Cadalyst - January/February 2009 - (Page 28) cadalystlabsreview This attention to emulating the traditional work processes of P&ID tasks makes the learning process easier — and almost fun — and will translate into shorter training classes and implementation time frames for piping designers and controls engineers alike. It’s clear to me that the development team for this product spent some time in the trenches with the actual process-and-controls personnel who will use the software — something I wish could say about all CAD software. an option, an open API allows custom use of data with an external database. Worth the Upcharge AutoCAD P&ID 2009 does what a well-designed piece of software should do: It makes the difficult look easy. With its clean screen appearance, minimal feature set, familiar AutoCAD commands, and right click–driven object editing, users can be up and running with little training. And with minimal training time required and no IT hassles, implementation time frames are reasonable and costs are low. Throw in the multinational symbol libraries, and you’ve got a well-planned application that easily justifies the upcharge from plain vanilla AutoCAD. Highly Recommended. Robert Green performs CAD programming and consulting throughout the United States and Canada. His book, Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide is now available. Reach him via his web site at www.cad-manager.com. Plain Vanilla Technology Any new software means a learning curve for users, but P&ID software has traditionally involved complex databases that have required substantial IT support and client/server SQL or Oracle databases to function. Sometimes, this complex IT effort has driven up the price of implementation and vetoed more complex P&ID software options. AutoCAD P&ID gets around these problems by using standard Microsoft Office technology such as Excel (via XLS or CSV files) as an import/export source for equipment lists and XML data files to drive the Project Manager and equipment databases. And because almost everybody already has a copy of Excel, chances are excellent that it will work for anyone on your extended engineering team without having to invest in additional new software. As 28 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst January/February 2009 http://www.cad-manager.com http://www.bluebeam.com/realresults http://www.cadalyst.com
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