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Automating Substation Design with Autodesk®

Inventor®, Autodesk® AutoCAD® Electrical, and

Substation Design SuiteTerri Humel & Joe WeaverPrincipal Associate Engineers – Nashville Electric Service

This class will help the user prepare for the task of

implementing a model based design solution at an

electrical utility by identifying challenges they may face

along the way, suggesting areas on which to concentrate

customization and training efforts and providing some

examples of how such challenges were dealt with at

Nashville Electric Service.

Class summary

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

Describe the challenges of implementing a model-based substation

design system

Develop a plan to adapt Inventor, AutoCAD Electrical, and Substation

Design Suite for your utility’s specific situation

Automate the Inventor substation design process

Adapt AutoCAD Electrical to specific substation design philosophies and

procedures

Key learning objectives

Speaker Introduction

28 Years in Control Design Designing substation protection, control and communications systems

Experienced the changes from pencil and vellum to BIM

Developing and adapting AutoCAD Electrical and Substation Designer for Nashville Electric Service

Part-time Photographer & Recently SCUBA Certified

About Control Design 3 Designers, 4 Engineers & 4 Contract Support Designers

68 Primary Substations – FO Comm. Network (Ethernet, SCADA & Protection)

Build 1 new Station every 2-3 years and work 25-50 Station upgrades per year

AutoCAD® Version 1.2 - 1985

AutoCAD® Map3D - 2007

Autodesk® Electrical® since 2010

Nearing completion of our first BIM substation

Joe WeaverPrincipal Associate Engineer – Control Design

30 Years in Substation Design Designing physical substation layouts including foundations, conduit, grounding and structures

Devised workflows and procedures for designing 3D substations in AutoCAD

Managed the implementation of Inventor & Substation Designer to create intelligent substation models

About Substation Design 3 Designers and 2 Engineers

Purchase power from TVA at 12 feed points

Build 1 new Station every 2-3 years and work 15-25 Station upgrades per year

AutoCAD® Version 1.2 - 1985

AutoCAD® Map3D - 2007

Autodesk® Inventor® since 2008 & Substation Designer Suite since 2010

Terri HumelPrincipal Associate Engineer – Substation Design

Challenges

Began looking at BIM for our design needs in 2007

Identified the needs and potential benefits Faster, more efficient designs

Reduction of human error potential

Standardization and collaboration for consistency in designs

Knowledge capture - Internal and external

Better product for our internal customers

A wealth of data contained in one place

Drawings and reports generated from design data

Tried to identify the challenges we would face

A Little History

Inventor and AutoCAD Electrical aren’t written for Substation Design

This would be “Bleeding Edge” territory

Lots of customization needed

Few available resources for our industry

Perceived benefits

Challenge 1: The Right Tool for The Job

Basic Training was made available but it was very basic

Resources for additional training/consulting were limited

Standard AutoDesk support for in-depth usage were also limited

Found most information in online forums and blogs

Internal training

Challenge 2: Training

Time management

Distractions in both directions

Identifying customization needs

Real world projects vs. “Testing” projects

Requirements of Management

Challenge 3: Learning While Working

Resistance to change

The need for changes to established procedures/standards

Mental shifts – Documentation vs. Modeling

Indecision of Management

Apathy of co-workers/No buy-in

Challenge 4: Other common challenges

All of the I/O Points, Currents & Potentials, Power Supply and Telecom

connections have been entered once for this Schweitzer relay and will never need

to be researched again. This is knowledge capture!

The Plan

Lot’s of choices to be made

New workflows, procedures and standards

Additional software items (Vault Professional, Substation Design Suite)

Available resources

In the Beginning…

Keep it small – More agile/adaptable

Should have both company/industry knowledge and CAD/Computer skills

Seek input often – Helps with Buy-in

People are more apt to talk to individuals than committees

Step 1: The Core Group

Identify what needs customizing

Determine the level of customization you can live with/without

Consider the working environment – Networked vs. Local

New standards or changes to existing standards

Step 2: Customization

Basic “Look & Feel” Standards

Choose a subset of parts to concentrate on first

Set a defined period of testing and experimentation

Choose a project that minimizes unforeseen or odd circumstances

Give yourself plenty of time to go through the processes of establishing new

standards, procedures or symbols

Step 3: Set Goals

Automate the Inventor Substation Design

Process

Drawing Process

Bill of Material

Cabling, Conduit and Grounding

Routed

Systems

Cabling

SDS Cabling

Tube & Pipe Conduit

Fittings and Runs

SDS Conduit Fittings

and Runs

Ground Grid

Ground Lead

Content

A customizable template is included to begin new projects.

The Substation Designer Content Editor provides the ability to use existing

models, fittings, BOM data, etc.

There are also tools for design checks and exporting the BOM.

SDS has several existing Substation models to use as a starting point.

Adapting AutoCAD Electrical

We wanted to go from this…

…To This!

Search Paths & Environment file edits

Network locations and workflow

Wire layers and wire number options

Component name settings and conventions

Ladder & Cross Reference settings

Typical Changes

Wire layer “thickness” to differentiate high voltage busses

One line symbols and layers

Three single phase devices as one symbol on one lines

Layout AND wiring footprints

Terminal block vs terminal strip philosophy

Industry Related Changes

Cable labeling standards and custom cable markers

Adoption of new Test Switch symbols for use with SDS

Standards for Installation & Location Codes

Standards for cross reference methods and symbols

Report layout files and post processing scripts

Wire annotation format standards

Logic and Test Switch planning spreadsheets

Pinlist generation spreadsheet

Company Driven Changes

This spreadsheet is a tool to help generate the rather arcane entries for the pinlist

database. The user picks a pin type from the list and fills out the pin values and any

label information. These are trimmed and concatenated into the strings on the right.

Then all those strings are concatenated together again. Unfortunately these strings

get too large for Excel to concatenate properly, so they get joined in Notepad before

adding to the database.

Cable Fan-in tools

Tie Links

Test Switch Editor

Custom tools

Wire Dot Thickness

Viewport Alignment Tools

SDS Tools by Automation Force

In Conclusion

Training is essential

Choose a team that is both well versed in your company’s standards and

procedures as well as AutoCAD and/or Inventor

Choose your battles

Document everything you do

Our Experience

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