Plant 3D Snapping

[Anonymous]

I've got a issue that I can't seem to find already discussed. How come when I create something into a Plant 3D part, I have no ability to snap to a very relevant point? i.e. my custom supports shown below. In my case, the bottom of the support is the most significant part I need to locate from - yet I can not snap to it. How do I fix this? The only thing I am allowed to snap to is the insertion point of the support. 

Same goes for Valves. Maybe I need to snap to the hand-wheel to take a dimension, to see how close the hand-wheel is to something. Why can't I do this? I assume I am missing something simple. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I've been doing this for seven years and never found an answer. 

Thanks,

Rob Bauman.

[mmcmorris]

Since it's a custom block it has no real intelligence snap wise than the ports you give it during a plantpartconvert or the insertion point. You have to rely on snaps based off of the geometry which are limited. No way of fixing this I'm aware of.

[h_eger]

Dear @Anonymous,

the Snaping point are hard coded DISABLED which can not be fixed.
Is programmed by Autodesk.

[Slawomir_ · Accepted solution]

Workaround:

1. EXPLODE suport.
2. measure distance zou need DIST
3. UNDO explode.

They are hard-coded disabled. It's sad. Here is discussion covering same topic.

If you want osnaps to be avtivated for supports and other inline assets please vote for below ideas:

Plant 3D Pipe Inline Asset osnap system variable

Plant 3D Pipe Support osnap system variable

[Anonymous]

Thank you Hartmut. May not be the answer I was looking for, but at least it tells me why I haven't found an answer in all my years of doing this. I would consider it a fair trade for the 'accept solution' button for your opinion of whether or not this can be resolved if AutoDESK created a command that allows this to be turned off or on. I think I'll send them a request. 

[mmcmorris]

I think the only way to fix it would be if they added the ability to actually place custom snaps during plant part convert. Itherwise they would have to somehow analyze the geometry which would be very difficult from a programming perspective.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how it could be difficult if the geometry was there in the first place. I had a block that had all those snaps available, converted it, and all the snaps were gone. I would think that taking away those snaps would be harder than keeping them there. I hate to say it, because I am a Plant3D guy all the way, but CadWORX doesn't lose the snaps when you convert into a CadWORX item.  

I have the structural guys who need to get a dimension from the bottom of my support. I already figured out I can explode them and get the snaps back, but I can't be exploding/unexploding every time someone has a question. And support guys shouldn't have to come over asking me to do it. This is time consuming. And for what reason? No good comes from the snaps disappearing. At the very least a command to turn the geometry snaps on/off would be helpful. I am going to be submitting this discussion for an idea.

Sorry if it sounds like I am disagreeing with you, I know you're only trying to help. I am just emphasizing the issue, and my reason as to why this needs to be addressed. Like I said, to submit for an idea. Long time Plant3D user, first time complainer haha. 

[dgorsman]

The thing is, you aren't dealing with a block any more.  Once converted it's now a Plant3D object, and how the object is defined will determine which snaps are available.  I suspect that they were deliberately turned off for specific reasons to do with other parts of the program.  If that is indeed the case then adding more snap points would need to be done during the conversion process.

[Slawomir_]

---

@rbauman78K2R wrote:

I don't understand how it could be difficult if the geometry was there in the first place. I had a block that had all those snaps available, converted it, and all the snaps were gone. I would think that taking away those snaps would be harder than keeping them there. I hate to say it, because I am a Plant3D guy all the way, but CadWORX doesn't lose the snaps when you convert into a CadWORX item.

---

Agree.

[Anonymous]

The thing is, I'm not having a hard time understanding that it's no longer a block and now becomes a Plant3D part - I'm having a hard time understanding why it would be more helpful to turn off snaps that are relevant to the object, than it would to just leave them alone. Within first week of the project, this choice to deliberately turn off the snaps is causing a difficult time for two people from two different departments. And countless times before that.

I think this is a question that deserves more than a work-around or 'such is life' answer. Not asking for an immediate fix, just something to consider, as it's constantly causing an issue. Even if I have the answer is why they have these specific reasons to turn them off, I would be happy. That way next time my boss asks me whether we should use CadWORX or Plant3D, we can weigh our options. 

That being said, before I send a request to Autodesk, does anyone else have a real reason why I shouldn't be granted this wish? 

[Anonymous]

Slawomir I voted your ideas. Sorry I did not see your discussion before I opened this one. Our terminology was different. And I missed your bottom links because I assumed they were automatic. Voted both 👍

[colin.holloway]

I totally get your frustrations with the lack of snaps on supports created with PlantPipeSupportConvert.

The solution I came up with was to create construction lines (for hole centers) when I generate the AutoCAD geometry and the NOT include these lines in the conversion to a support.  This works well providing you don't need to "flip" the support using the direction arrow.

This solution allows us to XRef the drawing with the pipe and support into the Advance Steel and be able to locate the hole centers.

Being able to use Center Object Snaps on the modeled holes would be awesome.  You have my vote!

[Anonymous]

That's a good work-around Colin. But it appears it would make all our lives easier if we didn't have to come up with our own solutions. This needs to be addressed still. 

Thanks for the idea. I will give that a shot next project.

[mgalicki]

What I do is get a distance from the snap point, (center of support) to the steel it's setting on. Then you know how far it is from the c.o.p. to the bottom of the support.

[arichardUZ3BV]

who ever made this decision clearly does not do a lot of design work in the real world. snaps are needed to check dimensions on various pieces of equipment and other items being modeled. Leave the snap option on. 

[quan_hm]

While you guys are waiting for official support from Autodesk, here is the app that let you snap on supports

https://apps.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/en/Detail/Index?id=8156861903810086405&appLang=en&os=Win64

[jw7018]

Exploding/undo is a good workaround but this can be done in python.

A while back we had added either nodes, grips, or an insertion point to add the grip in the model. It has been a while and have forgotten the addition, but it was similar to adding multiple pipe on  one support like a hanger and you could add the grip where desired in the line of python code. Maybe someone here can elaborate further. 

[MMeeganZ8B77]

I found this thread because I am suffering the same issue.  My first experience of this issue is when I created a pump as custom equipment and I kind of found a work around,  Keep in mind that I developed this work around while creating custom equipment from an existing 3D model.  I'm not very experienced with P3D so I can't speak to how this would work with the supports or components in a catalog or spec which I think most people call those things parts. 

Anyhow....I have my 3D solid body model of the pump.  I turned the 3d solid body model pump into a block.  Which you need to do anyhow to create a custom equipment.  Once I had the pump block I draw various objects on top of the block (lines, polylines, points and circles) as reference geometry.  I draw this reference geometry to represent the various points of references I will need for the pump such as the center of a nozzle, face of nozzle, bottom center of base, center of pump housing, back center of motor, all (4) corners of base plate, etc.  I then select all this reference geometry I create and turn it into a block and this block is sitting perfectly over top of the equipment model.  I then add my nozzles and I use this reference geometry block to specify center of nozzle and nozzle direction.  Now as you may know after you add a nozzle and now you have an equipment with a nozzle or nozzles, you can snap to that nozzle center while using commands line move, copy and measure.  So what I do is add nozzles to various points on my reference geometry.  They're bogus nozzles and not nozzles at all really, but it gives me a snap point when I need to measure to the back of the motor, or to the bottom center of the base plate and other things.  For good measure I keep this reference geometry block with the equipment by using the PLANTEQUIPMENTATTACH command to attach the reference geometry block to the equipment.  Now once you attached reference geometry block to the equipment the objects in the block cannot be snapped to because it's equipment, but you do have your fake nozzles set up to be used as snap points and the reference geometry block you create is attached to the equipment.  If you every wanted to add another nozzle to be used as a snap point you could use the PLANTEQUIPMENTDETACH command where you would detach the reference geometry block from the equipment (temporarily), use it to add nozzles and also if you needed to edit your reference geometry block to add more points of reference you could do that and then when you got it all set up like you want go ahead and attach your reference geometry block back to your equipment by using the PLANTEQUIPMENTATTACH command again.

Here's a screen shot of the pump.  I have a nozzle set up for my suction and discharge ports, but I also set up a nozzle N-3 as a snap point for the bottom center of (1) side of the pump base plate.

I guess the down side is a bunch of nozzles on the equipment that aren't really needed as nozzles.  I'm new to P3D so I don't know how this would effect P3D functionallity relative to catalogues, specs, orthographics, isometrics and P&ID.

Thanks - Mike