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No more guesswork
May 31, 2013
Arguably one of the most challenging aspects of a large capital expenditure project, whether in the process, chemical, power or oil & gas business, is gaining a good understanding of what stage the project has reached. This seems more pronounced in the construction phase where resources, sequencing, weather and safety all impact the smooth running of the construction, and the consequences of delay are more expensive. But it is important not to overlook the importance of accurate information about progress during the design phase, which is more often a concurrent activity to construction!
This need for greater awareness of the current status of the design has recently been compounded by the nature of modern projects, where a broader team of subcontractors may be working on bigger joint venture projects. Design status is distributed and sometimes difficult to consolidate into a ‘whole project’ view. As a design manager and as any stakeholder in the project, having confidence in the information you receive about the status of the design is crucial to making good decisions for the project – otherwise, you are just relying on guesswork.
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AVEVA Everything3D™ Reveal – Drawing from the Model
April 6, 2013
With the release of AVEVA E3D™ AVEVA has re-revolutionised the way in which drawings can be produced, not by exporting from a 3D model to standard CAD packages for preparation, but exporting professional level output directly from the model. AVEVA E3D includes a powerful 2D drafting engine which allows plant designers to output project-ready quality deliverables. By combining 2D and 3D in this way designers can now be confident that their drawings are aligned with the contents of the 3D model, this helps to avoid the data creep that occurs as 3D and 2D can become out of sync.
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AVEVA Everything3D™ Reveal – The Fused 3D Environment
March 15, 2013
The new release of AVEVA Everything3D™ changes the way in which plant designers will work within their design tool. The world of pure geometry is now merged with the world of construction and fabrication reality by the integration of 3D laser data with 3D geometry data in one, easy-to-use environment. Information from around the project whether it be from the fabrication facility or the construction site itself can be quickly viewed in the 3D plant design – designers can now gain greater insight into the working environment in the field.
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The New Mobile Generation
March 8, 2013
Engineering graduates currently leaving college to embark on their plant design careers are the first generation of engineers who have never known a world without the internet and mobile devices to provide access to it. These new engineers are being presented with a new way of interacting via touch screen technology, they are already used working with software which is very easy to use. One thing is for sure, this generation of plant designer have expectations of how they will interact with software and that is fundamentally different to those of the previous generation.
But it is not just this new generation of inspiring engineers that will change the way we work but the new generation of mobile computing itself. Mobile tablet computers continue to become more powerful and offer up opportunities for more computationally rich applications to be deployed to them. The new glut of tablet computers are supporting Windows 8 and the line between laptop and tablet will become blurred. In turn we will see a wave of new software which provides greater levels of capability. With AVEVA, plant designers will be part of this wave.
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AVEVA Everything3D™, a big hit!
February 21, 2013
AVEVA’s drive to provide a new era of plant design capability and enable plant design for Lean construction has been very well received across the globe and the response from the press and market has been very exciting after the launch of AVEVA Everything3D™ (AVEVA E3D™), in December 2012. The positive response from the market has validated our Future of Plant Design initiative.
From Asia, through Europe and into America the single response from the market has been “WOW!” in response to the delivery of AVEVA E3D to the market. AVEVA’s launch has been covered in many media publications and caused quite the buzz on social media sites. Providing a design environment which blends 3D geometry with 3D point clouds, powerful 2D drafting from the 3D model, exciting new 3D visualisation style and enjoyable user experience are picked out as the highlights.
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AVEVA announces the commercial availability of AVEVA Everything3D™
January 8, 2013
Plant design solution for Lean Construction
Cambridge, UK – 8 January 2013 : AVEVA announced today the commercial availability of its brand-new plant design software, AVEVA Everything3D™ (AVEVA E3D™), setting a new level of performance for major capital engineering projects. AVEVA E3D drives the adoption of Lean Construction by enabling Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractors (EPCs) to break down barriers between design and construction, reducing overall project cost, schedule and risk.
Plant operators will benefit from the EPCs use of AVEVA E3D by reducing the time to first production or first oil and by providing them with a digital asset which is a true reflection of the physical asset. As part of AVEVA’s multi-year ‘The Future of Plant Design’ initiative, AVEVA E3D will bring exciting new technology innovations, including integrated laser scanning, mobile and cloud computing, to greatly enhance both new-build plant projects and through-life modifications.
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AVEVA publishes new business paper- Plant Design for Lean Construction
November 20, 2012
The next generation of plant design reduces rework and accelerates project schedules.
Cambridge, UK – 20 November 2012: AVEVA today announced its release of a new business paper focused on the adoption of a Lean Construction philosophy by Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies. The paper looks at what is required from the next generation of plant design products to make a step change in project execution efficiency and presents AVEVA’s insight on how to apply Lean principles in the plant industries.
“When we first devised the concept for the Future of Plant Design, Lean Construction was the key driver”, said Dave Wheeldon, CTO & Head of Engineering Design Systems, AVEVA. “Lean Construction is founded on three key principles: respect for people by empowering all levels of an organisation, eliminating non-value adding activity by adopting a zero tolerance of wastage, and maximising the efficiency of activities that add value. -
AVEVA’s new Plant Design product AVEVA Everything3D launched
October 11, 2012
‘Lean Construction’ will speed overall project execution and deliver reduced wastage.
Paris, France – 11 October 2012: AVEVA (LSE:AVV) today launched AVEVA Everything3D (E3D) at the AVEVA World Summit in Paris. AVEVA E3D will bring together technologies to provide a new vision enabling customers to adopt ‘Lean’ working practices spanning engineering, design and construction. This will speed overall project execution and reduce wastage.
As part of AVEVA’s Integrated Engineering & Design approach, AVEVA E3D brings significant innovations to greatly enhance new-build plant design and through-life modification projects. Central to this is the integration of laser scan data and 3D geometry; powerful drafting tools and intuitive user interfaces for common design tasks. -
Laser Data for Dimensional Control
September 14, 2012
Construction of both offshore and onshore structures requires the coordination of multiple fabrication contractors, each responsible for producing components to a specific tolerance. The challenge for the project team is to manage the accumulation of the variations between the nominal design dimensions and the as-fabricated dimensions.
The costs associated with resolving poorly fitting structures is exponential; errors and misalignments identified in the fabrication facility are considerably cheaper to resolve than those identified at point of installation. Site delays caused by unforeseen dimensional misalignments have a subsequent knock on effect, delaying other activity and sometimes affecting the build sequence. Safety risks are a concern too, where modules or pre-fabricated units may be crane-lifted and suspended for long durations as reworks are applied.
Minimising delays and having a vision for first time installation on site are a key contributor to reducing costs and risk during construction.
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Mobile Review and Approval
August 31, 2012
As owners become more focused on the design phase of a project to ensure that the original designs have operations in mind, EPCs become more scrutinised to both meet deadlines and share information with clients and other stakeholders. New cloud and mobile technologies are emerging into the B2B market. Although acceptance is slow, due to data security concerns, a new wave of tablet technology and pragmatic mobile applications will become available to provide tools that help to run projects more effectively.
Applications of mobile computing within large CAPEX projects are currently limited and the market needs a defining application which will help the project to improve productivity and efficiency. One of the areas where most projects suffer is managing the concurrent nature of design and construction. These two teams work in very different environments with different working conditions and management structures. Their key commonality is that they both attempt to solve engineering problems as effectively as possible.
AVEVA E3D – PLANT DESIGN FOR LEAN CONSTRUCTION