PPD - Process Plant Design

Modern process plant projects are increasingly characterized by competition and complexity. The factors of cost, time and quality must be constantly evaluated, controlled and optimized. This monitoring requires considerable organizational effort.

The Process Plant Design application suite can support your engineering, construction and IT organizations and increase the efficiency of your processes. Process Plant Design is available in both English and German.

Application Structure

The Process Plant Design system (PPD) is a database-driven suite of CAE (computer-aided engineering) applications for plant engineering. The basic idea is that the component data are stored in a database and the graphics are then generated from the database. But graphics generation is just one way work with the data; additional ways include reports generation, external data manipulation, and combination with other data sets. The advantages of this program structure is that the data can be managed in a powerful database, maintained, and extended, and be linked to other systems. The central data management makes the program very adaptable and transformable into other formats. The database is stored on a central server. Multiple users can simultaneously access the data, making "multi-user engineering" possible.

Multi-User-Engineering

Thanks to the central database, multiple users can work simultaneously on a project. Each user locks the assemblies (work areas) where they are working. Other users can continue to read the locked assemblies, but not edit them. The different assemblies can be processed in parallel, even if they are in the same area of the plant.

Ease of Customization

PPD allows for a number of different levels of customization, from simple to complex. This allows novice users to build simple shortcuts and experts to enhance the applications with new functions. Customization levels include:

• User toolbars and actions
  
• Command Interface
  
• Quick Actions, a simple yet powerful macro language
  
• GSQL, an extended SQL language which allows database queries to tie in to graphic elements
• ObjeX, a C-like compiled language with an extensive graphics and database API
  
• External Access, a C++ API for building external applications that can read and write drawing files
  
• Plug-In facility for further extending the applications
  

PPD Applications and Tools

The PPD package is comprised of 4 principle applications:

• Vectorpipe - 3D design and orthographic / isometric drawing extraction
• Drafting - A simple CAD tool for creating components and reworking of drawings
• IPID - A CAD program for creating process flow sheets and instrument diagrams 
• DB Tools – A database Administration tool

Additional tools provide graphic conversion, reporting and database management, drawing extraction, and other functions.