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About Jason Drew

Jason Drew is a Plant Solutions Application Engineer at D3 Technologies. He provides training, support and consulting to customers across the United States using Plant Design Suite.

Before joining D3, Jason worked for three years as an administrator/designer using Intergraph SmartPlant P&ID.  His original background is Information Technology where he worked for 6 years providing computer support for a local engineering company.

Plant Expert Archive

Q&A

  • Profile Picture
    Corey Charmcihael
    02-01-2011 12:24pmQuestion #1

    Hi Jason,

    I am having a tough time understanding the workflow for creating custom components in plant. I know how to create custom components and add them to a catalogue. what I am having a tough time understanding is how to get these custom components to work on everyone else’s computer. The components work great on my computer but that is because the three files associated with them can be seen by Plant. If I add the custom components to a spec I can get them to show up on another users computer, but not visually because it can’t find the png or xml file. How does Plant recognize where those files are? Is this something that we modify to make plant look at a central drive instead of our C drive? How do I share these components with a mass group?

    Thanks Corey

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #1

      Corey,

      You'll need to copy your catalog (with the custom components) to a network drive that everyone has access to. Then you'll need to modify a registry entry on your computer as well as the other workstations to point the software to the catalog location.

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R18.1\ACAD-9017:409\P3dContent

      Change the value for ConfigFilePath and P3dContentRootPath to be the network drive path. I don't believe you can use UNC paths, so make sure it's a mapped location with drive letter assigned.

      I would recommend copying the entire "AutoCAD Plant 3D 2011 Content" folder to the network drive and make future modifications from there.

  • Profile Picture
    Greg Seeds
    02-02-2011 08:44amQuestion #2

    Good day,

    We've just started using Plant 3D and have several questions and comments. Is this the best place to post technical question and or make suggestions for software improvements? I'll wait for a reply before posting any specifics.

    Thanks in advance!

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #2

      Greg,

      The best place to search for existing technical questions and answers would be the Plant Exchange forums

      If you have a technical question that hasn't been answered yet in the forums you can post those here on the Ask the Expert section.

      Suggestions and improvements can be sent directly to the Plant 3D Improvement team at this email address: 

      improveplant3d@autodesk.com

       

  • Profile Picture
    Richard Oakley
    02-02-2011 05:46pmQuestion #3

    Hi Jason,

    Ive got some cutback elbows in a pipe. When i create the ISO there is a leader pointing to the elbow saying "Cutback Elbow".

    Is there an atext or switch to tell plant NOT to add this note to the ISO

    Cheers

    Richard

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 10 2011Reply to Question #3

      Richard,

      I checked the atext switches and isogen settings, but wasn't able to find a way to remove the cutback elbow callouts for isogen.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Aline Sylvain
    02-03-2011 12:42amQuestion #4

    bonjour où puis-je trouver autocad electrique 2011

    en version d'essais ?

    merci

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #4

      Aline,

      Please pardon me if anything is lost in the translation, but I believe you are looking for a trial version of AutoCAD Electrical 2011?

      Product trial downloads can be found on the product pages of the Autodesk website:

      AutoCAD Electrical 2011 product page

  • Profile Picture
    Stephen Hall
    02-03-2011 03:55amQuestion #5
    Jason, I have been getting a re-ocurring error on my plant 3D have you ever came up against this one; When i open AutoCad Plant 3D to see my start screen my plant freexes and locks me out i can't get into any of my files. It just seems like it has dropped the executionable files for this. I have had it re-installed again and again. Is there a solution
    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #5

      The issue has been reported and the workaround at the moment is to use the command "PLANTWELCOMEENABLED" and set it to "OFF". That will disable the welcome screen and allow you to go straight into Project Manager when launching Plant 3D.

      If you're current installation of Plant 3D is freezing at the welcome screen, try using CTRL-O to get the open drawing dialog box to show up, then open any drawing and type in the command above.

       

  • Profile Picture
    Cheri Rafalko
    02-03-2011 07:58amQuestion #6

    I am using AutoCad Plant 3D and am trying to use the Ortho Annotate feature for my structural orthos. The only thing that comes up when I try to use it is a symbol that looks like a diamond. I have tried everything I can think of through the project setup manager to no avail. How do I use this feature?

    Thanks,

    Cheri

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #6

      Cheri,

      There are many ways to configure the Ortho annotations for structural steel members.The annotations can report just about any data field from the steel member properties.

      Can you email me some screen captures of what you're seeing with the diamond shaped symbol?

      My email address is:  jason.drew@d3tech.net

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Roland Legnon
    02-03-2011 08:44amQuestion #7
    Jason, prior to installing Autocad Plant 3D & PID on my pc, are their any setups, back ups or other action I should do to make my first install my last (within reason)?
    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #7

      Roland,

      I would recommend checking to make sure your computer meets the minimum hardware/software requirements (Windows service packs, system RAM, processor, etc.)

      http://docs.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/2011/ENU/filesReadme/WS1a9193826455f5ff-7f10494411f03a24f24-6356.htm

      If you use the default paths during installation, Plant 3D will install into its own directory so no need to worry about affecting other AutoCAD or Autodesk product installations.

      The only other suggestion I would have is to uninstall any previous versions of Plant 3D (trial versions or betas) before installing Plant 3D 2011.

  • Profile Picture
    Kevork Malkonian
    02-03-2011 09:34amQuestion #8

    Hi Jason

    there is drawing when I activate the model from layout sheet the crosshair change not coming right angle . why?

    thanks

    kevork

     

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #8

      Kevork,

      It sounds like your UCS is set to "VIEW". Try typing in the command "UCS" and set that to "WORLD".

      That will reset your coordinate system back to default and the cross-hair should return to normal.

  • Profile Picture
    Robert Otoole
    02-03-2011 10:03amQuestion #9
    Dear Sir I was written about a hatch function and my question was how I may change the setting in a hatch  pattern  wich is setting as an inperial sisten and I am using a metric sisten .- Th  progran  is an AutoCAD 2009 that is setting in metrics Units in all other function it works as the other programs I was used before but in the hatch command its remain setting in English units(0) and I Konw that it must be set(1) . I was found a sentence  which change it before but I can remember it, I appreciate if you may recall it for me.- Thanks
     
  • Profile Picture
    Brian Carlson
    02-03-2011 01:08pmQuestion #10

    Hi Jason,

    We just install Plant 3D 64bit version onto new machines running win7 after previously starting a project in 32-bit windows xp... now I can't access project properties.  It appears in the menu, but is unselectable (appears light gray).  Am i missing something when we set up the new machines?

    Thanks, Brian.

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 03 2011Reply to Question #10

      Brian,

      Typically the proejct properties are only greyed out if the project files are set to read only or stored on a network drive where you only have read-only permissions.

      I would check the properties on the project files in Windows Explorer to see what they are set to.

      Thanks,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Kevork Malkonian
    02-04-2011 01:00amQuestion #11

    Hi Jason

    frankly I do that but ithe cross hair not return back.

    kevork

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 04 2011Reply to Question #11

      Hi Kevork,

      Can you email me a screen capture of what you're seeing there with the crosshair?

      My email address is:  jason.drew@d3tech.net

      Thank you!

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    GREG MARCHENA
    02-04-2011 06:52amQuestion #12

    HEY GOOD MORNING, MY NAMES GREG, I PLAN ON GETING ONE OF YOUR PROGRAMS, BUT I'M NOT SURE WHICH IS BEST FOR MY BUSINESS. I'M IN THE CUSTOM CABINETS AND FUNITURE BUSINESS. I WILL BE USING THE PROGRAM TO DESIGN KITCHENS LIBRARIES ECT.. I WILL THEN USE IT TO PRESENT THE PROPOSED DESIGN TO THE CLIENT, AND FINALY I WILL PRINT OUT BLUE PRINTS FOR FABRICATION. SO MY QUESTION TO YOU IS WHICH VERSION DO YOU RECOMEND FOR MY REQUIRED USE?

  • Profile Picture
    Markcom Fox
    02-04-2011 12:17pmQuestion #13
    I am having trouble pulling an inventor model (shrinkwrapped and exported with AEC) into my plant model. I click the "PlantInventorEquipmentConvert" button, find the file name and open it, then nothing happens. Also, opening just the .adsk file in AutoCAD Plant 3D crashes Plant. I can see a wireframe of the model for a few seconds in 2D then it crashes. Any suggestions?
    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 06 2011Reply to Question #13

      Hi Markcom,

      I haven't ran into this issue so far when importing Inventor models through ADSK exchange.

      If you're able to send me the file, I'd be glad to see if I can find out what might be causing the issue.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew, D3 Technologies

      jason.drew@d3tech.net

  • Profile Picture
    Mohammad norouzi
    02-06-2011 09:31amQuestion #14

    Dear sir

    I am starting to use autocad plant 3d. I want to know that autocad plant 3d have admin abilitiy, my mean is to creat a project that a team work on it and every member have a username and password and have a read and write acees to their part they work like pdms software.

    Best regards,

    Mohammad Norouzi

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 06 2011Reply to Question #14

      Hi Mohammad,

      The only user access control that I'm aware of with AutoCAD Plant 3D and P&ID is setting the file permissions on the "projSymbolStyle.dwg" for the project.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

      The admin will have full control (allowing changes to be made inside project setup), and standard users will have read-only access. Meaning, the users can create drawings but cannot modify the project configuration.

      This also works for the tool palettes as well. You can create a standard set of tool palettes for your project(s), then assign access rights so only the admin can modify them.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Mayank Bhargava
    02-07-2011 01:06amQuestion #15

    Hi Jason,

    I wanted to share with you an issue i am unable to get around of. I plot a DWG to PDF to the local drive, then made some changes on it and then tried to plot the same DWG to the same location on the local drive with the same name of the PDF file and i get a FATAL AutoCAD error stating "Unhandled e0434f4dh Exception at 752c9617h" and then when I click OK on the error msg AutoCAD Plant 3D crashes. Any thoughts?

    Thanks, Mayank

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 07 2011Reply to Question #15

      Hi Mayank,

      Does the error message only show up when you try to plot the DWG and overwrite the original PDF file? What happens if you plot the PDF to a new, empty folder?

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Cheri Rafalko
    02-09-2011 05:31amQuestion #16

    Good morning Jason,

    I have an issue with creating the Orthos themselves. It seems that Plant 3D likes making the orthos with NORTH up on the sheet. I have some projects that require that I have NORTH facing a different direction on the sheet, say to the right. The only way I have been able to do this is to rotate the Viewport. But when I update the Viewport, the program puts NORTH back up and all my annotations are screwed up. Is there another way to get these viewports to come in a different direction?

    Thanks, Cheri

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 11 2011Reply to Question #16

      Hi Cheri,

      I just did some testing. I can see where the viewports get rotated back to north pointing upward after an update (which throws off all previously placed annotations and dimensions). I don't see any way to keep that from occurring, it's how the update function operates when it regenerates the view.

      Would it be possible to rotate your model(s) 90º counterclockwise so that "true north" is oriented in the proper direction? That way the viewports would never need to be rotated.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Paweł Knapek
    02-11-2011 12:26amQuestion #17

    Hi

    I am using AutoCad Plant 3D 2011 and I have a question about Spec Editor. When I create a new component in Spec Editor i can pick "Use Plant 3D Paramteric Graphics" option. Which files are defining these elements and whether it is possible to edit them. This would simplify the creating process of my components.

    Thanks

    Pawel

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 11 2011Reply to Question #17

      Hi Pawel,

      Unfortunately there isn't a way to edit the parametric scripts for the custom parts in catalog editor.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    José Antonio Márquez Abad
    02-15-2011 04:45amQuestion #18
    Hello we are an engineering performing water treatment plants. We have a problem with heavy files, for example, a 10 mb dwg takes to make a cut with ortho, about 1 ½ hours. Pipe leads several teams, established Plant. The problem is working with large plants, although the fractions in areas if you ask me an overview of pipes, the time is excessive.
    I would like to test whether an isolated case or it happens to someone else.
    Thank you very much
    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 16 2011Reply to Question #18

      Hi JoseAntonio,

      For performance, the model should be divided into XREFs as much as possible. Typically you can separate a facility by areas, then units, and even sub-units.

      Another method to use is adding the strucutral steel, piping, and equipment into their own XREFs for the areas and units.

      Using the folders and sub-folders inside Project Manager helps organize the drawings.

      When you generate the orthos you can select the XREFs that belong to the areas or units you're working on.

      Are you using Plant 3D 2010 or 2011? I believe the ortho drawing generation performance was improved in the 2011 release.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    david zhang
    02-15-2011 11:48pmQuestion #19

    Hi Jason,

    My questions are how to add an user defined skey in isogen and how to generate user defined nozzle spec in plant 3d.

    sorry i don't know if those questions are in the field of "plant 3d" or "spec editor".

    Thanks in advance.

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 17 2011Reply to Question #19

      Hi David,

      I'm currently researching user defined SKEYs with Isogen and Plant 3D. If you send me an email to my address, I will keep you posted on what I find. My email is:   jason.drew@d3tech.net

      For the user defined nozzles, you can edit the nozzle catalog which is stored under "...\AutoCAD Plant 3D 2011 Content\CPak Common\NOZZLE Catalog.acat"

      Since that catalog is an .acat format file, you'll need to change the file type from .pcat to .acat in the drop-down selection of the open catalog window.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    José Antonio Márquez Abad
    02-16-2011 08:09amQuestion #20

    from Question #19

    Jason thank you very much for the quick and expert response.
    I'll tell you that the version is 2011, my file is 10 Mb and is composed of several racks of osmosis loaded as external reference.
    Active is the pipe and pumps. takes an hour and a half to make the plant ortho think it is too long. It scares me that a company like mine that do large plants can not have a program capable of making plans for a project. If you want I can send the dwg if you tell me how and prove it.
    Thanks again for your great help.
    Greetings
    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 17 2011Reply to Question #20

      JoseAntonio,

      You're welcome!  Please send me an email so we can discuss the setup of your 3D model.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

      jason.drew@d3tech.net

       

  • Profile Picture
    meng ye
    02-17-2011 11:38pmQuestion #21

    Hi Jason,

    I have downloaded a NOZZLE Catalog.acat of JIS and put it into CPak Common. What's surprise is that I could't add any nozzles into the 3D Model after I creat a Vessel.

    What's worse, after I replace the Nozzle Catalog.acat with the original one, I can not add nozzles to my 3D model too.I don't know what's wrong and really needs your help.

    By the way, could you tell me how I can put those nozzle types of JIS into the original Nozzle Catalog?  I want to combine the two catalogs into a whole.

    Thanks,
    Ling

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 23 2011Reply to Question #21

      Hi Ling,

      Please download the JIS/JPI Standards content pack and try again. They have been updated recently.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Swapnil Chopade
    02-22-2011 09:32pmQuestion #22

    hi,

    can you plz help me,

    i want to know how to creat new line type

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 23 2011Reply to Question #22

      Hello,

      Are you needing a new pipe or signal line for AutoCAD P&ID?

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Miklos Kis
    02-24-2011 12:44amQuestion #23
    Hi Jason,

    I have a technical question:

    With the AutoCAD Plant 3D, a 32-bit component: Microsoft Office Access database engine 2007 (English) is also installed without any notice under Windows 7 64-bit OS (operating system). This component creates a Microsoft Office 2007 32-bit environment (folders, registry).

    Picture1: http://i53.tinypic.com/2cifk2t.png

    MS Office 2010 (64 bit) installation is not possible after AutoCAD Plant 3D intallation.

    Picture2: http://i52.tinypic.com/29xdezb.png

    But the the other way around: MS Office 2010 64-bit is installed before AutoCAD Plant 3D, it can be installed as I mentioned before. The Access database engine is also installed with the software. After a few start the MS Office 2010 does not run properly (open and save) and occasionally it freezes completely. Plant 3D does the same: at first it crashes, and after several starts, it freezes immediately at the welcome screen.

    Apparently the Spec Editor uses the Access database engine 2007. At least I think so.

    Currently only MS Office 2010 is available (can be purchased) and for our customers we recommand 64-bit OS.

    Has AutoCAD Plant 3D been tested under these circumstances? 
    Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
    MS Office 2010 Plus 64-bit (Microsoft Action Pack)

    What is the solution to this problem?

    Thank you in advance,
    Miklos Kis
    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 24 2011Reply to Question #23

      Hi Miklos,

      I have sent this information to the development team for research. Could you send me an email so I can reply back once I have more information on the issue?

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

      jason.drew@d3tech.net

  • Profile Picture
    omid naseri
    02-24-2011 10:14amQuestion #24

    Hi Jason,

    I am looking for the National CAD Standard ctb file.

    Do you know where I can find it?

    -Omid

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 24 2011Reply to Question #24

      Hi Omid,

      In order to obtain a .ctb for the US National CAD Standard (NCS) you would need to purchase the standard by contacting the buildingSMART alliance group at this site:

      http://www.buildingsmartalliance.org/index.php/ncs

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    James Ray
    02-25-2011 12:09pmQuestion #25
    Is it possible to add Piping Component Catagories to catalogs?
    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 25 2011Reply to Question #25

      Hi James,

      Unfortunately, there isn't a way to add custom categories to the catalogs at this time.

      Thank you,

      Jason Drew

  • Profile Picture
    Dale Moore
    02-27-2011 05:26amQuestion #26

    Hi Jason,

    I actually have a question regarding P&ID which I'm sure you know just as well.  I'm only able to access symbols from one specific tool palette which is causing quite a problem as I need to use other symbols from different tool palettes (a generalised heat exchanger) but it says these symbols are not available on my project.  I have tried starting the project using a different template but it doesn't help.  Any advice?

    Regards,

    Dale

    • Profile Picture
      Jason Drew
      February 28 2011Reply to Question #26

      Hi Dale,

      I sounds like you're using one set of tool palettes for all your projects. Or using the default configuration, which stores the tool palettes (regardless of project or standard) under your Windows user profile path.

      The way I typically configure tool palettes for P&ID is using AutoCAD profiles. You can create a profile name for each project and then modify the tool palettes file location to point to that project's set of tool palettes.

      Usually a subfolder under each project called "tool palettes" works fine. That way when you backup the project folder you're also backing up your customized tool palettes.

      You can also use this configuration for sharing tool palettes in a multi-user, network environment. The user can load an ACAD profile which points to a network location for the tool palettes. That way everyone works from the same set.

      The only thing you have to remember is, when you open a project you'll also have to manually switch profiles as well.

      Thanks,

      Jason Drew

       

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