Setting up Isometrics in Autodesk® AutoCAD® Plant3DCarsten Beinecke – CAD STUDIO ABCOM GmbH, Germanycarsten.beinecke@cadstudio.com

CodePD1392

LearningObjectivesAt the end of this class, you will be able to:

· Set up isometrics from start to finish

· Apply tips and tricks outside the user interface

· Use your own isometric symbols

· Set up your title block

AbouttheSpeakerWorking in the Plant Industry for 25 years. Started as a drafter and became a supporter anddeveloper for Plant software. Started as a product manager in 2008 to develop PlantTools asadditional apps for AutoCAD P&ID and Plant 3D. Wrote books and training manuals forAutoCAD P&ID and Plant 3D. Helped a lot of customers with setting up and customizeAutoCAD P&ID and Plant 3D.

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Setupisometricsfromstarttofinish

CreateyourownIso-StyleBefore you do any modifications on the existing Iso-Styles, it is best practice to create your ownstyle.

Next you go through the pages where you want to make your modifications.

Tip: Keep in mind that there are a lot more settings you can adapt outside the comfort of theuser interface.

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On the page „Iso Style Setup“ you can define things like the file naming, how isos should besplit up and where isos are to be stored.

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„Advanced Options“ is available only if you have „AutoCAD® Plant 3D Extension 1“ installed. Itallows you to pre-define the settings usually modified when creating an iso.

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„Annotations“ lets you define whether or not you want annotations for your BOM, Welds, Spoolsand Cut Pieces.

How should the annotation look like, do you want a leader or not.

You can modify the texts for certain remarks commonly shown in an iso.

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„Dimensions“ lets you define what type of dimensions you want to see and which elementsshould use which dimension type.

You also can define the way gaskets are treated in regards to dimensioning.

Last you can setup how valves with different end types are supposed to be handled.

“Iso theme” allows you to setup the dimensioning for different types of pipes. A very oftenneglected theme is the “Small Bore piping” where the dimensions are usually reduced tobranches and valve positions. See „Title Block and Display“ where you setup when a pipe is asmall pipe.

Tip: Although you can select „Center“ for flanged valves it won’t work, because the flangeconnected to the valve will be dimensioned on the flanged side.

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„Sloped and Offset Piping“ let’s you define how those routings are getting handled.

You can define up to which degree a pipe is a sloped pipe. If the angle is bigger the pipe will betreated as an offset pipe.

If you want a full hatched triangle set the percentage to 100.

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„Title Block and Display“ is the section where you probably get started.

You can jump to the “Title Block Setup” and define how your frame and title block should looklike, where the drawing area is and where your lists should be shown on the iso. Here you canalso define what information you want to see in your title block.

“Edit Isometric Symbols” lets you create and/or modify your isometric symbols.

For the “Small Bore piping” theme you define the size when a pipe is a small bore pipe. Seealso „Dimensions“.

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With the “Live Preview” you can see how you iso will look like with the changes you applies tothe settings.

Tip: Create a sample iso which contains almost all cases you might have in an iso. This way youcan use the same sample isos for all settings. Creating a live iso still takes time, but you don’tneed to leave ProjectSetup and go back for more changes on the settings.

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Applytipsandtricksoutsidetheuserinterface

FilesandLocationWhen creating a new Iso-Style you create a folder with the Iso-Style name in your Isometricfolder in your project. Each Iso-Style has its own set of files for the configuration, but there aresome files in the Isometric folder which apply to all Iso-Styles of your project.

The two most commonly adapted are the IsoSymbolStyles.dwg which contains the blocks forthe iso symbols and the IsoSkeyAcadBlockMap.xml. This file tells Isometric which block to usefor a specific SKEY (see “Use your own isometric symbols”).

The most important files in an Iso-Stylefolder are the iso.dwt which is your titleblock drawing and the isoconfig.xml.This file contains all your iso settingsyou see in ProjectSetup.

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UsingtherevisioninthefilenameIn the user interface you cannot for example add the revision to your iso’s file name.

Open the isoconfig.xml with a text editor (e.g. notepad++). Starting from line 35 you see thesection responsible for the file naming. In line 53 you can define a suffix you want to use.

If you change this line toName=”REVISION”Delimiter=”-“ then revision willbe added.

If revision will be kept empty a0 will be used instead.

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UseyourownisometricsymbolsIn this chapter we will create a new block for welding neck flanges and assign this new block tothe SKEY.

CreatetheSymbolThe first step is to open the block selection.

You then look for the block you want to modify. If course you can create a new block as well, butit is good practice to copy and existing one and modify it.

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If you want to copy a block use “Save Block As” to make a copy of the block so you do notmodify the existing block.

Type in a new block name.

Draw and/or modify the existing graphic. Check if thedynamic block functions take care of all the AutoCAD®objects.

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If not modify the selection set.

If you are done close the block editor and save the block.

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AssignBlocktoSKEYNext we need to assign the new block to the SKEY used for welding neck flanges.

Open the IsoSkeyAcadBlockMap.xml with a text editor.

Search for the SKEY FLWN. You see the name of the block currently used.

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Change the AcadBlock to “SimpleFlangeWN”.

The result looks like this.

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Tip: If you see SKEYs in the IsoSkeyAcadBlockMap.xml it means that you can is variousEndtypes for the SKEY. For example VV??. You then can use VVFL for a flanged gate valve.The origin of these Endtypes come from ISOGEN. Some of the Endtypes might not even work.

Reminder: The SKEY of a 3D object is set in the catalog data.

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SetupyourtitleblockIf you want to modify your frame or title block or want to change the content of the title block youneed to click on “Setup Title Block…”.

The iso.dwt file will be opened and you see the various areas and tables.

The green area is the area where you iso will be. You can subtract (multiple) areas whichshouldn’t be used for the iso. In the example below you see that extra space is made availablefor the weld list.

In the lower left hand corner you see the weld list and on the right side you see the Bill ofMaterial and the Cut Piece list. The Spool list is not used here.

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If you want to create new areas you can modify the existing ones or create new ones with “DrawArea” and “No-Draw Area”. You can make the colored areas invisible by clicking on “AreaVisibility”. Then you will see a border only.

With the first four buttons in the section “Table Placement & Setup” you can create new tables.Table Setup allows you to setup the different tables.

“Place North Arrow” allows you to position the north arrow on your iso template. You can usethe existing north arrow, but of course your own one as well.

“Title Block Attributes” lets you define the position of attributes and their content in the titleblock.

“Iso Themes” can be used for example to turn on/off Annotations, Dimensions and Bill ofMaterial for the different Iso Themes (see also setting up dimensions).

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Click on “Table Setup” so we can modify the table for “Bill of Material”.

The “BOM layout template” lets you choose between three different types of layout. The “SimpleBOM” just shows “Bill of Material as the header and then the BOM content. With “Grouped withindependent columns” you can have different columns based on the category (Pipes, Fittingsetc.).

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We click on “Add column” and select“Compatible Standard”.

The column is now available, but we need to make the column visible by using the checkbox.

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Next we click on the “Settings” tab and set “Descriptions” to “Use Long Description (Size)”.

If you click on “Ok” the table doesn’t look quite right.

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Select the table to modify the width of the new column. In the properties palette you change theheight to 4. After that you will probably recognize that the height will be reset to the minimumheight.

Tip: When closing the iso.dwt make sure that you used zoom extents. This way whengenerating an iso the whole drawing will be visible when opening the iso.

The result then looks like this.