Technology & Services

Integration of Piping Isometric Technology

a report by

K a r e n H o t c h k i s s and A n d y O s b o r n e
Marketing and Commercial Managers, Alias Limited

There is increasing awareness that organisations need to implement solutions that integrate fully with all aspects of their business. This is especially important when you consider software applications that generate considerable amounts of data. Today, ISOGEN is recognised as the de facto standard for the delivery of piping isometrics from three-dimensional (3-D) plant design systems. It is used to deliver not only the piping isometrics, but also the associated bills of materials, weld information and other related reports. Other ISOGEN-based solutions such as SPOOLGEN and I-Sketch are becoming more widely used and therefore the importance of integrating the data that ISOGEN produces is becoming more critical. Alias Limited has developed a range of fully integrated piping software solutions across the entire plant life-cycle. This article takes a look at how the technology can be utilised from conceptual design in the front-end engineering phase through to detailed

design, fabrication and construction to operations and maintenance.

Front-end Engineering Design

The decisions made in the initial front-end engineering phase are critical to the overall cost of a project. An often quoted figure of 80% of the total cost is committed at this stage. It is therefore imperative that the process engineers have the necessary knowledge, tools and time to evaluate all the various configurations in order to assess which proposed model would be the most efficient at the lowest cost. In the conceptual stage of the process design, a block flow diagram will be drawn showing the process streams and unit operations required for the process. This information will then be used to create the process flow diagrams (PFDs) and the initial piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs). A major function of this phase of the design is to evaluate the

BUSINESS BRIEFING: CPI TECHNOLOGY 2003

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PLS Router

pipe routing. Piping can account for up to 60% of the cost of the final plant layout so effort invested in getting the layout correct can dramatically affect the overall project costs. Piping configuration has traditionally been done manually but there are now a number of software applications that include an autorouting facility. PLS Router is a combination of a MicroStationbased plant layout system, coupled with I-Route, an automatic 3-D pipe routing engine developed by Alias Limited. Up until now, other software applications developed to address this need have been expensive, require a high level of configuration to obtain effective results and do not produce results rapidly enough to allow an interactive assessment of alternative layouts. PLS Router is designed specifically to be easy to use and extremely quick, enabling users to try several schemes to assess the optimal layout based on cost optimisation algorithms.
Detailed Design

decade, many systems have appeared on the market, but there are three clear leaders in terms of market penetration: PDS, PDMS and AutoPLANT. The majority of these systems, whether or not it is a market-leading system or not, have one thing in common: they all use versions of ISOGEN for the generation of piping isometrics. This common ISOGEN factor has led Alias down a software development path to the creation of ISketch and its associated integration tools to make it an ideal complementary solution to work alongside 3-D plant design. I-Sketch is a simple-to-use Windows-based isometric sketching tool that uses ISOGEN for the generation of drawings and reports. Although it is true that major projects are generally completed using 3-D systems, it is often the case that some piping isometrics are still created manually for the following: tie-ins to existing plant; revamp projects;

It is now widely accepted that any major plant design project cannot be executed effectively without the use of a 3-D plant design system. Over the last

new isometrics when an as-built modification is required;

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Integration of Piping Isometric Technology

site-run piping (typically small bore piping i.e. <2 inch NS); and small projects where 3-D overheads are too much for the project to carry. Additionally, although most major contractors are well established with 3-D technology, the capital investment and training requirements can be a hurdle that smaller engineering companies are reluctant to tackle. In all of these cases, I-Sketch provides a solution that can be used effectively both on site and in the design office, either supplementing the use of 3-D or replacing the less productive manual methods of drawing production. With savings in excess of 75% in terms of man-hours and a comfortable return on investment on most initial projects, there is a compelling case for adopting this technology. Additional benefits are that any work completed using I-Sketch can be loaded back into any of the major 3-D plant design systems to provide a single model representing the complete scope of the project.
Fabrication and Construction

detailed design team is, it is impossible to fully appreciate and take account of the factors that are key relating to fabrication, transport and erection. Therefore, fabricators mark up the design isometrics and then redraw them in the form of spool isometrics, including their marked up comments. This process is slow and can lead to the introduction of errors that may result in higher rework costs. SPOOLGEN acts as a bridge between the design contractor and the fabricator, allowing them to take the original design isometric in electronic form and make mark-ups to suit their requirements. By necessity, the application is focused on the task in hand, guides the user through each stage of the process and ensures that the original design integrity is not compromised. Fabrication spool drawings and reports can then be generated automatically with extreme ease. If the piping isometrics are received in paper format or the fabricator has a need to create isometrics from scratch, I-Sketch can be used to quickly sketch the pipes on screen, and the resultant piping information can be used to generate isometrics or be fed into SPOOLGEN. Prior to erection, the construction team may also benefit in the use of SPOOLGEN to add relevant information to account for additional materials not included in the original design, such as temporary supports. Construction drawings and reports can then be generated automatically from SPOOLGEN.

Typically, piping systems for process plant facilities are prefabricated, shipped to site and then erected. The method of communication from detailed design to fabrication is usually by the supply of piping isometric drawings. Irrespective of how good the
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At the time of construction, slight modifications may need to be made on the piping systems for a variety of reasons. I-Sketch can be used very effectively in this situation by taking the original design and modifying it to what will become the as-built configuration. A further benefit is that the modified isometrics could be loaded back to the 3-D plant design system to update it to as-built status with minimal further interaction.
Operations Maintenance

In trying to address these three issues, a number of different approaches have been considered, ranging from plant information management systems to extending the use of the 3-D model created during the design phase. Although these approaches can deliver significant benefits, they can be complex, costly to maintain and, by definition, require personnel that are proficient in computer-aided design (CAD). An on-going training programme is also likely to be needed, not only to keep current users up to date with developments, but to train new staff to replace those who take their skills elsewhere. The key to solving some of these issues is to provide solutions that deliver the following: extreme ease of use that ensures a minimal training requirement and is ideal for infrequent users; integration with all major 3-D systems to allow collaborative work practices; adoption of Microsoft Windows standards for user control and selection rather than relying on CADorientated commands; CAD independence can output to all drafting systems; and easy viewing of real-world piping configurations using Internet Explorer, allowing access to information via Internet or intranet.
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Reduction of operating and maintenance costs is a key objective for most companies that own and operate process facilities. Invariably, the search for increased efficiency is directed towards IT-based solutions and there is certainly no shortage of software vendors offering potential savings through the introduction of their specific technologies. One key area that can potentially bring great benefits is in the management and maintenance of accurate plant records, with piping being one of the most demanding to control. Issues that need to be considered are: Are plant records accurate and do they reflect asbuilt status? Can piping records be easily modified and kept up to date? Is the process for doing this the most costeffective available?

Integration of Piping Isometric Technology

I-Sketch is an application using these principles, and the product has evolved into a unique solution that can be used effectively to address the following: maintenance of as-built data; provide a single solution that supports piping data from any 3-D model that utilises ISOGEN; and capture of as-built data on existing plant where there are no electronic records. I-Sketch can deliver great benefits as a stand-alone application and its ability to integrate with virtually any system currently in use for the maintenance and management of plant piping records makes it a unique solution for all owner operator companies.
Future Development

Alias will shortly be bringing to the market a solution that is a combination of their integration technology with laser scanning, so bringing the accuracy of laser scanning and the ease of use of I-Sketch together. Some of the benefits realised will be: material data available from most 3-D plant design systems; easy application of material data; intelligent piping created; pipes can be modified easily with I-Sketch; and transfer to most 3-D plant design systems as intelligent pipes.
Data Transfer

There are many areas in process engineering where software solutions, IT user accessibility and work flow patterns can be improved. Alias has recently been looking at laser scanning and data transfer as a means of improving accuracy and compatibility of various systems.
Laser Scanning

Laser scanning is an emerging technology and provides an accurate way of recording an as-built configuration through a cloud of x,y,z points. The drawback of the system is that once the information has been gathered, it requires a high level of CAD skills to transfer that data into a usable format and is usually a collection of non-intelligent 3-D geometric shapes.
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As a consequence of having built integration modules based on Alias piping data file, a number of enquiries were received from clients asking if it was possible to go one step further and take data from one plant design system into another. Further development work has now been done to produce a suite of products capable of 3-D data transfer when supplemented with support services. To date, there have been a number of successful projects. The general work flow involves taking catalogue and specification data from both the source and destination systems and converting them to a common format. The data is then mapped or matched in each system and any inconsistencies are highlighted and must be rectified. Once this has been done successfully, piping files can be taken

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and converted to the native input language of the target design system. Alias recommends that all projects to convert model data are first trialled in order that the parameters of the data conversion can be established.
Conclusions

Contact Information Alias Limited Andy Osborne, Commercial Manager e-Mail: andy.osborne@alias.ltd.uk Karen Hotchkiss, Marketing Manager e-Mail: karen.hotchkiss@alias.ltd.uk 1 Stuart Road Manor Park, Runcorn Cheshire, WA7 1TS, UK Tel: +44(0)1928 579311 Web: www.alias.ltd.uk

The range of technology and the integration capabilities of Alias technology have provided many benefits to users of the system. User-friendly interfaces in the form of the well-recognised Windows environment have been utilised, and greatly increased quality, productivity and reduction of piping costs help companies to gain the maximum efficiency for piping-related activities throughout the plant life-cycle. I

BUSINESS BRIEFING: CPI TECHNOLOGY 2003