will it be advisable to move to ABS-2007. whatever little knowledge i have i think ABS-2007 is mostly suited for making civil , electrical & plumbing drawings for making Building your expert opinion on this subject will be highly appreciated.or shall we look for other software's like PDMS by aviva , PDS by intergraph & Cadworx by coade.....please help to solve this dilemma

thanks

[Anonymous]

Look at the Autoplant product by bentley. It will run on top of autocad or microstation.and is a strong product for the category of work that you do. You are correct ABS has very little content for your specialty

[pdx271]

Your original post largely answered itself.
I would add that Autodesk is all over this subject. ABS is a good solution. Coade is an even better solution. However, I would wait for Autodesk Plant with P&ID.
Autodesk may not have a perfect solution this very moment, but with all that I have read lately, with acquisitions and internal development regarding plant design, they will be the premier choice soon.

I have used the Bentley Plant piping tools and can I tell you that they missed the boat.
Bentley tools do work, but wouldn't you like your job to be easy? Wouldn't you like your modeling software to respond to you standard AutoCAD commands? I could go on and on.

[Anonymous]

I agree with this assessment. I have been using Bentley AutoPlant for years. Although it is more suited for process piping than ABS it has many bugs and is barely a production tool in my opinion.

I am also waiting for ABS to add the large size Pipes and Fittings that I need to design Waste Water Treatment plants.

Once they expand the catalog I really think that ABS (or AutoCAD Process Desktop maybe a separate product) will be the solution of choice.

We will also have to wait and see if AutoCAD MEP 2008 (formerly Building systems) has more large size pipe and fittings.

[Hugh_Compton]

Does anybody know much about the new pipe fittings wizard in autoCAD MEP 08?
---------------------------------------
CAD Pipe Fittings - http://www.herculedesign.com/

[pdx271]

Nice web site....

Although parametric, database driven modeling is where things are headed, and many firms are already there.

There is still a place for non-intelligent 3D blocks and modeling, but that is fading fast.