My Brain Hurts (Auto Iso generation and updating)
glbmail.com
Hi Bani,
My company does not allow manual editing of the isometrics. All changes are made in the models and the iso's are regenerated. We use IsoGen and have one isometric standard configuration that is used for all of our projects. As you have said, there are many switches and it did take us some time and trial and error to develop an acceptable look for our iso's, but it is possible. We have also instructed the designers to assign the isometric break points in their models at flange or field weld locations with a maximum of four spools allowed per isometric sheet. The same assigned break points are used each time an iso is regenerated.
Additionally, we prefix each isometric drawing number, commonly the line number followed by a sheet number, with the construction work package sequential number. This allows for grouping of the isometrics by construction work package with each grouping starting at sheet 1.
Best wishes,
Richard
B.
Calgary, Canada
----- Original Message -----
From: BANI MITRA <bani...@yahoo.com>
Date: Saturday, March 5, 2011 4:55 pm
Subject: Re: [PipingDesign] My Brain Hurts (Auto Iso generation and updating)
To: Piping...@yahoogroups.com
>
> All Isometric generator programs must not be used as "out of the
> box", it will need lot of customization to match the standards
> followed in a particular project. It can vary from job to job
> and needs to be addressed at an early stage of the project. One
> widely popular Isometric generation program I am familiar with,
> has literally hundreds of "Switches" which can be set to get the
> desired
effects, but it also requires reading of hundreds of
> pages of User's Manual and trial runs.
>
> But even then, all isometric drawings, after automatic
> generation, requires polishing by hand. In my experience,
> depending on customization provided by "Switches", each
> generated isometric drawing sheet may take another 1/2 to
> 4 hours of manual 2-D editing efforts to meet the project
> standards. We have developed a check list, customized for every
> project, which all draftspersons have to follow to edit the
> generated isometric drawings.
>
> And it starts from a hard copy print of the isometric, as marked
> up in red by the piping lead or senior draftsperson!
>
> From my practical experience, I am facing another major problem -
> keeping isometric drawings current, as design progresses. We
> have a piping 3D model with database
(electronic specification)
> to start with, and we have generated an automatic isometric
> drawing set with bill of material and the drawing is spread over
> multiple sheets. The bill of materials (BOM) will show all
> components with an individual tag number. These isometric
> drawings will be manually edited and released. Three months
> later, the layout is changed and there may be new hardware
> elements like two 90º elbows are now replaced by two 45º elbows,
> some more loops with additional lengths of piping and elbows are
> added, and so on. The changes can be easily and quickly made in
> the 3D piping model, no problem.
>
> Problem starts thereafter. It will take a few minutes to extract
> another automatic isometric drawing set with multiple pages. But
> depending on the extent of changes, the number of sheets may
> exceed from original 3
sheets to now 4 sheets, and all tag
> numbers of BOM items will change. The revised tag numbers will
> affect both the drawing and the BOM table.
>
> Depending on situations, we follow different practices. If the
> changes are small, we re-run isometric generation, but only use
> the new BOM data to manually update the existing BOM table and
> also edit the drawing as needed. For elaborate changes, we have
> to void the earlier revision and manually edit the newer drawing
> set, as generated by the program, at the cost of additional manhours.
>
> I will like to exchange ideas with fellow engineers in this
> forum how they are managing routine updates in 3D piping models
> and generation of isometric drawings, to keep pace with the
> progress with the project.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bani K. Mitra
> 2011-03-05
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 3/2/11, Paul Bowers <pbo...@pipingdesign.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Paul Bowers <pbo...@pipingdesign.com>
> Subject: [PipingDesign] My Brane Hurts
> To: Piping...@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2011, 10:04 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Granted, this is not typical, but it illustrates how difficult
> auto-generated piping isometrics can be to decipher:
>
> http://www.pipingdesign.com/images/my_brain_hurts.jpg
>
> Of course, the image can be manually cleaned-up, but but that
> kind of
> defeats the purpose of automation, especially if the piping is
> later
> revised.
>
> Perhaps the config file needs some tweaking or more recent
> versions of
> Isogen do a better job.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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