CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

11 July 2012

Product News

Can 3D Plant Project Data Control be Easy on Administrators?

With the release of its new PDC engineering content management environment, CAD Schroer aims to help process plant and large-scale assembly designers to effectively manage growing engineering design complexity, without a huge administrative burden.

PDC has just been launched with the latest release (5.1) of CAD Schroer’s database-driven MPDS4 3D plant design system. “Manufacturers and plant designers face growing design complexity, along with pressures on project timescales, costs and resources,” explains Product Line Manager Mark Simpson. “Engineering documents and data represent their main intellectual property. Getting the most out of this investment by controlling, sharing, re-using and querying engineering content is key to the quality, efficiency, success and profitability of future projects. Yet the administrative burden associated with implementing most PDM or PLM systems can be a massive stumbling block. PDC is our flexible approach to this issue; an attempt to go easy on Administrators. We won’t replace existing systems or databases – we provide a practical technical solution that integrates plant design with them, aligning engineering software with our customers’ objectives by delivering only what’s needed.”

Integrated Project and Data Control
PDC manages all design data and associated documents, and is fully integrated with CAD Schroer’s MEDUSA4  drafting and MPDS4 plant engineering software. Its open architecture makes data available to existing PLM, PDM, ERP or analysis systems, and to other users via the Internet, allowing distributed teams to collaborate  globally. PDC provides version management, user and access privilege controls, and manages all project-related  content (e.g. 3D models, 2D drawings, spreadsheets, piping isometrics), as well as design-specific data (e.g.  component attributes, parts lists or the current editing status of a drawing).

Intelligent Queries and Easy Updates
“When suppliers modify, replace or recall equipment regularly used in plant projects, MPDS4 users can query  PDC-controlled equipment models to see in which documents they are represented - e.g. as a P&ID symbol, an  MPDS4 instance, or a 2D view,” Mark explains. “They can assess the implication of making a change, and replace  the equipment in their designs with the latest version if appropriate.”

Users can also explore relationships between documents, i.e. between model files and their definition sheets.  PDC queries can locate similar projects, allowing users to copy databases for a quick start on new designs.  PDC makes downstream engineering data, such as piping isometrics, available to other project stakeholders, or  to other systems for stress analysis for example.

With PDC, plant designers can flexibly manage project complexity, effectively using engineering data without a  huge implementation burden. CAD Schroer’s experts provide practical technical solutions to customers  worldwide, integrating engineering and corporate processes to meet business objectives.

 

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