Is anyone out there making this conversion successful on a full scale PDS design job. I am trying to work out the bugs, and have been pretty successful on a small test model. But I have not been able to find anyone who has been successfully using it right now. Any tips or suggestions would be helpful.

Thx

Check this post:

Intergraph Transfer

You should also read the article titled "Genesis of PDMS to CAESAR II Transfer Tool" in the June 1998 issue of COADE's <font color="0000ff">Mechanical Engineering News</font>. If you don't have a hard copy, you can get it from this web site by clicking here .

I take it from the lack of conversation and the phone calls I've placed around the continent, that no one is doing this. From my conversations and testing I have deduced that the transfer is relatively simple, but the necessity of weight information within PDS that is not readily available, precludes anyone from using this tool on a project level. On a small scale, this is too much energy wasted, but on a large scale 500M+ grass roots facility... The time savings could be very beneficial, it seems.

Exactly. There is a lot of data the "stress analyst" needs that is often not in a CAD neutral file - either because the CAD system isn't setup to handle this, or the Designer didn't specify the data.

It will be rare that you can take a CAD model (from anywhere) and push the [Analyze] button without (a) verifying the model, (b) specifying "code" specific data, and (c) defining missing data - such as valve weights.

PJ,
I have worked on a couple of projects where we have used models created in PDS (neutral files). The models should exactly match your piping specs (the pipe spec data files used in PDS should be thoroughly checked), which saves on possible errors when manually inputting a model from scratch, in terms of pipe diameter, wall thickness, types of tees, support locations, etc. The neutral file will include everything the piping designer has modelled, so by using the neutral file transfer filter, you can filter out elements whose diameter is less than a user specified diameter. This is useful as you can filter out instruments, etc. which can make your input files unneccasarily large. Some details like material grades, valve, flange (bolt weights not in the model) and SP Item weights, reducers (especially next to elbows), trunnion supports on elbows, tees, did not always transfer well. Generally the model transfer worked well and saved time on larger models, and the major benefit was that the piping element lengths need not be checked so thoroughly (we only did spot checks on model geometry by referring to the global coords at chosen points). If minor changes were made to the layout after analysis, we would make these changes manually. Thus, the better your PDS data base is, the more time you will save. However, as pointed out by various members in previous posts, the modelling time is not that critical in terms of total time spent in stress analysis, but any savings in time spent modelling and checking helps.
Mike