Can 3D plant project data control be easy on Administrators?

CAD Schroer‘s new Project Data Control (PDC) environment for M4 PLANT ensures that concurrent plant design and global engineering content management doesn’t have to come with a huge implementation burden

With the release of its new PDC engineering content management environment, CAD Schroer aims to help process plant and large-scale assembly designers to effectively manage growing engineering design complexity, without a huge administrative burden.

PDC has just been launched with release 5.1 of CAD Schroer’s database-driven M4 PLANT 3D plant design system.

Growing Design Complexity

“Manufacturers and plant designers face growing design complexity, along with pressures on project timescales, costs and resources,” explains Product Line Manager Mark Simpson. “Engineering documents and data represent their main intellectual property. Getting the most out of this investment by controlling, sharing, re-using and querying engineering content is key to the quality, efficiency, success and profitability of future projects . Yet the administrative burden associated with implementing most PDM or PLM systems can be a massive stumbling block. PDC is our flexible approach to this issue; an attempt to go easy on Administrators. We won’t replace existing systems or databases – we provide a practical technical solution that integrates plant design with them, aligning engineering software with our customers’ objectives by delivering only what’s needed.”

PDC Video and Datasheet

PDC: not a huge implementation burden
PDC: Control, manage, share plant data

Integrated Project and Data Control

PDC manages all design data and associated documents, and is fully integrated with CAD Schroer’s M4 DRAFTING and M4 PLANT plant engineering software. Its open architecture makes data available to existing PLM, PDM, ERP or analysis systems, and to other users via the Internet, allowing distributed teams to collaborate globally. PDC provides version management, user and access privilege controls, and manages all project-related content (e.g. 3D models, 2D drawings, spreadsheets, piping isometrics), as well as design-specific data (e.g. component attributes, parts lists or the current editing status of a drawing).

Intelligent Queries and Easy Updates

“When suppliers modify, replace or recall equipment regularly used in plant projects, M4 PLANT users can query PDC-controlled equipment models to see in which documents they are represented – e.g. as a P&ID symbol, an M4 PLANT instance, or a 2D view,” Mark explains. “They can assess the implication of making a change, and replace the equipment in their designs with the latest version if appropriate.”

Flexibly Manage Plant Design

Users can also explore relationships between documents, i.e. between model files and their definition sheets. PDC queries can locate similar projects, allowing users to copy databases for a quick start on new designs. PDC makes downstream engineering data, such as piping isometrics, available to other project stakeholders, or to other systems for stress analysis for example.

With PDC, plant designers can flexibly manage project complexity, effectively using engineering data without a huge implementation burden. CAD Schroer’s experts provide practical technical solutions to customers worldwide, integrating engineering and corporate processes to meet business objectives.

PDC: Integration von Geschäftsprozessen

YouTube Video: PDC Project Data Control – video overview

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