I heard a nasty rumour yesterday that there is a chance Aveva is going to stop development on it's P&ID package and only resell AutoCAD's P&ID package along with an associated conversion utility that allows Acad's tool to talk to VPE Workbench and the VPD model.
Is there anyone out there currently using AutoCAD's tool that would like to comment?
Our local AutoCAD vendor has no idea and wouldn't venture to speculate.
Does the term "P&ID Designer" mean anything to you in terms of an application? Or have you signed a non-disclosure agreement too?
My gut instinct based on the behaviour of the Aveva team (both UK support and the cagey sales staff) is that it's true. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later.
And I should probably hurry up and finish the VPE P&ID user manual I'm writing before it's obsolete.
There was talk from AVEVA at the 2006 VPA/ISEIT Conference about "teaming" up with AutoDESK and working with them to "combine" their resources toward a functional package instead of competing against one antoher. I have not heard any such topic addressed since Oct 2006. I will send a buzz thru our VPA Committee to see what inforamtion others might have and post the results.
At the DACH user conference held in Linz Austria this year i heard something similar.
Please don't be angry with me but i've heard that aveva's one PID package isn't that great. I've tested with the vertical PID application off autodesk and i thinks it works quite OK. A decent interface / conversion is a must of course. I'll ask some people i know if they've heard the same.
swissis, I would tend to agree with you. Extensive use of the VPE P&ID application has led me to have a rather low opinion of the tool. That could also be affected by the fact that I have had zero training from Aveva personnel, and access to only one poorly written training manual. I'm a quick study though, and I've picked up most of the program without problem. I've also written an in-house user manual for my company that has really cleared up a lot of issues--even with those who received Aveva training. (Keith, if you're reading this, I know you meant well!)
I have booked a meeting with our Acad reseller to demo the latest P&ID software from them. It was supposed to have been this morning, but the rep's wife went into labour thus necessitating a reschedule.
I would consider migration to an Autodesk product that is compatible with VPE to be a very positive event.
cadfusion,
maybe we can re-address the issue at the 2007 conference. Tim Gray (w/Autodesk) said he was going to be there, so it looks like the experts will be on hand.
We had a presentation from the AVEVA Business Development VP at a Forum they held here last week. There was no indication that they are dropping their own P&ID offering since this is the one that currently can interface with VPE Workbench and can be used with the Model Management. They do seem to be working on another version of P&ID called P&ID Designer which is based on the AutoCAD P&ID
Overall what seems to be happening is that they are moving to create a schematic model data section to sit alongside the 3D Model data within the same Dabacon environment. To do this they are creating a new tool called P&ID Manager to be able to load VPE P&IDs, P&ID Designer P&IDs and in theory any other intelligently drawn P&ID into this schematic model. They also show another P&ID tool which they call Professional that links directly into the schematic model. When I quizzed the guy about this he sais that he wasn't entirely sure if this was needed and if there was really a place for this alongside the other P&ID tools. Again that woudl be based on AutoCAD P&ID.
