SmartPlant Review .NET API Usage Tutorial By Parrish Husband When I worked as a piping designer, the SmartPlant Review driving and reporting fell into my lap more times than I can remember. Eventually I got to a point where I spent more time setting up VUE sessions and making tag reports than I was designing; thus it became clear to me I would need to figure out a way to streamline my efforts. I was introduced to the SmartPlant Review API module shortly thereafter by one of our PDS administrators, and immediately began testing it's capabilities and limitations. One thing I struggled...

I recently released my dwg batch import utility for 3ds Max Design called "Polyform Importer". The purpose for creating the utility was to solve the problem of only being able to import one file at a time into 3ds Max. I will show you how to install it and then talk about how it works. Installing the Polyform Importer 1. Navigate to the folder that you exported the project DWG files to 2. Download the Polyform Importer.ms script and drop it into any 3ds Max Design scene 3. From the main menu click Customize then click Customize User Interface 4. Click on the Menus tab 5. Click New......

In the following tutorial, we will create a skydome that accurately projects light onto your scene. This tutorial is based largely (entirely) from the master of Mental Ray rendering, Jeff Patton. This tutorial will take you to youtube--> 3DS Max Skydome creation - If youtube is blocked, try replacing "http://www.youtube.com" with "https://www.youtube.com" in order to view the video. http://youtu.be/VWoB2g6dMN0 If you cannot or don't wish to view the video, you can follow these simple steps: Please do not reuse...

'Yesterday, we learned how to create a basic array in Excel VBA. 'Today we are going to actually do something with it. 'Let's highlight the rows of the people that are over 35. Here we go. Sub CollectRowValuesInAnArray() Dim startrow As Long Dim lastrow As Long Dim myArray() Dim a As Long Dim i As Long Dim myRowValue As String Dim myColumn As Long 'In your dim statements add Dim myRow As Long Dim mySecondRowValue As String Dim myThirdRowValue As String dim myName as string dim myAge as long dim myFood as string 'set your startrow to the begining of your row data 'this...

Most design software output's to Microsoft Excel in some form or fashion. In this 2 part tutorial, I will show you how to collect an array of cell values in M$oft Excel VBA. There a few ways to loop through each row in excel VBA. For me, the quickest way is to dump the data into an array. 1. Open your excel spreadsheet. 2. Save it as another file name so you don't inadvertently mess something up while you're playing. Here is mine: 3. Open the VBA Editor (Press Alt+F11) 4. Create a new Module 5. Paste in the code below sub CollectRowValuesInAnArray() dim startrow as long dim...

Veteran Krusty Krew member, Ryan Chiasson, guides us through the time saving steps of setting up your toolbars for vanilla AutoCAD or AutoCAD Plant 3D. Huge thanks to Ryan for taking the time out of his busy schedule to set this tutorial up for us. Thanks, dude! AutoCAD Plant 3D is used in this “How To” but these steps will also work for vanilla AutoCAD 1. Type CUI at the command line. This will bring up the Customize User Interface window. 2. Select the workspace that the toolbars are to be added to, these can be found in the tree in the Customizations in All files section...

What's that? You say you're having trouble getting that pesky existing steel to show up on ISOGEN isometrics?? You're not alone! Luckily we have Ken Fauver to explain the method he uses to show existing steel on the ISOGEN isometric. Big thanks to Ken who took the time to put this document together and then share it with the community. Thanks, Ken!! 1. Select Supports > Base Supports > Misc. Supports > General Steel Support from the Supports/Topworks Browser. 2. After inserting the General Steel Support a dialog opens to allow the Designer to edit the descriptions. We will...

This article explains how to configure a RAM disk for use with AutoCAD Plant 3D. The purpose of the RAM disk is faster access rates for project and catalog/spec data. Plant 3D reads the project database and catalogs often as you’re  working on models, so loading them into memory increases the performance in general (hard disk access times are much slower than physical system memory.) The article is intended for power users and should only be attempted after creating backups of your current Plant 3D catalogs and projects. Before attempting to use the RAM disk configuration, please note...

Programming using Smartplant P&ID's Logical Automation Layer is actually very easy and intuative after you do it a few times.  This example of a what I start with a lot. What this little routine will do is loop through all the active (non stockpile) piperuns in your project and print their ItemTags in the immediate window. You could easily print them out to a txt file or excel spreadsheet too. For this to work you must have your desired project active. Create a new .exe in VB6 Next, add your references (Project > References) - in this case we will need : Intergraph Smartplant...

Since AutoCAD’s loading of functions operates with the premise of “last loaded wins” (i.e. if you have 2 utilities loading with the exact same function name, the last one to be loaded will be the one AutoCAD will recognize when executing a utility), it is important to understand a few things about how and where AutoCAD looks for files to load.  When you open a new or existing drawing, AutoCAD is pre-programmed to look for certain support files in a certain order. Autodesk’s "AutoCAD" STARTUP FILE LOADING ORDER: 1)      acad2011.lsp (AutoCAD file) 2)      acad.lsp (User file...