| Applies To | |
| Product(s): | AutoPLANT Plant Design |
| Version(s): | XM Edition |
| Environment: | N/A |
| Area: | N/A |
| Subarea: | N/A |
| Original Author: | Jesse Wolfe, Bentley Product Advantage Group |
Overview
Many new features have been added and upgraded for the AutoPLANT line of products in the more recent releases. One of the features recently updated is the Component Preferences Toolbar. This Tool allows you to modify the Project Object values "on the fly" during modeling while allowing you to set Component Preferences for components as they are placed. This dialog can be seen in Figure 1 below.
This document will provide you with a greater understanding of the Purpose of the default component preferences and explain the latest options available to customize component preferences allowing you to better utilize the tools included in AutoPLANT XM Edition.
Relationships
By default there are four Relationships in a given project: 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 off 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.
Component Preferences
By default there are four Component Preferences: Data, AutoPLANT Selections, Spec, Auto Assign Tag, MainSize, and Insulation. These are used to further define how a component is placed. Component Preferences are basically a set of switches that can be set as you model that 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. AutoPLANT Selections is a switch modifying whether AutoPLANT or AutoCAD selection dialogs are used in situations warranting a Selection dialog (i.e. Isogen Export, Connectivity Checker etc.) Auto Assign Tag simply directs the Tag selection be chronological. The MainSize and Spec are self-explanatory, they determine the size and from which spec the component will be pulled from. The Insulation preference allows a user to change the Insulation display on components.Headings
That is all of the required Component Preferences. There are, however, a number of other options available to Users who want more control and flexibility in placing components.
Custom Component Preferences
By right-clicking 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. A user can edit them if required but it is not recommended. Mainly these options are for creating user-defined component preferences. It is also important to note that the preferences shown in this control are configured for each AutoPLANT 3D application. For example, when working in the PIPING application, the control will only display the relationship and component preferences that have been configured for PIPING. You can change the preferences that appear by selecting the application from the drop-down list in the top toolbar. In order to assign a project object for Equipment, a custom object needs to be defined through the Project Administrator.
Selecting Add Component Preference pulls up the dialog shown in Figure 3 below. Selecting the Result Field pull-down shows the available 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
Selecting a value in the RESULT FIELD will automatically populate the NAME, TYPE and RESULT TYPE fields in the Component Preferences Editor dialog. Most of the Component Preferences available will have a fixed list of options. That means that the user must define the available output options. For instance 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. Type ON and hit the ADD button. Then type OFF and hit the ADD button and hit OK. See Figure 4 below.
Select a default in the FIXED LIST field then hit 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.
A user can now take the steps above and apply them creating other component preferences based on the available options in the Component Preferences Editor.
See Also
External Links
Bentley Technical Support KnowledgeBase
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