CADWorx Plant 2018 Facilitates Intelligent 3D Plant Model Creation

In the recent CADWorx webinar for CADWorx Plant 2018, offered by parent company Hexagon, the focus of the release was demonstrated to be improving the consistency between workflows and through the model. In a Q&A portion, it was found that many of the attendees were using AutoCAD 2015 and 2016. CADWorx Plant 2018 supports AutoCAD 2018 and can run on that platform and the BricsCAD platform.

In the new release of CADWorx, users will find it easier to create fully intelligent 3D plant models. The new capabilities will help lower overall project cost. They have added an option for using generic components. CADWorx Plant 2018 is now compatible with the latest technologies on the market.

With the new CADWorx Plant 2018, there is no need to update specs and catalogues, as you can do your work in 2018 or go back to 2017.

New enhancements include replacing line components, slope and skew routine, updated half coupling to match functionality. There is an option to directly map various level attributes. You can now place attributes across multiple block attributes and populate data in both places at the same time. This is more intuitive for the BricsCAD installation.

The new release can support CADWorx concrete objects, one in the live model and one in the xref. The software can now locate the concrete in the model.

The list below (compiled from company materials and the webinar presentation) outlines all the new functionality and changes in CADWorx Plant 2018:

• Removed CADWorx Steel tab and steel references from the user’s guide.

• Pipe support placement
  Eliminates the struggles of manually rotating assemblies on sloped lines, pipe support placement on sloped lines is now easier with the new Vertical option. Added a vertical option to pipe supports. Now, when you place a pipe support on a sloped pipe, you can select Vertical so that the support is able to vertically attach to a structure.

• CADWorx Structure Enhancements
  Support for latest CADWorx Structure components including all steel and concrete shapes has been added to the Pipe Support steel/concrete detect functionality. Total Center of Gravity now includes Structure objects. You can bring in the model as an external reference, or you can load Structure in Plant, and then open the model.

• Enhanced Detect Steel when placing pipe supports. Now, when you place a pipe support above a concrete object created in CADWorx Structure, the software detects the concrete object.

• You can set the nipple length to show in the component description of the Bill of Materials using the IsogenAppendNippleLength variable.

• Added the ability to adjust the placement of a half coupling when placed on a pipe. The software now contains the stubIn, stubOn, and Manual placement options when you place a half coupling with any insertion option.

• Auto router has been enhanced.
  Provides support to default elbow selection to complete non-standard design work more efficiently than before  You can select Show Option to insert all available elbow types.

• Enhanced the slope and skew routing. Skew is now a toggle option, which allows you to easily skew while routing sloped pipe. Slope to routing. With elbow Elbow links, can do slope to router as well. It provides vertical option so you can go from slope line without having to close out of slope router. If you want to use same slope settings as before you don’t have re-enter the settings. You also have additional options in slope for vertical piping, and for auto connection.

• Added information about using the Get External Data function delivered with the software.

• Added support for defining Project Defaults in I-Configure. You use Project Defaults in combination with the ISOGENPROJECTDATASETUP to manage project-wide attributes. Attributes also defined in the ISOGENPROJECTDATASETUP section override any defaults assigned to the project.

• You can replace components within the model using the REPLACECOMPS Alternatively, you can select a component, and then click the replace grip point to choose a replacement from a list of components.

• You can click a valve in the model space, then click the topworks replace grip point to delete, change the type, or the orientation of the topworks.

• Enhanced the Variable Component Length Assignment rule. When you set this rule to Use Catalog Length, the software only uses the data in the catalog for the length. To enter a length for the variable length component, you must set Show Options for this rule.

• CAESAR II 2018 compatibility
  Enables you to model in CADWorx Plant and leverage that existing geometry with the latest version of CAESAR II

• Enhanced the logic of Show optional components in the Settings tab of the SpecialView palette.

• You can turn updates on or off for Pipe Support Geometry in the Apply Change Data Rule. When you turn this option on, variable length pipe supports do not update in the catalog lengths, but remain the length defined in the 3D model.

• Added a Default option to Generic Attach. The Default option automatically places the center of gravity and tag annotation at the centroid of the selected non-CADWorx object. You can also select a point as eneded to define the center of gravity and tag annotation.

• CADworx Plant now uses a local acad.pgp file in the Support folder for the command acronyms instead of the system wide acad pgp used previously.

• CADWorx P&ID Enhancements
  Enhanced to greatly facilitate process line drafting and editing. Making P&ID process line updates can now be done with minimal effort.

• AutoCAD 2018 and BricsCAD v18 compatibility
  Allows the use of latest available CAD platforms and features to meet deliverable requirements.

Another webinar will be presented for CADWorx Structure, which has some significant changes in the structural steel design tool over the prior release.

Tags: 3D, AEC, AutoCAD, BricsCAD, building information modeling, CAD, infrastructure, plant

Categories: 2D, 3D, AEC, AEC training, AECCafe, apps, architecture, AutoCAD, BIM, building information modeling, collaboration, construction, convergence, engineering, field solutions, file sharing, infrastructure, plant design, point clouds, project management

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2017 at 10:03 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.