Industrial Piping Design Blog...and other stuff

AutoCAD Plant 3D Isometrics Tutorial

dave — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:46:43 +0000

Autodesk Plant guru Joel Harris breaks down AutoCAD Plant 3D Isometrics for us into easy to swallow, bite sized chunks.

Joel presented some of this material to a packed house at Autodesk University 2011. Click on the image to view the tutorial.

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3DS Max Design: How To Create A Great Looking Sky

dave — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:00:18 +0000

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.

Tutorial will take you to youtube–> 3DS Max Skydome creation – Try replacing “http://www.youtube.com” with “https://www.youtube.com” in order to view the video.

If you cannot or don’t wish to view the video, you can follow these simple steps:

1. Create a ground plane object and a sphere that is about the same diameter as the plane and has its center at the same elevation as the plane.

2. Select the sphere and convert it to an editable poly (right click menu) – name it “skydome”

3. Convert the sphere to an editable poly and delete the bottom half of the sphere beneath the plane

4. Add a “Normal” modifier to the sphere and flip the normals

5. Use “Select and Squash” to flatten the cylinder to make it half-spheroidal

6. Add a “UVW Map modifier” and set it to cylindrical – then click the fit button

7. Open the Slate Material Editor (type M)

8. Right click > Materials > mental ray > mental ray to create a new mr material

9. Left click and drag from the Surface Shader node (left side) to the left and let go of the button you get a menu of choices, select mental ray > Color Override/Ray Type Switcher

10. In the Slate Material Editor right click > Maps > Standard > Bitmap and select your panoramic sky bitmap image

11. Connect the right bitmap connector node to the “Eye Rays”, “Reflections” and “Final Gather” nodes of the Color Override/Ray Type Switcher

12. Connect the right Color Override/Ray Type Switcher connector node to the mental ray Material “Surface Shader” node

13. Set the “Output Amount” to between 30 and 50 on the Bitmap. edit: <—-scene scale is the driver of that value. The bigger (dimensionally) the scene, the higher the value.

14. Open the “Environment and Effects” dialog (type “8″) and on the “Environment” tab set the Exposure Control to Logarithmic Exposure Control

15. Check “Process Background and Environment Maps” and check “Exterior Daylight”

16. With the skydome selected, open the material editor, select the sky parent material (Color Override/Ray Type Switcher) and click the “assign material to selection” button to assign it to your selection

17. Do some test renders, adjusting the output of the bitmap each time to see how the different levels affect the scene lighting. If you see black, keep upping the value or double check this list. It’s easy to skip a step.

18. Finally, create a daylight system and do more test renders.

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Announcing Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2012!!

dave — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:34:54 +0000

Why yes that is our beloved Project X on the cover. Suite! So, rather than post all the amazing features and benefits of Autodesk’s 2012 release of the soon to be industry leading Plant Design Suite. I decided to create a short video about it.

You can find all of the answers to your questions @ HERE

Here Is The YouTube Link

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YouTube is blocked at your work? Here’s the fix

dave — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:44:16 +0000

So YouTube is blocked at your work? Try this, it worked for me…

bad = www.youtube.com

good = https://www.youtube.com

This works for me on youtube, twitter, and facebook so far.

You’re welcome.

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But That’s the Way We’ve Always Done It!

dave — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:46:22 +0000

These are words I despise. They are like, the Hitler of excuses…and I want to punch them in the face.

Technology is constantly changing, progressing, advancing. As a result, Piping Design tools and technology are becoming far more advanced. From software to hardware, everyone is looking for the edge, right? I mean, we have software that makes many previously unthinkable tasks automatic and hardware that processes 100,000 quadrillion peta-triangles/second while letting you stream HD movies at the same time. It’s amazing, it’s unprecedented.~~I am afraid what we may be lacking here is the meatware that will accept it.~~ I guess the question is, “Is technology racing ahead faster than the general piping design population’s ability to keep up with it?” Allow me to illustrate:

My friend John R. works for a large, multi-billion dollar power EPC. At said company, they have standardized around a very advanced piece of software that we will call (Insert Plant Design software of choice). He says that from a functionality standpoint, the software is the best overall plant design package he has ever seen. He says that with a little finagling, it will do just about everything you want it to. He goes on to say that this is the general consensus of the support people inside his circle. Yet, strangely, he told me that it is constantly being run down by the designers as a piece of crap that doesn’t do anything they want it to and doesn’t work. He tries to treat each support call individually and without bias towards the person calling. He says that 90% of the time, the issue is something they have already dealt with and resolved yet the user either consistently forgets or refuses to learn the procedure for fixing the issue on his own OR refuses to learn the correct work flow to prevent him or herself from having the issue to begin with. He says that in their last desperate act to save themselves from being humiliated by the support guy once again, they all wind up saying “well that’s the way we’ve always done it!“. He tells me that he thought maybe this was a one off, bad apple experience. He then proceeded to tell me that he talks to a lot of other support people from a lot of different companies who all say the same exact thing regardless of software, geographics, demographics, age, sex, weight, color, height, or astrological sign.

So, this got me thinking. Is it really just a case of the users not knowing, caring, or wanting to understand how it all works because (Insert reason)? Is management to blame for not providing proper training or communication channels and as a result failing to understand what is happening at the micro level? Perhaps IT/Support shares in the blame game for not proving the proper infrastructure. More than likely it’s a combination of all 3 and 4 more that I can’t, won’t, or don’t have the scope of experience to mention. But you know what, it doesn’t really matter.

For better or worse, “The way we used to do it” is not “The way we do it NOW” and won’t be “The way we do it tomorrow”. Tools are getting faster and more complex and software vendor portfolios are become more integrated bringing with it so much new, value added functionality that we haven’t even realized how many different applications it has. Does ISO 15926 mean anything to anyone? If that ever bears fruit we are looking at an entire economy built around the tools it will inevitably generate. The options are massive.

Change is good, change is healthy, and change in the piping design world moves slow (PDS anyone?).

Times change and technology changes at a 10x multiplier. I have always thought that technology will swallow you whole and leave your excreted carcass behind if you don’t change with it, but in the piping design world at least, that seems to be the exception not the rule.

Am I way off base here, what do you think?

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Project X makes the Autodesk 2011 Show Reel

dave — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:37:48 +0000

Tired of hearing about Project X accolades? We’re not! Huge thanks to Autodesk for putting our project in your reel, we are honored!!

Congrats, Krew! You guys just keep blowing my mind. Click the play button below to play the reel or just check it out on YouTube!

YouTube Link

0:30 – Joel Harris at work

0:41 – Leandro, Brad, and Brian’s piperack. Chad Shupes area makes an impact.

1:16 – Aaron’s area comes to life.

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Intergraph Moscow Leaves Back Door Open, All SP3D Training Manuals Are Available For Download

dave — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:51:25 +0000

Expert Smartplant 3D user and forum member “tim” discovered yesterday that every single SP3D 2009.1 Training Manual is now available for download via Intergraph Moscow’s ftp.

You can see the post here:

SEE ORIGINAL POST HERE

I am guessing that Intergraph will be locking the door, soon.

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Excel VBA – Create A Basic Array Part 2

dave — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:00:30 +0000

‘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 could be row 1 but sometimes there is a header to consider.

'my header is on row 1, so I start on row 2

startrow = 2
'we want to find the last row that contains data

lastrow = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Row 'the last row with data
'my starting column is column1 (A)
myColumn = 1
'Let's start the loop!
For i = startrow To lastrow
'store the row values in the myRowValue variables

myRowValue = Cells(i, myColumn).Value

mySecondRowValue = Cells(i, myColumn + 1).Value

myThirdRowValue = Cells(i, myColumn + 2).Value

myRow = i 'the row number is now stored in the myRow variable
'next, we are going to write them to the array

'you must have this line to preserve what's in the array so when you add a new

'value it doesn't overwrite the old value

ReDim Preserve myArray(a)
'Now we have to check if there is anything in the array

'before we add to it

If Len(myArray(a)) > 0 Then 'if there is anything in the array then

' then we need to make the array equal to what's already in the array plus the new stuff
myArray(a) = myArray(a) & myRow & "," & myRowValue & "," & mySecondRowValue & "," & myThirdRowValue

a = a + 1 'we are using "a" as a counter to increment the array

'so now, our array looks something like this

' "2,Dave,52,Squash" ...etc
Else 'if not this means it's the first value and we just need the row and values
myArray(a) = myRow & "," & myRowValue & "," & mySecondRowValue & "," & myThirdRowValue
a = a + 1
End If
Next
For n = LBound(myArray) To UBound(myArray)
    c = Split(myArray(n), ",") 'Split allows us to find what's in between the commas
    'Here comes the fun part

    'we need to loop through the now split values

    'to do that, simply follow the code below

    For b = LBound(c) To UBound(c)

        Debug.Print c(b) 'now we can set variables for the returned values

        myRow = c(b) 'my row number

        myName = c(b + 1) 'my name

        myAge = c(b + 2) 'my age

        myFood = c(b + 3) 'my favorite food
'now let's perform a simple operation
        If myAge > 35 Then 'if my age is greater than 35

            Rows(myRow).Interior.ColorIndex = 45 'color my row

            GoTo nextN 'go to the next item in the array

        Else

            GoTo nextN 'my age is less then or equal to 35, skip me

        End If
    Next
nextN:

Next

End Sub
There are far easier ways to do this if you take this tutorial at face value. However, if you dig a little deeper and apply this method to your reports, you will find that you have much greater flexibility in comparing values and then performing calculations/comparisons on them once you do.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask me questions if you have any.

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Excel VBA – Create A Basic Array Part 1

dave — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:25:27 +0000

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 lastrow as long dim myArray() dim a as long dim i as long dim myRowValue as string dim myColumn as long


'set the column number you want to find the value for A=1 B=2 C=3 etc

myColumn = 2
'set your startrow to the begining of your row data

'this could be row 1 but sometimes there is a header to consider

startrow = 1
'we want to find the last row that contains data

lastrow = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Row 'the last row with data
'now we just do a simple "for" loop
For i = startrow to lastrow

'store the row value in the myRowValue variable

myRowValue = cells(i,myColumn).value
'you must have this line to preserve what's in the array so when you add a new

'value it doesn't overwrite the old value
redim preserve myArray(a)

myArray(a) = myRowValue

a=a+1
next
For n = lbound(myArray) to ubound(myArray)
debug.print myArray(n)
next
end sub

This works great for just collecting objects into an array. As you can see from your immediate window in the VBA editor (view > immediate)

Tomorrow, I will show you how to capture the row that the item is stored on and do something with it.

Hope this helps someone.

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PDS to Smartplant – Are They Fully Compatible?

dave — Sat, 28 May 2011 15:28:28 +0000

Irene asks this great question and gets many great responses. Click the link below and post your own thoughts!

PDS to Smartplant – Are They Fully Compatible?

Thanks!

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