Enhancement of equipment information sharing using three-dimensional computer-aided design simplification and digital catalog techniques in the plant industry

Abstract

Process plants are designed and constructed by engineering, procurement, and construction companies, which order various types of equipment to be installed in them. Equipment manufacturers design and produce the ordered equipment, and deliver it to the customer. Therefore, equipment information sharing between them is an important issue for engineering collaboration in a plant project. However, they use different three-dimensional computer-aided design systems for different purposes. For this reason, additional three-dimensional computer-aided design and data merging techniques are required for equipment information sharing. This article presents a new approach to share equipment information using three-dimensional computer-aided design simplification and digital catalog techniques. In this approach, the equipment's three-dimensional computer-aided design data generated by a manufacturer are first simplified and then converted into neutral three-dimensional computer-aided design. The converted three-dimensional computer-aided design data are merged with port and specification data into a digital catalog. Equipment information in the form of this digital catalog is finally delivered to the engineering, procurement, and construction companies.