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a report by

Ka ren Ho t c hk i s s and Andy O sbo rn 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) plantdesign 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 entireplant 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.

F ron t - end En g i n ee r i n g D e s i g n

The decisions made in the initial front-end

engineering phase are critical to the overall cost of aproject. 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 theprocess 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

In tegra t ion o f P ip ing Isometr i c Techno logy

B U S I N E S S B R I E F I N G : C P I T E C H N O L O G Y 2 0 0 3

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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 auto-

routing facility.

PLS Router is a combination of a MicroStation-

based plant layout system, coupled with I-Route, anautomatic 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.

Deta i l ed D e s i g n

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

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 I-Sketch 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;

new isometrics when an as-built modification is

required;


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Integrat ion of Pip ing I sometr i c Technology

site-run piping (typically small bore piping i.e.

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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-builtconfiguration. 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.

Ope ra t i o n s Ma i n t en an c e

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 ofsoftware 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 as-

built status?

Can piping records be easily modified and kept upto date?

Is the process for doing this the most cost-

effective available?

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 candeliver 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 minimaltraining 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 CAD-

orientated 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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Integrat ion of Pip ing I sometr i c 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.

Fu tu r e D ev e l opmen t

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.

L a s e r S c ann i n g

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 thesystem 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.

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.

Da ta T r an s f e r

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 acommon 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.

Con c l u s i o n s

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.


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Contact Information

Alias L imited

Andy Osborne, Commercia l Manager

e-Mail: [email protected]

Karen Hotchkiss, Marketing Manager

e-Mail: [email protected]

1 Stuart Road

Manor Park , Runcorn

Cheshire, WA7 1TS, UK

Tel: +44(0)1928 579311

Web: www.alias.ltd.uk

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