Header and material file for pipe spool document

On the Pipe Spools tab of Plant Modeller, designers can generate pipe spool documents that present pipe spools as seen in the 3D model or as seen on the assembly table, and there can also be multi-pipe penetration (MPP) spools that consist of several separate pipes (possibly belonging to different Systems) welded to one steel plate.

Assembly event sequences

A spool assembly consists of a main pipe run and optional branch pipe runs. An outlet part at the start of a branch is considered to be an assembly event along the main run if the outlet has no other parts connected to it.

For each pipe run, assembly information lists an ordered set of assembly event sequences. Each sequence normally represents a fitting or a change of direction. Branch anchors along the main run have their own sequences that merely mark where each branch run begins. Straight pipe pieces between fittings are not reported as being sequence events—their length is included into the sequence between the fittings.

The transformation that needs to be applied to make the pipe geometry to be as seen on the assembly table is determined from a few rules:

The longest straight pipe piece along the main run is to be at the left of the table, parallel to the X-axis of the table.
The straight pipe is rotated to have as few parts pointing downward as possible.
Parts are as much as possible on the X-Y plane of the assembly table.

In the spool, the assembly sequences are given consecutive ordinal numbers, and the first sequence of the main run is number 1.

Header files for pipe spool drawings

The header file (h-file) of a document provides general information about the object that the document represents, such as the drawing's title and number, and the object's total mass and center of gravity. This ASCII file contains data records in the form of tag–value pairs. Each tag and its value string are separated by one or more space characters or tabs, and the value string is terminated by a semicolon that indicates the end of the record.

sys Water;

Typically, this information is used by displaying it in the title block of the drawing or in the header fields of printed lists. The tags can be used in data requests to refer to the associated value string; data requests can be defined in drawing sheets, label definitions, and ICGDs, to output the desired values to the required location in the required format. The tag names can be freely chosen, as long as they do not conflict with reserved tag names.

Header tags

Apr – Approved by.
CGX – X coordinate of the center of gravity.
CGY – Y coordinate of the center of gravity.
CGZ – Z coordinate of the center of gravity.
Dap – Approval date.
Ded – Design date.
Des – Designed by.
Dno – Drawing number.
Dra – Drawn by.
Drd – Drawing date.
Dsc – Description.
Ds1 – Description row 1.
Ds2 – Description row 2.
Sur – Surface. The surface area of the piperun as an approximate value based on the geometry of the components. Unit: m2.
TMA – Total mass of the objects in the document set.
TSH – Total number of drawing sheets, present when there is more than one page.
Vol – Volume. Internal volume of the piperun as an approximate value based on the geometry of the components. Unit: m3.
.dD – Name.
.dG – Description.
.dU – Document name.
.GD – Inner surface area of the piperun as an approximate value based on the geometry of the components. Unit: m2.
.IA – Object coordinate system.
.pN – X min of the document.
.pO – X max of the document.
.pP – Y min of the document.
.pQ – Y max of the document.
.pR – Z min of the document.
.pS – Z max of the document.

Material files for pipe spool drawings

A material file (m–file) generated for a pipe spool drawing differs from standard m–file generation in the following ways:

Each part in the spool has at least one record output to the m–file. This means that there is a record for each straight pipe piece, also for the ones that make one bent pipe.
Records that will be selected to the assembly table will have some additional tags related to the assembly sequence that the part represents (see the tag descriptions below).
Depending on the sequence type, there may be an additional record describing additional geometry information related to a given part. For example, for eccentric reducers and 180-degree bends created by merging two consecutive 90-degree bends. These records have assembly sequence information and also are marked as method records with the mth tag set to value $G. Also this record is output for eccentric branches.
Method records for stub-ins and outlets will have sequence information.
For each cut pipe piece, there will be an additional method record describing the properties of the cut pipe piece. These records are marked with the mth tag set to value $C.

Even though the system outputs this assembly information to m–files, it may still be necessary to apply some degree of customization to the m–file before it is processed via the ICGD to generate the final tables that appear on a drawing sheet or in Microsoft Excel files.

Below you will find information on additional tags that specify information about assembly events and sequences related to parts in a pipe spool.

In the list below, each title contains the defined name of the tag and its abbreviation in parentheses, as needed by script writers who create m–file customizations. These defines are available in the script header file %PMS_HOME%/include/pm_core_tags.h.

Tags relates to the pipe run of the sequence

General sequence information

Sequence information related to bends

Sequence information related to flanges

Sequence cut information

Information of field welds and manually assigned extra lengths

Information on cuts at start or end of sequence

Information available for penetration plate or common sleeve

Information of cut pipe pieces

A material file will also contain method records describing how many separate cut pieces the spool contains. Each of these will have a cut number, length, end cut information, and so on. These records have the mth tag set to value $C.

Also spool assembly tags to shown run information and cut information are present.