PlantWise Help

User Interface

There are three group functionality dialogs - the PlantWise Group Movement dialog, the PlantWise New Named Group dialog, and the PlantWise Named Groups dialog.

Group Movement Dialog

The Group Movement dialog is composed of three menus; the component list and Action selection; and three command buttons.

SettingDescription
Group menu
  • Open all groups opens the PlantWise All Named Groups dialog.
  • Open this group opens the PlantWise Group dialog for just the named group currently open. If the current group is not named, you will be prompted with the error message " 
    Dialog was not opened as a Named Group
    ".
  • Save as group opens the PlantWise New Named Group dialog.
    Important: You can select an already existing group; if that happens, you will be prompted with a message.
  • Add to existing group also opens the PlantWise New Named Group dialog where you select the desired group for the additional components.
Component menu This menu can also be accessed with a right mouse click while the mouse pointer in the component list)
  • Edit opens the Editor or Builder for the selected component.
  • Remove from list removes the component from the group.
  • Zoom To causes CAD to prompt for a view to be zoomed.
  • Highlight draws the component on the Highlight layer in CAD.
  • UnHighlight draws the component on its default or user-set layer.
  • UnHighlight All draws all highlighted components on their default or user-set CAD layers.
Help menu Display help opens Help in the workstation’s default web browser.
Component List and Action Selection The component list is the name and component type of all the members of the groups. As discussed above, you can remove items from the list, but items cannot be added.

The Action selection is how you select a group functionality, and then enter the action’s value.

Move The Move action translates the group by the values entered into the X, Y, and Z fields.

Group Movement Dialog - Move Option

Note: if a placeable inline component - such as a control valve - is included in a group, the placement of the inline after a group move will be determined by the router. If the inline has been frozen, then its placement after a group move will be a relative offset from its previously frozen position.

Groups can also be moved dynamically through CAD. After selecting the group, you can then click on the Dynamic Copy/Move button from the Plant Toolbox. You then select a base point followed by a destination point.

Note: The Move action radio button must be selected in the Group Movement dialog for the dynamic move to work.
Rotate The Rotate action rotates the group 90, 180, or 270 degrees about the group’s center. The center of the group is approximated by calculating the center of the box that is created by the outer-most placement points of the items in the Objects to Move list. Because placement points are different for different types of equipment, the rotation point for the Group Rotate will generally not be the exact center of the group.
For equipment and structures, you can enter any rotation angle in the Equipment/Structure Angle field. If there are other types of components in the list, you will be prompted with errors stating that, 
Only equipment and structures can be rotated by non orthogonal rotations.
Note: Only structures without structure pipeways, vertical chases, or vertical pipeways can be rotated arbitrarily.

Group Movement Dialog - Rotate Options
Mirror The Mirror action mirrors a group about a local axis parallel to the global X or Y axis passing through the group center as defined in Group Rotate.

Group Movement Dialog - Mirror Options

Note: Structures, pipeways, and other steel members cannot be mirrored.
Note: Only placement points are mirrored, not geometry.
Copy The Copy action copies equipment and obstacles and place the new objects by the offset entered in the Relative Movement area.
Note: Pipelines, structures, pipeways, and frozen inline components cannot be copied.
The new items are named incrementally for items with delimiters in their name. Some standard delimiters are periods (.) and hyphens (-). PlantWise adds to the number or letter (less than z) that follows the delimiter. If the item does not have a delimiter in its name, PlantWise adds a hyphen followed by one (-1) for the first copy and then continue the count from there. Examples of incremental naming are shown in the table below.
Original Copy
Tank-1 Tank-2
Tank.003 Tank.004
0123-a 0123-b
02-987x 02-987y
03-456-Z 03-456-Z-1
80-T-100 80-T-101
80-T-100-PLATF 80-T-100-PLATF-1
12345M 12345N
Crane1 Crane2
EXCH-STR-PLAT1B EXCH-STR-PLAT1B-1
Groups can also be copied dynamically through CAD. After selecting the group, and then selecting the Copy action, you then click on the Dynamic Copy/Move button from the Plant Toolbox. You then select a base point followed by a destination point.
Delete Deletes the equipment and obstacle items in the list from the model.

Group Movement dialog - Delete Options
Set Layer Draws the group’s equipment and obstacle components to the specified CAD drawing layer.

Group Movement dialog - Set Layer Options
Command Buttons With the command buttons, you:
  • Accept the actions to be taken
  • Erase the fence used to create the group (Erase Fence)
  • Close the dialog

Named Group Dialogs

SettingDescription
New Named Group In this dialog, you provide a name and optional description for the group.
Named Groups There are multiple variations to the PlantWise Named Groups dialog. As the All Named Groups dialog, all of the model’s saved groups are listed. If opened with a My Groups command, the dialog only lists the groups that contain the component that was selected when the command was executed. The name of the common component will be a part of the dialog’s name. Similarly, if opened with the Open this group command from the Group Movement dialog, only lists that group and its name will be the name of the dialog.

You can access the Named Groups dialog from: CAD (Plant > Plant > Named Groups), or from the Display menu of the Equipment Editor, Obstacle Builder, Pipeway Builder, and Structure Builder (Display > My Groups or Display > All Groups).

Using the tree system common in many file programs, the PlantWise All Named Groups dialog gives you a place to manage the model’s saved groups.

All Named Groups dialog

  • All Groups Commands - From the Groups menu, you can set the dialog to display all of the named groups, thus changing the dialog from the This group mode to an All groups mode (All groups). You can also return any highlighted group component back to the default or user-set drawing layer for those components (Unhighlight all). Finally, you can Close the dialog from the Groups menu.
  • Selected Group Commands - For a selected group, the Group menu allows you to:
    • Open the Group Movement dialog (Activate group).
    • Highlight all of the group’s components (Highlight group).
    • UnHighlight all of the group’s components (UnHighlight group).
    • Delete the group from the model (Delete group).

    When a group name is selected in the dialog, a right mouse click pops up the Group menu.

  • Selected Component Commands - For a selected group component, the Component menu provides the following commands:

    My groups opens a new Named Groups dialog with only the groups that contain the selected component listed;

    • Edit opens the editor or builder for the component.
    • Zoom To
    • Highlight component
    • UhHighlight component
    • Remove component from group

    When a component name is selected in the dialog, a right mouse click pops up the Component menu.

Saved Groups

For future use, named groups are saved in the model’s script file. Each named group entry is written as follows: 

(pbar-named-groups-recreate-group "<group-name>"
	"<description>" '((<component type> "<component name>")+))
<component type> ::= equipment | obstacle | pipeline | pipeway |
	psv | structure | boundary | :udi | :cv | :fe
In the case of a structure, the name is 
"structure-name" "section-name"
Parent topic: Group Edits