Plant Layouts in SW, Opinions?

[JoeMoss]

I have spent all of my SW experience as a Product Design Engineer, but have sense made a career change to a Process Engineer.

My dilema? Plant layouts done in ACad! I hate it, I have picked up enough to survive, but man, I don't want to start up a new plant trying to wade through ACad.

The question then is, what are you guys doing for plant layouts? Anyone doing them in SW? Any tips or tricks? I am not talking about a Ford plant, but its also not your local machine shop. I am looking at about 40-50K sqft plants with 3-4 production lines.

Thanks!
Joe

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I don't know of any 3rd party plant/facilities programs which run with SW.

What level of detail do you expect to need?

If it's just machinery/equipment layout and you only need to show their envelopes, SW would handle that easily.

If you will also be laying out air-lines, cable runs, etc, then the Routing module may be useful?


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[gwubs]

Am working on a plant layout right now in SW. I started with the new building as it was going up and have it modeled as a part. Add machinery as parts to assembly with building as first part and drag them around, finlly mating to suit. Keep your models simple to avoid slow performance. I'd never go back to 2D for this task. Good Luck

 

[JoeMoss]

gwubs,
That sounds like what I want to do. Do you setup the columns, bus bars, air distribution, etc? Just curious, it looks like we will be doing a new plant this fall and I will be the guy. I would love to switch it over to SW!

Joe

 

[ctopher]

I have recently started the same thing. It would be great to have a library of structural and office stuff. (arch, civil & utilities).

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[JoeMoss]

Chris,
That's the part I am dreading! Anyone have a library of glass equipment?
Joe

 

[rockguy]

Exactly what kind of stuff are you guys looking for and how detailed would the models need to be?

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group

http://www.robrodriguez.com

(updated 5/01/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0

 

[MadMango]

Does Sw06 still have the 1024m limit on size?

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[ctopher]

Not much detail on structural, more detail on office furniture and partition walls, etc.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716