A Magic Lisp That Solves All of My Cad Problems

[Jim Clayton]

What's up everyone.  So I had an idea for a lisp, but I don't know if it's even possible and I wanted to get some feedback.  My company makes mechanical assemblies for P&ID applications.  Lots of pipe, valves, fittings, flanges and gauges.  For every one assembly a shop package is required consisting of roughly 4 million drawings.  It's a nightmare and takes forever. There's a lot of unnecessary overkill.  There are weld map drawings, flange drawings, sub-assembly drawings, etc.  Here's my thought.  Is it possible, via Lisp or another method to generate some of these drawings automatically?  Obviously sub-assembly drawings are detail drawings so that's not possible, but weld map drawings are essentially the same assembly but with different callouts at the weld points and no BOM/Notes/Mark Bubbles.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Tks.

[tzframpton]

I'm not a LISP guy and I don't doubt at all these individuals can whip up something but I believe there are programs that already do this, such as AutoCAD Plant and AutoCAD P&ID. Are you a plain vanilla AutoCAD user? If so you may want to check out the other industry-specific apps that already generate this level of automation and detail. 

 

-TZ

[Jim Clayton]

Good thought.  Let me look into that.  I know remember seeing a lot of useful stuff on the Autodesk site the last time I was on there I just didn't have this idea at the time. 

[BIGAL]

With the rental scheme now you can get a suite of Autocad software as mentioned by tzframpton so you could try it 1st before committing to long term.

[steven-g]

I do something similar for a company, producing electrical assemblies, but I use Excel as the basis where list are compiled and then VBA to have a whole string of "rules" for combining standard drawings and notes into a script for producing the drawings. But it certainly isn't a quick and easy fix. It also has the advantage of creating the BOM, order sheets, notes and labels, etc. If you can think it through logically and break it down into steps then it can be programmed.

[ttray33y]

not an easy task, better use different platform like SmartPlant Plant Design suite or AVEVA.

Edited January 30, 2019 by ttray33y

[Jim Clayton]

I'd rather put a fire out with my face than ever touch AVEVA again...uggh.  Think I'm still having PTSD from my pipe drafting classes in college.  But yes, you're all probably right.  I feel like there's an application that already exists to help make things run a bit more smoothly.  Tks.

[maratovich]

I think you need to share your questions.
No program can do everything at once what you want.
It is necessary to make separate modules for a separate action.
If you are a programmer you can do it.
If not, this is a big and difficult task for another person.
Or you need to hire a programmer in your company, or look for artists for individual modules for a minimal payment.
They'll help you just that way, but many, and complex tasks, will be thrown half way, because it takes a lot of time.
We can do a lot, but we need a full technical task.

[ttray33y]

9 hours ago, Jim Clayton said:

I'd rather put a fire out with my face than ever touch AVEVA again...uggh.  Think I'm still having PTSD from my pipe drafting classes in college.  But yes, you're all probably right.  I feel like there's an application that already exists to help make things run a bit more smoothly.  Tks.

yeah, I feel you about AVEVA, I think SolidPlant 3D | Solidworks can do the thing you want to.