OpenPlant PowerPID - Tag placement order

Hi

I am placing 2 properties "name" and "description" into the P&ID as annotation.  This is active when placing the symbol, but the order of placement is not what I want.  I want the order to be "name" first and the "description" second.

Currently the order is "description" then "name".  I am not sure on what basis the placement order gets determined... Alphabetically or last created place first.

How do I change the placement order?

Thanks

Spyker

Parents
  • Spyker,

    Look at this post in the Plant Design Engineering Wiki:

    communities.bentley.com/.../4488.aspx

    The key is to set the ECExpression in the order in which you need the tag format to be.

    In your case the Calculated ECProperty Calculation would be "this.NAME & this.DESCRIPTION". You can include any number of properties. One note - Properties that are of the Associated Type (Plant Area, Unit, System, Service) require a slightly different method becuase these are "associated" properties.

    For calling Plant Area it would be "this.GetRelatedInstance("PLANT_AREA_HAS_NAMED_ITEM:1:PLANT_AREA, NAME:?").NAME:.

    For reference look in the OpenPlant_Supplemental_Tagging schema and the NAME properties on the different classes.

    I hope this helps,

    Tony DeRosa

    Bentley Plant

     

    Tony DeRosa

    Senior Application Engineer

    Bentley Plant



  • Hi Tony

    Thanks for the feedback.  My question is a little bit different, I think.

    I have 2 separate properties that I want to automatically place with the symbol.  The positions cannot be automatically calculated as the equipment sizes differ.  So the placement method has been set to 1, which allows me to place the text after positioning the symbol.

    When I place the symbol, the 2 properties can be place, but I would like the order to be different.  I my case the name (tag number which has been concatenated based on a standard) is placed second to the description.  I would like the name to be placed first and then the description to be placed second.

    How will I change this or is it based on alphabetical order.

    Hope this makes sense.

    Thanks Spyker

    Marais van Heerden (Spyker)

    3DDraughting

  • Spyker,

    This is strange. I just added an annotation custom attribute to DESCRIPTION for equipment class. The Tag Name property of course already had the annotation custom attribute.

    I set both properties to annotate mannuall0y. When I place my equipment the first annotation is the Tag and the second is the Description. I have not been able to find a way to control the placement order of these.

    If you can upload your schemas that may help me. If these are too sensitive in nature please send them to me directly and I can take a look at them. I will need the OpenPlant_PID, OpenPlant_PID_Supplemental_xxx and OpenPlant_Supplemental_Tagging schemas.

    Regards,

    Tony DeRosa

    Bentley Plant

     

    Tony DeRosa

    Senior Application Engineer

    Bentley Plant



  • Hi Tony and others,

    I was wondering if someone could please elaborate slightly more. I'm new to PID and using the latest release. We need to display tag plus two descriptions. I'm struggling to follow how I get the description value to place as annotation. If someone could run through that again in slightly more detail then I should be able to add a second description based of that method.

    Thanks in advance

    Ben
  • Ben,

    Depending on when you want the description property to be placed as annotation there are two methods of getting the annotation you desire.

    Method 1: At component placement.

    1. Load the Class Editor and the OpenPlant_PID schema. Supplement this with the OpenPlant_PID_Supplemental_Imperial.xx.xx schema. (Or the ISO workspace equivalent.).
    2. Locate the class and property you want to annotate. For this example locate the DESCRIPTION property on the EQUIPMENT class. If not already overridden the override the property. Pick Custom Attributes>Add/Remove and select the Annotation Custom Attribute (Display Label) custom attribute and add it to the property.
    3. In the custom attribute fill in the Origin Offset X, Y values, Direction X, Y values (usually only 1 in the X direction). Then to turn on the annotation set the Visibility variable to True, type in the name of the Text Style and then set the Placement Count as needed. Placement count is set as follows - 0 = place automatically after the tag is placed and based on the settings in the custom attribute. If set to 1 or more then this is the number of times the user will be prompted to manually place the annotation at a location of choice.

    Method 2: Using the separate Annotation component.

    1. From the Task Manager - Pick the Annotation task, then the Custom Annotation Category and then Equipment Annotations.
    2. From the dialog select the desired annotation. In this example pick Equipment Annotation. Note that this is comprised of three fields  - Name, Description and Model.
    3. Drag this over the equipment you want to annotate, Once you cross over the component the properties will be gathered and displayed in the annotation. Place this on drawing.
    4. To edit this you need to modify the schema as follows:
    1. Browse to the EQUIPMENT_ANNOTATION_ALT3 class. (Classes>Plant Base Object>Annotation Item>Base Equipment Annotation)
    2. Locate the TEXT property.
    3. Modify the Calculated ECProperty Specification custom attribute - ECExpression to suit your needs. A few notes about the expression.
    1. The property names used must be present on the equipment class being annotated AND on the Equipment Annotation class you are editing.
    2. The "\n" will wrap the text to the next line.

    I hope this helps,

    Tony DeRosa

    Bentley Plant

     

    Tony DeRosa

    Senior Application Engineer

    Bentley Plant



  • Hi Tony,

    Many thanks for the detailed instructions. That worked a treat!
    Thanks again

    Ben
Reply Children
No Data