Help with AutoCAD Plant 3D model as background

[EricNyh]

I have a Plant 3D 2016 model that I would like to use as an XREF for my MEP 2016 model.  Both products are part of the Plant Design Suite so I assume they play nice together.

I've added the Plant 3D model into my 'Constructs' area, then I've xref'd this into a MEP model, but the Plant 3D model does not ups.  As part of my investigating, in the Plant 3D model, I drew a line from 0,0,0 to the work area, and that line does show up in the MEP model, but the plant objects do not.

If I open the Plant 3D model directly from the constructs area, I can see everything.

How should I set this up?  My goal is to have the piping designers use Plant 3D and the electrical designers use MEP for model/drawing sheet creation.

Please let me know if this is the wrong path.

[Keith.Brown · Accepted solution]

I just created a new AutoCAD Plant3d 2016 drawing, routed a couple of pipes, saved it and then opened up AutoCAD MEP 2016.  I then added the drawing to the constructs as level one.  I then created a new AutoCAD MEP construct at level one and dragged the plant 3d drawing into it from the constructs.  I then did a zoom extents and the plant 3d piping showed up with no issues.  I do not believe that I changed any settings from the defaults as this is the first time that I have brought a Plant 3D drawing into AutoCAD MEP.

Are your levels the same?  Do you have display by elevation turned on? (not sure if it matters with Plant however).  Could you possibly share a basic mep drawing, plant3d drawing, and mep project that has the behavior that you describe?

[ryan.bales · Accepted solution]

Hey Eric,

In the past i've found that its best to have the Plant 3D users export their models to AutoCAD and have the MEP users X-reference those files. Besides the issue you are having i've also seen Plant 3D files opened outside of Plant 3D and thus outside of the database and become corrupted. It's a good practice to only open Plant 3D models through Project Manager inside of the Plant 3D project. 

If my reply was helpful, please give a "Kudo" or click the "Accept as Solution" button below (or both).