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aspects of working with the Isogen module in CADWorx
• Many HELP Files
are available
Module Three Isogen® - Implementation and Customization
In this lesson you will learn how to:
• Set up an Isogen Main Directory • Set up Isogen Project Folders • Select example Borders for your isometrics • Test and run Isogen for the first time on your system • Set up your own border, or a client’s border • Automate text updating in your own title block • Adjust the drawing settings
o Dimension settings o North Arrow orientation o Changing the North Arrow symbol o Continuation notes o User fonts o Part number enclosures o Rolled offset representation o Force drawing into one isometric
• Include Detail sketches • Illustrate Restraints (supports, hangers, etc.) • Modify the Bill of Materials • Show Welding information • Include Valve Operators, Dummy Legs, Field Welds
Note: There are many HELP Files that ship with CADWorx
Plant Pro’s Isogen. Look in the CADWorx Plant 2008\Isogen folder. You’ll see several sub folders. In these sub folders will be a collection of .pdf help files. You can use these as needed for further detailed information.
main folder for all of your Isogen project drawings
• You can set the main
folder on the local drive, or on the network
Setting up an Isogen Main Directory Folder on your system 1. Click the Start button (lower left of your screen). 2. Click Programs 3. Click CADWorx Plant 2009 Isogen 4. Click Project Manager 5. Click Project Manager This starts the Isogen Project Manager Program. You should see the following dialog box.
Setting the main folder for all of your Isogen projects and
isometric drawings. 6. Click the Create New
Isometric Directory button (the first button on the left, gray in color).
Isometric Directory for all of your Isogen Projects and drawings
• You can create the
main directory on a local drive or on a network drive
• Under the main
directory (called the Isometric Directory), you can create multiple project directories
• These Project
Directories are your various projects, or jobs. They can contain client borders or settings specific to each particular project
7. Click next to the C: (in the name box), and 8. Type: Isogen_Projects (filling out the dialog box as
shown.) Note: If you want to create your folder on a network,
click the Network button, and browse where you want your folder created. Then type Isogen_Projects (as shown in the previous step). Your folder will then be created at a network location.
9. Click the OK button. 10. Click Yes (when asked in the next dialog box). 11. You will see the system create the Isometric Directory (this
is the main level directory). Creating a Project Directory 12. Click the Create New Project tool button (the second
select the Borders you want to use, and tell the system to output the isos as DWG files (recommended)
• If you’re doing a
network installation, you can “deploy” the project information to the various workstations
If you’re working on a network, and you want to
“deploy” the setup to various workstations, you would go through the previous steps as shown, and then follow the steps shown next.
To deploy the project information to the various
workstations, you would go to each workstation and start Project Manager, then
a. Click the Create New Isometric Directory button
(as shown previously). b. Click the Network Button on the first dialog Select the Isometric (main level) directory by browsing across the network to it. c. Select the Isometric Directory you’ve created (as shown previously), and the Project Directory’s information will be shown. If you have multiple projects, that information will all come across. 16. Click the folder named Metric_Inch_A2. 17. You’ll see the following dialog box appear.
where you access various settings for the Metric_Inch_A2 border
• Notice the tabs along
the top. The Drawing Control and External Data tab will be useful later
• Clicking the
“Apply” button sets the “Metric_Inch_A2” border as the default border
• Creating a simple
CADWorx drawing for testing
18. Click the Apply button (this sets the “Metric_Inch_A2”
border as the default). 19. Click OK (for Settings Saved). 20. Minimize the Project Manager dialog box, and 21. Start CADWorx Plant Professional. 22. Start a new drawing (use a template). 23. Set the Main Size to 6”. 24. Set the Spec to 150. 25. Create a simple drawing with the lengths as shown.
you’ll click OK for the test, but you can also select different borders here, and also different projects (if available)
Testing and Running Isogen 26. Click Plant 27. Click Accessory 28. Click Isogen 29. Click Isogen Out
The system will bring up the following dialog box,
showing your Isometric Directory, the Project Directory, and the Border it will use for the Iso. This screen may vary, depending upon your system setup.
31. Press <Enter> (to select components). 32. Window the objects in the drawing, and 33. Press <Enter>. 34. The system will show the following dialog box.
Note: If you got an error message, or a “disconnect”
message, you probably did not draw the pipes and elbows touching each other. See the first video lesson in the Piping Module on how to connect components correctly.
35. Click the Open Plot Files button to view the Isogen iso
you’ll see how to bring in your own border, or a client’s border
Testing on an A3 Sized Border 36. Close the Iso (click the X in the upper right corner of the
drawing) and say “No”, to not save the iso. 37. Click Plant 38. Click Accessory 39. Click Isogen Out 40. Click the down arrow to choose a Style, and select the A3
Border. 41. Click OK 42. Press <Enter> (to select components). 43. Window the components in the drawing and press <Enter>. 44. Click Open Plot Files to view the generated isometric,
drawn on the A3 sized border. 45. Follow the video to add components to the line and run it
an A2 border. You can set the switches to change Isogen settings on any of the borders available
• This will open up
the drawing options that you can change to make the isometric look the way you want
After viewing, close the drawing. Options that change the drawings appearance You can look at the options for any size border. In this
next example you’ll view the settings in an A2 border. All borders (Imperial, Metric, and Mixed Metric) have the same switches that can be set to make an isometric look the way you want.
46. Reopen Project Manager. If it is available at the bottom
of your screen, click on it to bring it up for viewing. If it has been closed, click Start, Programs, CADWorx Plant 2009 Isogen, Project Manager, Project Manager.
47. Click on the Metric_Inch_A2 style (your screen may show a list or projects different than the illustration, depending upon your system setup).
the drawing options that you can change to make the isometric look the way you want
• You can see there is
more than one page for each of the tabs
• On page 2 there are
switches to change the appearance of rolled offsets on the isometrics
49. Click on the Options File and Click Edit.
This will bring up the Options Editor for the Drawing Options.
The margins at the top right area of the dialog box can be
changed to modify the position of the plotted iso on the page.
This can be useful later when you see how to bring in your own border.
Notice the figure at the lower right
corner of the dialog box. This will take you to the next page of settings. Each tab can
have multiple pages of settings. 50. You can change any or all of the following settings. 51. This next section is to show you some of the many options
that can be set in Isogen to change the appearance of a drawing.
in the TAG field on Nozzles or “existing” Long Weld Neck Flanges
60. The first page has options for changing how the coordinates
on the isometrics are labeled. 61. Click on the area at the bottom to go to page 2. 62. Page 2 has switches to turn on and modify how the system
can label spool pieces in the isometric. 63. There’s also a switch to modify how the instruments are
depicted. 64. There’s a switch to turn on Valve Tags. Isogen will also label the text that is put into the TAG field on
a Nozzle drawn in the Equipment Module. Also it will label any text put in the TAG field on any Long Weld Neck Flange that is set as “Existing” in a model.
65. Page 3 has a switch to have Insulation and Tracing appear on
the isometric. 66. There is also a switch to turn on Flow Direction Arrows over
67. Click on the Material List tab (at the top of the dialog box). 68. In the lower left section of Page 1 is a place to set up the
User Fonts. This is disabled by default. To set it – 69. Click File (at the very top of the screen) and 70. Click Exit. Save any changes, if you want to keep them. This returns you back to the main screen for Project
Manager. 71. Click the tab named External Data. 72. Click in the blank space next to Font Information File and 73. Click the Browse button. 74. Click on the file named FONTSTD.FIF. 75. Click the button labeled Open.
This will enable the User Fonts. You will need to set them
in TWO places (description follows – also see video as needed).
76. Click the tab labeled Drawing Control. 77. Click (to highlight) in the space next to Options File. 78. Click the Edit button.
79. Click on the Iso Style tab (at the top). 80. In the top left area is a place to turn on and select the User
Fonts. 81. Click in the check box, and select Ariel Unicode for the font. 82. Click on the Material List tab (at the top). 83. At the bottom of this page is a section to turn on User Fonts.
Click on the check box, and select Ariel Unicode. On this page is also a section to set up the Material List type. You will use the standard Type 2 Material List at this time.
When you get to the section on the Material List later in this lesson, the different types will be discussed.
84. Page 2 (on the Material List tab) has a place in the upper left
area of the page to turn on/off the cut piece list. 85. In the upper right section is an area to set cutting allowances
for Field Welds. If you wanted to (you don’t have to do so now) you could have the iso include a Field Weld symbol by placing a Weld Gap component in the piping model. Once placed, you could double click the Weld Gap component to Component Edit it, and set its type to MISCL.
This will produce a Field Fit Weld in the generated
Assigning the new border to the Isogen Project 95. In the Project Manager, Click in the area called Drawing
Frame.
96. Click Browse.
97. Browse to your Examples folder and select the Client_A3_Border_0 drawing. 98. Click Apply. This instructs the system to use your border now, instead of
the default border. 99. In CADWorx Plant Pro draw a simple drawing that
consists of some pipe, flanges, valve, and elbow (see the following figure).
Developing the Border – Filling out the Title Block Area Isogen does not use normal attributes to fill out the title
block area like a regular AutoCAD drawing. Isogen uses “Positioned Text” for this function. In Project Manager – 101. Click in the Positioned Text area.
contents of the Iso_A3 sheet’s positioned text file
• Opening the
Positioned Text help file
• You can Justify the
text (Left, Center, Right) and you can Rotate the text as needed.
This opens up the Positioned Text file that you can adjust to map the locations of pieces of text onto your border.
103. Close Notepad now, don’t save any changes.
Note: Open the Positioned Text help file (a pdf file). It is found at C:\CADWorx Plant 2008\Isogen\Isogen_Utils\POS_Help.pdf
You should print out this file, since it is only six pages and has
some useful information in it. You can see from the file we opened in the previous figure
that there is an item named -6. It has an X position, a Y position, a Character Width, and a Character Height.
The numbers for position and height are in hundredths of a
millimeter. Since Isogen was originally developed in Great Britain the values are in metric.
The Positioned Text file can actually have more columns than shown above. This can be useful, because you can specify the text’s justification and rotation angle as well. Here’s an expanded version of one of the lines with the item labeled -6.
that can be brought into your title block and drawing
• This area allows
you to create User Fields that can be mapped into your drawing. You can create as many as 100 fields
A Justification (column 11) of 0 is Left, 1 is Center, 2 is Right. The Rotation (column 12) can be set as needed (usually 0 or 90). If you look at the following figures, you can see that the item
labeled -6 is what Isogen uses to place the drawing title (it uses the pipeline name).
The Positioned Text help file has the following information in it.
You will use this information to map some values into your title block.
is where you can put text that can be mapped into the title block area, or anywhere in the drawing
• In the Specifications
area are some fields you can fill out and have them get placed into your isometrics automatically
Note: What they are calling a “User Defined Attribute
Block” in the figure above is not something that comes from AutoCAD. This is Alias’ own naming, and it is used differently than attributes and blocks are used in AutoCAD.
104. In Project Manger – 105. Click the Project Name (above the Metric_Inch_A1 – this
example is showing an Ansi_B sized border. All units work the same here.)
Click Project Defaults. This brings up the Project Defaults dialog box. 106. Click on the tab labeled Specification. The Specifications area of the Project Defaults
tab has additional fields you can store text information in, and then have it mapped into your title block area, or anywhere on the drawing.
Any values in these fields (Piping-Spec, Insulation-Spec, etc.) can be mapped into the drawing or title block.
For instance the Piping-Spec would be brought in using the
code of -11. You would add a line to the ANSI_B.pos file (shown in a previous figure) starting with an -11 entry. Then you would add its X and Y position, and its height.
You could do the same for the other specs, like Insulation-
Spec, Tracing-Spec, etc. Next you’ll map in some examples to see how this works. 107. Click the Miscellaneous tab.
108. In the Revision field - Type: A. 109. In the Project Identifier field – Type: COADE 001-A25. 110. In the Batch/Area field – Type: 3400.
gives you User Defined fields you can fill out as needed and have them mapped into your title block or elsewhere on your drawing
• Setting up values to
be mapped into the title block
• You can create as
many as 100 text fields to map into your title block or drawing
111. Click on the Attributes tab. 112. Fill out the values as shown. These are User Definable fields. You can create as many as 100 fields to use for text that can be mapped into your title block. The dialog box shows 10 fields, but if you click the Append button (shown in the previous figure) you can keep adding new ones.
border into metric for an easy way to locate points for text placement
Now that the text fields (Alias calls the “attributes”) have been defined, you’ll figure out where to place them in your drawing’s title block.
The first thing you need to do is come up with the coordinate
positions for these pieces of text. 114. Open the :\\Examples\Client_A3_Border_0 drawing. 115. Zoom All. 116. Turn on the Layer named Points. 117. Zoom in around the Title Block area.
118. Set OSNAP to have Node turned on.
Type: ID <Enter> 119. Click on the node at Point 1.
120. Using an OSNAP Node, you’ll get a value of 18864, 3250.
of the point where a text label will be placed (mapped to)
• Locating various
point locations to place text
Repeat for the other points, and make a list. Point Number Location Pt 1 X = 18864 Y = 3250 Pt 2 X = 18864 Y = 1867 Pt 3 X = 31375 Y = 4409 Pt 4 X = 31375 Y = 3667 Pt 5 X = 31375 Y = 2451 Pt 6 X = 28017 Y = 1875 Pt 7 X = 28017 Y = 1465 Pt 8 X = 35463 Y = 1478 Pt 9 X = 39211 Y = 3972 Pt 10 X = 39211 Y = 3337 Pt 11 X = 39211 Y = 2702 Pt 12 X = 39211 Y = 2067 Pt 13 X = 39211 Y = 1432 121. Save the drawing and close it. Now you’ll edit the Position Text file to set up the mapping
In Project Manager, 122. Click on the Imperial_Inch_Ansi_B (or the border you’re
working with). 123. Click in the area for Positioned Text.
124. Click Edit, to open the positioned text file in notepad. Modify the file as shown.
One comment : In this example above you mapped in a fixed date from one of
the fields you set up (it’s listed as the –602 line of information). You could have used a system date if you wanted to. It would be done by using a –14 (instead of a –602 like you used). Also on the drawing options, System tab, switch 6 lets you set a date format as needed (see videos).
125. Save the file under the name. 126. Client_Border_B_at_0.pos, or Client_A3_Border_0,
depending upon the border you’re working with (make sure you don’t save it as a .txt file. You’ll have to set the file type All Files).
In Project Manager, 128. Click in the area for the Positioned Text file.
129. Click Browse and select the file you just saved. 130. Click the Apply button. 131. Click OK 132. Test the border by running a simple example through it.
So you can see that Isogen allows you to fill out your title block as needed.
If you wanted to use a border that had the title block running up
the side of the drawing, you would use the same procedure. The only thing you’d need to do differently is have a 90 for the
For example , the following line would map a text string into the title block area, but rotate it at 90 degrees instead of leaving it a 0 degrees. -601 31375 2451 0 318 0 0 0 0 0 1 90 Video Seven illustrates how to have the system set up your layer colors to match the standard Isogen borders. Lesson Seven Video One Video Two Video Three The Lesson Seven videos cover how to use and modify the different Bill of Materials Styles available with CADWorx and Isogen. Lesson Eight Video One Video Two These videos discuss Line Numbering and how to run the Isogen Batch command. Also the graphic symbols for a floor or deck penetration, flow arrows, etc. are covered and you will see how they can be sent from the model to Isogen automatically.
Lesson Nine Video One Video Two Video Three In this lesson you will how to place restraints (hangers, base supports, anchors, etc.) in the model and have them come into Isogen. You’ll also see how to get Detail Sketches of a Base Support to be drawn in the isometric. Finally, this section illustrates how to get a Reference Dimension and Note to appear in an Isometric.
videos to see how to bring welding data into your own user border
134. Fill out the New Style information as shown. 135. Click OK 136. Click Apply (Apply makes this the default border). 137. Test your results. You should have an isometric generated
some of the labeling that Isogen puts on an isometric drawing
• This is handled
through a feature called Alternative Text
Alternative Text Isogen has a text file similar to Positioned Text that is called Alternative Text. This file is used for labeling various notes that appear on the drawing.
For instance, you can change the way Isogen labels the continuation notes when it breaks a drawing between multiple sheets.
to the way Isogen labels the drawing continuation note
• Setting up Square
Elbows
The Data Definition File The Project Manager also has an are where you can modify the Data Definition File (similar to the Positioned Text file). This file contains settings that affect the appearance of how Isogen draws some of its components – for instance rounded elbows or square elbows. This file also contains information on what thickness of lines it will use, and how big it will scale some of the fittings. Also, there is a section in this file for defining layers,
Telling the System to Draw Square Elbows In Project Manager, 145. Click in the area for the Drawing Definition. 146. Click Edit. 147. Change the word for ELBOW from ROUND to SQUARE.