Five underrated features in AutoCAD® Plant 3D™

In the world of plant engineering, Autodesk AutoCAD Plant 3D is an indispensable tool for engineers and planners. But as with any powerful software, there are features that are often overlooked or underestimated.

However, these features can make all the difference - they save time, improve accuracy and streamline the entire planning process.

In this blog post, we'll introduce you to five of these hidden gems in AutoCAD Plant 3D that you should definitely use in your next project.

1. DIN wall thicknesses

In the Spec Editor of Plant 3D, DIN wall thicknesses can be defined for pipe classes.

This offers administrators the advantage of defining wall thicknesses according to certain properties and nominal sizes (standard, pressure level, material, material code, wall thickness series, design detail, design pressure factor).

This eliminates the need to assign a separate wall thickness to each component and its size in the catalog. This saves time and ensures that the correct wall thickness is automatically entered for each fitting.

2.  LD Styles

• Customer descriptions in the pipe class can be customized without having to change the catalog components.
• Different properties can be combined to form a description.
• LD Styles can also be used for ortho parts lists and iso parts lists to display different texts

3. Catalog generator

The catalog generator is a powerful tool

that is, in my opinion, used too little. It can also be accessed via the Spec Editor.

The catalog editor can be used to quickly put together a new catalog that is initially created; fine-tuning is then done in the catalog editor or in Excel.

Advantages:

• Recreation of many components in the shortest possible time
• Conversion of pipe classes into catalogs

4. Calculated properties

The "PLANTDEFINECALCPROPERTIES" command still exists, but new calculated properties can also be created in the Plant 3D class definition.

Advantages:

•  Multiple properties can be linked to a new property.
• Mathematical operations (e.g. calculating the surface area) are possible.
• Various string operations (e.g. using only part of a string) can be performed.
  
  

5. Project comparison

The project comparison can be accessed via the project manager and is a powerful tool for comparing two projects and performing various actions.

These actions could be:

• Transferring some or all properties from one project to another
•  Transferring styles
• Transferring templates
• Transferring settings.

Now that we have taken a closer look at these practical tools, it is clear that Plant 3D offers much more than it seems at first glance. By integrating these functions into your everyday work, you can significantly increase the efficiency of your projects and at the same time improve the quality of your planning. Discover the full potential of AutoCAD Plant 3D and take the next step towards an even more productive way of working.