Out of the box Autodesk® AutoCAD® Plant 3D™ can be installed using either a basic but powerful SQLite database or an even more robust SQL Express database. Whichever database you use, it is the heart of your plant project because it houses all of the information about your project and project components.

PlantLink significantly extends the capabilities of your plant 3D project by providing flexible and reliable unidirectional or bidirectional linking to one of multiple external databases.

In one example of the power of PlantLink, data can be driven into the Autodesk® AutoCAD® P&IDs or plant models by linking to one or many external databases and keying into one or more field values.

If the external database contains matching values to the mapped fields and you have configured PlantLink to return the description and spec number from the external database, then the properties in your P&ID or plant model will be updated automatically.

This capacity to easily populate properties and even annotate your P&ID and plant models from external data sources is potent as it supports many workflows, which were previously difficult or impossible.

PlantLink can also be configured to simply view data from external databases using the extend mode, or, by using the update mode, values from the external database(s) can be copied into your plant project database, drawings, and models. PlantLink also has a write back option which enables Plant 3D users to write properties to external databases from their P&ID drawings or Plant 3D models.

Since Plant 3D keep their data in separate (internal) databases, linking data between P&ID and 3D is also a possibility. Even using P&ID data from its own database is possible. This way acquisition rules can be created which aren’t possible through ProjectSetup. This, for example, allows you to let data flow between all sorts of P&ID symbols.

PlantLink can not only map data to the P&ID properties of a symbol but also to its Autodesk® AutoCAD® standard properties like layer, color, or linetype. With that you can have the P&ID lines on a layer for each line number (as it is usually the case in Plant 3D). Or the color of a line or valve can be modified based on the service of a line.

PlantLink is needed for each P&ID and Plant 3D license because it is running constantly in the background.

PlantLink serves as the missing link in design project data management for Plant 3D. The simplicity and versatility of PlantLink make the possibilities for data handling nearly limitless.

This is 14-day trial period application.

 

Note: This app uses a custom installer (and not the standard App Store installer).