digitalplant

66 digitalPLANT business+engineering 5/2011

With more than seven million commer-cial licences, AutoCAD is the most

distributed CAD application in the world. Inmany industry segments, like plant or AEC,you will find it as the number one in selling.From this tremendous success another ap-plication running on top of it could havebeen and can be benefit: AutoPLANT. Thishistory of the most selling application suitefor plant design and plant operation is at least as exciting as that of AutoCAD. In the 1980s Jeff Hollings and Dennis Rowstarted at the west coast in the United Sta-tes with their Cal Berkeley colleague profes-sor a company called SSD. There businessactivities were focused on structural analysisand on providing services to pipeline pro-jects. They developed a product called Auto-PIPE which performs pipe stress analysis —it still does it today. Over the time they fir-med under the name “Engineering DesignAutomation” (EDA) and started resellingthe CADPipe software (1989). Two years later, EDA bought a small company in the USstate Louisiana named MicroCAD and beganselling their line of AutoCAD-based soft-ware called “AutoPLANT”. In 1993 EDA

bought several products from an enginee-ring company named Advantage and theirexpansion strategy went on: In 1994 anotherLouisiana-based company named ApplicationDevelopment (ADEV) was acquired by EDA.Their design tools were called ProCAD. Inthe deal they also got a sub-company namedPad which developed a MicroStation-basedapplication called OmniPipe. In earlier daysEDA and ADEV were bitter rivals in theAutoCAD-based market up to the merger.To avoid alienating the ProPipe user base thenew combined company was named Rebis.But the shopping tour went on. In 1996 Re-bis took over a company named Piecom, lo-cated in South Africa and renamed theirinstrumentation products AutoPLANT In-strumentation & Wiring. The 1997 edition ofAutoPLANT was developed to consolidatethe best features of their three design tools(AutoPLANT, ProPipe, Omnipipe). In realityit was the MicroStation-based Omni thatserved as the prototype for the new design.Note that Omnipipe specifications live on asthe ISO 15 926-based OpenPlant specs evennow! On first of July 2002, Rebis lost its in-depedency but the customer base won once

again. Jeff Hollings and the other members ofthe board decided to put the business in thehands of Bentley Systems, Inc. headquar-tered in Exton, US state Pennsylvania. Sincein the following years the AutoPLANT busi-ness climbed up from sales record to thenext this entrepreneur decision was right.

Comprehensive portfolio

The AutoCAD-based plant design suite isused around the world on projects rangingfrom small retrofits and expansions to large,full-scale facility design and construction.AutoPLANT V8i — AutoPLANT Plant De-sign Workgroup (PDW) — provides a com-plete set of integrated software applicationsthat are easy to use:■ AutoPLANT P&IW including Bentley

Instrumentation and Wiring V8i, Auto-PLANT P&ID V8i, Bentley Data ManagerV8i, and Bentley Datasheets V8i for func-tional design.

■ AutoPLANT PDW including Auto-PLANT Piping V8i, AutoPLANT Equip-ment V8i, OpenPlant PowerPID V8i, Auto-

d i g i t a l P L A N T

A recent Daratech study ranked AutoPLANT number 1in a direct comparison withits competitor products. Not only on a features &functions level the AutoCAD-based software suite for plant design and plant operation has its strikingpros but also on the business side.By BERNHARD D. VALNION

THEY BECAME FRIENDS — AND VERY SUCCESSFUL

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PLANT Raceways V8i, AutoPLANT Iso-metrics V8i, and ProSteel V8i for physicaldesign.

■ AutoPLANT for CAE including Bent-ley AutoPIPE V8i, Bentley PlantFLOW, andWinNOZL, now known as AutoPIPENozzle V8i. It is a set of comprehensiveanalytical applications for stress analysis,including pipe stress, fluid flow, pulsationanalysis, and local stress analysis.

Compared to its predecessor XM the latestversion V8i offers better integration withProjectWise. AutoPLANT V8i runs on Auto-CAD 2009 to 2011 (32 or 64bit). Due to space restrictions we are not able topublish more details of all applications listedabove. In the following we restricted our co-verage only to a selection:■ AutoPLANT P&ID is an AutoCAD-ba-

sed program that allows you to create in-telligent piping and instrument diagramsand process flow diagrams. The latest ver-sion V8i now provides ribbon menus andtool palettes within the AutoCAD inter-face to enable users to insert piping com-ponents (tool palettes) and manage mod-els (ribbon menu) in a more efficient man-ner. The ribbon menus contain the action,or management commands whereas thetool palettes are for placing components

in the models based on the selected cata-log content.

The latest version of the P&ID tool canwork in a fully integrated, managed environ-ment with ProjectWise. ProjectWise is anengineering project team collaboration sys-tem that is used to help teams to improvequality, to reduce rework, and to meet pro-ject deadlines. Moreover, P&IDs createdusing AutoPLANT P&ID can be reviewedand analyzed using Bentley Navigator V8i.Bentley Navigator is used by infrastructureteams to review and analyze project infor-mation. AutoPLANT P&ID has been certified forproject use with Bentley i-model ComposerV8i. I-model is a container for open infra-structure information exchange and enablesbidirectional feedback in dynamic work-flows. AutoPLANT Piping gives you spec-dri-ven 3D piping design with advanced routingand editing features. Drawing production in-cludes orthographic drawings (plans, eleva-tions, and sections), using paper space viewports and exporting 3D model data to pro-duce finished isometric drawings. Fully fea-tured automated isometric drawing produc-tion features are included in the piping ap-plication. “Drawing Flattener” produces 2D

drawings in-cluding eleva-tions, plans,and sectionsfrom the 3Dmodel. A u t o -P L A N TEquipmentplaces equip-ment, nozzles,ladders, plat-forms, andwalkways in 3D space. It provides numerousequipment, nozzle, and structure placementoptions, and includes primitives that may beused to construct user equipment assem-blies. The use may the AutoPLANT Equip-ment model in the AutoPLANT Piping appli-cation to directly connect piping compo-nents to equipment nozzles. AutoPLANT Isometrics is an intelligentpiping isometric drawing application allo-wing either direct specification-driven dra-wing creation or automatic isometric crea-tion from an piping 3D model. The combina-tion of these two techniques ensures thatfor all types of piping designers have the cor-rect tool for creating piping isometrics.AutoPLANT Raceways is an application

3 D P L A N T D E S I G N

Up to speed as fast as one can beIn a survey, the market research firm Daratech, Inc., headquarted in Cambridge, US state Massachusetts, ranked BentleySystems as number 1 among software platforms for plant creationand number 1 in software for conceptual plant creation.Daratech also developed an analyzing methodology about the relative merits of 2D versus 3D plant creation and maintenancesoftware based on the opinions of process and power industry engineers, managers, and executives engaged in plant creation,operations, and maintenance. This study found, among other conclusions, that the average time to become a proficient 3D system user was between 140 and 240 days. The fastest average learning time was for AutoPLANT software, which participants indicated had an average learning time of 140 days.

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AutoPLANT Plant Design (left) and AutoPLANT P&ID,both in the latest V8i version, in action

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for quick layout and design of intelligent 3Dcable tray and conduit. This product featuresspec-driven conduit, cable tray and inline in-struments. This application is a subset of thecomponent modules available to the Pipingapplication.

In April 2011, the vendor released an upda-ted version of the AutoPLANT V8i suite,(SELECTseries 3). This version brings; newinteroperability via the i-model, support for64-bit Windows 7, and other new features.New in this release is the ability to exchange

3D i-model’s based on the ISO 15 926 for-mat and also share ISO 15 926 i-model pro-ject collaboration data via iRING. The gra-phical interface of AutoPLANT has been en-hanced to incorporate ribbon menu’s andtool palettes for more streamlined work-

d i g i t a l P L A N T

Mr Gerke, with PlantSpace based on MicroStation, Bentley Systemsalready has a powerful plant design tool in the market. Why did yourcompany buy Rebis and its AutoPLANT portfolio in 2003?In the plant industry there are two dominant CAD platforms. On onehand MicroStation and on the other AutoCAD. To serve the importantAutoCAD-base we decided to acquire the worldwide market-leader in thefield, Rebis. Greg Bentley gave the strong commitment that we will fur-ther develop AutoPLANT, and we did so, just released a new version andwill continue to do so in the future.

How does AutoPLANT and 3D design fit together?AutoCAD is a 3D CAD system like it is a 2D drawing system. AutoPLANTwhich runs on top of it provides extra functionality for 3D planning anddefines additional objects in order to optimize the plant design process.Over the last years, Autodesk has enriched the AutoCAD platform withadditional 3D functionality and further enhancements like the 64-Bit sup-port which we all support. Also a new GUI was introduced fully suppor-ted by Bentley. There is an agreement between both vendors to providegraphic libraries not only to guarantee MicroStation to AutoCAD inter-operability but also to support the AutoPLANT compatibility.

There are numerous plant systems based on AutoCAD, even Autodeskby itself has launched one. In which way AutoPLANT is positioned inthis highly competitive market?Of course, the Autodesk plant suite is a direct competitor to AutoPLANT.I don’t want to deny that Autodesk isn’t able to develop a powerful toolfor this market. But due to our tremendous experience — since the be-ginning of the 1990th AutoPLANT has been established in the market —we have a non negligible lead. Another aspect is its scalability: it is usedfor small single engineer projects as well as for the world’s largest capi-tal projects.

You mentioned the abstract term “experience”. Can you give us anexample?Sure, take for example the current development activities to deliver anAutoPLANT module to design jacketed piping systems. Bentley has iden-tified that there is a gap in the market for 3D CAD tools that deliver spe-cific functionality to design these systems and produce the required de-liverables for manufacture. To provide this Bentley has utilised the vastexperience of its software development, sales and consultancy teams.Some of the guys involved are into their second decade developing, sel-ling and supporting these design tools. That’s “experience”.

What has been happened to PlantSpace?The next version of PlantSpace shall be a new version of OpenPlant. Thedecision was made after careful analyzing the demands of the marketsand taking into future roadmap considerations. OpenPlant can be regar-ded as a the next generation MicroStation-based 3D plant design toolthough the CAD kernel is already embedded in the system. The besidesthe state-of-the-art interface and functionality the new name ‘Open-

“THE CAD ENVIRONMENT DOESN’T MATTER”Senior Industry Sales Director Carsten Gerke about the underlying logic of Bentley Systems’ 3D plantdesign portfolio and what we can expect from the nearer future.

Plant’ emphazises that the underlyingdata model is based on the open stan-dard ISO 15 926 and not on a proprieta-ry format like in AutoPLANT, PlantSpaceor competing products.

What was the demand in doing so? Well, the world has changed. The 21stcentury stands for open formats and fe-derated data approaches – vs closedmonolithic systems. It is about their datathat the customers care these days andnot the tool that helps them create it. Themain driver is obviously interoperability – internally between various systems and externally with the eco-system. In order to achieve this thedependency on a vendor specific format and this specific vendor is seenmore and more as a critical and costly path.

The new OpenPlant version is expected for Q3 of the year. What arethe key features?You are right. We will release the SELECTseries 3 of OpenPlant soon. Be-sides a lot of enhancements worth mentioning is that we shall deliver fullDIN and EN standard support. There is no doubt that this version has reached a high level of maturity.

What is the difference between AutoPLANT and OpenPLANT on a system architecture level?AutoPLANT is a file-based system (but of course with a database for pro-cess data) and OpenPLANT is a component-based one meaning I justmanipulate objects of a database during the modeling process. The other fundamental difference between the two systems (and competitivesystems btw as well) is the inherent support of distributed engineeringincl the ability to work completely offline. Of course the native support ofthe ISO 15 926 standard describes another differentiator. However, wedo also offer a mapping of the AutoPlant format to ISO 15 926 whichenables all of our users to interoperate on this level. Furthermore I amallowed to say that wide parts of the OpenPlant portfolio will be usablein their an AutoPLANT environment as well. This will allow a true mix andmatch between different editing tools based on MicroStation or AutoCAD– not this year, but next year.

For example what?OpenPlant Model Server can check in components of an AutoPLANTmodel which then can be loaded into OpenPlant Modeler for further edi-ting. This works btw already for PDS models from Intergraph as well. Wewill enable a free choice in which environment the customer wants tomodel.

Thank you for your statements!Interview: BERNHARD D. VALNION

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flows and new pipe editing tools such as splitpipe have been added.A key aspect of this release is the ability torun in a 64-bit environment. Most users buy-ing new hardware will be opting for 64-bitWindows 7 with 64-bit AutoCAD. Auto-PLANT V8i (SELECTseries 3) is fully compa-tible with 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Auto-CAD and 64-bit Microsoft Office 2010. As the new version of AutoPLANT V8i 3Dsupports the creation of i-models based onthe ISO 15 926 schema, AutoPLANT has in-creased its potential for interoperabilitywith 3rd party plant software products. Atthe same time, the (SELECTseries 3) releaseof AutoPLANT V8i further enhanced theinteroperability with other Bentley collabo-ration products, including ProjectWise V8i(project collaboration and document con-trol), Bentley Navigator V8i (iterative projectreview), and Bentley OpenPlant, the first 3Dplant modeling software to natively use theISO 15 926 data scheme as specified by theiRING user community.What makes AutoPLANT so very special? Oureditor took a look together with Alan Leon-ard, corresponding Product Marketing Mana-ger at Bentley, behind the scence of its success.“Unique is that it can be configured to a singleworkstation as well as that it fits into a multi-billion US dollar project environment”, Mr Leonard comments the flexibility of the soft-ware. Than the Product Marketing Manager re-fers to the briefcase mode which was releasedwith previous versions “Even if you are wor-king on a huge project you can extract a littlepiece of it out for your own workstation —say: because you are small consultant or an ex-pert for a special piece of the plant — andwork, then come back and put the brief caseback in the major model and all your changesand update are uploaded.”

ISO 15 926 interoperability

The latest AutoPLANT version fully embra-ces the neutral data exchange standard ISO15 926. As reviewed in (1) Bentley’s Open-Plant portfolio is designed to store the datastructured according to the ISO 15 926scheme. It is positioned in the marked as akind of a mid-range tool suite as suitable forbigger projects. “We are not going to change the data struc-ture of AutoPLANT internally”, Mr Leonardassures. All remains as it was. But an adaptorwas designed either to work in the Auto-PLANT schema or to export data into anISO 15 926 schema. “We are in an ongoingprocess of developing that further.” Morenews in that way are expected in the nextsix to twelve months. The advantage is e.g. that an expert workingon a single seat environment at home can

put his data into an ISO 15 926-compliantworld. “This single engineer doesn’t have tochange his skills, but he can now participatein a multi-billion US dollar project.” Vice ver-sa, an owner-operator or a large EPC deci-des pro exchange data mechanism basedISO 15 926 scheme they don’t have to eli-minate the small consultant resulting in aloss of special expertise. Mr Leonard ex-plains: “Before the OpenPlant product waslaunched the project owner would say: Youhave to deliver the data in a dedicated for-mat let’s say PDS. And really, all the EPCs hadno other way of dealing with that just doingthe work in PDS which not rarely eliminatedall of your small EPCs in project becausethey cannot afford PDS!” The AutoPLANT ISO 15 926 complianceopens the door in both ways. “The owner-operators are no longer constrained saying‘We want this high-end data deliverablesfrom everybody so you must use this specifictool.’ Now they can say: ‘Use the plant designtool you are most efficient with it as long asyou can deliver in ISO 15 926 format.’” Bent-ley is making sure, as Mr Leonard states, thatcontractors are able to create i-models inthe ISO 15 926 schema to take over data inthe OpenPlant Isometrics Manager. “That isthe first step of being fully compliant workingwith the OpenPlant portfolio.”

File handling

And what does the AutoPLANT expert re-commend for the file handling? “The usage ofProjectWise is the best way because of allthe security aspects, versioning of delivera-bles and everything else in collaboration en-vironment are ensured.” But, on the otherhand, there are a lot of users using the Visionviewer which is another nice way to organi-ze, search, and look for drawings. So, what tochoose? It depends on the tasks to face withand the budget: “ProjectWise is a great andvery powerful tool but there are costs asso-ciated with”, Mr Leonard admits. Many custo-mers working on multi-billion US-dollar pro-jects using ProjectWise as their repositoryand they are very happy. “If there is a singleAutoPLANT user he can connect into thatProjectWise managed environment.” Thisuser doesn’t have to change his skill set toparticipate in a large ProjectWise-base pro-ject because he needn’t to run his own Pro-jectWise server.

INFOCORNER

(1) digitalPLANT 6/2010, pg. 53, Göller,Baden-Baden For further information visit www.bentley.com/en-US/Products