Managing valve, pump, equipment datasheets

[johan.degreef]

I was wondering if there is a workflow for this.

We use Autocad Plant 3D to draw P&ID's for our waste water plants. We do not use Plant 3d to create the 3D model (only P&Id). I know there is a database behind Plant 3D were all symbols and used equipment is stored with their properties.

We now want to collaborate/manage that list of valves, pumps, tanks, filters and other equipment (+100 items) with non Autocad Plant 3d users, they should fill in the metadata - capacity, volumes, flows, etc . I know we can do that with Auxalia's Plantdatamanager and we are looking already into that software.

but...

Until now we were not able to link PDF and office documents to let's say a specific brand/type of valve or a pump (spec sheet , manuals, etc). A pump we regularly use will always have the same sheets linked to it, so we don't want to searc and collect that again each time we need that pump in a project, so maybe we can store that PDF and word document in a way we never have to search for it again, linked in some way the that specific pump in our P&ID

Glad to hear your ideas about this.

BR, Johan

[h_eger]

Dear @johan.degreef ,

For this you can use the Engineering Database (EDB) from Axavia to solve this task.

[johan.degreef]

@h_eger Do you use this software or did use it?

[h_eger]

I use both software packages the whole package from Auxalia, as well as the EDB from Axavia.

[johan.degreef]

@h_eger 

I find very little demo videos on ECB.

So EDB synchs in both directions, right? Can non Plant 3D users modify data like TAG, volumes, flows, pressure etc and synch back to Plant 3D with EDB? That would make Plantdatamanager obsolete, no?

[h_eger · Accepted solution]

Dear @johan.degreef ,

So EDB synchronizes in both directions --> Yes
Can non Plant 3D users modify data like TAG, volumes, flows, pressure etc and synch back to Plant 3D with EDB --> Yes
That would make Plantdatamanager obsolete --> Yes

[johan.degreef]

@h_eger 

and also,

In EDB, you can link (or better attach?) a PDF and other office documents to a valve or pump?

If the same pump is reused in another project, do you need to relink the same PDF and other documents, or is there some kind of library that can link the correct documents to a specific brand/type of pump?

[George.Endrulat]

At one place I worked we had set up the same thing, we wrote custom software to modify the plant 3d sql database directly through excel, engineers were able to hit save/retrieve in excel and it would fetch/refresh the data in the datasheet or save out their changes.  It worked but it wasn't worth the time/effort to set it up and maintain it.  The datasheets themselves had to be strictly formatted, which ended up being a good thing, but any little formatting/cell/merge change would break stuff.   

[johan.degreef]

@George.Endrulat 

Writing code ourselves is not an option.

I wonder why Autodesk don't come up with a solution on top of plant 3D? I guess many people would need this to have pumps and valves documented downstream. Or is Plant 3D a product that is not developed very much further?

[johan.degreef]

@h_eger The EDB software, does it create the extra database in the Project folder of the Plant 3D project, so it all stays in 1 folder?

[h_eger]

Axavia EDB works with SQL Server and creates its own database that communicates with Plant 3D databases.

[johan.degreef]

So our Plant 3D projects should also be set up on an SQL server, or will local database for Plant3D do the job to?

[h_eger]

I have always worked with SQL Server at EDB.
Ask Axavia if it also works with SQLite.

[George.Endrulat]

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@johan.degreef wrote:

@George.Endrulat 

Writing code ourselves is not an option.

I wonder why Autodesk don't come up with a solution on top of plant 3D? I guess many people would need this to have pumps and valves documented downstream. Or is Plant 3D a product that is not developed very much further?

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I would argue that plant 3d was and is not developed very much and will continue to not be, there is a slew of issues and bugs that we've had since at least 2011 and I don't expect them to be fixed.  It appears that plant 3d is a very low priority for autodesk, it must not create enough of wealth, profit or otherwise.  But I will say that it's popularity, being the cheapest piping software, is steadily growing year to year.  Just don't expect your issues to be addressed outside of this forum unless your issues aligns with an opportunity for autodesk to make money and that it extends to base autocad.  If it's plant 3d specific forget about it.  I did the math on the idea station and something like less than 1% of the ideas make it past the first hurdle, so I can assume that no one looks at those.