Key Principles of Customize Support Program
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I have already used AVEVA Marine for years. It is convenience and
efficiency. But only the MDS module does not meet our design standard.
There are so many pipe support models in the database, in order to
meet the plant and marine pipe support design requirement. When
creating a support model, you must wait for a while for the program
to find the needed support , it's so boring. So I decided to do a support
program by myself.
To do such a program, you must know the knowledge below:
l The Design Element Hierarchy
l Event-Driven Graphics Utilities
l How to create component and specification in paragon module
l PML (the AVEVA Programmable Macro Language)
l General Commands for Creating the Model
1. The Design Element Hierarchy
Figure1. The Equipment and Piping hierarchy
The hierarchy is very important concept in AVEVA. It restricts that
which element can hold what elements.
To know all data model and its attributes in AVEVA software, you can
see the "Data Model Reference Manual" for reference.
2. Event-Driven Graphics Utilities
Event-Driven graphical interaction allows cursor picks in 3D views
to be used intelligently as part of some overall rather than just being
used for navigation or element identification purposes.
Once you have selected an option which puts you into event-driven
graphics mode, such as measuring distances between calculated
positions, you can carry out unrelated actions using non-graphical
forms and menus without interrupting the logical sequent picking
actions.
When you are in event-driven graphics mode, a Positioning Control form
lets you control how your pointer picks are translated into the
coordinates of required positions (which need not be at the actual
cursor position).
Click in the 3D View and then press the Esc key to leave event-driven
graphics mode.
Note: EDG functions are not available within Model Editor mode.
When use the Distance Measure from the toolbar, a Positioning Control
will display automatically.
Figure2. Distance Measure on the Utilities toolbar
Figure3. Positioning Control
In PML, the object EDGPACKET is used for this facility. You can
reference to : componentcreation.pmlfrm for detail. I will list the
simplest code to demonstrate the utility.
To use your own PML program, you can put the following code in a text
file named pickdemo.pmlfrm, and put it to the PMLLIB path, my PMLLIB
path is set to : D:\AVEVA\Marine\OH12.0.SP6\PMLLIB\AddIns.
Then in the Design module's command window input the command:
PML REHASH ALL
SHOW !!pickdemo
List 1 : The simplest PML code for Event-Driven Graphics pick
When the command : Show !!pickdemo applied, the pick demo form will
show like follow:
Figure4. Pick Demo Form
When you push the button and pick a model, the information will
displayed in the Command Window like follow figure:
Figure5. Position in the Command window
3. Create Component and Specification
Like the pipe model in Design Module which its components are all from
paragon database, we will save our support model in paragon database
too. This is also MDS does.
You can save the pipe clamp data :
Figure6. Pipe clamp model in paragon
Figure7. Pipe clamp model in paragon
After doing this, you add specifications for support component like
pipe component, so you can use the support via the specification.
For more information about Catalogues and Specifications please see :
Catalogues and Specifications Reference Manual.
4. PML
You can learn more from the manual: Software Customisation Guide.
The manual describes how to use PML, the AVEVA Programmable Macro
Language. You should use it together with the Software Customisation
Reference Manual.
You do not have to be a professional programmer to start to learn PML,
although you may find the manual difficult to follow unless you have
some understanding of programming concepts such as if statements and
do loops. If you have no programming experience, you should consider
attending a PML Training Course. For details, contact your local
support office, whose address is given on the copyright page of this
manual.
5. General Commands for Creating the Model
You can use the command: NEW to create new element. The command also
can be used in PML.
Figure8. Use new command to create element
Then assign the spref and position attribute and others to the element,
the spref attribute set for component's shape and position attribute
set for the component's position.
Figure9. Attributes of the component
You can use PML command:
SPREF /Your_Support_Specification
/Your_Support_Specification is created in the paragon module.
The result is in the below picture:
Figure10. Support model in Design module
So if you understand the 5 key principles you can build your support
models by your own program, this will be wonderful.
Good Luck!
If you find any mistakes or have any suggestions, please contact me:
[email protected].
