"When I give, I give myself." -- Walt Whitman

Autodesk Considers 3D Piping Acquisition

Posted on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 8:03 AM
The new Autodesk Plant Solutions group, which ships its first product (AutoCAD P&ID 2007) shortly, intends for a 3D piping tool to be its second product. It is currently weighing whether to build the product from scratch—as it did with P&ID—or to acquire an existing product and/or company.

Among the possible acquisition targets are COADE Cadworx Plant, Pipe Designer 3D from QuickPen, and 3DSmart from PROCAD. Of the three, 3DSmart seems like the closest match to Autodesk's technology and market vision for its plant solutions. It is compatible with AutoCAD 2007, and it supports a variety of tools from other vendors including NavisWorks Jetstream, the popular visualization tool. It also uses Microsoft SQL Server (or SQL Express for single-user installations), a big plus in Autodesk's goal to "bring shrink wrap to plant," in the words of Autodesk Plant Solution's Mark Strassman.

  --RSN

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# re: Autodesk Considers 3D Piping Acquisition

1/18/2007 9:24 PM by TMPugh
Mr. Newton,

And what about Houston-based PI Integrated Systems and its FlexCAD offerings? - with over 3500 piper desktops in the Gulf Coast heart of the industry, its 3D_eXtension to its "bubba-friendly" FlexCAD 2D Classic apps, and its ranking as one of Autodesk's top-performing ISV's.

By the way, it's Mark "Strassman", not "Straussman".

Thad

# re: Autodesk Considers 3D Piping Acquisition

1/22/2007 11:38 AM by Randall Newton
Dang it, I hate it when I spell names wrong. Thanks, TM, for pointing that out. I fixed the reference to Mark Strassman. As for FlexCAD, I decided to key in on three -- and only three -- piping applications as being representative of what's out there. If we want to place odds on which 3D piping app has the best chance of being acquired, then we'll have to list them all. Doing so wasn't the purpose of the item.

# re: Autodesk Considers 3D Piping Acquisition

1/24/2007 11:52 AM by TMPugh
Randall,

My own complete(?) list of AutoCAD-based applications for Plant Layout & Piping Design is pretty short:
3DSmart from pro-CAD LTD [www.procad.com]
ACPlant from Flow Logic International [www.fli.bz]
CADPipe from AEC Design Group [www.cadpipe.com]
CADWorx from COADE [www.coade.com]
FlexCAD from PI Integrated Systems [www.flexcad.com]
MechQ from ASVIC Engineering & Software [www.asvic.com.au]
Plant4D from CEA Technology [www.cea-int.com]

Oh yeah, and of course there's AutoPLANT from Bentley! [www.bentley.com]

This author doesn't usually include QuickPen in my list because their product is primarily for the MEP contractor community - but then Autodesk is talking about adapting its own MEP offerings to Plant Design.

To be sure, there are AutoCAD-based applications that address pipe/valve/fitting symbology in 2D, 3D & P&ID modes and some that are specific to the manufacturing/fabrication of pipe spools . . . but as far as I know, the above 7 [excluding AutoPLANT] comprise the list of candidates [I'd be interested in feedback of any omissions].

The envelope, please; and the winner is . . . REVInventorBuildingSystemsElectricalPLANT Map R2012 [code name: Nostradamus].

# re: Autodesk Considers 3D Piping Acquisition

1/29/2007 5:11 AM by Frank Dewolf
About time! Autodesk should take notice of what 3D piping designers really need - like 3D PipeFitPro and it only costs 100 bucks!! Wonder what Autodesk will charge for the product if they make it and what they will charge for subscription??

# re: Autodesk Considers 3D Piping Acquisition

2/13/2007 4:22 PM by Ian Whistler
Hopefully they can improve the product as at the moment it is woefully lacking in features, the so called easy user interface is anything but, to the point that many of the on the buttons do absoloutly nothing.

Yours Sincerely

Frustrated 3DSmart User
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