After generating a three-dimensional model, piping needs to be considered. Piping constitutes 25 to 35 percent of the material costs of a process plant, requires 30 to 40 percent of the erection labor, and consumes 40 to 48 percent of the total engineering hours. Piping is the most significant variable cost factor in a process plant investment. Piping cost is heavily influenced by plant layout even more than by optimal pipe routes. With this in mind, the PlantWise AutoRouter has been designed to help the layout engineer quickly find the plant layout that minimizes piping costs and generate good pipe routes as a time saving starting point for detailed engineering.

The key characteristics of the PlantBuilder model are speed and flexibility. Now, those characteristics can be added to the piping of a project as well. The AutoRouter readily builds on the PlantBuilder model to add pipes, inline components, and pipeline routes with the ease of the initial building of plant layout.