This Client Server article is republished in its entirety from 2005 for reference purposes. It was written for AutoPLANT 2004 Edition version 8.6 and may not apply to any other version.
By Aaron Wolfe, Technical Support Analyst, Bentley Covington Office
25 October 2005 Modified: 27 October 2005
One of the updated features in AutoPLANT 2004 Edition version 8.6 is the Component Preferences Toolbar. This tool allows users to modify the Project Object values on the fly while modeling, as well as to set Component Preferences for components as they are placed. The Component Preferences Toolbar is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1
This article explains what the default component preferences do and how to customize component preferences to make better use of the AutoPLANT tools.
Project Objects
By default there are four Project Objects: LineNumber, Area, Unit, and Service. See Figure 2 below. Each of these is a required field when modeling in AutoPLANT. All relational data in the 3D side of the project is based on of these four fields. Generally, by the time a project is being modeled in 3D, these values are already created and available for use in the project data. All the user has to do is select the correct values for each field and place the relevant components in the model.
Figure 2
Component Preferences
By default there are four Component Preferences: Data, Spec, MainSize, and Insulation. These are used to further define how a component is placed.
Component Preferences are switches that can be set as the user models. They change the parameters of placed components.
The Data component preference is used to determine whether a component will take on settings from the component it will be connected to, or from other settings in the Component Preferences and Drawing Preferences tools.
The MainSize and Spec determine the size and from which spec the component will be pulled from. The Insulation preference allows the user to change the Insulation display on components.
In addition to the required Component Preferences, there are a number of other options available to provide more control and flexibility in placing components.
Custom Component Preferences
When the user right-clicks in the Component Preferences area, a sub-context menu is shown with the following options: Add, Edit, or Delete a component Preference. The default component preferences cannot be deleted. They can be edit if required, but it is not recommended.
These options are mainly for creating user-defined component preferences. Selecting Add Component Preference pulls up the dialog shown in Figure 3 below. Selecting the Result Field pull-down shows the Component Preferences that can be created. These include:
A switch to turn the advanced tap-port method on and off
A way to set the color for attachments
Auto-Topworks on/off switch
AT_COMPONENT_SHOWEND on/off switch
Weldsize setting
Figure 3
Selecting a value in the RESULT FIELD automatically populates the NAME, TYPE, and RESULT TYPE fields in the Component Preferences Editor dialog. Most of the Component Preferences available have a fixed list of options. That means that the user must define the available output options.
For example, the Auto-Topworks component preference is an on/off switch. The TYPE should be set to Fixedlist, and the LIST ITEM options should be 1 or 0 for on or off. This is set by selecting the EDIT button after the TYPE is set to FIXED list. Enter "on" and click ADD; enter "off" and click ADD; then click OK. See Figure 4 below.
Figure 4
Select a default in the FIXED LIST field then click OK to set a custom Component Preference to determine whether a topworks will be automatically inserted on valves and other instruments without additional user input. See Figure 5 below.
Figure 5
The user can now use the steps above to create other component preferences based on the available options in the Component Preferences Editor.
See Also
Comments or Corrections?
Bentley's Technical Support Group requests that you please confine any comments you have on this Wiki entry to this "Comments or Corrections?" section. THANK YOU!