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- Training and Plant 3D Wishlist Items

I spent the past week in the Baton Rouge office doing some Admin training on Plant 3D for some clients. The next few posts cover a couple highlights for some issues that we were able to solve.
Personally, I love getting face time with day-to-day users. I always learn something and invariably we all come away with a stronger grasp of the programs we’re dealing with.
I’ll never forget my first experience at a user meeting. My first trip was to Las Vegas for Autodesk University 2008. I was blown away by the number of users, and the content from the training classes still provides value in my work today (and this past week)!
I think that because the piping group around Plant 3D is so young, we didn’t get to meet many users at AU last year. I know our group is working on getting more Plant 3D centered classes going this year, so coming to AU to learn about Plant 3D will provide more opportunity and value. In addition to the Plant 3D content, you’ll be able to learn more about AutoCAD and other Autodesk products.
One feature of the week is seeing the AUGI group present their wish list for AutoCAD. Now this is pie-in-the-sky thinking, but I’d like to be able to present a similar list created by the users for Plant 3D. While we have a wishlist of sorts on the forums, it’s not really setup to make voting on each suggestion. I’ve setup a wish list using Google moderation here:
http://www.pdoteam.com/wishlist/plant3d
Hopefully, we can get more of the community involved (so that it’s not just Dave’s wishlist).
Anyhow, this post was a little bit scattered but I wanted to throw some ideas out there and encourage you to come to AU 2012.
Latest Article
Latest Articles
- AutoCAD Isometric Configuration Reference Autodesk has released a configuration guide we put together for AutoCAD Isometrics. http://docs.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/2014/ENU/De-mystifying%20AutoCAD%20Plant%203D%20Isometrics.pdf About 80 pages long, the manual gives both an overview of the isoconfig.xml and some detailed examples for configuration. One of the key features is a list of the skeys used, available symbol types, and screenshots of the blocks used to make the symbols. I hope ...
- Leaky Pipe with No Leak Ran into a weird support question. Per the image below the pipe are not connected, but there are no leak symbols. After some system variable sleuthing, the GRIDMODE system variable was causing this snafu. GRIDMODE=1 It doesn’t create problems with all models, but definitely with the model from the client, there was an issue. GRIDMODE=0 jQuery.ajax("http://www.pdoteam.com/wp-content/plugins/top-10/top-10-addcount.js.php?top_ten_id=1478&activate_counter=11&top10_rnd=" + (new Date()).getTime() ...
- Report Items By Line Number in Plant 3D The other day a client needed a report of items by Line Number. A common way to get the report would be to group by the PipeRunComponent_LineNumberTag. That report ends up excluding all fasteners. So, the typically, an incorrect report by line number would look something like this: Noticing the Group and Sort panel at the ...
- Migrating Specs and Catalogs in Plant 3D As with all new versions, the topic of migrating specs comes up. In my experience, I’ve run into two little tricks that clarify the process of migrating content to a new version. Migration Location When you migrate specs, the spec editor is not modifying the spec or catalog that you select, it makes a copy. The modified ...
- Creating a Custom Valve Recently, a client mentioned that they couldn’t locate threaded plug valves in the catalogs. Today’s post will show how to create a custom valve from scratch. Today we will use a Tufline Sleeved Plug valve: http://www.cranechempharma.com/chempharma/products/valves/xomox-sleeved-plug-valves/screwed-end-sleeved-plug-valves&brandid=6FDB472B-D7F3-EA31-D0E970EBF58FA22A Downloads Overview Below is an overview of the process we will use. Locate the data sheet. Select the sizes to create, type of valve, ...
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Here are our latest apps available in our store. Please visit our store for more information.
- PDO Extended Fields
The extended fields plugin make additional functionality available in reports and orthographics. The plugin adds fields to P&ID pipe line groups to include connected equipment and related drawings. On the Plant 3D side, it adds a SizeDisplay to all showing reducer sizes, as well as BOP, COP, and TOP information from models. In addition, the
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- Iso Configuration Editor
The Iso Configuration Editor allow editing the isoconfig.xml file associated with an isometric theme. The editor is a customized xml reader that makes it easy to see and change values in the xml file. Current AutoCAD Plant versions Supported: 2013 View Documentation: Blog Articles:
- Create BOM Plugin
Here are resource links for the Create BOM Plugin: Documentation: Change log: Known issues: Current AutoCAD Plant versions Supported: 2012 2013 Key Features: Creates a Bill of Material using an AutoCAD table Stores the Bill of Material in the orthographic drawing file Flexible tagging methods Tagging creates a default “BOM Tag” multi-leader style Tagging
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