3/7/2016

Whats New in AutoCAD Plant

3D 2016

2015 Autodesk

New Features in AutoCAD Plant 3D 2016

AutoCAD 2016
Plant 3D and Vault
Plant 3D Isometrics
Plant 3D and Advance Steel
Plant 3D Piping Routing Changes
P&ID Off page Connector Changes

2015 Autodesk

New in AutoCAD 2016

Reality Capture
New Centerline and
Edge detection
Easier Model Creation from
Point Clouds

Coordination Models
XREF Navisworks
models directly
Easier Project Collaboration
2015 Autodesk

The 2016 release of AutoCAD Plant 3D is built on the

AutoCAD 2016 platform which has a number of new
features. You can find these by referring to Whats New in
AutoCAD 2016. However, there are a couple of new
features which are of great interest to plant designers.
On top of addressing a large number of small wishlist
items requested by our customers, we have made
considerable advances in a number of areas. These include:
- integrating Plant 3D and Vault to give seamless project
and document management within Plant 3D
- A large number of improvements to Piping Isometrics
including improved repeatability and making it easier to
create new styles
- Integrating the Plant 3D and Advance Steel workflows for
structures
- Pipe routing settings changes to make it easier to create
piping models from point clouds
- changes in how off-page connectors are handled in P&ID
to make it easier to manage the connections between sheets.

There are 2 new features in AutoCAD 2016 that piping users

will find very useful.
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The first is the ability to create centerlines directly from
cylindrical elements in point clouds. <click>This feature makes
it easy to create piping centerlines <click>which can be used to
create piping.
<Click>This is very useful for modeling tie-ins for revamp
projects.
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The second is AutoCADs ability to now XREF Navisworks
models directly. You can now collaborate in projects where
different CAD systems are being used. By creating a
Navisworks model, Plant 3D users can now externally reference
these files while working on the project in Plant 3D.
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This makes for much easier project collaboration. Especially in
multi-office, multi-CAD System projects.

3/7/2016

Tight Integration with Autodesk Vault

Directly Create Vault Project inside
Plant 3D
Local Workspace for improved multi-office
project execution
Automatic Notification when XREFd files
updated in Vault
Supports Vault Replication
Supports Plant Database Replication
Manage Multi-Office Projects Better
Note: Requires Vault Professional or Vault Collaboration not included.
2015 Autodesk

Isometrics
Create new Iso Style Configuration Wizard
More Configuration Options in Iso Setup
New Iso Repeatability Options
Define Start Point
New Split Point Control

Easier to Manage Piping Isometrics

2015 Autodesk

In Plant 3D 2015 extension 1 we introduced integration with Vault.

This was only available to Maintenance Subscription customers but
in the 2016 release, this is now available to all Plant 3D users.
Working with Vault is especially advantageous to those companies
that use multiple offices to perform larger projects. With Vault,
customers can manage projects better across multiple offices, CAD
Managers can better administer Plant projects, and users will benefit
from improved performance as all working models and documents
are local. All the Vault checkin / checkout and other vault access
commands will be found in the new Vault ribbon.
The 2016 release offers automatic notification to all users XREFing
files in the vault whenever newer versions of these files are checked
into the Vault.
The 2016 release also supports Vault Replication as well as replication
of the plant project database. These features will be of great value for
those customers where WAN bandwidth is limited as the primary
databases will be local rather than remote.
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Bottom line: Integration with Vault provides benefits to users
working in multi-office project environments and especially where
some offices are remote with poor bandwidth connections to the
central office.
There has been considerable work done on improvements to
AutoCAD Piping Isometrics. As well as bug fixes, and improvements
to algorithms controlling isometric layout, the new features focus on
two areas:
- easier ways to customize the isometrics styles
- more controls on repeatability when creating isometrics from lines as
the piping model evolves.
For those users wanting to create new isometrics styles, a new wizard
has been introduced that takes users through the steps to create a new
style. This is a 100% graphics based wizard simply select the style
from the options that are shown in the wizard.
For more refined isometric style customization, new options have been
introduced in the isometric setup pages that form part of Project Setup.
New options include defining rules for piping isometric file names, and
better management of text size and enclosure settings.
In the area of piping repeatability, there is now an option to define a
start point for the isometric. The start point will always appear on
sheet 1.
Now there are various different modes to ensure repeatability. As well
as placing break points in the model, Isometric file split points can be
imported into the model where they will be used as break points for
future isometrics.

Plant 3D/Advance Steel

New Export to Advance Steel using SMLX
SDNF still supported

New in Plant 3D is the ability to export structural models directly to

Advance Steel using the Advance Steel XML Export file. This replaces
the SDNF export that was available in prior releases as a more efficient
export mechanism. Although not shown in the ribbon, the SDNF
export remains available.
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The Advance Steel XML Export is the mechanism for a more efficient
structural workflow.

More Efficient AutoCAD-based Structural Workflow

2015 Autodesk

3/7/2016

In P&ID 2016 weve made some updates to the way off page
connectors are managed as well as to managing line groups
For off-page connectors, when trying to make connections only
tagged lines are now listed, this makes it much easier to manage
the connections and should reduce the possibilities of
accidental connections.

P&ID Improvements
Off-Page Connectors
Only lines that are tagged are
displayed in the list

Line Groups
Easier to add unassigned lines to
existing line groups
Easier to create intelligent P&IDs

In managing pipe groups, it is now much easier to add

unassigned lines to existing line groups.
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Bottom line we continue to improve AutoCAD P&ID to make
easier to use.

2015 Autodesk

Line Routing Improvements

Copy and Insert
Copy will cut into a pipeline
and connect

Connection Tolerance
changes
Make it easier to create line
routes from point clouds
Easier pipe routing

Slope Tolerance

2015 Autodesk

For piping, the copy command now recognizes piping and will
automatically create a branch to insert the copied piping into a
line. The branch table determines what branch component will
be used.
And finally, you can now set tolerances in piping to allow
connections to be made where piping is not exact. This is
particularly useful when trying to connect new piping to existing
piping where the existing piping has been created from point
clouds.
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We continue to add new features to make pipe routing simpler in
AutoCAD Plant 3D

Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, Advance Steel, AutoCAD Plant 3D and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or
trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this
document.
2015 Autodesk Inc All rights reserved