Cadalyst - January/February 2009 - (Page 26) cadalystlabsreview By Robert Green AutoCAD P&ID 2009 Piping design software emulates traditional work processes instead of CAD facsimiles. W bs • La ith all the buzz about 3D design, digital simulation, animation, and design analysis, it seems that critical 2D CAD drawings such as electrical schematics and process and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) have been forgotten. No more. With the 2009 release of AutoCAD P&ID, Autodesk has refined the features of this relatively new product and made it more usable and production capable. The Experience When you first launch AutoCAD P&ID, you notice the familiar AutoCAD interface — with a few twists (figure 1). AutoCAD users will feel at home immediately and won’t have to spend any time acclimating to the tool. The layout utilizes the Project Manager along the left side (similar to other AutoCAD Desktop software modules) for navigation through the various sheets that comprise the P&ID document package, a graphical sheet browser at left bottom, and a symbol catalog tool palette along the right-hand side. When used with a wide-format monitor, this default layout yields plenty of drawing room while giving users the tools they most commonly need to create P&ID sheets. Creating Geometry To get started working with AutoCAD P&ID, you’ll need to study the P&ID standard toolbar (figure 2), which can be loosely categorized in the following groupings (note 26 adalyst •C Figure 1. Built on AutoCAD 2009, AutoCAD P&ID includes custom palettes for symbol libraries (right) and a project navigation window (top left) to allow navigation of document sets. Figure 2. The standard P&ID 2009 toolbar contains almost everything you need to work in the software in one neat, clean interface. AutoCAD P&ID 2009 2D Piping Design Software This version . . . . . . . A Ease of use . . . . . . . B+ Features . . . . . . . . . A Installation . . . . . . . A Customization . . . . . A– Interoperability . . . . A+ A Pros: Simplicity of use; standard Microsoft Office components; no client/server architecture; great symbol libraries. Cons: Customization can be daunting at first. Third-party add-ons . . N/A Price: $4,995 Autodesk Help . . . . . . . . . . . B 800.964.6432 Innovation . . . . . . . B+ www.autodesk.com Value . . . . . . . . . . A+ the vertical separators in the toolbars that define the function groupings): u Line tools. Functions for creating and editing process lines. u Line group tools. Functions for creating and editing related groups of process lines. u Project management tools. Project Manager, Data Manager, and validation tools. u Annotation tools. Text leader, equipment tagging, and block symbol editing tools. The process of drawing in AutoCAD P&ID is literally that of dragging components (from the included libraries mentioned in the following section) from tool palettes and connecting them with process piping lines. The process is controlled graphically using AutoCAD’s grid-and-snap parameters to keep everything centered and uniformly spaced. As you lay out the basic P&ID, you can be blissfully unaware of the data that is being built up for you — more on that later. Extensive Libraries If you’ve ever labored through creating P&ID documentation manually, you’ve probably had to create your own www.cadalyst.com cadalyst January/February 2009 http://www.autodesk.com http://www.cadalyst.com
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