Advantages?

[DANIEL]

We do alot of PID work here and being completely uneducated in the use of this program I was wondering.... what advantages does this software give that would warrant its use over vanilla AutoCAD in generating and maintaining PID drawings?

[ReMark]

AutoCAD P&ID features:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...112&id=8846468

You can also request a free trial. Give it a shot.

[DANIEL]

Thanks ReMark

[ReMark]

I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say after trying the program out. Thanks.

[DANIEL]

Well, I took a look, its probably great for someone with minimal AutoCAD experience looking to do nothing but PI work, however ..... it does not do anything that vanilla cad doesnt or can't be made to do with the proper knowledge, its basically AutoCAD Electrical, which I regret getting seats for. In my case, I was talked into autocad electrical because it 'saved' them time, but in reality they were simply being lazy. I could have easily set them up with far better attributed blocks that could be extracted into motor lists and what nots. The same applies to autocad PID except for the fact that I have actually already gone through and created all the blocks with the nessicary attribute information needed for extraction. This might be a viable option for a new company looking to genrate there initial PI's with out a lot of cad experience but beyond that I see little that this software offers.

I'd be supprised if this product has a follow up release.

[ReMark]

What about automatic symbol insertion (break line)?

[DANIEL]

worked fine, similar to what electrical does with its one line diagram blocks, except I dont recall electrical redrawing the line when it was removed. Nice but would be nicer if I had control over that function in vanilla CAD to impliment in my own blocks .

Does AutoCAD 2010 have that capability?

[ReMark]

I just don't know even though I have 2010 loaded on my work computer I haven't fully explored it yet.

[DANIEL]

yeah, I didnt spend alot of time on this trial download, there may be more to the software that I'm missing but on the surface it just doesn't seem worth it. I may look at it a little more closly if i get some time this week.

[ReMark]

I do a lot of P&IDs too. I work in the chemical industry. And you?