CAD Packages for SKID design

[posture]

Hi

I have recently taken up a new role in the drawing office for a company that design and manufacture large skid packages for the oil and gas industry. Currently we use one 3D package for the structural steel work , a different one for the pipework and then combine them in Autocad. Once the model is complete we carry out stress calculations on the pipework ( Ceaser II) and then calcs on the structural steel. We sub out the structural calcs so I am not sure what packages are used for this.

I come from a vessel background and so am unsure as to what is out there for the modelling and detailing of complex skid packages. Our current set seem very convoluted. If we change the pipework in one package, the designer has to go into the structural model to make the knock on changes to the structural model etc etc. Is there one package out there in which you can do both steel work and pipework in one? Compatibility with Ceaser II is essential. I have looked at various possibilities ( Inventor, Cadworx etc etc) but there are so many types, versions and options that my head is spinning. In my experience from a previous life, the sales guys promises the world and the demos look good but when you sit down to do it, it never seems to work out the way the sales guy says it will.

Anyone out there is a similar business that can share their experience, give some pointers on good options and what they use ?

Forgive if this is in the wrong forum.

Posture

 

[BigInch]

Too much specialization these days. No reason that one designer couldn't do both, other than the desire for each discipline head to secure their futures by being empire builders. Autocad can draw all the WF, S, C and T beam and strut shapes. Guess what. It can also draw "O" beams. Form up a small team empowered to do limited cross-discipline work and your problem is SOLVED.

Specialization is for insects.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it's not safe ... make it that way.

 

[zdas04]

Caesar II comes from the people who bring you CadWorx. Caesar II is integrated into CadWorx Plant and for skid design I can't think of a better package (in 2012 and 2013 they put a structural elements tab on the ribbon, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a structural stress program buried somewhere in there).

I especially like the pipe routing module for routing piping on a skid (you go from point to point and it adds elbows as required).

Specialization really is for insects. That program makes some pretty arcane skills available to us mammals.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.

 

[posture]

Thanks for feedback guys. It seems I need to look at the latest version of Cadworx. As good a place as any to start!

Thanks Again

 

[curtis2004]

I have similar issues, but with AutoPIPE. Is there any structural sofrware package which is compatible with AutoPIPE?

Thank you,
Curtis

 

[XL83NL]

@ curtis2004; Bentley's STAAD?

 

[SNORGY]

And here I was contemplating making a career change in which I could branch off and become a specialist in something.

I'm...crushed...