RE: Web-Based Work

Chris,

You mentioned that you want to do engineering and design over the internet, but just managing AutoCAD drawings is not really engineering and design, it is drafting. The real power of piping design comes from the database. The way that piping design is typically done is that the data is becoming more important than the drawings and the drawings are a graphical view of the database. For example, design is spec driven, therefore all piping components on a dwg are per spec. When using a piping design software module, the software will not allow a designer to place a component on the drawing that is not within spec. Also, Isometric's are produced automatically from the database. The pipe stress analysis is done by automatically extracting the piping data into a pipe stress program, not having to manually input the piping data again; etc.. So you can see that with the piping tools (If you want to use AutoCAD, then the Rebis AutoPLANT would be the piping software that utilizes AutoCAD as its graphics engine), there is a considerably manhour savings. The key to manhour savings is to automate the engineering and design and not just the drafting. Doing a test project over the internet and learning how to do a virtual project (Engineering; design and analysis) could prove fruitful to all involved).

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Wright [mailto:chrisw@skypoint.com]
Sent: Friday, December 31, 1999 12:43 PM
To: ?
Subject: RE: [PipingDesign] Web-Based Work

From: Christopher Wright <chrisw@skypoint.com>

> I'm thinking about doing an experiment, using
PipingDesign.com and

> you subscribers.

I've done some stuff along these lines with FEA for various
clients.

Getting data filers over the Internet is pretty simple and
submitting

finished documents is just as easy. It can be made platform
independent,

since there's a fair amount of interchangeability between
CAD packages.

The real problem is integration of basic design documents.
Someone (a

sort of prime contractor surrogate) will have to be in
charge of putting

all the pieces together and making sure that everything is
complete and

compliant. That in turn depends on careful planning of the
work, since

you can't just walk into the next office and go over
drawings. A project

like this would also require some facility for group
meetings, via

internet conferencing or something as simple as a chat room.
E-mail works

pretty well for conveying instructions and specific data
items, but not

for highly interactive discussions.

I think this is a neat idea, the only caveat being that the
project be

simple enough so that it doesn't interfere too much with
real jobs. In

answer to Otto Weiberth I'd think the purpose of this is to
work out

organizational and communications issues for doing
engineering and design

over the internet. It's a lot more than AutoCAD training,
since piping

design goes a lot farther than just CAD software.

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant
from

chrisw@skypoint.com | this distance" (last words of
Gen.

___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania
1864)

<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a>

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Received on Fri Dec 31 13:48:00 1999