EPLANT-Piping Advanced Tutorial

PIPING SPECIFICATIONS FORMAT AND RULES

FIELD DESCRIPTION

With the exclusion of PCLA (Piping Class Name), STD (Dimensional Standard), SCH and SCH2 (Schedule or Thickness), THCK (thickness of gaskets) and SPOOL, all other parameters are validated against the associated table.
Below is the description of the main fields:

FIELD	DESCRIPTION
PCLA	Piping Class, up to nine characters long. No need to define it, simply load its value in the Piping Class Table.
COD	Generic Piping Component Code. The first three characters are validated against the COD field in the system table \PD\STD\COD.DBF. Longer codes can be used, for example CRE1. This allows to assign different parameters to the same component in the same diameter range. This possibility is compatible with the naming rules used by dimensional tables, which only use the first three characters.
OPE	It is used only for valves: it is the operator code associated to the valve defined in the COD field. If this field is left void, the valve will be generated without operator. The operator can also be added later or removed at any time, being a separate component. Additonal characters, if any, are used in the creation of the names used in dimensional tables only, whose names begin with the content of this OPE field followed by the parameter number and the end codes if required.
D1A	Lower Main Diameter Range, in inches. It is checked during input with the field DIAM in the \PD\STD\ANSI\PIP.DBF table, for the Ansi standard.
D1B	Upper Main Diameter Range, in inches. It is checked as D1A.
D2A	Lower Secundary Diameter Range, in inches. Required only for reductions. It is checked as D1A.
D2B	Upper Secundary Diameter Range, in inches. Required only for reductions. It is checked as D1A.
RAT	Rating of the main diameter, up to four characters. The allowed rating values are listed in the \PD\STD\RAT.DBF table.
SCH	Schedule of the main diameter, up to six characters. It can be used also for thickness. The allowed schedule values are listed in the \PD\STD\SCH.DBF table.
E1	End Code for the connection points 1 and 3. The allowed values are listed in \PD\STD\END.DBF table. This code is used also to define the name of the dimensional and weight tables of the component. The position of the connection points changes with the component type.
E2	End Code for the connection points 2 and 4. Idem as above. If this field is not specified, the system assumes it equal to E1.
MAT	Material Code. It is validated with the MAT field in the \PD\STD\MAT.DBF table. If the material code put in the class is not defined in the material table, no material description will appear for it. Some commands will warn the error, typically the isometric MTO.
CODA	Additional Code. It is checked against the CODA field in the [project_code]CD.DBF table. If this code is defined in this table and has a text associated to it in the Memo field, this text will appear in material reports. This code has two main functions: to enable to complete the description associated to the generic component code(\PD\STD\COD.DBF table) and to associate an arbitrarily long text (it is stored in a Memo field, it can be any longer) to be used in the Material Requirement descriptions. Depending of the project setup, this table can also be the system \PD\STD\PIPCD.DBF table.
THCK	Gasket Thickness / Component Dimension for those components that have enabled the reading of a dimensional parameter from the piping specifications, such as Nipples.

The D2A and D2B fields must be left void, unless for reductions, olets, relief valves, that is, piping components that have different diameters.

The following fields are less used, but they are very important because allow to setup very special cases:

FIELD	DESCRIPTION
RAT2	Rating of Secundary Diameter, up to four characters long.
SCH2	Schedule of Secundary Diameter, up to six characters long.
STU	If this field is left blank and the component has flanged ends that generate implicit elements, a set of Studs is generated with the STU code. This code must be defined in the class to be able to associate a material to Studs. To generate another code, for example BLT (machine bolts) this code must be put in the STU field. Also in this case, the BLT code must be present in the class to assign material.
GAS	If this field is left blank and the component has flanged ends that generate implicit elements, a gasket will be automatically generated with the default code GAS. This code must be defined in the class to be able to associate a material to Gaskets. To be able to generate a different gasket code, this field must be filled with that code, for example GAS1.
STD	If this field is left blank (it is by far the most common case) the component will assume a dimensional standard as defined in the project setup. Any name put in this field is interpreted as the reference standard for that component. In this case a directory with that name must exist, nested in the \PD\STD directory.
SPOOL	Used to load the Spool code in case this option is enabled in the Project setup.

RULES

Depending on the component type, some fields must be loaded and others must be left void. Below is a summary of the main rules, which are automatically enforced when loading data in the data base module and checked with the Piping Class Verification command.

Piping Class: must be specified for each component. There is no need to declare it before, but a description could be added in the corresponding table.
Component Code: must be specified for each component. It must be valid one.
Main Diameter Range: must be specified for each component. They must be valid diameters.
Reduction Components: the Secondary Diameter Range must be specified.
Same End Codes: in case E2 (secondary End Code) is the same as E1, it can be left blank.
Pipes: Schedule or Thickness must be loaded in the SCH field. The end code in the E1 field can be left void to allow connecting with any other end code, unless being a flanged one.
Flanges: E1 field must be a flanged code, E2 field must be a non flanged one.
Flanged Components: the Rating value must be specified in the RAT field.
Components with only one connection point: they cannot have E2 code.
Socket and Threaded Components: the Rating value must be specified in the RAT field.
Material Code: can be left void and also an invalid code may be used, to be able to load it in the System Material Code table afterward. In this case a warning message is automatically issued.
Additional Code: can be left void (this is the most common case) and also an invalid code may be used, to be able to load it in the Project Additional Codes table afterward. In this case a warning message is automatically issued.

Last Updated April 16, 2015.