I've used both programs and by far PDMS is better.
The PDS version that we used was drawing centric which
made it hard to maintain and easy to lose links. I hated the
piping side of it --- It was soooo unforgiving.
I learned PDS back in 1997 @ McDermott for a PDMS to PDS conversion. I thought the PDS package back then was OK. I do not know much about it now though.
I started using PDS back in 1992 at Fluor,it was the greatest thing in the world, I mean, you pick pictures to build your equipment, and more pictures to build your pipe. sure if something changed, it was quicker to delete your entire pipe and redo it, but hey, small price, right?
Then I started at McDermott in '96, and they showed me this program called PDMS. It sucked! There was this hierarchy thing, and you had to build your own equipment, and the pipe, it was crazy, there were no little pictures to pick, and no automatic gaskets, and worst of all, there was no pipe segment, the little blue line that held all the data!
But then I saw a great bright light, the pipe was always shaded, and there was no restrictions on how you put things in the model, and those little pictures just took up space on the screen, and I could rotate, yes, rotate free, like a little girl in a long dress, I could spin to my hearts desire! ALL WHILE SHADED!!! The equipment, I could make it look anyway I wanted, the valves looked like real valves, everything became clear. PDMS was the way to go. Marty and Ken had shown me the way!
Since '96 I've had to return to "the PDS" 3 times, once at McDermott, once at Kvaerner (for about 9 months!) and once at Technip, (for about 6 months), each time I've gritted my teeth and was in labor until the project be born, like a 15lb baby, because it was my job, I know where my heart is. I would be happy to never return to PDS, and the "thin blue segment of disaster".
