What is the best option for 2D plant layout

[pimm]

Our company will be hiring someone who will be generating a plant layout which only needs to be in 2D.

Through relating with other user's experience we've found that Creo is not really friendly with building plant layouts because drawings prefer the 3D world.

We are wondering what users here use to get around some of the limitations with the base Creo software in order to generate plant related drawings?

It would be great if things would fully integrate with Creo, but if not we are just looking for an easy way of developing a 2D plant drawing.

We spoke with a Solidworks salesman who suggested a free trial based product called DraftSight.

In looking at this forum I see that someone mentioned the freeware software Sketchup.

In looking elsewhere I've seen AutoCAD light as being recommended.

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[dschenken]

There's no reason not to use assemblies of 2D sketched datum curves.

What is the expected output and what sort of information controls are you expecting?

There's a whole separate CAD direction called BIM (Building Information Modeling) which is notably dominated by Autodesk (why wouldn't the Solidworks guy mention that, I don't wonder) with Revit being the particular module of interest there. There are others, none of which I've used, but Revit is one I've run across.

[pimm]

David; I'm not very acclimated with drawing in Creo. How would 2D sketched Datum Curves in assembly work in conjunction with a 2D drawing layout? We would just need to have a layout which we could easily move around machinery. This would need printed with dimensions for plant use.

Bill; Would you see draftsight as a good option to use in conjunction with Creo?

[dschenken]

Just use 2D sketches and make a drawing showing those sketches.

I really don't understand the rest of the request - are you currently using some other software and don't want to use Creo or are you using only Creo and want to know what to do with it for plant layout?

In Creo you would make an assembly of the various 2D parts of the plant and move them as you like.

[pimm]

David: OK, so 2D sketches will come across on a drawing layout. That of course has it's advantages and issues. I would prefer staying fully within the Creo product as long as it was easy to move the machines around without things coming unglued.

We are just looking at other possible good options for a person new to CAD to use.

In the assembly would you just use numerous CSYS to move around the sketch locations?

[dschenken]

You can just mate the datum planes of the sketched parts and then use Package moves to approximately locate or 'play' with different locations or you can assign more specific constraints as required. Look under Assemble-> Package to move already placed items. It's in the wrong place in the menu structure, but there it is.

[BillChapman]

Draftsight is really is own entity. It is something you would use instead of Creo, because Draftsight is purely a 2d program and you are looking to do this work in 2d. Since its free, I would recommend Draftsight over AutoCAD LT because they are basically the same. Any dwg templates you can find should work with Draftsight.

[BillChapman]

We do use draftsight. It is essentially at copy of AutoCAD LT, except free. It uses dwg format files and can open AutoCAD LT files (dwg/dxf).

[Inoram]

The only other software not yet mentioned that I would maybe look at is Microsoft Visio. But I think part of it depends on scope of the project and usage of the drawing when finished. For example, the last plant layout I worked on, we kept it in AutoCAD because it got shared between a few other companies for various reasons. Like one company put did the cooling system design and then gave us the drawing back, then another company did the HVAC and gave us the drawing back, etc.

[KenFarley]

I second this reference to Visio. We used it to do a bit of manufacturing and office floor layout stuff. It's kind of nice for moving things around and such, but not so good if you need to put out accurate drawings.

[kmitchell]

I use datum curves for ANY draft work that needs to be generated. Create your components as individual part files with datum curves as the features. You can also reuse the datum curves (maybe the sketches, .sec files) to create symbol files. After you create a symbol and save it, you can place it in your drawing (to scale) and move around with ease to get ballpark placement, or try out several places. Once you make a decision, assemble the part file with constraints. Your floorplan is up to date and your files are still native to Creo. You can always create dxf files when needed.

This works well for logos, symbols, etc. If I draft something, I always assume I will be revising in the future. I have no desire to recreate the information. I have a directory specifically for this purpose. It saves me an abundance of time on several tasks of this nature.

[kmitchell]

I forgot to mention, I prefer using datum curves over cosmetic sketches, too. I find I have much more flexibility and control with the use, placement, editing and visibility. The line properties are easily changed.

[kdirth]

Why not create a simple 3D model of the floorspace and equipment?  Itricate details are not needed and simple block shapes should work.  The 3D view will help you see the end result of a proposed layout.

[pimm]

In weighing things out we have opted to try the Draftsight freeware.

I do appreciate the ideas for options that could be tried directly within Creo.  If unhappy with Draftsight we will look at Creo within an assembly with sketches.

We should find out soon whether Draftsight gives us what we need.