Release Highlights 2020T3

Read 2020T3 release notes and download latest version in customer portal.

2020T3 release is packed with new features and improvements that will add efficiencies to and ease design work and boost design project management.

The P&I Diagrams module features new possibilities to view and edit pipeline attributes, and the publication of off page connectors to eShare for easy navigation between documents.

Support for local coordinate systems in CADMATIC 3D Plant Design, Outfitting, eShare, eBrowser, and eGo enables the use of several coordinate systems in the same project. All local coordinate systems can also have their own reference coordinate systems, allowing for example, level heights and column distances to vary from one building to another.

Outfitting and 3D Plant Design has new options to annotate isometric drawings along with numerous other additions and improvements.

The Hull Basic Design functionality features a new export format – OCX XML, compatible with DNV GL classification society requirements and significant additions for the creation and modification of profiles, as well as the possibility to connect equipment locations to the view plane.

New additions to Shell Plates, Hull Viewer and production output boost Hull Applications.

eShare offers users the possibility to merge multiple 3D models in one project from 3DD, DWG, DXF, EBM, EBMX, and IFC formats bringing together all engineering disciplines.

A long list of other new features in eShare includes multiple colorings for documents, saving, viewing, and the comparison of managed document revisions, additions for the personal use of smart points, importing multiple smart points and creating hyperlinks, the possibility to use images for maps, including manual replacement and alignment, management of the eGo device fleet and the simplification of point cloud management, the VR interface for eShare, and many more.

Electrical&Automation application features numerous additions for adding efficiency to everyday use in design functions.

P&I Diagram

Connectors published to eShare

The in/out connectors defined in CADMATIC P&ID are now included when publishing the diagram documents to CADMATIC eShare. This allows the users in eShare and eGo to jump from one diagram document to another only by clicking the connector symbol or label.

in/out connectors diagram

View and edit diagram attributes

In the P&ID and Plant Modeller applications, the Systems & Lines editor allows the user to view and edit the values of pipeline attributes that are stored in the SQL database of P&ID.

The P&ID attributes are hidden by default, so the user must add the required columns with the column editor.

To edit the attribute values, the user can select either a single line or multiple lines and then choose Edit Diagram Attributes from the context menu.

Selecting a single line allows the user to choose which attributes to edit.

Selecting multiple lines allows the user to edit all those attributes whose values are exactly the same (or undefined) in the selected lines.

Diagram Attributes

Outfitting/3D Plant Design

Support for local coordinate systems

In previous CADMATIC versions, the location and rotation of all 3D objects are always defined in reference to the entire project space’s coordinate system. This root coordinate system is now explicitly called the “Project” coordinate system, and all new projects, as well as projects that are converted from previous software versions, use this coordinate system by default.

Using a single coordinate system for the 3D design of an industrial site can be challenging when buildings are at an angle with each other. Instead of designers having to worry about translation and rotation in a given facility, it is much more convenient and less error-prone if the designers can simply pick a suitable coordinate system and let the software manage the translation and rotation in reference to the main coordinate system of the project.

Starting from 2020T3, CADMATIC 3D Plant/Outfitting allows Project Administrators to create as many local coordinate systems as are needed for the given project. Each local coordinate system can use a different origin and rotation than what the default coordinate system of the project is using. The name of the coordinate system can indicate, for example, the purpose of the building to which the coordinate system will be applied.

Coordinate systems

Then, as a 3D designer is creating a new Plant Modeller area, the designer can select which coordinate system to use in that area. Also, because Plant Modeller Service Instances and Agents can use local coordinate systems, creating them will prompt the user to select the coordinate system to use and the size of the design area—all Plant Modeller areas must be located within the project space.

Coordinate systems

New 3D objects are automatically assigned to the coordinate system that the area uses, but it is also possible for the user to assign items to some other coordinate system. The coordinate system that the objects belong to can be checked, for example, from the Query Object Data tool or by setting work views to be colored based on coordinate system assignments.

Coordinate systems

In work views and drawing views, if there is a need to see the objects from another coordinate system’s perspective, the user can select the coordinate system to use when creating the view.

New options for annotating and dimensioning isometrics

Annotating and dimensioning isometrics UI

Automatic annotation of isometric drawings can be set to assign the same part number to all the parts that have the same value in a given tag or tags, and pipeline labels can be set to consist of the elements Nominal Size – System – Pipeline – Specification.

Annotating and dimensioning isometrics UI

Dimensioning of isometric drawings allows selecting whether to place the dimension text above or centered to the dimension line, and whether to use a leader line with the text when there is not enough empty space.

Dimensioning and coordinates UI

Web API

Endpoints for exporting the 3D model of a project

The CADMATIC Web API has endpoints for exporting the 3D model from a CADMATIC design project in eBrowser, IFC or JT format, using the 3D export configurations defined in the project environment. This provides the ability to automate the transfer of 3D data between CADMATIC and other software.

Hull

Basic Design Improvements

Improvements in Creating and Modifying Profiles

This release features significant improvements in creating and modifying profiles. It is now possible to add a series of evenly distributed profiles to one or more plates in cross section with the new Profiles in Section and Profiles in Section as Property functions.

Profiles section interface

These functions have a great value for easily adding stiffeners to bulkheads, for example. The system will automatically create the profiles for the selected plates at the desired position.

Adding profiles as plate property instead of as actual profiles allows the profiles to follow the changes in the size of related decks and bulkheads. When a related deck or bulkhead becomes smaller or bigger, the system will automatically reduce or increase the number of the profiles added as plate property.

The profiles added to a plate as a plate property must be converted to actual profiles before production with the new Convert Profiles as Property function.

Topology Between the View and Outfitting Items

Equipment can now be connected to the plane of the view so that the equipment is topologically related with the hull. If the plane of the view changes, the system repositions the equipment to the new plane. This way, the connected equipment always follows the view plane.

View and outfitting items interface

The topology is between the view and the equipment. When the view is related to a reference plane or a grid value, the topology is full.

Note that only equipment that is added in Hull can be topologically connected to the view.

Improvements in the Shell Application

Shell Plates with Fixed Value Relations

It is now possible to create shell plates using fixed value relations as shell plate borders. Previously it was only possible to use hull lines as shell plate relations. Fixed value relations are defined as grid-based length, breadth, and height positions.

Shell plate interface

Short Dimensions in 3D Aft and 3D Forward Views

Short dimensions can now be placed in 3D Aft and 3D Forward shell views at certain length, breadth or height, like in perpendicular views. It is possible to place a series of dimensions.

3D Aft and 3D Forward Views

Shell Plate and Sight Planes Visible in Template Views

The sight planes and the involved shell plate are now visible in the template drawing, which makes it easier to modify a template plate and the relations of the template.

Shell Plate and Sight Planes

Hull Viewer

There is new tool in Hull Viewer to interactively rotate a plate in any direction when copying or moving it. The user can easily change the plane of a plate by using end points and rotation. This feature makes it easy to fine-tune templates, for example.

Hull viewer interface

Production Information

Marking of Free Edges in the Coded Part

Markings for part edges that do not connect with any other part can now be added to the DXF files of parts. It may be useful to mark part edges that require special treatment or working up in production, such as painting.

Markings for part edges interface

Users should define their own models used as the markings for these "free edges".

Shell Plates and Weld lines Visible in 2D WBD Drawings

Shell plates and weld lines can now be made visible in work breakdown 2D drawings.

Shell Plates and Weld lines Visible in 2D WBD Drawings

Import and Export

Improvements in NAPA Steel Import

Several improvements have been made to the NAPA Steel import. Shell plates that can be defined with fixed value relations are included in the import.

Napa steel import interface

Also, holes and cutouts in profiles are now included in the import, as well as lugs. Additionally, the axes of brackets can be swapped when importing them.

The NAPA Steel Import functionality can now be used to import all construction types except corrugated bulkheads, and shell plates ending to edges of surfaces.

New Export Format: Export to OCX XML

Construction can now be exported to OCX XML, a standard format developed by a group led by the DNV-GL classification society, representing ship design in 3D. The format is meant for classification societies to use in approvals. The exported hull construction can be imported to the Nauticus verification software.

Export to OCX XML interface

This release provides the basic functionality of exporting construction, and the feature is still in development and considered to be at prototype level. The Export to OCX feature requires a separate license.

Improved PDF Export Option

The Export to DXF/DWG function has been renamed to Export to DXF/DWG/PDF and it now includes an improved PDF export function. All three formats can be exported in one go. The new PDF export is faster than before and offers more control over the output.

PDF Export interface

Integrated Product Offering

Along with the Hull COS version development, the CADMATIC Integrated Product Offering is going forward.

Integrated Product Offering

Integration and interfaces between the various CADMATIC software solutions are improved in this and future CADMATIC releases. One of the main objectives is to improve the concurrent use of CADMATIC Hull and CADMATIC Outfitting, and the use of CADMATIC eShare with Hull.

Improvements in the Hull COS Version

The COS version of Hull, which utilizes the CADMATIC Common Object Storage for managing project data, and introduced in the 2020T2 release, has been further developed. The design functionality of the Hull applications is the same in both Hull versions, and the new features and improvements in this release are present in the COS version as well.

There are several improvements in the COS-related features (project setup, storing and managing Hull project data, and handling requests for holes):

  • Construction in locally present blocks is now automatically downloaded when it is out-of-date. This has the advantage that the satellite site is up-to-date with changes in neighboring blocks, and the design can take the latest data in neighboring blocks into account.
  • With partial replication (filtered replication) it is possible to control at the main site which Hull objects are replicated to the satellite sites.
  • It is now possible to publish Hull sheets (class drawings) to CADMATIC eShare.
Hull COS interface

Information Management

Support for local coordinates in 3D models

eShare, eBrowser and eGo now support local coordinates in CADMATIC 3D models published from CADMATIC Plant Modeller. The new support allows users to view, clip, and measure models in a natural way, even in models where the buildings and other areas are not orthogonal to each other. All parts of the design project or an operating facility can be brought to the same viewing model without compromising the ease or comfort of use. All local coordinate systems can also have their own reference coordinate systems, which enables for example floor heights and column distances to vary from one building to another. In eShare and eBrowser the user can select to view the 3D model in the any of the coordinate systems included in the published model.

Multiple 3D models in one project

eShare project administrator can now import multiple CAD models in different formats directly to one eShare project. The imported models can be in 3DD, DWF, DWG, DXF, EBM, EBMX, and IFC formats. The models can then be combined, moved, rotated, and scaled, if needed, and published together as one 3D model for the project. The new support brings all disciplines and project parties to the same page about the status of the project. Shared understanding of the project status allows more efficient collaboration and earlier detection of possible problems. The view is always up-to-date as different parts of the project are updated independently while the project evolves, allowing the use of various engineering applications, and all disciplines are not required to be brought to the same engineering model.

Multiple colorings for one document type

eShare project administrator can specify multiple coloring configurations for one document type, thus making multiple colorings available for use in a single document. This truly unlocks the power of using colors in documents, allowing each user to use the coloring they need the most for highlighting information in the documents. The same document can visualize, at the same time, for example the status of 3D modeling, and the status of purchasing, depending on which information is more interesting to the specific user. Multiple coloring configurations are available for both managed documents and external documents.

3d models
3d models

Saving, viewing, and comparing managed document revisions

eShare now allows staying on track of any changes in CADMATIC documents by storing, viewing, and comparing document revisions. The visual comparison highlights even the smallest differences and changes between the document revisions, making sure the user will not miss a thing. The ability to compare document revisions makes it simple to view any changes and stay updated on the progress of the project. It is now easy for users to check if the updated revisions contain changes, which may affect their work.

3d models

Comparing demo diagram interface

Smart Points: Personal use, importing multiple, and creating hyperlinks

New improvements to Smart Points make it possible to use them more efficiently. By allowing Smart Points to be set as personal, Smart Points turn into notes, which can then be used to organize your workflow. Adding personal Smart Points, which are not visible to other than their creator, allows users to mark specific places in the model, or make reminders of ideas, which to return to later without cluttering the model view for other users.

Smart Points

Project administrator can import an Excel file to eShare to create multiple Smart Points at once. This enables updating a larger amount of points-of-interest to the project. This makes it possible to bring, for example GeoTags from Leica Cyclone to label your point clouds effortlessly, to copy construction site notes between sister projects to avoid repeating same mistakes, or to even edit the attributes of a larger amount of Smart Points conveniently in Excel.

import an Excel file

eShare project administrator can now also configure Smart Points to be used as target type for hyperlinks in documents. This enables creating links also in laser scanned projects, or projects with a 3D model with limited data, or, for example, with equipment which is not tagged in the 3D model.

Maps: Use any image, replace and align manually

Improvements to maps include the possibility to replace already existing maps with updated maps, which allows using maps in earlier phases of projects, as the map can now always be the latest and best representation of how the project will look, even if the arrangement and layout have not yet been fully decided. As the map is updated, none of the data related to the map does not need to be re-configured. eShare now also allows using images as maps, because any used image can be manually aligned to the project coordinates by configuring points and corresponding coordinates. This allows utilizing any available images, including hand-drawn or scanned drawings, rasterized maps, and even aerial photos as an entry point for your project.

Maps interface

Fleet management of eGo devices

New fleet management functionality enables keeping your eGo applications on the tablet fleet easily up-to-date and licensed, thus keeping track of, and managing even large amounts of tablets effortless. System administrators can monitor who is working on which project and how recent is the data used on the tablets. Host IDs of all devices can be easily collected, and the Devices view provides an overview of the license expirations of each device. The possibility to export and import the device list with the license information even allows mass-update of eGo licenses right from the comfort of your computer.

Fleet management

Point cloud management

Point clouds were promoted to first class in eShare by introducing a new administrative view for point cloud management. In the view project administrators can upload point clouds directly to eShare even when access to the server machine’s folders is limited. Project administrators can also view the status of point cloud imports, remove point clouds, and even remove the original versions of point clouds - to free up space - if allowed by the system administrator. If there is need to upload a large amount of new point clouds, the location of the point cloud folder is easy to find from the management view.

Point cloud management interface

VR view for eShare

Now also eShare users can benefit from the possibility to view parts of the project using a Virtual Reality headset to get a better perception about the space, distances, and proportions of the project. eShare users can forget the need for long, costly subcontracting projects just for visualizing the CAD model in VR. Ergonomic reviews and usability verification using the VR view of the model is never more than a few clicks away. And to make it even better, the reviews are then always done using the same up-to-date review model, which is used by all project parties.

The VR view only shows the objects which are currently visible in eShare. While the VR view is open, the user can show or hide objects and change the camera position in eShare, and then update the view to VR.

To use this feature, the user must install the Steam client and SteamVR on the computer where eShare is run, and have an OpenVR headset such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or Windows Mixed Reality.

VR view for eShare

Markups can contain photos and be exported to Word

The possibility to add photos and images to markups also in eShare takes markups to a whole new level as a communication and collaboration tool. In addition to eGo users, now also eShare users can enhance their message by attaching images to the markups, and by adding the necessary amount of red-lining on top to underline their point.

The new possibility of exporting markups as a report in Word format allows sending the necessary comments also for those who do not have access to eShare, or even archiving the comments in an easy-to-read format. eShare comes with a default template for the reports, but system administrators can customize it, or add more templates as needed for different use cases.

photos and images to markups interface

eGo supports sub-models

The new possibility of downloading also sub-models from a project brings a whole new level of efficiency and ease-of-use for eGo users. For example in the block assembly phase at shipyards, users can view the desired blocks individually for easier and smoother navigation while on the same time enjoying the benefits of having the up-to-date data of the whole project at hand. Project administrators can define the sub-model generation rules quite freely.

sub-models

Air jumps of cables are visible

It is possible to easily follow the cable routes all the way from device to device, now that also the air jumps at the end of the cable route are visualized when examining the cable. This way creates an explicitly understandable representation to the user even if the last cable node is not right next to the connected device.

Air jumps of cables

Electrical

DB tool’s search and replace function to improve change management

A dialog box has been added to the search and replace function to display the item that will be replaced during the function. In the dialog box, the user can take one more step to decide which objects are to be replaced. This improves the management of major changes in the database because it clearly displays what has been found by using the function and which items are affected.

DB tool’s search

Choose rows to replace interface

New interface for correlation specification of custom label attributes

The correlation specifications of the label attributes allow the use of custom labels with the Electrical database without having to change the attributes using the symbol. This is to indicate which program attribute correlates with which custom symbol attribute. This way, the custom label can be used in the work phase of the project without needing to replace the labels of drawings in the handover phase. This functionality was included in previous revisions, too, but it now has an interface which makes it easier to create specifications.

custom label attributes

More versatile wiring references

The specifications displayed in wiring references have been improved. The format and presentation of reference data can vary significantly among customers. However, it is easy to edit the reference data in the settings. There is special formatting to add flexibility if the default setting selection does not provide the desired result.

wiring references

Moving equipment to an elevation found in the 3D model

There are two improvements on how to choose an elevation in a drawing. Previously, the elevation selection used in many functions displayed top, middle and bottom elevations. Now the dialog also displays a surface elevation found in the indicated position. This may be useful when adjusting a lighting fixture to a certain height in relation to a step in a stairway, for example. A stairway is often one single object, and previously the result only included top and bottom elevations.

A completely new function in Electrical is the ability to move selected objects to an elevation found in the 3D model. With this feature, the user can easily design a cable tray parallel to a sloping ceiling but 200 mm below its surface, for example. When browsing the elevations found in the indicated spot, they are highlighted in the 3D view so that it is easier to select an appropriate elevation.

move selected objects

Both functions require a collision geometry record, which is easy to create from the referenced IFC model using just one command.

move selected objects

A small improvement has been made in the context menu to the function that changes the elevation of one object. The change is now displayed more clearly in millimeters including the source level of measuring. All these measures improve editing in 3D.

context menu improvement

Renewed scalable symbol

New features have been added to the scalable symbol and the function features have also been improved.

When adding a scalable symbol, the user can now enter a device ID already when positioning the symbol. However, the biggest changes are found on a separate tab in the dialog box. The user can now set a wipeout or background color on the scaling symbol and a marking symbol inside a dimensions box, if necessary. There are now also separate settings to edit the appearance and location of the symbol text.

scalable symbol

Renewed cable database

Several new cable types have been added to the cable database. The number of cable types included now totals more than 10,000. The fields for each type have been harmonized, and for several cables there is a more generic format in the Cable type 2 field, such as 5G2,5. These changes improve the cable type search results.

cable database

Improved Clean Up function of project database

The Clean Up function has been included in the DB tool since the very beginning. We have added options to the function and grouped them accordingly. With this function, the user can remove unnecessary objects from the project and decide which objects are unnecessary. These objects may include unused specifications, such as cable types, or objects that do not occur in the drawings.

This change improves usability because the function now includes a comparison window to check what is being removed. The removed objects can be found on separate tabs, and in this phase, the function can be reversed to return and change the clean up settings.

Clean Up function

View object data from eShare

CADMATIC Electrical is now able to read object attributes from CADMATIC eShare.

View object data from eShare