Introduction to PDMS

By: Vineet Bhardwaj

Month 2010

Objective
Demonstrate Capabilities of PDMS/3D modeling.
Communicate capabilities of PDMS to all Leads and PEMs.
To ensure that a structured and consistent approach is adopted when
implementing PDMS for modeling activities.
Curtail Errors and provide consistent deliverables by optimum use of software
across disciplines.
Improve Inter departmental coordination for consistent modeling.
Controlling project progress through model.
Highlight modeling negligence deriving errors in PDMS.

Month 2010

Scope
Basic Introduction PDMS.
Design Utilities (Reports, Search, Consistency Check etc)
Draft and ISoDraft Capabilities and tools
Roles and Responsibilities (Admin, User , Lead)
Inputs for project startup.
Measures for ensuring quality of model and deliverables.

Month 2010

Basic Introduction PDMS

Plant Design Management System.

Simulate a fully detailed, fullsize model of

all the significant parts of a process plant.
This model becomes a single source of
engineering data for all of the sections and
disciplines involved in a design project.
All this information is stored in a database.

There are many different output channels from the database through which you
can receive information. These range from simple text reports about any plant
item, via annotated and dimensioned engineering drawings, to full colourshaded
3D walkthrough capabilities which allow you to visualise your design model.

Month 2010

PDMS Structure
Because of its overall large size, PDMS is subdivided into a number of functional
program modules, each of which accesses the database for a different purpose.

Module

Purpose

DB Type

DESIGN
DRAFT
ISODRAFT
ADMINISTRATION
PARAGON
PROPCON

3D Model Design
2D Drawing Production
Isometric Drawing
Project/User Control
Catalogue Construction
Properties Construction

DESI
PADD
NO DB
SYS
CATA
PROP

LEXICON

UDA

DICT

All the databases are stored physically in project folder.

No of databases depends on the size of project.
MDBs are collection of Databases.

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PDMS Design Database Hierarchy

WORLD
SITE
ADMINSTRATIVE
HIRERACHY

ZONE

EQUIPMENT

STRUCTURE

FRAMEWORK

SUB
FRAMEWORK

SECTION/FITT

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SUB-EQUIPMENT

NOZZLE

PIPE

PRIMITIVES

BRANCH

PIPING COMPONENTS

Accessing PDMS

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Default Screen Layout

Month 2010

View Settings
The 3D View can be manipulated to get the desired view.

The 3D View can be manipulated to get

Select, View>Middle Button Drag.
the desired view. Select, View>Middle Button Drag.
Right clicking on the blank area also gives the pop up menu.

Right clicking on the blank area also

gives
pop
up menu.
Thethe
view
controls
are also located in the vertical tool bar.

The view controls are also located in the verticalScrolling middle button can zoom in/out
with all the modes
Zoom rectangle mode
tool bar.
Zoom In/Out mode (F2)
Rotate mode (F5)
Pan mode (F3)
Walk mode (F6)

Month 2010

Graphics Setting
Selecting Graphics > Setting from the menu, gives the form which has 5 tabs from which
Most of the graphics settings can be made.
Controls settings for
Plines (Structural
profiles) & Ppoints
(primitives, piping
HVAC cable tray
components)

Settings for the 3D

view
Colours for specific
purposes in the 3D
view
How items are
represented in the
3D view

Controls settings for

structural elements

Loads settings from

previously saved file

Applies the form

settings

Saves currents
setting to a file

Cancels any
changes made and
dismissed the form

Month 2010

Saves current
settings and
dismisses the form

Naming Philosophy PDMS

Name enables user to identify elements and to produce meaningful reports.
It is not usual for primitives to be named.
Element name begins with /.
Elements names must be unique across all databases.
Names are case sensitive.

Name must not contain any spaces.

Any character such as forward slash (/), Underscore (_), hyphen (-), asterisk (*),
etc. may be used as separators.
Element names must be no longer than 50 characters

Month 2010

Element Attributes
Every PDMS element has a set of properties known as its Attributes.

In addition to fixed attributes, elements have a set of derived attributes called

Pseudo Attributes. For e.g. Gwei - Gross weight (in kg).
Also elements can have User Defined Attributes (UDA), which are prefixed with a
colon. For e.g. :Manufacturer , :progress
Element attributes can be queried by typing Q ATT on the command window.
Month 2010

General Utilities-Lists
Lists are a temporary collection of elements on which an action can be performed
which affects all its members. Only one list can be current at any time. Lists exist
only during a Design session.
From the default toolbar, select
get the Lists/Collections form.

or select Utilities > Lists from the menu to

Select Add>List to create a list.

Members can be included in the list using the a

add menu.

Once the members are included a command can be entered in the text box of the
list form and can be executed by pressing the
button.
Month 2010

Search Option

The utility allows the Database to be searched for specific items.

Selecting Display>Search, gives the Search form.
The Search can be initiated by typing a name and an item type
The Search can be done beneath a hierarchy within a particular DB.
The Search can be done based on an attribute filter.
Hitting on the Search button gives the results.
Its can also be displayed by selecting Display>Search Results.

Month 2010

Reporting
Tools to produce a wide range of the type of finished reports required for an
engineering project.

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Status Control
Control and report on the status
of model objects through their
lifecycles
Project decides: what to control
Tagged items, catalogue
components, drawings, etc
how to measure it, for example:
Approved for Construction
80% Complete
Clash Free
Tightly coupled with access
control : who can approve an
object
Prevent changes after approval
(new at 12.0.SP5)
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Clash Checking
Multi-discipline checking
Check clearances and access ways
Off-line
Detailed report
3D views of clashes & touches
On-line with graphical feedback

With optional Clash Manager:

Rule-based clash management and approval
Trend reporting

Month 2010

17

Data Consistency
Graphical design view highlights:
Piping misalignment
Bad connections

Grey
Yellow
Red

passed
warning
error

Data Consistency Checker

Checks integrity
Minimum pipe length
Connections
Alignment
Provides reports
Graphical
Textual

User-defined checks can be made

Month 2010

Floor &
Equipment
Equal
Elevation

18

ACCESS CONTROL
Claim Management
Temporary locking of objects to provide exclusive user
access while the task is being performed

Claim

Locked

User Level Control

multi-write

Data Access Control

Fine control over an individuals ability to modify an
object or a field based on a users role
Access
Control

Discipline Level Control

Status Management
Tracking progress and quality codes can be set by
privileged users and so used to control release
processes for each object

Project Level Control

Month 2010

Status
Control

19

Deliverables
Improved quality
Database-driven drawing production achieves consistency between drawings, reports
and design data.

PDMS Model
Database

Design checks

Month 2010

Drawing Production
The draft module within PDMS allows the designer to generate fully annotated engineering
drawings directly from data in the PDMS Design model using following methods :
General
Automatic Drawing Production (ADP)

Dimensioning and annotation are controlled by rules and also use rules to extract the
information from the model

There are options to show the 3D objects as symbols.

For using draft Efficiently

Expert Users.
Consistent Model.
Model should be progressively monitored and verified before drawing
extraction.
Drawing templates and rules should be standardised at the start of project .
Draft Rules and representation should be properly defined by Administrator
after discussion with team leads (All Discipline).
Lead should ensure that work instructions are being strictly followed within their
teams.
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21

Drawing Production
Flexible & consistent
Views of the single 3D model
Content and representation
governed by powerful rules

Individual objects can be drawn as:

a true 3D View
or a scalable 2D Symbol
Elevation

Plan

Dimensioning & annotation

All stored for update or re-use

Configurable automation
Drawing creation & update
Using templates & rules
Highlight changes since last revision

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22

Automated Drawings & Reports

Consistency ensured by user-configurable rules

plus
Automatic
highlighting of
revisions

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23

Why not AutoCAD ?

Using Draft ADP drawing production can be automated saving 20 to 30% of drafting man
hours.

Tag and Hatch rules can be defined to automate tags and hatching.
Easy to Manage revisions and changes. Which again saves lot of Man-hours.
Draft Drawing are associated with 3D model i.e. Any change in name and position and of
3D object can be updated in drawing with a single click.
2D symbols can be used in place of 3d Object like lighting fixtures, Fire Alarms etc.

Allows you to create Detail views, Key plans from 2d drawing etc
Allows you to scale and export drawing in editable (dxf, dwg ) and non editable (pdf, jpg)
format.

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24

How to Manage Changes

Change Highlighting
Automatic highlighting on drawings enables:
Identification and communication of
change
Identification of responsibility
Comparison and highlighting
of change between dates,
revisions and milestones
Clouding of changes

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25

Roles and Responsibilities

PDMS Administrator :

Project Setup and Database management.

Issuing Project procedures.
Access control.
Reports and MTO Customization.
Drawing Setup.
ISoDraft Setup.
Other Admin Activities.

Lead Engineers :
Proving input (Area Division, MTO & Drawing format) to PDMS Administrator for
project setup.
Ensuring model quality and consistency by checking, through various Reports, Data
consistency and Clash checking.
Coordinating with other dept lead for consistent model and deliverables.
Locking and Unlocking of model.
Ensure that Project modeling philosophy is followed by designers in their respective
teams.

Month 2010

Inputs
Piping material class and Piping material specification which consist of all Piping specs.
Commodity code / Item code followed for all the Piping components
Structural Design specification (Like BS, DIN, AMERICAN ect) to be used in this project.
Instrument and electrical cable tray specification.

Piping insulation thickness table.

Plot plan and area demarcation plan. (This is required to segregate the PDMS sites and
Zones).
Piping support standard.
Piping special Items, Valves, Instruments Hookups datasheets and GA drawing.
3D modeling philosophy including Model creation nomenclature and Model review
procedure which mentions color coding of model.(If client doesnt have this, PLE
procedure will be followed for modeling)
Month 2010

Examples
Support Tagging :
Conflict between the type of supports. Support text and support type was
mismatching.
Line reference missing from support.
Repetitive Support tags found in both primary and secondary MTO.

:Progress :
Project progress was measured with a attribute :progress on pipe.

20 : Work started
92 : Issued with hold.
99 : Issued without hold.
90 : line unlocked for changes.

Again user rights were not restricted. So under work started category users keyed in
value as 20, 40, 60 whatever the progress as per them. Which is actually making it
difficult to calculate actual project progress.

In this case user should be restricted to key in the specified text. Nullifying the chances
of human error.

Month 2010

Examples
Insulation MTO :
Insulation spec (1EC_Etr) needs to be defined by user on every insulated pipe. Due
to improper rights given to user, many users keyed in wrong info resulting in
incorrect reports and insulation MTO.
In this case user should be restricted to key in the specified text. Nullifying the
chances of human error.
Tapered Section
Tapered sections were to be used in a building, and due to lack of communication
tapered section were modeled using Panels/Plates consuming approximately
5times Man-hours actually required to model tapered section.
In this case this should be communicated to PDMS ADMIN well before starting the
work. So as to provide tapered Sctn in specification.

Month 2010

YOU REAP What YOU

SOW

Month 2010