AutoCAD P&ID and Plant 3D also handles cases where properties or classes do not exist in a current project setup.

In this scenario, PID001 is from a project that has additional properties and some extra ball valve classes. When using Copy drawing to project to bring PID001 into a new project, this dialog is displayed warning us about missing classes and properties.

After that dialog displays, error dialogs for classes that do not exist display.

At the end, you can click to see a log of conflicts.

Missing Properties

As is clear from the list, properties are not listed. So, any properties that are in the drawing, are ignored if they don’t match the project.

Symbol and Class Display

Mileage will vary as far as symbols that are not in the project. The symbol won’t be included in the project as intelligent items.

When trying to use the Publish feature in AutoCAD P&ID, the line gaps in the model would fail to appear in the PDF created.

In the Publish dialog, if you uncheck “Publish in the background” you will get the correct results

Because most of the new features for AutoCAD Plant 3D 2016 were released as Extension 1 for 2015, the platform build (2016 proper) had a strong emphasis on updates existing features and fixes.  To that end, we have gone through the product and picked some of our favorites.

1. Tolerance – In 2016, the program recognizes offset tolerances. So, no longer to connections have to be made to the nth degree, but we can specify a 1/32″ tolerance (or whatever precision you choose).  We did find out that you don’t want to make the tolerance too large (20″ is bad) or the isos will break.  http://www.pdoteam.com/2015/04/using-tolerances-in-plant-3d-2016/

2. Spec Administration – A personal favorite of mine is that you can now edit specs while they are being used in a project. In 2016, only the spec editor program opens the specs for read/write. This means that you no longer have to work on the specs in one location and then copy them to another! Yay!

3. Iso Start Points – Even though it’s a new feature, I have to mention it.  With the iso start point, 2016 completes the features necessary for iso repeatability. Not only can you assign a start point from the beginning, but after creating an iso, you can bring the start and break points back into your model based on the style used.

4. 3D Line Groups in the Data Manager – In previous versions you couldn’t create custom views for line groups in the data manager, they wouldn’t display information. While you could use the area view, the line groups were still split by area which made it difficult to identify them.  In 2016, custom views with line groups are fully functional.

5.  Changes made to the Line Summary report are saved. This is one that affects less people, but is still a welcome fix.  In previous versions there wasn’t a way to customize the line summary list. In 2016, you can save changes made to the report.

Last of all, are a bunch of little fixes that really help the user experience like olets behaving better for moving or copying, refreshing data for new acquisition properties, fusion weld display on isometrics, MV Blocks appearance on orthos, the ability to remove default iso styles, and better performance for the Dynamic Pipe Spec palettes.

Make sure to check out the help file for a list of the other new features, like Vault updates. http://help.autodesk.com/view/PLNT3D/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-04019227-5319-4484-BD20-8614A778CAA8 If you were using Vault, you will see a ton of improvements on that end.

All in all, I’m excited to see the updates for 2016, as it looks like they have addressed a lot of user issues that have been brought over the last couple releases.  From my experience, I’ve heard AutoCAD users in general say, “Why can’t they just fix the problems” and it looks to me like the Plant team made that a big priority.  I’m sure we’ll run across other fixes and if we think they’ll affect a lot of people, we’ll definitely post an article about it.

If they follow the recent development cycles, the Plant team is preparing an extension or two for 2016 as well, so it should be exciting to see what’s in store for that. In 2014, we got orthographic BOM’s, COG reports, and weights. In 2015 we got a bunch of iso UI enhancements, so stay to for the latest when/if the extension drops for 2016.

If you are new to the Autodesk world, or haven’t seen the changes to subscription center, you will need to know how to locate extensions, service packs, and hot fixes.  In all honesty, within the last year Autodesk has spent a lot of resource updating how these items are distributed, so this is a good post for general knowledge any ways.

Extensions

For Plant, the extensions include relevant bug fixes so as long as you are on subscription, you should look for these first. To do so, log into your Autodesk account and go here:

https://manage.autodesk.com/cep/#products-services/all

A link to product enhancements is available. Again, these are only available to customers current on subscription, which is the reason for the login.

I use the search function (Ctrl+F) in Chrome to locate the product and version I’m looking for:

Service Packs and Hot Fixes

Service packs and hot fixes are available to any user with the product, so these are listed publicly. Recently, Autodesk has improved locating downloads for your product.

Go to: http://knowledge.autodesk.com/

Click Download finder:

Choose Service Packs and Fixes

Pick your product and version

View the list of Downloads

Remember to read the readme files associated with each download as they will indicate the order of installation and installation steps. These notes are CRITICAL!

One issue new users see in AutoCAD P&ID, is the boxes around instruments and other items.  These boxes provide masking for text within the instrument bubbles, but are displayed by default when plotting.

AutoCAD P&ID uses an AutoCAD feature called wipeouts (command WIPEOUT) to hide the edges of bubbles. Each wipeout has a frame that show the boundary. This frame is what shows up in the drawing.

To hide the frame we have a couple options.

1. We can turn the wipeout frames off by using WIPEOUT, F (for frames), and OFF.

2. In 2013, AutoCAD introduced a new option, Display but not plot. You may select that, or use the new system variable, WIPEOUTFRAME =2 to not plot the frames.

I’ve said it couldn’t be done. But in another episode of kicking myself, I was reminded by ADM, and John Bennett, about the rollover tool tip customization in the CUI. So, steps to show tool tips are as follows:

1. Start the CUI command

2. Locate the rollover tooltips section on the left under main cui.

3. Navigate to each class and check the properties that you want to have appearing in your tool tips, and click OK.

4. Hover over objects to your hearts content.

Administration

For those who care, you may reference rollover tool tips in multiple cui files. However, if two cuis use the same class, the cui loaded last will take priority. For example, if you have an enterprise cui, you could not add rollover tooltips b/c the main cui would always take precedence. However, if you loaded a plugin cui into the main cui, the plugin cui would take precedence as the main is loaded first.

A user asked a question on the forums the other day about linking line groups.  Just a quick reminder, watch the command line! It’s one of the developers go to methods for letting us know other options for the command we are using.

Here’s a video showing how to use line groups with headers. As a side note, wow I hammer that esc key.

I was asked a couple days what someone should read to get up to speed with some of the more advanced topics for configuring Plant 3D.

Resources

Watch the Getting Started videos here:

http://docs.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/2015/ENU/plant/pip//ap3d_movielist.htm

Read through the workflows here:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/PLNT3D/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-DF3EDA04-9C16-4FE9-8346-75C5311A7D22

The most comprehensive reference manuals are here:

http://docs.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/2015/ENU/pdf/Tailoring_AutoCAD_PnID_and_Plant_3D.pdf

http://docs.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/2014/ENU/De-mystifying%20AutoCAD%20Plant%203D%20Isometrics.pdf

A key for getting your line numbers out correctly on isometrics. Note that it shows how to get it annotated along side the pipe, and into the title block (2 different steps).

http://www.pdoteam.com/2013/07/complex-line-numbers-in-isometrics/

Tips

And here’s our top tips for getting started (in no particular order).

1. Make sure you understand tagging.  This is probably the #1 thing we see wrong.  Read through the resource materials, and make sure that your tag works as expected all the way from P&IDs to isometrics.  Getting this wrong can mean double-data entry on your entire project.
2. Use out of the box classes for P&ID as much as possible. Creating new classes means you have to map the class properties on the 3d side as well, which adds another level of complication.
3. Don’t modify the stock catalogs. Copy one (like the ASME Valves) and then delete all the items. Copy components that you have to modify to the blank catalog and use that as a company catalog.
4. Fill out line group properties in the data manager for P&IDs and the 3d model.  Designer needs to adjust their workflows to doing this.
5. As much as possible, if you are going to make a new catalog part (3d), find the closest thing in the existing catalog and either copy that, or fill out your new part with similar property values.
6. Add tolerance to your connection configuration: http://www.pdoteam.com/2015/04/using-tolerances-in-plant-3d-2016/
7. Turn off PLANTDYNAMICTOOLPALETTE.  Train users to insert items from the spec viewer; they can pick the item with the reduction size that they want. The dynamic palette also generates a lot of resource files every time the spec changes or a project is opened.

In 2016, we have the ability to debug scripts in the report creator. Recently I was able to use that to develop a report that shows a true piping line list. It does function a little different from the stock line list and the stock line summary list in that it requires grouping line segments and line groups. In this post I’ll show how to use the report to create your piping line list. In a future post, I’ll show how to modify an existing line list report to use the features provided in our template.

Here are the key concepts that are used to create the report template.

• Use calculated properties to group line segments with their line group
• Use of a custom parameter to create a calculated line number tag
• Use a custom property (IsMainLineSegment) to allow users to identify the main line segment.
• Use custom properties (EquipmentFrom, EquipmentTo, EquipmentFromManual, EquipmentToManual) to allow the user to manually override Equipment From and Equipment To values.
• Use a custom parameter (LineNumber_CombineRelatedDrawings) to indicate whether all the related drawings should be shown, or just one.

Grouping Line Properties

In order to get the proper data from related line segments, both the line groups and line segments classes have to be used as a data source for the report. The downside of this is that in order to display properties, both the line segments and the line group must contain the same value for that property. To make this work, you will have to create additional acquisition properties on the line segments class.

For example, in order to get the service into the report, you have to create the Service property on the line segment (the name doesn’t matter).

If creating the Acquisition property in an existing project, you have to use the command, PLANTREFRESHACQPROPERTY (new in 2016), which will update the property value.

Once the new property is in place, you have to add a calculated field.

For the expression use a statement like this: Iif(IsNullOrEmpty([PipeLineGroup_Service]),[Pipe Line Segments_Service] , [PipeLineGroup_Service])

Basically, this expression checks to see if the Pipe Line Group service property is blank, and if it is, it uses the pipe line segments service property). This expression allows us to create a critical shared property between the line groups and line segments that matches.

A similar procedure would be used for any property you want to display. First create the property in the line group if it’s not present, second create an acquisition property in the line segments class, and then third, create the calculated field in the report template.

Custom Line Number Tags

The report template has a custom parameter, LineNumberFormat, to allow you to define a line number format based on line group and line segment properties. Because the line group and line segments have to share the value, the line tag format has to be calculated.

The report will pick a size/spec from the line segments and use that in combination with the line group properties to create a line tag format. If you prefer to specify the size/spec for a line, use the IsMainLineSegment property from the next section.

To customize the line tag format, you can modify the lookup settings for the LineNumberFormat.

The list shows the properties to be used in the line tag format as well as the separators.

Using the custom line number tag makes a report that looks like this:

Setting Main Line Segments

Another hurdle this report template gets around is figuring out the nominal size/spec. Instead of having to fill out those properties on the line segment, the report looks for one of the line segments to have the IsMainLineSegment property checked. If no line segment has the value checked, then the first segment is returned. Typically the first segment would be the first one drawn. This makes it easier to have one size reported consistently in your line list.

Implementation:  To allow using this feature on an existing project, add a new boolean property to the Pipe Line Segments called IsMainLineSegment.

Automating Equipment From and Equipment To

The “equipment from” and “equipment to” properties will be filled out automatically, which will work for most scenarios. However, occasionally you may want to manually modify the value. For example, it would be clearer to say “TO TANK FARM” than to TK-001, TK-003, and TK-004. The report allows this by utilizing check boxes. If the box is checked the report will use the manual property for the corresponding equipment property.

Implement:  To allow using this feature on an existing project, add a string property EquipmentFrom, a boolean property EquipmentFromManual, a string property EquipmentTo, and a boolean property EquipmentToManual.  I recommend using the order given so that the user can check the manual box beside the corresponding property.

Viewing Related Drawings

Because line groups sit outside of the class structure for Engineering Items, they have no drawing association. In addition, they can be associated with line segments on several drawings. Our report template will automatically make a list of the drawings that the line group appears on. Due to software limitations, we can’t at this time only return the first and the last drawing which would be preferred. Here is what the default value in our template returns.

Some clients prefer to see just one drawing. For those, there is a parameter LineNumber_CombineRelatedDrawings that can be toggled.

Here’s the output with LineNumber_CombineRelatedDrawings set to No.

A quick side note, every time the report creator launches the report, you may get an error that says the report creator has stopped working.  Hit close program and then the report will run as normal.  This only occurs once every time the report creator exe is launched. We will keep digging to try to find the source of the error.

Periodically we get a question about not being able to assign tag information to instruments. It turns out there is some sort of bug that is setting the instrument tag properties read-only.

To fix it, go to project setup.

Navigate to P&ID DWG Settings > P&ID Class Definitions > Engineering Items > Instrumentation. Make sure the Area, Type, and Loop Number properties are not set to read-only. In the picture below Loop Number is located out of the screenshot.

Every now and then we have to take a project to an earlier version, like from 2017 to 2016. For most of the version the next steps work, but you will be attempting this at your own risk.

First be aware of when major project formats were changed. The really big one was between 2013-2014 when line groups were changed on P&IDs. For the rest of the project versions 2017 and 2014, you should be ok switching the project version.

Do not try to do this process to avoid project migration however.  When you are migrating up, the migration routine adds necessary properties to support new features. When we migrate down, the software ignores the additional properties so they are irrelevant.

The project version number is stored in 6 different xml files.

• Project.xml
• PnIdPart.xml
• PipingPart.xml
• OrthoPart.xml
• IsoPart.xml
• MiscPart.xml

If you are using a different project standard (not PIP), you may have slightly altered xml names, but they’ll be close.

In short, you need to locate the project version variable and change it to the version that you need.

Here are the version numbers for the last few releases:

Yes, that’s not a typo. Even though it seems like 2017 would be 10, somehow it’s 91.

Report creator templates are generally project independent. However in 2016, the report engine was upgraded and new functions are available. If you use some of the newer functions, your reports will not be backwards compatible.

This past November, I had the opportunity to partner with Jason Drew answering questions at AU 2016. I wanted to take a minute to write up some of the class notes. The class is posted at AU Online here: http://au.autodesk.com/au-online/classes-on-demand/class-catalog/2016/autocad-plant-3d/pt15439#chapter=0 where you can see the video and download the handouts and ppt.

First we recapped some of the big learning topics from 2016 which included:

• Automatic Line List Report
• Fabrication BOM
• Dynamic Nozzles for Equipment
• Fast Track Plant

Then we covered isolating issues and parts of the program.

Last of all, my favorite, the questions!

Next year, I need to do a better job of who asks the question for follow up, but here are the questions as captured in the class:

1. How do I get the total bolt quantity instead of the number of bolt sets in Orthos?
2. How do I show insulation in my orthographic drawings?
3. How do you transition from SQLite to SQL Server/Vault?
4. How do I get iso dimension continuations to go to center of elbows and fittings and not the end?
5. How can I get my line group data into my P&ID (or Plant 3d)?
6. My BOM Annotations are moving in Orthos after saving and closing. (We think it may be from using multiple layouts).
7. Spool splitting isn’t correct when import CADMep PCFs.

That’s what we covered in class. We’ll be taking a look at these and posting follow up articles as we are able.

When you first get Fasttrack, you may be wondering how do I start using this tool effectively? This article will cover the basics of running the setup of Fasttrack in Plant 3D, some of the properties that are automatically added to help Fasttrack work, and some ideas for best practices.

When you first create a project you should get a notification in the bottom right corner of Plant 3D’s interface.

To start taking advantage of Fasttrack we’ll need to run the command mentioned in the notification, but we can also access this tool using the ribbon. Navigate to the FT Manage Tab. Under the FT Plant Setup Panel, the Setup Current Project button will run this command, so you don’t have to type out the FASTTRACKPLANTSETUP command.

Once this command is launched, all the properties that Fasttrack will require are automatically added. You will also be prompted if you want the nominal spec (P&ID and 3D Pipe Line Group properties) to be populated automatically. The value is based off the longest schematic line segment or pipe depending if it is a P&ID or 3D model.

If the values are not already completed in the Nominal Size and Spec then the Nominal Size will be filled out automatically (as well as the Nominal Spec if you said yes during setup) when you open a drawing. The values can also be completed automatically by using the Batch Update tool located in the FT Manage Tab, FT Plant Setup Panel.

Some of the properties that are added into the project are:
LineTag_Trimmed, To_Trimmed, and From_Trimmed
These values are used to remove the suffix from a line number tag where ending values were left blank resulting in question mark values. This will cut off the hyphens and question marks, but if you are using any specific abbreviations, those will not be trimmed.

Here are a few examples:
If the tag is “1234-PP-1” the value will stay the same, but…
“1234-?-?” will return “1234”, and…
“1234-INS?-?” will return “1234-INS”

In the 3D model you will find that all Pipe Run Components have a property called LineTag_Trimmed that performs the same function as the LineTag_Trimmed property used in the P&ID.

Valves in your P&ID will be populated with properties like:
PartFamilyId, PartFamilyLongDesc, and PartSizeLongDesc.
These values are to help check to confirm that the parts inserted into your P&ID match the parts used in your spec designed for the 3D model.

Due to limitations of how the P&ID Line List operates, the part that is placed may not be the exact one described by the PartFamilyLongDescription. That being said, we should still consider mapping a property like this from the P&ID to the 3D models, but we have to be careful.

When mapping a property, the P&ID Line list will try and fill out the values for your 3D parts. This means that instead of inserting the valve that uses the correct Family Long Description as identified in the P&ID, that the P&ID Line List could insert the default gate valve based on part use priority in the spec and override that description regardless of its end type or dimensions. Clearly this would be problematic.

What we want to do is make sure that all the values set based on the spec that should never be changed are set to read only, preventing the P&ID Line List from altering them, otherwise the validation process will not be able to catch the difference.

In this example I’m going to lock down the Family Long Description, so that if I wanted to modify the Size Long Description, I’ll be able to do so without being flagged for validation issues between my P&ID and 3D model. I could also accomplish the same goal by using the PartFamilyId, however, this property displays a code that isn’t as user friendly. As a user, I would have an easier time recognizing the issue when the values being compared are words instead of something like “70a86934-9d2b-4c5e-add1-7aa8a35c6689.”

In Project Setup expand Plant 3D DWG Settings, Plant 3D Class Definitions, and select Piping and Equipment. From here, we are going to set the Part Family Long Desc property to Read Only by checking the property. This will prevent users from manually adjusting the value set here from the default value set in the spec. This will also prevent it from being changed when inserting components using the P&ID Line List. If you decide to use any other property, note that the property will need to also be Visible in Object View, so be sure to check that option, too.

Our next step is to map the property from the P&ID for validation purposes. After you apply the changes you just made, select P&ID Object Mapping under the Plant 3D Drawing Settings branch. From here expand Engineering Items, Inline Assets, Hand Valves, and select the first valve you want to map.

Note that this change should be done to each of the components to which we want this property to be mapped.

Once you have selected the component you want to map for validation, scroll down the list until you find the P&ID property. Then use the drop down next to it to find the property that correlates with the component in your 3D models. If you don’t see the property on the list make sure that property has been set to be visible in Object View, and don’t forget to hit the apply button if you have to check that option! Finally, with the property mapped, check the Validate option on the right.

Once this is set, if the P&ID Line List uses the wrong valve from your spec, we have a way to catch the issue using validation. After running the validation for my ball valve, I can see that the flanged end type seems to have made it into the 3D model instead.

With this information, your end users should be able to see the problem and use the substitute grip to swap for the correct part.

When you assign tag information to a P&ID object you are also prompted for an annotation style, but custom annotations may not always get included in the list.

In this example the annotation I’ve created is called Trimmed Line Tag, and the contents of the block are shown below:

As you can see above the annotation references the Size and Spec of the schematic line segment. Sadly this annotation will not make the list.

Specifically what will allow an annotation style to appear on that list is the inclusion of the Tag property.

The property doesn’t have to be by itself, but as long as it is included in the annotation style, it will become available in the drop-down. For example the annotation format below would also allow my annotation style to make the list.

Now if you don’t want the full tag to show up in the annotation there is a really easy way around this.  Each line in your annotation is actually an attribute definition, meaning that any of the adjustments you could make with a normal attribute should be available for these attribute definitions.  Knowing this, all we need to do is make this unwanted attribute definition invisible and now the property will be there, but nobody will be able to tell by looking at it your annotation.

Once this adjustment is made we should be able to grab our annotation from the list.

As you can see below the attribute for the full tag doesn’t show up, because it has been set to invisible.

I will be walking you through setting up the import and export settings so that we can both extract your data and import it back in.

Here are the steps to setup a custom import/export so that engineers can modify your line list.

• Create a new Import/Export Mapping
• Export the Data
• Modify The Data
• Import Using the Data Mapping

Create a New Import/Export Mapping

From inside of AutoCAD Plant 3D or AutoCAD P&ID go to your Project Manager and open up your Project Setup.

While inside the Project Setup window.  Expand either P&ID DWG Settings or Plant 3D DWG Settings.  I will be selecting the P&ID DWG Settings but you can follow the same steps for the Plant 3D DWG Settings. Click on the Export and Import Settings.  Then on the right-hand side click on NEW.

This will bring up the New Export and Import Settings Dialogue window.  Give it a Name and Description.

Next select your P&ID Classes.  For mine I am selecting the PipeLineGroup.

Once you have your P&ID classes selected then you can move over to the External Data Mapping window.  You will see the External Class Name and the Properties for this in the window.  You simply select the check box to select to deselect and of the properties.  Additionally, If you are wanting to map from or to another program you can select the Value Mapping cell and tell it what the cell is in P&ID and the name in the alternative program.

Once you have this done you can click OK, then apply and shutdown the Project Setup.

Export the Data

The next step will be to open your Data Manager inside of Plant3D/P&ID.  It is on the Home Tab, Project Panel if you are not sure where it is.  Once open you need to click the Export button.

Once the export window is open you will need to Select your export settings and select the Export settings we created earlier.  In my case, it is called P&ID Line Group Data.  Once done you will need to select the save location for the .xls file and the name you want it saved at.  By default, it attempts to put this file in your documents folder.  You can change this here if you would like.  Click ok to export your file.

Modify the Data

Use Excel to open your new file from your save location.  You should see only the properties that you selected in the export file inside of this file.

At this point you can change the information in the cells if you would like and save the file for use in an import later.

Import The Data

Back inside of your Plant3D or P&ID inside of the Data Manager you can select import.

This will open the Import from window.  Select the file you created, modified and saved for this.  Once you tell it to open you will get the Import Data Window.  Be sure and select the proper Import settings from the pull down.  Again, in my case it is called P&ID Line Group Data.  Click Ok.

Once you have done this you will see the Cells that have changed be highlighted in yellow.  You will also notice you can now accept or reject each change one by one by using the now highlighted accept or reject buttons.  Alternatively, you can accept all or reject all as well.

I hope this information help you along your journey inside of AutoCAD Plant 3D and AutoCAD P&ID.

One tool we put into Fasttrack Plant aids in the import/export of data with Excel.  Today we are going to start a series looking at the advantages of our Import/Export to with Excel.  We have some more ideas of how to make the tool more powerful, so this workflow may change as it enhances.

Because most engineer’s and designers are comfortable spending a lot of time in Excel, we think it makes sense to make tools that let them stay in Excel as much as possible.  Also, we lower the cost of development and the cost of licensing if you just have to pay to import the data, and not for a separate application to work with the data.

Also, Excel is REALLY powerful.  With the tools in Excel, you can already link it to several different databases which extends the import/export capabilities to Plant 3d even further.  Let’s get into some details though.

The overall process is as follows:

• Export data to Excel
• Make formula changes to setup a suitable Excel template that can be re-used.
• Import/Export the data as necessary to sync with the current project and make design changes.

Export Data To Excel

We have several options for getting data to Excel, but we’ll start with the simplest, exporting from the Data Manager. Right-clicking on the data manager on a class we want (1) gives us the Export option (2). Then we can choose the export settings (3), the classes to export (4), and the location (5).

Now we have a plain Excel file with some data in it.  Note that we could also export reports from the data manager, use custom export settings, or the report creator to create a data dump. Because we’re staying high level in this post, we won’t get into the details on those topics though.

Formula Changes

Two features of our import/export process is that it recognizes Excel formulas (and doesn’t overwrite them), and that it imports behind the scenes, so every drawing doesn’t have to open.  In this example, we used a formula to populate additional service data from a spreadsheet we keep in a shared location on our network.

Set up Sync Settings

We have the ability to customize sync settings for the import/export process.  In this case, based on the selection of the Service CF, we populated the Design Pressure, Design Temperature, Operating Pressure, and Operating Temperature from a standard company spreadsheet.

Once the sync is setup, using the Import Excel button and browsing to our spreadsheet pulls the data into the project.

Today we will dig deeper in how to setup Excel to import data to/from Fasttrack. Our example will be built around a line list, since projects commonly have non-Plant 3d users like process engineers filling in that information.  As mentioned previously, I like using Excel as a basis because that gives the user more flexibility with the data source, and adds the ability to link items based on formulas.  That being the case, some advanced Excel skills are required, but relevant formulas will be documented and Excel forums are a great source of information for how to setup complex formulas.

The setup will consist of the following procedures:

• Setup base table or data source.
• Configure Excel lookups
• Use Fasttrack Plant to import the data

Setting up the base table or Data Source

Again, by setting up our foundation on Excel, your options are open to being able to use any data source that Excel can use, including SQL, Access, and a host of other source.

In this example, I setup a workbook with Service information like pressures and temperatures in my OneDrive: “OneDrive – ECAD, Inc\Applications\Plant 3d\Database Information\Service Data.xlsx”

Download a copy of the workbook used with a sheet that includes the formulas referenced here:

Obviously, this isn’t a full list of data, but it provides enough that you can see a functional implementation.

The second sheet, Sample Formulas shows how to setup the looks up to fill in the data.

For this exercise, the services workbook is setup to be the single source of data for all projects.  This way, only one workbook must be managed, and update it as needed.  In your situations, you may need a project-specific workbook, you will need to adjust to match your criteria.  From that single workbook, the plan will be to link in a data tab to any project workbooks, and then reference the data through that.

In the project workbook that started out as a line group export from the data manager (you could use a properly configured line list from the report creator as well), a Service Data worksheet was created to import the data from our master services workbook. Here’s a great article for the basic technique:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Tutorial-Import-Data-into-Excel-and-Create-a-Data-Model-4b4e5ab4-60ee-465e-8195-09ebba060bf0

With that data linked, the project spreadsheet now has the data from the external source on a tab. The master data can be updated in the project workbook at any time by clicking the refresh button in the data tab.

Configure Excel Lookups

Here’s the tedious part (but the formulas are already defined for you, so it shouldn’t be too bad). In each property that you want filled in automatically, you have to setup the formula. Let’s start with looking at hooking up the Design Temperature formula. Here’s another site’s explanation  of index match: https://www.deskbright.com/excel/using-index-match/

In this example, we have a check to see if the service column C, has a matching property in the Service Data worksheet. If there is a match, it puts in the value. If there is not a match, the Design Temperature property will stay blank.

Let’s break this down into it’s pieces.  The part responsible for the check is =IF(ISERROR(),””,INDEX…blah).  Basically, if there is an error, just use blank (“”), if there is not an error, use the successful look up.

Removing the error checking leaves us with, let’s move into the inner part of the formula, the MATCH (=MATCH($C2,ServiceData!$A$2:$A$301,0)

In this case the result is 1.  The match formula is saying find the row from the range A2 to A301 in the service data sheet (below) that matches the value given in c2 (P).

The match formula is a way to find the row that we care about!

The second part of the lookup is the index formula. To better understand index, let’s replace the match formula with the value we know is correct (1), and you’ll get this: =INDEX(ServiceData!$A$2:$E$301,1,3)

The index formula takes a range (our master data that is referenced on the Service Data sheet), looks at the row we pick (1 from the match formula), and then allows us to pick a column that has the value we care about (3), which in this case is the design temperature.

Once your formula is setup and returning the correct values, drag through the rest of the worksheet to have all the rows filled with the same formula.  The $ in front of the cell references (like $A$2:$E$301) ensures that those values don’t get incremented. $C2 will become $C3 as you drag the formula to apply to other cells.

Using Fasttrack Plant to Import the Data

The final piece is to get the data back into the Plant project.  The default AutoCAD Plant 3d import doesn’t work (AFAIK) because it doesn’t read the values from the formulas. Also, our plugin will batch import without having to open every drawing and confirm the updates which can take significant time on a large project.

The import for Fasttrack is setup in 6 steps after clicking the FT Manage > Edit Excel Sync button

1. Click the add (+) button to create a new map.
2. Fill in the description
3. Pick a sample Excel file (our project export from the data manager) and indicate whether to use the file to sync
4. Set the header row number (it will use the column names matching the data manager export.
5. Pick the import tab.
6. Enter the Class name (database table) that the data should be imported to.

When the import is setup click OK.

The you can click the Import Excel button, pick your spreadsheet, and the data will populate for your line groups!

Thanks and feel free to leave comments below.

Autodesk has added a new Project Compare feature in Plant 3D 2022. This is a more proficient way to update existing Plant 3D projects to have new changes that you added to your project template or from another existing project.

I will walk you through the process in which to use Project Compare to update existing projects. It is important to note that this feature is in Plant 3D 2022 and future releases only.

Let’s get started.

I have created two Plant 3D projects. One is a template project (My Template Project) and an existing project (My Existing Project).

Let’s make a change to the My Template Project.

1. Open My Template Project.
2. Right-click on the root project folder and select Project Setup from the popup menu.
3. When the Project Setup dialog opens browse to Plant 3D DWG Settings > Plant 3D Class Definitions > P3d Line Group.

Next, we’re going to add a property to the Line Number Tag Format.

4. Highlight Line Number listed in the Tag format area
5. Select the Modify… button.
6. In the Tag Format Setup dialog, change Number of Subparts from 1 to 2.
7. Make the changes shown in image below

That is the only change we need to make at this time.

8. Select OK to exit Tag Format Setup
9. Select Apply then OK to save and exit the Project Setup

We have an existing project needing to be updated with the changes we made to My Project Template.

10. Right-Click on the Project root folder in the Project Manager and select Project Compare… from the popup menu.
11. The first dialog ask you to select the project to compare.

12. Since we are already in the My Template Project, we will select My Existing Project. This dialog opens

Currently the dialog above shows that the My Template Project will get updated. This is wrong. We want to update the My Existing Project. Pay attention to what this notification is telling you.

13. Go ahead and switch the Current Project and Compare to: options shown in the upper left hand corner of dialog.

Change from:

To this:

Under the Compare Summery of this dialog you will see an object tree showing the difference between the two projects.

14. In the compare summery, select Piping(3D) > Classes and expand P3d Line Group. You will see the changes we made. See below.

15. Select Accept All

16. Select Sync Review. This allows you a final review to make sure these are the changes you want to make.
17. If these are the changes you want to make select Sync Now.

If everything goes as planned you should see the Project Sync Successful shown below.

Now if we open Project Setup for the My Existing Project you’ll notice that it has been updated with the config changes from the My Template Project.