I'm a Mechanical Engineer currently working on a Nuclear Project, based in South Africa. I have unfortunately, not yet worked or trained on PDMS, but have been given the task to investigate what interface capabilities our current 11.4 version has with other 3D modelling file formats.
Does anyone know whether the basic 11.4 PDMS version, can import and interpret any detailed 3D mechanical models, from other software packages?
Our Piping Engineers are currently having difficulty achieving this...does our version require any additional add-in feature/interface, if available?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Please only respond, if you 100% sure.
You can use AVEVA's Implant-A, Implant-I or Implant-STL to bring in other 3D geometry from other CAD packages in PDMS.
Hi codooaustin,
Thank you for your reply.
Great...so there are add-in feature to expand our current package.
Can additional information be sourced on the AVEVA website?...I'll have a look.
If you have any further information, regarding these 3 'Implant' softwares?
How do they work in conjunction with the baseline PDMS software?
Any further explainations would be appreciated.
My apologies for my ignorance.
I'm a bit confused...:confused_smile: By the looks of things...am I correct in saying that a completely new software package needs to be purchased?
Aren't all these ImPLANT interfaces, stand-alone packages, similar to Inventor, SolidWorks, ProEng, etc.?
I've only worked with 3D Mechanical packages in the past, which had a variety of different files formats to 'Save As'...these files could easily be imported, or exported from one software to the next...why wasn't PDMS developed in a similar fashion?...hmmm
If i'm not understanding this, first time around...forgive me!:mumbles:
It is harder then I thought to find details of these products on the AVEVA website, but your local AVEVA office should be able to send you details - at least of ImPLANT-I and ImPLANT-STL.
In summary, ImPLANT-I can read DGN (v7) files and create PDMS or Review input files. It has some limitations (it cannot handle bsplines, and smart solids and shared shells need to be "dropped" to simpler geometry before translation.
ImPLANT-STL translates STL files (lots of triangular facets, which can be exported from many CAD systems). It can take some skill to set up all the export and import options to get a result with enough detail and accuracy, but without slowing PDMS down too much.
ImPLANT-A is not fully supported - it can translate some AutoCAD files, but not including many entitites widely used in practice. For some customers it may do what they require, but it is not a general solution to AutoCAD import.
All three interfaces produce PDMS macro files compatible with PDMS 11.4 (in some cases you may have to avoid particular options).
Another approach for CAD import is UNITEC's mcad suite, but I do not know its version compatibility.
Correct the ImPLANT Applications are stand-alone applications independent from PDMS. As Tim said, they merely generate either a Review file or a PDMS macro (which is then imported into PDMS as "dumb" solids) depending on which ImPLANT Application you use.
I recommend trying to get your CAD Geometry in .DGN (V7) format as it seems to be the fastest when the geometry is being displayed in PDMS.
What CAD package geometry are you trying to get into PDMS? If you send me the file I can then send you a screenshot of what it looks like inside of PDMS.
Well, we need to import CAD formats from Inventor, SolidWorks, ProEng, and Solid Edge...basically what ever format is available from our vendors.
I heard that Aveva has decided not to develop integrating capabilities with SmartPlant...is this true?
I'm asking, because our company needs to supply certain drawing deliverables to our client on completion of the project...if PDMS can't interface with SmartPlant, then I think I have a huge problem on my hand...hmmm:brick:
[QUOTE=codooaustin;20651]As far as I know PDMS cannot interface with SmartPlant 3D, I don't think anything can, PDS can't even fully interface with SP3D.
But you can bring in the geometry from the Mechanical CAD systems you mentioned using translators provided by AVEVA and also it's collaboration with Okino, who develop multi-CAD translators.
In your last statement, are saying that Aveva translator modules can convert compatible file formats into SP3D?...I was told by AVEVA that this couldn't be done, since they've deliberately decided to handicap any link with SP3D...:emoticon_U:
