Use Case
Piping Designers place components originating from CADWorx PLANT (CWX) and AutoCAD PLANT 3D (P3D) piping specs.
All these parts will have default and in many use cases custom properties. Many of these properties need to be updated in bulk, like Spool Number (default) or Work Order Number (custom),
MTOWorx can be used to isolate, select, and change just about all part properties in bulk, saving users many hours of data entry if accomplished otherwise.
Setup & Configuraiton
CWX and P3D
There is absolutely no configuration or setup required within CADWorx PLANT or AutoCAD PLANT 3D, except for adding custom fields. NOTE: Custom field names can not contain spaces or special characters to become visible within MTOWorx.
MTOWorx knows which application is active and automatically adjusts the palette interface to the active program.
Worx Settings
There are two sections where settings have roles in helping users isolate and select rows from SINGLE views.
The following image is for the P3D settings and those for CWX are almost identical.
1) Pipe & Steel Collection Filters. They control what is accumulated, so be sure to include those components targeted for change
2) Pipe Grid Manager. Set up views to accumulated part groupings that include fields that are bulk change targets like Spool ID by using X, Y, & Z coordinates to help with selection sets.
SINGLE Grid - Part Selection & Changing Properties in Bulk
Once the Grids are set to help with bulk selection then they can be used effectively.
Consider this use case where Spool numbers must be assigned to every pipe segment.
The grid can be filtered by 1) Line Number to focus on one at a time and then 2) sort by the Center of Gravity (CogY).
In this way, it becomes easy to 3) select the pipe rows for Spools 1 and then 4) select those parts within the model.
NOTE: The Select and Find buttons are only visible for the SINGLE grids.
Finally, the last step is to populate the Spool values and this differs between P3D and CWX. Following are images and descriptions for both.
P3D Use Case.
Once model parts are selected, then 5) open the P3D Properties and find Spool under the General section.
Enter the value and tab from the cell to commit it.
Refresh the MTOWorx Grid to see updated values.
CWX Use Case.
Once model parts are selected, then 5) open the P3D Properties and find Spool under the General section.
Enter the value and tab from the cell to commit it.
Refresh the MTOWorx Grid to see updated values.
If uing ign CWX use case, then step 5) for CWX is to open the CWX Data tab, 6) display ISOGEN Data, and 7) populate the Spool Value, and 8) Apply those changes.
Open the Model BOM Tab, and refresh the grids to see updated properties.
Use model properties to help manage design, fabrication, and even operations as they become information about Piping Assets.