Component Designer

The Component Designer is a powerful tool that combines the flexibility of 3DSMART graphics and the functionality of SQL Server™ database. Built to provide you with the necessary means to expand your design capabilities, the Component Designer gives you the freedom to edit components and libraries to satisfy your own specific design needs.

What’s more, the Component Designer allows you to create complete new libraries of components with their own unique parametric data. For example, if you wish to add a specialized piping or any other system, and this library is not a part of 3DSMART’s standard libraries, you can create it in the Component Designer with all the intelligence inherent in standard 3DSMART libraries.

3DSMART Component Designer Demos

The application also allows you to revise dimensional and description data of existing components.

The Component Designer consists of four major modules covering all the steps in the component creation process:

• Metadata Builder to create geometry of new components
• Library Design to assign components with properties, dimensions and descriptions
• Design Systems to group components and assign special conditions
• Menu Editor to make components available for placement in the 3D Modeler

Benefits of Component Designer

There are many benefits to using the Component Designer to enhance your design processes, including:

• Edit components in the 3DSMART libraries or create your own components and libraries; you do not need to ask software vendors to provide this service
• Define the rule by which components behave; your newly created components will adhere to the desired specifications
• Your components are 3DSMART components; when you create new components and/or libraries, they will behave as native 3DSMART components
• You decide on features to be included or excluded from a component; you define the post processing of your data such as including it in ISOGEN output or BOMs

Metadata Builder:

Create Shapes for Components
The Metadata Builder allows you to create components of specific shapes, just as you do in any CAD application. This module enables you to create geometries as simple or as complex as you need utilizing familiar CAD concepts. For instance, you can copy shape elements from a variety of supplied generic shapes or create your own shapes.

You can also edit and combine your data creating more complex shapes representing the part you wish to build. The Metadata Builder viewer window displays the shape of the component you are creating as you build it, so you can see the geometry evolve throughout the design process.

Library Design:

Assign Component Parameters

The Component Designer allows you to add new components or edit current ones within an existing library. Its robust design also allows you to create a complete new library based on your specific design requirements.

A library consists of a collection of components in a defined group such as piping, structural steel, instrument assemblies, etc. The components within a library are distinguished by such attributes as size, rating, material, connection rules and other user defined parameters.

Once you have created the shape for your component, you can easily assign it parametric data such as:

• Size definitions and ranges
• Ratings and other settings to distinguish separate groupings
• Dimensional data for each size
• Descriptions for Bill of Material generation

Design System Groups:

Add Processes to Components

Design Systems are groups of components that share common features and characteristics. By grouping systems together, you are able to associate components with relevant processing actions within the 3DSMART environment. Here you can select component connectivity rules, select ISOGEN identifiers and define BOM grouping from 3DSMART predefined categories.

In piping systems, for example, you can allow components to connect only after they meet specific conditions such as matching size, rating, and wall thickness. Further, piping components can be designated with BOM category and an identifier for ISOGEN output.

Highly versatile, Design System groups do not preclude you from creating your own mix-and-match libraries that contain components from piping, structural steel and others. With the Component Designer, you can think of your libraries as a shopping cart where you can add various types of components from different Design System categories.

Menu Editor:

Create Data-centric Menus

When you create a new component or a new library, you can easily update existing menus or create new menus for use in the 3D Modeler. The Menu Editor is designed to do just that by allowing you to create tabs for each group of components, draw the icons representing the component, and then assign the component it places when that button is selected in the 3D Modeler session.

Whether you added a new component or created a new library, the updated menu or new menu will automatically load up giving you instant access and the ability to place components into your 3D model. Because the menu is connected to the selected library in 3DSMART’s central database, the menu checks the database for all available components and enables and disables the menu icons based on its availability in the library and specification. This highly functional tool eliminates the need for you to waste time guessing which components are available for use.

Share Your Libraries with Colleagues around the World

When you engage 3DSMART as your design solution, you get the added benefit of accessing the 3DSMART User Community. This community is fostered by PROCAD to develop new libraries for 3DSMART. When users complete their libraries, they are encouraged to post them on PROCAD’s website making them available to other 3DSMART users at nominal cost. You can search this selection of design libraries to find libraries you can use in your designs, download, test and incorporate them into your 3DSMART database.

If you would like to create new libraries and share them with others in this community, contact us for details on how we can help you achieve your goals and help other users at the same time.