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For piping and instrumentation diagrams, you can use either a standalone program or one that works on top of a computer-aideddesign package. Here's how three programs compare.
As the fundamental documents (apart, perhaps, from the process flow diagrams) of any sound chemical engineering designs, piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) are arguably, in terms of effort, the most demanding. Because these drawings form the basis for all other design detail - mechanical, electrical, structural, and so on - they certainly are worth the attention given them. So, new techniques that promise to reduce the time and complexity of executing these drawings could offer significant rewards in terms of project cost and schedule.
Since the advent of computer aided design (CAD), most notably represented by AutoCAD, several software packages have been introduced for electronic development of architectural and electrical drawings and, relatively more recently, for piping, structural, mechanical, and process ones.
Generally speaking, practically any design drawing probably could be generated using some version of AutoCAD and, in point of fact, many of the moresophisticated software drawing tools use AutoCAD as their basic architecture and launching platform. But, the P&ID is unique in that, on the one hand, its level of complexity is significant but, on the other, the chemical process industries (CPI) have over the years developed fairly standard techniques that are common to most process designs: the use of universally recognizable symbols for pumps, compressors, vessels and tanks, piping, and valves, and the acceptance of Instrument Soc. of America (ISA) standard symbols to describe instrumentation.
What makes the specific P&ID software reviewed here (CADPIPE, AutoPLANT, and PROCEDE) of some importance to chemical engineers is that, to one degree or another, these packages offer users via "pull-down" menus extensive symbol libraries and provide lists and graphics of the components needed. We will look at other, more subtle advantages of each of these programs in the remainder of this review. (For details on other P&ID and related programs, see the "CAD/CAM, Drafting Section" of the CEP Software Directory.)
PROCEDE
Of the three P&ID packages, only PROCEDE is standalone - that is, the program does not require AutoCAD to run. It also is the least expensive. The software is designed to run with DOS or Windows, and...