A publication of Intergraph Process, Power & Marine

2011

SmartPlant 3D

Featuring Customer Case Studies for SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D

A Special Focus of

Siemens
SNC-Lavalin
Suncor
URS
Grenland Group

Table of Contents
Focus on: SmartPlant 3D

Focus on: SmartMarine 3D

3 Building and Operating Facilities More Safely

Safety Management

Case Studies

From the Top

From the Top

4 Smart 3D Solutions Increase Safety in the

Engineering Enterprise

Case Studies

6 Siemens Energy Sector Implements SmartPlant 3D

8 SmartPlant 3D Accelerates SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult

Mining Project Implementation

42 Smooth Sailing for Samsung Heavy Industries

44 COSCO Shipyard Group: Speeding Offshore Design

48 
Keppel Offshore & Marine Chooses SmartMarine 3D
for Design Efficiency

50 Grenland Group Chooses SmartPlant Enterprise to

Maximize Offshore Production

52 Vietsovpetro Stays on Top of Offshore Design

10 Suncor Meets Tight Schedule with Intergraph

SmartPlant 3D

12 URS Washington Divisions Project Approach Delivers

Results

15 Genpro Engenharia Uses SmartPlant Enterprise to

Promote the Complete Design Workflow

20 IBERDROLA Ingeniera y Construccin Realizes the

Power of Integration

22 Chematur Engineering Achieves TIC in the Box

24 Grenland Group Advances Productivity with SmartPlant

3D Automation

26 C&I Engineering Shortens the Learning Curve

28 With Growing Demand for Alternative Fuels, De Smet

Engineers & Contractors Look to Intergraph Solutions

40 The Industry Gold Standard Smart 3D

Did You Know?

54 Intergraph Expands SmartMarine 3D Design Software

Capabilities for Offshore Market
56 Intergraph SmartMarine Enterprise Boosts Productivity

Industry Perspective: ARC Advisory Group

16 Intergraph No. 1 Process Engineering Tool Provider

17 Process Engineering Tools Drive Efficiency Improvements

Did You Know?

30 Market-leading Smart 3D Offers New Productivity and

Performance Enhancements
34 Gain the Most Value from Laser Scanning with
SmartPlant Enterprise
36 Industry Newsbytes

30

Industry Leaders Depend on Intergraph

Smart 3D Technology for Competitive
Productivity Improvements
Engineering, procurement and construction
firms and owner operators in more than 60
countries around the world rely on Intergraph
software to increase productivity and provide
for safe and clean operations. Recognized as
the industrys market leader by all independent analysts, Intergraphs commitment to
customer success is known around the world.
Building on its industry leadership and
closely collaborating with its customers,
Intergraph invested more than US$170
million and hundreds of thousands of
man hours to develop Smart 3D, the

only next-generation design technology

on the market.
This data-centric, rules-based 3D technology
enables better user productivity, improved
collaboration and higher quality engineering
deliverables than previously available.
Smart 3Ds innovative plant modeling also
provides consistent 2D and 3D integration between process engineering and
detailed engineering disciplines, and
workflow-managed integration across
the project enterprise and workshare
teams globally.

The result? Power and industrial plants, ships

and offshore platforms can be designed,
built, operated and maintained with greater
efficiency, speed and safety. EPCs and owners
alike benefit from more than 30 percent
productivity gains during the design phase
and reap potential one percent reductions
off large CAPEX budgets during procurement and construction as a
result of faster, higher quality
engineering deliverables.

from the top

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Insight

Issue 28

Building and Operating Facilities More Safely

Intergraph technology can help build better and safer facilities and operate them more effectively
n By Jana Miller
There is a growing interest in safety due to recent
events involving a variety of industries which
Intergraph Process, Power & Marine (PP&M)
serves. Insight discussed the heightened focus on
safety and the ways that Intergraph can help with
Gerhard Sallinger, president of Intergraph PP&M.

Besides the high costs of last-minute modifications, late modifications also bear risks, such as
area classification errors, improper documentation and tracking. By nature, late modifications
convert an as-designed plant into an as-built
plant, bringing in all sorts of new risks.

Insight: How can Intergraph improve safety

for facilities?

Insight: Can rules work as safety watch

dogs to increase safety?

Gerhard Sallinger: Safety by design has always

been central to our philosophy. Our solutions
support the life cycle of facilities and can address
process safety, personal safety and facility safety.

GS: Rules-based design can save engineering time and increase design accuracy. For
example, it can ensure that safety-related
design rules are properly applied and can only
be modified with proper authorization.

SmartPlant and SmartMarine solutions can help

to increase safety in the engineering enterprise
by enabling our customers to design, build and
operate safer, more reliable and more efficient
plants, offshore structures and ships.
Insight: What can rules-based technology
provide your customers?

GS: Smart 3D technology (encompassing both

SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D) is our
state-of-the-art 3D plant and ship design system.
It is unique because it is the only system which
is able to incorporate engineering rules of all
types directly into the engineering tool. This
rules-based, data-centric technology empowers
engineering companies and plant operators to
transfer engineering and operational knowledge
as well as relevant safety and regulatory requirements and procedures into the system. By doing
this, the system can automatically optimize the
design process and facilitate the automation of
engineering, leading to better, more effective and
more error-free design.
More error-free design, combined with the integration of relevant process safety data, materials
handling and construction, can reduce the need
for last-minute modifications at the construction
site or fabrication yard to correct undetected
design errors.

SmartPlant Enterprise for Owner Operators

enables you to document non-conformities
and waivers. In case of an incident, you have a
traceable, auditable record for regulators and
investigators.
We work closely with leading O/Os, EPCs and
other technology providers to deliver new
functionalities, such as:
n

The rules-based design capability that Smart

3D offers is the top differentiator to traditional
design systems.
Intergraph engineering and information management tools can also assist in identifying, preventing
or managing safety issues by automating hazard
and risk identification and conducting efficient
explosion impacts studies to name a few.
Insight: How can better management of
facility data increase safety?

GS: SmartPlant Foundation and SmartPlant

Enterprise for Owner Operators are highly
efficient solutions for plant data management,
specifically developed to address the demands
of the plant design industry. Engineering
companies and plant operators can use these
solutions to effectively manage and document
all relevant information, e.g. work procedures,
about the plant operations during its life cycle,
such as maintenance procedures, change management data and safety documents.

 e now offer highly expedited explosion and

W
gas dispersion analysis through an optimized
interface between Smart 3D and GexCons
FLACS solution, which enables you to quickly
load Smart 3D models into FLACS to generate an impact report and apply the explosion
analysis findings to improve the plant design,
if necessary for your workflows
Fireproofing rules are available in Smart 3D
Leak detection and repair (LDAR) analysis
can be performed by operations and maintenance teams using SmartPlant P&ID and
SmartPlant Foundation to find and document
leaks in the plant.

And there is much more to come. We are committed to helping increase facility safety for the
industry with innovative solutions!

Jana Miller is editorial director of Insight and is

based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
www.intergraph.com/go/smartsafety

Insight: What other Intergraph capabilities

are available for a comprehensive safety
approach?

GS: A major strength of Intergraph is that we

offer a deep breadth of integrated applications for the complete life cycle. For example,

Smart 3D

Insight

SAFETY MANAGEMENT: SMART 3D SOLUTIONS

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Smart 3D Solutions Increase Safety in the

Engineering Enterprise
Intergraph automated rules-based design offers better solutions for safer assets
As recent events have indelibly illustrated, lapses
in plant safety can result in the loss of life and
property, unimaginable environmental damage
as well as corporate financial and reputation
ruin, and intense governmental scrutiny.
SmartPlant Enterprise and its ship and offshore
counterpart, SmartMarine Enterprise, inherently
promote safer plant design and construction
with their rules-based Smart 3D engineering
design solution. The software helps users to build
safety into plants early in the design process and
enforce regulation and engineering standards to
reduce rework, increase productivity and quality
and lower costs. The rules can be nominally
configured to ensure compliance with many
industry and safety standards organizations from
around the world.
4

Insight

For example, with Smart 3D, the design and

modeling of cans, tubular structures added to
nodal connections on the jackets of offshore
platforms to provide reinforcement, is compliant
with American Petroleum Institute (API) standards. Users can also create their own methods/
rules of flagging or containing questionable or
hazardous construction designs that could result
in compromising the safety of the plant, equipment or employees.
Rules-based design impacts safety early in the
area classification of the 3D model. The software
identifies the locations of equipment that could
be unsafe if located near each other and will flag
or disallow the placement of that equipment in
the 3D model design. This helps to better manage the hazardous locations of equipment and
activities in those areas to ensure safe operations.
Insight: Special Focus

GexCon FLACS
Now, to meet the growing safety demands of
todays design engineers and plant owners,
Intergraph has interfaced its Smart 3D and
design software with GexCons FLACS explosion
analysis software to enable users to visualize
impacts and ensure that equipment is placed correctly and that structures are able to withstand
an incident such as an explosion. FLACS has
been the leading tool for explosion consequence
prediction on offshore oil and gas installations
for more than a decade.
Ideal for chemical, metals, oil and gas, pulp,
power and other plants involved in the handling
or manufacturing of explosive or flammable
materials or pressurized liquids and gases, the
safety management software configuration
reduces design and component placement errors
that later must be corrected during construction.

With the interface between Intergraph design

software and FLACS, Smart 3D models can be
imported for analysis and validation in as little
as an hour or a couple of days. This capability
favorably compares to the typical workflow of
creating the model within FLACS or revising the
project models which can take from one week to
three months to complete.
The interfaced 3D design and explosion analysis
software enables users to more easily produce
reports showing gas dispersion and explosion
impacts and then incorporate changes while
still in the design process to minimize costly
late changes.
Using the rules, FLACS validates design and
rework is cut to a minimum due to the fact that
rules have enforced the right engineering decisions from the beginning.
More Smart 3D features
Smart 3D can also model intelligent fireproofing for both structural steel and concrete. The
process is specification-driven. Reference data
are preconfigured to enable automatic determination of key design aspects such as material,
grade, rating, segmentation and setback lengths.
Additional safety management capabilities of
the SmartPlant Enterprise and SmartMarine
Enterprise suites include leak detection and
repair (LDAR). By integrating SmartPlant P&ID
together with SmartPlant Foundation, users are
able to find all critical process connection points
inside a plant that are susceptible to leaks and
need regular inspection. Inspections can be
better managed by using SmartPlant P&ID as
the plant roadmap to identify all critical connections. SmartPlant P&ID then links to inspection
documentation and reporting, which can be
managed in SmartPlant Foundation. Smart 3D
locates connections to help plan inspections. For
example, the user can click on the connection in
SmartPlant P&ID, open the 3D model and zoom
in on the connection point.
www.intergraph.com/go/smartsafety
www.gexcon.com

SmartPlant Process Safety Improves Safety in Capital

Projects and Plant Operations
Intergraph SmartPlant Process Safety software
streamlines process safety review and builds
the corporate safety knowledge base, leading
to considerable benefits for capital projects and
operating plants in lowering operational risks.
By automatically identifying hazards (causes
and consequences with the associated risk factors) from the plants schematic drawings using
SmartPlant P&ID, SmartPlant Process Safety
enables companies to:
Produce consistent, high-quality HAZOP
study reports for much less time and cost
across the complete design
n 
Identify and eliminate hazards early in the
design process, before change becomes
limited and expensive
n 
Quickly and easily assess the effect of
change on the safety of the entire plant by
comparing several HAZOP studies
n
Take advantage of action management to
execute risk reductions
n 
Pre-verify the P&ID before the HAZOP to
ensure safety devices are in place.
n

For capital projects, SmartPlant Process Safety

leads to lower risk, improved design quality
and reduced schedules. For the operating plant,
it means that through better Management of
Change (MOC) processes, users can achieve
improved and much faster re-HAZOPs and
also increase plant safety. Powered by HAZID,
SmartPlant Process Safety is an integral part of
SmartPlant Enterprise. Benefits include:

Substantially reduce HAZOP study time

and cost By largely automating hazard and
risk identification, SmartPlant Process Safety
can easily cut the time and cost of HAZOP
studies in half. SmartPlant Process Safety integrates with SmartPlant P&ID and automatically traces hazard and operability issues and
potential safeguards across multiple P&IDs.
Gain a powerful visual aid to understanding Information such as nodes, faultconsequence paths, and potential safeguards
may be highlighted at any time to help the

Smart 3D

HAZOP study team evaluate risks and brainstorm for any other fault-consequence pairs.

Enhance action management with comprehensive change validation Changes

resulting from the action management process
can be validated before acceptance, even
though the HAZOP team may have dispersed.
See thorough, consistent, auditable
results Unlike conventional HAZOPs in which
two teams may produce different results,
hazard identification with SmartPlant Process
Safety will always be thorough and consistent
from HAZOP to HAZOP.
Enable better quality designs and reduced
cost of change Process engineers can check
for safety at any stage of the design, even
to verify the P&ID on safety practices before
physical design. This improves design quality
and eliminates hazards and operability issues
before change becomes limited and costly.
Build and retain corporate safety knowledge base Companies can capture the
safety knowledge of their most experienced
engineers, operations staff and safety people
into a corporate safety knowledge base for
consistent reuse throughout the organization.
Improve MOC processes SmartPlant Process Safety may be incorporated into MOC
processes to ensure that safety of any plant
modification is assessed across the whole
plant before work permits are issued.
Check the safety of your plants against
recently reported incidents All of a companys plants can be quickly audited to ensure
they are not susceptible to recently reported
incidents in similar plants.
Support mergers and acquisitions New
acquisitions can be quickly checked against
the corporate safety knowledge base as soon
as the P&IDs are available.
www.intergraph.com/products/ppm/
smartplant/process_safety

Insight

case study: siemens ag energy sector

Siemens Energy Sector Implements SmartPlant 3D

Reduction in time reported by approximately 150 users in multiple disciplines
n By Guenter Mauss
By any measure, Siemens AG is a global powerhouse. For 163 years, the company has been
synonymous with technological innovation and
operational strength. In 2009, Siemens reported
revenues exceeding US$114 billion, with more
than 400,000 employees in some 190 countries.
Today, Siemens business activities are bundled into three main sectors: Industry, Energy
and Healthcare. It is into the Energy Sector
that Siemens recently introduced SmartPlant
3D, with very beneficial results.
Serving the entire energy conversion chain
Siemens Energy Sector offers products, services and solutions for power generation,
transmission and distribution, and for oil and
gas production, conversion and transport.
Within the sector, there is also a growing focus
on the dynamic renewable energy market, with
emphasis on wind turbines, photovoltaic projects and solar-thermal power plants.
6

Insight

According to Energy Sector CEO Wolfgang Dehen,

2009 was a year of major orders and trailblazing innovations ... We set new records for
profit and revenue. In fiscal 2009, with some
85,000 employees in 90 countries, Siemens
Energy generated revenue of $37.6 billion and
profit of $4.8 billion.
SmartPlant implementation in
Siemens Energy
Siemens far-sighted willingness to embrace
innovative technologies has been a source
of the companys strength since its founding
in 1847 by the inventor of the pointer telegraph. Siemens continually examines every
business unit to make certain it is using the
best technologies available to stay competitive, profitable and nimble, a challenge for
such a large corporation.
Siemens vision for its plant engineering framework required a change in the engineering
Insight: Special Focus

execution process. In the old environment, most

tools were not integrated, data storage was
decentralized, much of the transfer of data was
on paper and the environment was organization-oriented. The company wanted a new
environment to modernize its engineering and
communication processes by introducing integrated tools, centralized data storage, automated
data transfer and a process-oriented environment. The strategy for realizing this vision of
an integrated engineering environment was to
implement SmartPlant Enterprise engineering
software at Siemens Energy Solutions.
The SmartPlant Enterprise business case
In making the business case for implementing SmartPlant Enterprise throughout the
engineering enterprise, Siemens believed it
would derive benefits not only in engineering and data management, but also in time
and cost savings and quality improvements.

As part of the business case for SmartPlant

implementation, Siemens also looked forward
to savings in per-project hours among the disciplines process, civil, electrical, mechanical
and 3D modeling. This, of course, would lead
to greater ROI.

workflow and natively views PDS files, as well

as SmartPlant files.
Starting in 2006, the company began to use
SmartPlant P&ID and SmartPlant Foundation
information management solution for all new
combined cycle power plant projects. And in
2007, Siemens began using SmartPlant 3D, Intergraphs advanced design software, for three
execution and three reference plant projects,
followed in November 2008 with full release
of the software for all new projects.

Expected benefits of integrated tools

One anticipated benefit of migrating to a system based on a central data pool was that it
would provide a way to streamline data exchange among all the disciplines involved in
a project. This easier exchange of data could
then enable integrated workflows across disciplines and processes, including business processes beyond design.

SmartPlant 3D discipline training

Most of the 150 Siemens engineers who became SmartPlant 3D users were experienced
in PDS. The SmartPlant users were trained in
the following disciplines, including many who
are cross-trained:
n Piping and pipe supports
n Structural
n Civil
n HVAC
n Raceway
n Equipment
n Drawing and reports.

Working in an integrated tool environment

would also enable controlled data sharing, improved data management and enhanced data
integrity. Siemens also anticipated one more
benefit from selecting SmartPlant specifically
a software partner who was accessible and
whose global reach ensured support of Siemens multinational projects.
SmartPlant implementation and results
Since 1996, Siemens had used Intergraphs
PDS, and continued to use it for all projects
until October 2008. Also in 1996, the company began using SmartPlant Review for design
reviews by clients and management. SmartPlant Review supports the entire plant design

Did SmartPlant 3D save time and money?

In a word, yes! In evaluating SmartPlant 3Ds
performance of modeling tasks, Siemens found
the greatest reduction in project hours in modeling piping (39 percent time savings) and
piping supports (26 percent savings). The next

SmartPlant 3D Introduction in Siemens Energy Solutions

APRIL
2006

NOVEMBER
2006

V7

END PILOT
PROJECT

FIRST
PROJECT

APRIL
2007

V7.1

SECOND
PROJECT

SEPTEMBER
2007

V7.2

V7.3

THIRD
PROJECT

NOVEMBER
2008

most significant work-hour reductions were

in HVAC (22 percent savings), structural (16
percent savings) and equipment modeling (8
percent savings). These results were based on
a comparison of SmartPlant 3D to PDS, Intergraphs highly respected first-generation plant
design software, which Siemens used for 12
years before implementing SmartPlant 3D.
Next goal? Comprehensive use of SmartPlant Enterprise
Siemens has exhaustively tested SmartPlant 3D,
with very satisfying gains in productivity. Based
on these results and the companys previous experience with other SmartPlant applications and
with PDS, Siemens has set a new target the
comprehensive use of SmartPlant Enterprise.
With regard to its engineering tools portfolio,
Siemens plans a complete migration to SmartPlant 3D. So far, it has completed the migration for reference power plants and combined
cycle power plants. In mid-2010, it will complete the migration for steam power plants
and conventional islands.
In work processes, the company anticipates
integration of SmartPlant in the entire Plant
Engineering operation by mid-2010. And in
regard to development and upgrades, Siemens
Energy Sectors plans call for the complete
integration of SmartPlant throughout the entire engineering process. The use of Global
Workshare and Catalog Workshare have been
completed, as has the V2009 SP1 upgrade for
SmartPlant 3D. Further modularization, configuration and automation will follow.
Werner von Siemens, the company founder, remarked in 1857, In critical situations, decisive
and vigorous action is nearly always the best
strategy. Following that axiom, Siemens has
aggressively pursued new markets with innovative technologies, now including the SmartPlant Enterprise family of solutions.

V7.4

FULL RELEASE OF
ALL NEW PROJECTS

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF SMARTPLANT 3D

Performance, stability, functionality
Skills and experience of user
EVALUATION OF SMARTPLANT 3D BENEFITS

Guenter Mauss serves as vice president, Central &

Eastern Europe, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine. He is based in Frankfurt, Germany.

www.energy.siemens.com
Smart 3D

Insight

case study: snc-lavalin MINERCONSULT

SmartPlant 3D Accelerates SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult

Mining Project Implementation
Industry leader manages projects more efficiently and increases productivity in record time
The SNC-Lavalin Mining and Metallurgy
(M&M) division is a world leader in its sector, carrying out projects in the fields of alumina, aluminum, bauxite, copper, gold, iron
ore, nickel, phosphate, potash, steel, zinc and
other commodities. SNC-Lavalins global services range from scoping studies to full project
implementation for some of the largest projects ever undertaken in the industry.

valins approach to project execution and de-

Most SNC-Lavalin M&M technical staff members have extensive practical operating backgrounds that complement their design and
project management skills and have often
worked on the same projects together. SNC-La-

Minerconsult, became part of SNC-Lavalin in

Insight

livery embodies strong project management,

technological excellence and quality assurance.
SNC-Lavalin has been active in Latin America
since the early 1970s and is one of the leaders
in project execution in the mining and metallurgy sectors in Brazil.
SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult, founded in 1990 as
2007. With approximately 1,000 employees and
revenues last year of approximately US$100 million, SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult has developed
and implemented more than 1,000 projects in
Insight: Special Focus

the past 20 years. Major EPCM projects executed

are the Barro Alto Nickel, Rio Paracatu Gold Expansion III, Juruti Bauxite and Alumar Aluminum
refinery projects in Brazil.
The experience won by SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult during this period provides a unique
knowledge of mining processes, including a
high level of technical service to its customers. This level is recognized in Brazil and other
countries in the region. Thanks to the experience, talent and background of its local engineers, SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult performs
large-scale and complex mining projects in
Brazil, Malaysia, Peru and Argentina. The

unique knowledge of its professionals and

the global execution mindset require tools
to help the company during the design stages to improve productivity and deliver the
highest engineering quality products and a
global integration capability with all of the
SNC-Lavalin divisions spread around the world.
SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult realized that there
were limitations to its existing CAD systems
to achieve its project implementation goals.
To manage its projects more efficiently, increase productivity and better understand the
needs of its major clients while remaining at
the forefront of the volatile and ever-changing mining industry, SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult turned to Intergraph. SNC-Lavalin, an
existing Intergraph customer, was familiar
with Intergraphs user-friendly interface and
easy-to-use tools. In addition, the softwares
open architecture, utilizing commercial databases such as Microsoft SQL and Oracle,
was an attractive feature that helped ensure
a versatile operating environment.
As part of the evolution process, SNC-Lavalin
Minerconsult added Intergraphs SmartPlant
3D and SmartPlant Review to its product suite.
SmartPlant 3D is a next-generation, data-centric design system that provides clients with
the most productive, highest quality, multi-discipline 3D modeling environment in the world
for global multi-office execution of mining

projects. SmartPlant Review is the complete

visualization environment for interactively
reviewing and analyzing large, complex 3D
models during engineering, construction and
operations.

terprise suite of tools, including SmartPlant

Foundation, presently on an Oracle/SQL platform. In addition, the inclusion of SmartPlant
Reference Data will help build and standardize a global approach.

With approximately 100 users, the full training

on the new design tool took only four weeks.
Because of the high competence level of the
professionals and the user-friendly software
environment, they were then ready for production.

Taking advantage of local talents that exist

globally in SNC-Lavalin, the companys workshare environment has proven a great success
thanks to the groups global commitment in
choosing SmartPlant Enterprise.

With support from Intergraphs Brazilian distributor, SISGRAPH, as well as SNC-Lavalins

Canadian and Chilean counterparts, the implementation went smoothly in record time. Although there was no data migration involved,
SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult did require some
customization of catalogs, specifications, symbols and drawing templates, created by referring to customer documentation.
Now that the SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult team
is up and running, it is using SmartPlant 3D
as a design tool and SmartPlant Review to visualize the plant sections as well as review,
design check and update construction status
on its projects.
SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult has received full
support from the SNC-Lavalin corporate
team as well as many other group offices that
have implemented the entire SmartPlant En-

Although it is still too early to quantitatively

measure results and benefits from the new
applications in terms of reduced work time or
rework, SNC-Lavalin and its customers have
realized benefits in terms of discipline integration and engineering development. One
of the main reasons for choosing Intergraph
and the SmartPlant Enterprise engineering
solutions was the fact that there is an integrated common database that eliminates
duplication of data. Using this integrated
database with concurrent engineering saves
significant time since multiple designers
working on a project can easily know which
data have changed in their environment.
Additionally, with rules-driven design, interference checking is continuous and a special process is not needed to synchronize the design.
This automation of design reduces not only
the design time, but also provides SNC-Lavalin
Minerconsult professionals with an online engineering coordination tool.
Looking to the future, SNC-Lavalin Minerconsult hopes to integrate more Intergraph
SmartPlant tools into its product portfolio, including SmartPlant P&ID, SmartPlant Instrumentation, SmartPlant Electrical and SmartPlant Foundation, to enable it to become a
premier full-service engineering, procurement and construction provider.

David Joffrion is a contributing editor for Insight

based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.

www.minerconsult.com
Smart 3D

Insight

Case Study: Suncor Energy

Suncor Meets Tight Schedule with Intergraph

SmartPlant 3D
Worksharing and data handover boost Firebag project
n By Paul Crowley

For more than 40 years, Suncor has been known

as both an innovator and a leader from our
pioneering work in developing the oil sands of
northern Alberta, to our introduction of more
environmentally responsible fuel.
Suncor pioneered the worlds first commercially
successful oil sands operation in 1967 and
reached a new milestone in 2006 with the production of our billionth barrel of oil. In 2008,
production at the Athabasca Oil Sands facility
averaged 228,000 barrels per day.Construction
is now underway for the next phase of oil sands
growth, which is expected to increase production
capacity in stages to a goal of up to 550,000
barrels per day in 2010 to 2012.
10

Insight

One of our latest developments is our Firebag

In-Situ operation, located 40 km northeast of
our original oil sands plant. In-situ technology
opens up the potential to recover large reserves
that cant be reached economically by traditional
mining methods. An independent evaluation of
our in-situ leases estimates recoverable resources
with a potential to produce about nine billion
barrels of crude oil.
Our in-situ operations use recycled water in a
closed system for steam generation. No additional
surface or groundwater is required and no tailings
ponds are created. In-situ development disturbs
only about 10 percent of the surface land in the
development area.
Insight: Special Focus

Worksharing
With our current Firebag expansion work, we
need to mobilize very large engineering forces
to be able to complete the project on time and
within the expected first oil recovery dates.
Theres a huge amount of ongoing engineering
work not only in Calgary, but worldwide. Our
engineering providers, such as Jacobs Engineering
and Colt WorleyParsons, have severe constraints
in regard to the skilled work force that they can
draw upon.
To access a skilled resource base, we needed to
expand the market beyond a single engineering
provider into a multiple engineering environment
across the world. In this manner, were able to

benefit from the best expertise from around the

world rather than having to live with the constraints of a very small marketplace. Thats why we
chose Intergraph SmartPlant 3D.
Worksharing was one of the primary drivers for
our selection of SmartPlant 3D. During our first
year of using SmartPlant 3D, the top benefit has
definitely been workshare. We enjoy a real-time
worksharing environment with our engineering
providers in Mumbai, Charleston, Edmonton and
Calgary, each working eight-hour shifts.
Data are a valuable asset
Our secondary driving force in choosing SmartPlant
3D was the ability to own the asset data at the
end of the project. We believe that the data
represent an important asset to our actual operations. We need to control how those data are
deployed and managed within our organization,
so that when were operating this plant, we can
create an effective information workflow. We are
looking forward to the expected project completion
in 2011 when the database turnover will certainly
be a major milestone.
The other major benefit will be to our procurement
system. We are looking at how we manipulate
model attributes to our procurement management.
The attributes describe the actual billing materials,
takeoffs and implementation across to the various
fabricators and manufacturing equipment. Also
in the future, we plan to provide our operators
with the data so that they can manage their plant
in the most effective way possible.
Productivity tools
SmartPlant 3D has promoted our engineering,
procurement and construction contractors (EPCs)
visualization. SmartPlant 3D represents a significant advancement toward achieving increased
productivity. Any piping designer would rather
work in a fully rendered visualization than a stickmodel type design.
We have also implemented real-time piping
clash mechanisms. When an individual places
a component within the model, any clashing is
immediately evident, rather than waiting to run
a report later in the project. Sometimes our EPC
will turn off the automatic clashing systems to
speed processing because the models can get
quite large. But the functionality does enable them

to perform one-time placement of objects without

a lot of rework.
Dedication to success
Intergraph has implemented many of our recommendations in the latest version of SmartPlant 3D.
Intergraph has been very proactive in working
with us to make the tool more effective through
customization. One of the key things about
SmartPlant 3D, as with any 3D model, is that
the large amount of data and moving data
around the world with limited Internet highway
pipelines can become a significant issue. Intergraph
has been very supportive in streamlining the
design of SmartPlant 3D to eliminate data movements that we didnt need.
Intergraph has also helped us with customizing
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) diagrams
to pull spools or isometrics out of the model.
For example, we need to be able to identify a
series of pipe rack modules from, in our case,
a heavily modular plant. We needed to break up
those pipe rack modules into specific groups of
piping isometrics. Intergraph has been very helpful
in building the macros that created the dicing of
the models to be able to produce that WBS
so that we could actually create the isometrics
we desire.
Suncor has a series of standard pipe supports
that we use for all of our piping design. In fact,
its integrated with our procurement strategies
and our fabrication strategies. We use many
commercially available custom pipe supports,
but we commissioned Intergraph to create some
specific parameterized pipe supports for us, and
these are now incorporated within our database.
Now when we place a pipe support, we get a
Suncor pipe support with our engineering rules
and intelligence built-in automatically.
Intergraph has been very supportive in helping
us work through the issues that weve had. This
has been the biggest advantage of our relationship with Intergraph.
I give kudos to the Intergraph team for their
commitment to making us a success. We had
some teething problems along the way, and
I think Intergraph recognized weve taken a pretty
big step out with the product by starting the
Smart 3D

project in such a big way. Intergraph employees,

from the very highest executive levels, have been
very supportive in assisting us, in committing to
support us and in making sure that were a
success with this tool.
Building on SmartPlant Enterprise
When looking for a solution, we wanted software
that would be reasonably familiar to engineering providers, either through their training on
other software tools or through actual experience
with the product. We were already comfortable
with using PDS. Because of the similarity between PDS and SmartPlant 3D, that made it a
good fit. Of course, SmartPlant 3D has its own
special characteristics.
Our future plan for SmartPlant 3D is to integrate
SmartPlant P&ID and SmartPlant Instrumentation
through SmartPlant Foundation. SmartPlant
Foundation will enable us to manage data back
to the operators. This way, not only will we be
able to create the project because of workshare,
but we will also be able to share those data with
our operators to make them more effective in
what they do.
Changing the work process
I encourage other users to plan their SmartPlant
3D implementation, and plan it well. Recognize
that there is a learning curve. Sometimes engineers
are excited about getting a new product, but
then it turns out that they dont want to put the
work into it. Remember that if you put the work
into it, youre going to get good things out of it.
You must also accept the fact that SmartPlant 3D
represents a different work process. Convincing
your engineering providers to change their work
processes to match the input method of SmartPlant
3D takes a little effort and a little time, but its
worth it in the end.
While traveling along the learning curve, its really
all about implementing new processes and new
ways to do things. Were excited to see where
this great adventure leads us.

Paul Crowley serves as director of engineering

with Suncor Energys Major Projects division,
and is based in Calgary, Canada.
www.suncor.com

Insight

11

Case Study: urs Washington Division

URS Washington Divisions Project Approach

Delivers Results
Implementing successful system and cultural changes by using the right tools and the right plan
n By David Collett
URS Washington Division is currently in a process
of transformation. The Washington Division,
previously Washington Group International, has
a rich history and consists of a number of wellknown heritage companies that not only have
brought extensive industry expertise to the
organization, but also a variety of different business models into the fold. As a large division
of an even larger company doing business on
a global scale, it is critical that the Washington
Division transform itself to better provide consistent, reliable services to clients worldwide, while
creating efficiencies and avoiding overlap.
To align with the Washington Divisions business
strategy of using a global, multi-office execution
approach, the Division established a priority
of standardizing work and work processes. In
doing so, the Division then needed to choose the
tools to make this standardization possible and
12

Insight

establish the plan to implement the tools. As the

mode, the Division chose SmartPlant Enterprise,
an integrated suite of engineering authoring
tools developed by Intergraph. As the method,
the Division felt the best approach to use would
be one it has the most experience with, a classical
project approach.

approach, modeled after how it approaches proj-

Project approach to implementing

new technology
For the Washington Division, implementing the
SmartPlant Enterprise technology meant it could
achieve its goal of standardizing processes and
products, but at the same time, the change in
process would impact the work of multiple offices
and thousands of employees. It was determined
that a well-thought-out approach would be crucial to ensure efficient and successful execution,
as well as acceptance by those impacted. The
Washington Division chose to use a project

time for completion, plus it would provide an

Insight: Special Focus

ects for external clients. The approach included

detailed steps to test, configure, pilot, document
and deploy the new technology platform. In
addition, the approach would ensure executivelevel support, alignment with business drivers,
a focused scope and a schedule with adequate
estimated cost.
In this sense, implementation of SmartPlant
Enterprise was treated as any other full-service
project the Washington Division undertakes,
complete with a project team established
to ensure each step of the project plan was
adhered to and to guarantee successful results.
Weve all heard the adage, Plan your work,
and then work your plan. This is nothing new
in project execution, and it is also how the

Washington Division undertook the implementation of SmartPlant Enterprise.

As part of good project management practice,
a project vision was determined to maintain
undeviating focus and direction. The vision was
to transform the Washington Division into a oneway global engineering organization and help
its business units succeed with a more efficient,
cost-effective business model. Using the project
approach helped smooth the way for change with
the Divisions project community, giving them confidence implementation would be handled with
rigorous diligence and attention to detail. A project
approach is seen to be one that delivers results.
The project team was initially located in Huntsville,
which allowed the team to fully focus on its efforts
and have direct access to Intergraph staff at its
corporate headquarters. This meant the project
team could resolve issues immediately and more
thoroughly assess, validate and test the new

technology platform, ensuring it would deliver

the benefits as promised. To further establish the
project team culture, a team logo was created and
to kick off the project, a team-building and alignment workshop was held.
In the beginning, the Washington Division also set
project baselines for performance management,
including scope, schedule and cost (budgeted cost
of work scheduled). During the project, detailed
monthly project reviews were conducted, as well
as monthly estimate at completion forecasting based on trends, and quarterly forecasting
based on detailed estimating. Formal change
control was applied to help prevent scope creep
and to add bona fide new scope.
Finally, reporting was conducted at
both the project and executive levels to
ensure executive support.

Using SmartPlant Enterprise for

standardization
One of the key business drivers for the
Washington Divisions implementation of
SmartPlant Enterprise was standardization.
Efficient, multi-office execution can only be
successful where standard work processes
are applied. Secondly, the integration and
enabling of discipline and multi-discipline
processes were major priorities that would
help the Washington Division more effectively
utilize global resources. This was accomplished
by closely coupling the SmartPlant team with
the global engineering leadership team that
was simultaneously tasked with standardizing
discipline and multi-discipline work processes.
In essence, the configuration of SmartPlant
Enterprise was a catalyst for the parallel
standardization efforts. Consequentially and
finally, standardization and the reduction
of overlap would help keep the Washington
Division competitive in an industry experiencing shortages of people trained in certain
technical fields.
SmartPlant Enterprise supports management
initiatives for quality and standardization. The
technology can integrate and enable various
disciplines in a single platform and give the
Washington Division a data-centric approach
with enhanced quality and efficiency through
integration. The SmartPlant architecture is specifically designed to enable multi-office execution.
This enables the leveraging of our global resource
base through standard processes and tools.
Focus first on outputs, functionality
and work process
To configure the effort and set the required bar
for success, the Washington Divisions project
approach focused on outputs, required functionality and supporting work processes.
The core focus for defining the scope of the project was on outputs. The goal was to make sure the
Washington Division could continue its business,
and its business is focused on generating outputs.
For this reason, it was essential to create outputs
in an efficient, consistent and standardized way.
SmartPlant Enterprise comes with basic functionality that requires users to configure to coding,
naming and numbering conventions in addition
Insight

13

Case Study: urs Washington Division

in the tools and processes. After positive results
and feedback, the Division moved on to additional projects. It has started implementation of
five projects under the new configuration, beginning with the first project now underway.
The SmartPlant Enterprise tools currently in use
are SmartPlant 3D, SmartPlant P&ID, SmartPlant
Instrumentation and SmartPlant Foundation. Other
tools, such as SmartPlant Electrical, are still being
configured and are in a pilot stage. In order to maintain a successful implementation, the Washington
Division has been cautious and tries not to deploy
more broadly or quickly than it can support.
Feedback
Feedback from Washington Division project
teams has predominantly focused on the consisto symbols, drawing and document formats. By
incorporating this technology, the Washington
Division was able to meld its various methods
into the SmartPlant configuration and create
standard outputs that still allow for flexibility
to accommodate client-specific requirements.
A functional requirements specification became
the checklist against which a readiness analysis
was conducted. This specification was essentially
comprised of existing tool functionality as a
minimum to help assure that vital business
functions were not disrupted.
As standards were coalesced into a single standard with business unit and client flexibility, work
processes were also assessed for consistency
with SmartPlant. Initially the tools were configured to meet our existing work processes. When
piloting was completed, work processes were
adjusted with prime focus on the integration of
P&ID and instrument design. As the Washington
Division is now moving through the early stages
of deployment on live projects, even more
adjustment is being made to the work process
to attempt to extract more efficiency based upon
tool and integration functionality.
Communication key to culture change
The Washington Division felt communication was
one of the most important aspects of making the
technology implementation a success. By creating
an open and regular discussion, with input to and
from a diverse and varied audience, the Division
was better able to achieve employee buy-in and
14

Insight

ownership. Because a large number of people

would be affected and employees would have
to change the way they work, it was important
to be sensitive to the issues and communicate
effectively to help avoid resistance to the changes,
which could have caused delay and/or failure.
Instead, it was the Washington Divisions goal to
make employees feel empowered and part of the
new initiative.
The perception of what change brings with a
one-of-a-kind project can be difficult to address.
So the Washington Division employed a twoway communication strategy using a variety of
communication tools, including:

tency, multiple-use, and time-saving aspects of

the new technology platform. The technology has
helped enforce consistency in work processes and
output, while exposing any disconnects in
existing work processes. Integration of tools
allows for the users to enter data once and have
it available for multiple uses and users, saving
valuable time. Interfaces are consistent and
productivity tools reduce design time. In addition,
data is generated during the design, making
outputs a byproduct of the design process.
Conclusion
The Washington Division is still early in the

Meetings
Monthly reports
Articles in company magazines
Presentations
Business unit project manager focus groups.

process of implementation of its new technology

Now as deployment is in progress, communication

with the projects is taking the prime focus, both
in terms of training, as well as familiarization
presentations with the project management teams
to establish and reinforce expectations for what
changes may be required from previous methods
to fully take advantage of the SmartPlant platform.

its transformation, while continuing to be a

Deployment status
The Washington Division chose to start with a
single project to ensure the platform was ready
for production, as well as to ensure the appropriate support was in place and to build confidence

David Collett is a senior project director at

URS Washington Division. He is based in

Insight: Special Focus

platform, but the indications are positive. Through

meticulous planning and a focus on creating an
environment that embraces change, the Division
is looking forward to seeing great results from
leader in global, multi-office capabilities for its
clients worldwide.

Boise, Idaho, U.S.

www.urscorp.com
Photos in this article are from stock sources.

Case Study: genpro engenharia

SmartPlant Enterprise Promotes Complete

Design Workflow
SmartPlant 3D delivers significant time and cost savings
n By Waldir Pimentel Junior
Genpro Engenharia SA is a Brazilian company
offering consulting and engineering services for
the oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, mining,
steel, pulp and paper, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries. With
more than 500 employees, Genpro operates
throughout Brazil and boasts many clients who
are leaders in their respective industries.
To meet its customers expectations, Genpro must
deliver complex process plant and engineering
projects on time and within budget. Previously
with PDS, training, correcting generated drawings and creating reports and customization
were consuming too much time. Conversion to
SmartPlant Enterprise was accomplished quickly
due to the easy-to-learn and use solutions.
Once Genpro implemented SmartPlant
Enterprise, its engineers were able to more
quickly customize and extract information and
produce reports which accelerated their project.
As a result, Genpro was able to complete its pilot
industrial plant project in just one year while
gaining important new efficiencies for future
projects.

Choosing SmartPlant 3D
When Genpro had an opportunity to deliver and
complete a project from initial design to commissioning and start-up for a polypropylene plant,
the company reviewed its options for the solution to use. There were several major factors that
influenced its course of action:
n

T he software should come from a

qualified, worldwide company
The software should have a good interface
T he software should provide time
savings over current methods.

Genpro evaluated its alternatives and ultimately chose Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise
for this project. As an existing Intergraph PDS
customer, Genpro implemented SmartPlant 3D,
SmartPlant Instrumentation and SmartPlant
P&ID as well as third-party software for architectural and steel modeling.
Fast implementation
The integration of the third-party software for
steel and architectural models worked smoothly
and issue-free. Because of the time and work
involved in implementing, customizing and

training users on Intergraphs new software,

Genpro decided to use its existing systems for
steel and architectural model design.
Intergraph and SISGRAPH, its Brazilian distributor, assembled a task force to work with Genpro
to tackle any issues that arose, find the solutions,
and solve them in a timely manner without sacrificing quality of work. The training process for
SmartPlant 3D took three months. Within just
a week, SmartPlant Instrumentation users and
administrators became operational. And training
for SmartPlant P&ID was completed in three weeks.
No data migration was involved, but product
customization was easily completed for the
SmartPlant Enterprise products in three weeks.
Customization included catalogs and symbols
for SmartPlant Instrumentation. SmartPlant 3D
customization involved piping and electrical/
instrumentation catalogs and the imported thirdparty models for architecture and steel modeling.
Time and cost savings
All in all, there were more than 150 people involved
in the project who directly or indirectly contributed
to its success. Genpro estimates that in comparison to previous projects, SmartPlant P&ID saved
80 percent and SmartPlant Instrumentation saved
20 percent in time and cost. Genpro received an
Icon Award at Intergraph 2008 in recognition of
these significant accomplishments.

Waldir Pimentel Junior is a systems engineer

at Genpro Engenharia SA and is based in So
Paulo, Brazil.
www.genpro.com.br

Smart 3D

Insight

15

Industry Analyst perspective: arc advisory group

Intergraph Ranked No. 1 Worldwide 3D Design and

Process Engineering Tools Provider
ARC Advisory Group research reveals value customers derive from SmartPlant Enterprise

Intergraph has been ranked the No. 1 overall

worldwide leader in the engineering design 3D
software and Process Engineering Tools (PET)
market according to the 2009 PET Worldwide
Outlook Market Analysis and Forecast through
2013 by the ARC Advisory Group.
The report provides an in-depth analysis of the
worldwide PET market for engineering software
used in workflow practices and data management for designing, building, operating and
maintaining process plants. The tools and applications covered in the PET study include a large
portion of those necessary to manage engineering activities that create or use engineering data
throughout the life cycle of a plant.
As the overall PET leader, Intergraph was ranked
first in key global regions and process industries as well as functionalities such as 3D
engineering design.
Intergraph offers a large and comprehensive
portfolio of products that provide users with a
compelling value proposition, said Tom Fiske,
16

Insight

Ph.D., senior analyst with ARC Advisory Group

and the author of the PET study. In addition,
Intergraphs integrated life cycle solutions preserve and leverage knowledge reuse through all
stages of the asset.
Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Process, Power &
Marine president, said, The results of ARCs PET
global market study validates why our customers have rapidly adopted SmartPlant Enterprise
across 3D design and the other engineering
disciplines. They experience a quick return on
their investments, increased productivity and
streamlined operations resulting in shortened
project timelines, all of which gives them a competitive edge that is so important particularly in
challenging economic times.
Intergraphs SmartPlant Enterprise offers a powerful portfolio of next-generation, best-in-class
plant automation solutions that leverage critical
project information and knowledge to improve
and automate work processes, from the very
early project phases through plant operations
Insight: Special Focus

and maintenance up to decommissioning. For

most projects, SmartPlant Enterprise improves
plant engineering efficiency by up to 30 percent.
Over the past two decades, ARC Advisory Group
has become the leader in providing in-depth and
accurate market intelligence for the industrial
automation marketplace. ARC consultants follow technology and industry events on a daily
basis and use a five-step approach to conduct
market research, providing a solid framework to
formulate meaningful strategies for their clients.
This approach is proven and is designed specifically to conduct global market research for the
industrial automation marketplace.
www.arcweb.com

Industry analyst perspective: arc advisory group

Process Engineering Tools Drive Efficiency Improvements

Technology investment can shorten the design cycle and improve engineering collaboration
n By Tom Fiske, Ph.D.

The process engineering tools (PET) market

consists of two major segments of products
that play a critical role in the design, creation,
commissioning and operations of plants and
assets. The engineering design applications
are used for the physical plant layout. The
process simulation and optimization software
includes tools used for conceptual and process
design, as well as tools used for process modeling and off-line optimization.
During the past several years, the use of
PET expanded rapidly as favorable economic
conditions and high demand drove capacity
expansion projects around the world. The
onset of the financial crisis in the latter part

of 2008 slowed down new capital projects.

However, not all industry sectors or regions
are affected to the same degree. Many capital
projects are still ongoing, so the investments
in PET continue. In addition, as the recession
reaches global proportions, the market dynamics present new challenges and additional
PET requirements for O/Os and EPCs.
Collaboration, efficiency and cost savings
While some areas such as the Middle East
and China continue to build new plants and
assets, other parts of the world, such as North
America and Western Europe, have different
priorities. Manufacturers in these regions are
dealing with:
Smart 3D

Tight credit markets

Few growth opportunities

Intensifying global competition

Stricter governmental regulations

Volatile raw material and energy costs

Fewer technical resources.

Companies in these regions are going back to

basics and trying to improve their cost structure.
Getting the most out of human and physical
assets is a major challenge for O/Os and EPCs
as they try to improve engineering and operational performance. To improve engineering
efficiency, companies want to shorten the entire design cycle through concurrent and
Insight

17

Industry Analyst perspective: arc advisory group

To better deal with the growing complexity of

project work, many companies are investing in
highly sophisticated design, engineering and
collaborative tools to obtain greater efficiency of
their valuable resources.
collaborative methods. To improve operational
performance, companies need more efficient,
environmentally friendly and agile assets
along with the necessary design information
to operate and maintain them.
During the past several years, there has been a
trend to use every available resource to complete projects on time and budget. This means
more partnering projects, both internally and
externally. There is a growing need for smaller
companies to assist larger ones and take on
some of the engineering design work. Consequently, the project work is getting more
fragmented and distributed and more challenging to manage.

ser scanning, the process plant engineering

industry has quickly embraced the technology
as a means to obtain detailed as-built status
of existing facilities.
Laser scan data can generate a photorealistic
3D model of a plant with accurate dimensional information. The focus on capturing
as-built engineering data and CAD modeling
for existing facilities reduces risks and enables
the completion of more projects on time and
within budget. Laser scanning and 3D plant
models have the potential to become standard

As-built information
There are many risks associated with plant
design and construction. The risks are even
greater for brownfield engineering projects
where existing structures often clash with
proposed changes. Many existing plants do
not have accurate as-built information about
their facilities to ensure error-free project
execution. With the advent of affordable laInsight

Laser scanning models are useful for

brownfield retrofits and revamps, as well as
for operations. As-built models from laser
scanning are finding use as asset management programs. The models are integrated
with other applications for plant maintenance,
operations, training, etc., and extend the value
of asset data to everyone within the plant.
Design for sustainability
With growing concerns about climate change
and other environmental damage, companies
are adopting sustainability programs. To many,
sustainability has come to mean green or
environmentally friendly. However, sustainability has a much broader and far-reaching
meaning. The sustainability business model
encompasses the ability to operate indefinitely, while delivering economic benefits and being socially and environmentally responsible.
To address the challenge of sustainability,
companies are investing in new production
assets along with new production management and asset management applications.

The Primary Asset Life Cycle Management Business Processes

To better deal with the growing complexity of

project work, many companies are investing in
highly sophisticated design, engineering and
collaborative tools to obtain greater efficiency
of their valuable resources. Companies use different tool sets on projects, but they still need
to work together. Additionally, many owners
require data handover in a format that is useful for operational and maintenance purposes.
This is driving the growth of collaboration and
data management tools.

18

procedures in brownfield engineering during

the next several years.

Insight: Special Focus

For most companies, sustainability makes

sense for a number of reasons that go beyond
the obvious environmental benefits. Sustainability helps companies to better deal with
volatile raw material and energy costs. It also
helps them to reduce waste and comply with
increasingly more stringent environmental
regulations. In addition, companies want to
improve design efficiency and overall operations to achieve a greater return on assets.
They expect improved designs to also extend
the operational phase of their assets.
Improving asset life cycle management
The cost of poor interoperability across the
complete design, build and operate value
chain has been estimated to be US$15.8
billion per year in increased capital and operating expenditures. Of these costs, two-thirds
are borne by owners and operators, which
incur most of these costs during ongoing facility operation and maintenance. This represents
a loss of 1.3 percent of CAPEX in the project
life cycle stages and 2.8 percent in terms of
return on assets during the life cycle stages
related to asset operation.
Operating companies recognize these losses
and are beginning to adopt asset life cycle
management strategies to improve their
interoperability among systems and users.
Asset life cycle management (ALM) applies to
all the life cycle stages, from design and build
to operate, maintain and retire. It not only

applies to the physical asset, but also to

humans and virtual assets as well.
ALM is becoming a priority for manufacturing,
utilities and every other enterprise where success depends upon complex equipment. Capital
budget overruns and startup delays can turn
excellent market opportunities into major calamities. Other concerns include revenue, safety,
compliance, quality and operating cost problems
that arise when asset performance is less than
expected.
Asset information management (AIM) is the
foundation for and key enabler of excellence in
every asset life cycle stage. Studies show that
asset-intensive organizations suffer staggering
losses each year as a result of poor AIM across
plant design, build and handover. AIM issues
likewise plague groups involved with facility
operation and maintenance. Neglect in this
area has also been linked to major safety and
compliance violations that blemished corporate
reputations and jeopardized their very survival.
Asset information exists in many forms and is
created and used by many groups across the
enterprise and plant asset supply chain. Each
group feels some pain from poor AIM and
most contribute to the problem. Asset O/Os
suffer the most as they incur the impact this
has on asset performance.

tal to ensuring good AIM. Each group needs

to appreciate the impact their practices have
on asset performance. In addition, all groups
need to align their practices and goals to
achieve optimal asset performance. Leading
companies recognize this need and have implemented technology and programs to enable
collaborative teams of stakeholders within and
external to their organization.
Last word
As the recession spreads globally, both O/Os
and EPCs need to get more out of their engineering resources and production assets. To
meet these challenges, companies now place
greater emphasis on PET solutions that shorten the design cycle and improve engineering
efficiency and collaboration. Additionally, many
owners are requiring engineering and design
data handover in a format that is useful for
operational and maintenance purposes. Better
ALM is the foundation for improving engineering efficiency at every asset life cycle stage, as
well as overall asset performance.
Reprinted with permission from ARC Insight, April 2009
issue, www.arcweb.com.

Tom Fiske, Ph.D., serves as a senior analyst

with ARC Advisory Group. He is based in Dedham, Mass., U.S.

ARCs research shows that collaboration and

teamwork across all asset stakeholders are viSmart 3D

Insight

19

Case Study: IBERDROLA INGENIERA Y CONSTRUCCIN

Realizing the Power of Integration

SmartPlant Enterprise helps IBERDROLA grow operations around the globe
IBERDROLA Ingeniera y Construccin (Engineering and Construction), established in 1995, has
become one of the worlds leading energy engineering companies. With active projects in more
than 25 countries and a project portfolio valued
at more than US$3.3 billion, IBERDROLA is realizing increased activity from a strategy shift
to target the creation of engineering and construction of power generation, distribution and
control facilities.
Heavily involved in large nuclear and renewable
energy projects, IBERDROLAs services also
include project management, engineering, supply, construction and commissioning, turnkey
projects and operational support. IBERDROLA
has approximately 2,500 employees. Headquartered in Spain, the company has subsidiaries
and branches in another 22 countries.
20

Insight

We specifically chose SmartPlant 3D because

of its powerful global workshare and
automation capabilities.
Fernando Torres
System Manager, IBERDROLA Ingeniera y Construccin

Integration is the key

IBERDROLA began implementing Intergraph
solutions in 2003, when the landscape was
ripe for expanding its business into new markets. The company wanted to execute international EPC projects much like the ones it had in
Spain, and the challenge was to do this while
saving time and money in execution in spite of
the distance and geographical distribution of
its international customers.
Insight: Special Focus

To access international markets, IBERDROLA

knew it must be more competitive. And, to
be more competitive, it focused on one goal
integration. IBERDROLA understood the
success of an EPC project depended in large
part on the integration of all the components
in the project. In effect, this meant coordination between all the disciplines involved in the
life cycle of a power plant, from engineering
to commissioning.

Within each of its EPC projects, many groups are

involved subcontractors, engineering, procurement, logistics, construction and commissioning.
Managing the data flow and information is critical in this environment. All the groups have access to view and edit data, and with the SmartPlant Enterprise solutions, the workflow operates
smoothly and seamlessly.
The firm has also been able to avoid conflicts
of information between disciplines, preventing
duplication of data and guaranteeing modifications are done in real-time and received across
the entire workshare.
We chose the Intergraph solutions because, as
a company, it has provided us a secure implementation with excellent technical support, said
Fernando Torres, system manager at IBERDROLA.
Intergraph has helped us evolve our functionality toward a more user-friendly environment, and we have experienced great performance in our engineering and 3D design
efforts. We specifically chose SmartPlant 3D
because of its powerful global workshare and
automation capabilities.
Standardizing on SmartPlant 3D
For its initial implementation, IBERDROLA chose
Intergraphs PDS, SupportModeler, SmartPlant
P&ID and SmartPlant Instrumentation for its
design and engineering functions. SmartPlant
Review and SmartPlant Explorer were used to
access information for visualization purposes.
However, for its goal of system integration,
IBERDROLA decided it made no sense to start
that process while it was still using PDS and
SupportModeler, so it began the migration from
these solutions to SmartPlant 3D, Intergraphs
next-generation, data-centric design solution.
IBERDROLA completed implementation of
SmartPlant 3D in early 2008, and continued its
use of PDS and SupportModeler only on projects that began before then. SmartPlant 3D
provided increased functionality, design speed,
and better performance on power plant design
projects. In the latter half of 2008, IBERDROLA
began the implementation of SmartPlant Foundation, and in 2010, it will begin the integration
with the SmartPlant Foundation project document management tool.

Products used
n SmartPlant 3D
n PDS
n SupportModeler
n SmartPlant P&ID
n SmartPlant Instrumentation
n SmartPlant Review
n SmartPlant Foundation
Key benefits
n 
Short product learning curve; reduced
design times and reuse of designs
n

S ystem integration helps to prevent conflicts of information between disciplines

 Environment of engineering enables all
subcontractors and partner engineering
companies to work within IBERDROLAs
templates, procedures and specifications

Dual project environments

IBERDROLA breaks down its EPC projects into
two scenarios Environment of Engineering
and Project Management.
The Environment of Engineering contains
almost the entire Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise suite of solutions and its integration
with SmartPlant Foundation. For IBERDROLA,
the key is to keep the know-how within the
company. This means all of the subcontractors
and engineering companies work with their
templates, procedures and specifications, and
all the designs are made by remote access using Citrix. Using the same systems, architecture
and working models, everyone involved in the
project will work with a common model. It is
within this environment that SmartPlant Instrumentation, SmartPlant P&ID and SmartPlant 3D
are used for designing process diagrams, construction drawings, purchasing counts, design
reviews and checking assemblies.

management system running SmarTeam, the

planning system running Primavera, and the
visualization system running SmartPlant Review all reside here. All are strategic disciplines
in IBERDROLAs EPC projects. For example, the
integration between SmartPlant Review and
Primavera empowers IBERDROLA to revise the
main sequences of project construction schedules, correct mistakes and make improvements
in the early stages of a project.
Internal group aids implementation
To help with the implementation of the Intergraph solutions, IBERDROLA has an Architecture
and Technology (ARTE) department responsible
for, among other things, testing new software
and configuring new products. When the products are developed and proven, ARTE trains
the respective business area within IBERDROLA
on the new application and provides technical
support, if necessary.
This methodology was quite helpful for
IBERDROLA. As IBERDROLA added new products during the software implementation process, the ARTE team received the training and
then, in turn, provided it to the IBERDROLA
application teams. One exception to this was
for SmartPlant 3D, where the whole design
application team received training together
with ARTE.
To maximize software performance for the
companys implementation, some customization was required, such as adding properties
to objects, creating libraries, configuring outputs (reports, drawings, isometrics, etc.) and
establishing a methodology to work with
these tools for its projects. Once the customization was complete, IBERDROLA quickly experienced such benefits as reduced learning
curves, expedited design times and the ability
to reuse designs. These benefits, in turn, have
resulted in increased productivity throughout
the enterprise.
www.iberdrolaingenieria.es

The Project Management environment is where

IBERDROLA accesses and integrates all of the
value-added products within the EPC projects.
Connections to the enterprise and resource
planning (ERP) system running SAP, the bill of
materials system running BDU, the document
Smart 3D

Insight

21

Case Study: chematur Engineering AB

TIC in the Box

Chematur reduces total installed costs by at least 10 percent

Chematur is a group of engineering companies

operating in Sweden, Finland, Germany, the
United States and India. Headquartered in Sweden,
Chematur Engineering AB (CEAB) has a long
and successful history of handling the complete
design, delivery, construction and commissioning
of specialty chemical production plants. Since
1930, more than 1,000 plants have been supplied
to customers worldwide.
Chematurs wide range of project and contracting
services includes feasibility studies, project
management, process development, staff training, modernization of existing plants, startup
and commissioning.
The company is not only a qualified engineering
contractor, but also the proprietor and holder of
a number of top-ranked chemical technologies,
which it licenses to customers. As a result, it
usually has a detailed involvement in plant startup and operations planning.
22

Insight

Setting the standard

Always an innovator, Chematurs fermentation
process is an industry-standard and the company
is now involved with its customers in the development of bioethanol as an alternative source of fuel.
Chematur is also a long-term user of Intergraphs
plant technology solutions. According to Chematur,
during the design and execution phases of a
project, Intergraph technology provides the right
information to the right people at the right time.
Chematur says that the benefits include reduced
time for project completion, with no reduction in
quality or safety. The level of input data is reduced
by storing all design and project information in
a single project database any project and plant
data and documents can then be generated from
the same database.
As an organization that consistently exceeds set
expectations, Chematur is eager to streamline
its engineering workflow to maximize efficiency,
Insight: Special Focus

making best use of its high-value engineering

facilities while maintaining full project control.
SmartPlant Enterprise
The company is taking on the latest generation
of Intergraph plant design and information
management technology with the implementation of Intergraphs SmartPlant Enterprise
solution, beginning with SmartPlant 3D and
SmartPlant Foundation.
SmartPlant 3D is currently in use on six Chematur
projects worldwide, with full worksharing between engineers in Sweden, Poland and India.
SmartPlant P&ID is also in place, with SmartPlant
Instrumentation scheduled for implementation soon.
Working smarter
The technology provides us with valuable functionality, says Hakan Andersson, an engineering
manager at Chematur. It is database-centric
and rule-based, both of which have a big impact
on engineering, flexibility and productivity, and

The technology provides us with valuable functionality. It is database-centric

and rule-based, both of which have a big impact on engineering, flexibility
and productivity, and it enables full worksharing.

it enables full worksharing. It also allows us to

continue to make use of our investment in our
legacy data.

And the bottom line?

According to Andersson, better design quality is

another benefit, with less engineering rework
and on-site changes needed, and the ability to
produce better plant design drawings faster.

Asian outlook
Chematurs business in Asia particularly China
is increasing rapidly. For a company that is used to
deploying and controlling key technologies that add
value for the industries it serves, the worlds fastest
growing market offers unique opportunities.

Construction and installation data can be generated more quickly, too. An earlier construction
kickoff means we can start the plant up earlier
for the customer, Andersson says.
Plant payback
In all of its chosen markets, Chematur expects
that having faster, more reliable access to project
data and the ability to perform concurrent engineering and reuse data will reduce engineering
labor hours by 20 percent.
Having more accurate and consistent data should
cut on-site rework by 10 to 15 percent, according
to Chematur calculations.

We expect to reduce the total installed cost of

the plant by 10 percent plus, says Andersson.

We do feel that plant life cycle standards are

there to be set, Andersson observes. China
wishes to embrace the best, but it is also a
highly competitive market.
We will succeed by working smarter using
plant information technology to deliver projects
more quickly, at lower cost.
www.chematur.se

Innovative Technologies
CEAB has developed and acquired rights to
many world-leading technologies in its target
markets, including:
n

 Isocyanates

 Nitroaromatics

Evaporation and crystallization

Bioethanol, BIOSTIL

Hydrogen peroxide

Explosives and propellants

Nitric acid

Supercritical fluids

 Fertilizers

Acid Concentration and Recovery System

What is SmartPlant Enterprise?

Scalability
Intergraphs SmartPlant Enterprise solution offers a powerful portfolio of best-in-class applications, which may be deployed individually or
as a flexible, integrated enterprise solution allowing an organization to successfully unleash the untapped value that is often restricted
by silo-centric communication and execution. This modular architecture provides scalability, enabling clients to start small and later grow in
harmony with their specific business needs to create substantial return on investment while reducing risk.
Integration across the workflow
SmartPlant Enterprise leverages success-critical project information and knowledge to improve and automate work processes, from the
very early project phases through operations and maintenance up to decommissioning, significantly and measurably improving engineering
efficiency throughout the project life cycle.

Smart 3D

Insight

23

case study: grenland group

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

From left to right: Terje rbeck (Grenland Group), Darren Litherland (Grenland Group), Knut Meland (Intergraph), Ivan Randbye (Grenland Group), Pierre Fransson
(FConsult), Katarina Gustavsson (Chematur Engineering AB) and Jonas Wedin (Chematur Engineering AB).

Grenland Group Advances Productivity with

SmartPlant 3D Automation
EPC provides customization training course for Scandinavian 3D Technical User Forum members
n By Darren Litherland
Here at Grenland Group, we have developed an
in-house BIG utility. BIG is the common platform on which we perform almost all of our 3D
automation. The name BIG was chosen because
it provides a big picture of what we do.
After attending an Intergraph SmartPlant 3D
Automation course in 2008, we wrote several automation applications, all based on
BIG, covering diverse areas such as drawing
view styles, reports and piping progress.
These applications have given us tremendous
productivity benefits. By displaying data from
the 3D model in a spreadsheet-like browser,
we can sort, filter and select objects quickly
based on the data presented in the list.
24

Insight

For example, all objects that have been modified by a certain user can be selected by simply
double-clicking on the users name. Achieving
the same results without BIG would take much
longer and involve creating a special filter
something many users would find difficult.
Foundation for building applications
We now have control over an interface where
groups of objects properties are listed. This
gave us the ability to create new applications.
We also have full control within these new
applications. This enables users to perform
previously out-of-bounds tasks, such as special
view-style creation.
Filter and XML file creation are managed
automatically. Users dont have to worry about
Insight: Special Focus

making mistakes. Administrators dont have to

worry about their standard viewstyles getting
messed up.
Dramatic time savings
Our most advanced application came about
when our money guys started asking questions about how things were going in our projects. Apart from making a pretty good guess,
we were pretty certain that it would be possible
to create an application to measure design
progress in piping using reports and some sort
of macro to format the data.
But we already had a platform that could provide the answers and quickly. Using BIG and
some custom commands from the SmartPlant
3D tool kit, we were able to provide a graphical

representation of the progress of piping layout

and design in only a few days. This was much
quicker than if we had used reporting.

offer it to the user community in Scandinavia.

We were pleased with the response. Five people from four companies, including Intergraph,
accepted our invitation.

Encouragement to go further
To share our success story, we performed demonstrations of our BIG system at two Intergraph
Scandinavian 3D Technical User Forum (TUF)
meetings in 2009. In gathering feedback from
my fellow TUF members, I learned that many
of them were interested in this technology and
applying it in their own businesses.

SmartPlant 3D
automation
training tips
n

We knew this was a valuable opportunity, but

were not sure how to proceed. At first, we
thought we had three options:

Offer the software as a commercial product

Give it away for free
n Make it available as open-software.
n
n

After weighing the pros and cons, we came

up with a fourth option: to provide the knowhow behind the BIG technology so others
could develop their own versions. We decided
to conduct a course in SmartPlant 3D automation with Microsoft Visual Basic for the
Scandinavian Technical User Forum. We think
this offers several benefits, because the class:
P rovides a base on which Scandinavian companies can easily build their own applications
n 
Increases Scandinavian companies knowledge of SmartPlant 3D automation
n Promotes activity in the Scandinavian 3D TUF.
n

Trial run
We first put together a three-day training
course for our own staff, made up of administrators and super-users. The administrators
had previously attended Intergraphs own
automation course a year earlier, but had not
had the opportunity to practice afterward. The
super-users had experience with Visual Basic,
varying from minor spreadsheet customization
to advanced programming.
The class reviewed the primary elements of Visual
Basic 6.0 in the SmartPlant 3D framework and
how to extract data from the 3D model using
ready-written, modular code. All five students
were soon able to create their own browser,
search for particular objects and find them in
the model.

Keep it simple
You dont always need to know
how all things work
F ocus on what to use, when to use
it and where to find it
Extensively use cut-and-paste
functionality to save time and
reduce syntax errors
Be open to new ideas
and improvements
E mphasize labs and tasks that
stimulate creativity

Rounding off their class with an exam, the students

had to successfully complete their choice of two
tasks from the following options:
 dd double-clicking functionality that autoA
matically selects objects with the same name
n Create a command that writes Microsoft Excel
data into the browser
n Add three or four new object attributes to the
browser using at least one new interface
n Create a command that hides selected objects
n 
Create a command that adds the different
values of a particular attribute to a functional ComboBox
n 
Make their existing command buttons that
depend on selected objects be displayed as
grayed-out command buttons when there
are no selected objects
n Create a command that makes the highlighted
objects flash.
n

Good response
With the experience gained from the in-house
training course, we were confident enough to
Smart 3D

Based on user suggestions and simplification, we

were able to condense the course into a two-day
schedule with theory and labs on the first day, followed by a full day dedicated to the exam tasks.
It was clear from the start that the students
were very enthusiastic. They all knew what they
wanted to do with the knowledge they hoped
to gain and the code that they would be able to
take home with them. With this kind of attitude,
it made my teaching role quite enjoyable. The
positive learning atmosphere was also evident
during the networking time, which included a
special dinner held by the Sandefjord harbor.
Positive results
With the required exam tasks completed successfully on day two, all of the students seemed happy
with their results and our efforts. Jonas Wedin
from Chematur AB in Sweden said, I thought
the course content was very good and liked not
having a constant flow of information and that we
were given challenges to solve ourselves.
Considering the fact that the students had no
prior experience with automation in SmartPlant
3D and that they could now create their own
applications, everyone agreed the course had
been a great success. On my next Intergraph
project, Ill use what I learned during the
training, said Pierre Fransson, programmer at
FConsult in Sweden.
If there is sufficient interest, we hope to offer
the course again soon. We are also looking into
the possibility of offering a second-level course
with more emphasis on application development based on BIG.
Wedin said, I tried my program when I got
back to the office and was, naturally, very
pleased when it worked!

Darren Litherland serves as SmartPlant 3D administrator at Grenland Group. He is based in

Sandefjord, Norway.
www.grenlandgroup.com

Insight

25

Case Study: C&I Engineering

Shortening the Learning Curve

Transitioning from PDS to SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant Review speeds time to productivity
n By Rich Vance
At C&I Engineering, we feel that adopting new
technology gives us a competitive edge. For
this and several other reasons, we recently
chose to implement SmartPlant 3D and
SmartPlant Review.
Projects designed using SmartPlant 3D have
resulted in a very low percentage of rework and
a higher degree of accuracy. Over time, we expect
our efficiencies to increase drastically.
Plus, global workshare enables us to replicate our
database to other sites or field offices and leverage
our staff in field offices. This helps us accomplish
more work with the same amount of resources.
Doing more with less
C&I Engineering has worked with Intergraph
for more than 20 years. Until recently, we used
PDS for design tasks. We had to rely on outside
contractors to help staff up large PDS projects.
Contractors rates have increased over the years.
This made it very difficult to recruit qualified
designers based on market demands. We wanted
26

Insight

to find ways to accomplish more work without

the level of additional expense.
To streamline our work processes, we knew
we needed to automate as much of the design
as possible. We evaluated the products available on the market and the technology behind
them, and felt Intergraph had better products
based on our previous experience with the
solutions, not to mention the companys
excellent customer service.
We believed that with SmartPlant 3D, we could
train our designers much more quickly and they
would become more productive than they had
been with PDS. SmartPlant 3D would help us
remain competitive while striving to be the
leader in technology usage.
We decided to implement SmartPlant 3D and
SmartPlant Review. This decision was based
on the ability to train many project teams from
various disciplines and have them up and running
with a small learning curve as compared to PDS.
Insight: Special Focus

SmartPlant Enterprise also gives us a modular path

for growth. We felt SmartPlant 3D would allow us
to expand our companys capabilities with other
solutions as our business case warranted. In the
future, we plan to introduce SmartPlant P&ID and
become fully integrated with the entire suite of
SmartPlant Enterprise products.
Creating a smooth workflow
We currently have several trained teams of piping
and civil designers who work and coordinate their
3D designs using SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant
Review. Coordinating the 3D environment
between civil, piping and other disciplines results
in a more efficient and streamlined workflow. On
subsequent projects, we anticipate noticeable
results in the benefits between SmartPlant 3D
and PDS.
SmartPlant Review productivity
All of our workgroups have been trained
to coordinate and review the designs using
SmartPlant Review. We use SmartPlant Review

to perform 3D walkthroughs, design reviews and

client presentations.
The ability to view the completed project in a
3D environment has proven very beneficial for
engineering, construction and our clients.
Smartplant 3D interfaces
One of the benefits we have experienced is the
ability to interface with third-party software for
stress analysis and clash detection. We currently
integrate SmartPlant 3D with CAESAR and LFM
point cloud software:
n

CAESAR integration The piping discipline

has developed a solid workflow that will allow
our designers to export pipelines to PCF files
which can then be imported into pipe stress
analysis programs. This enables us to reduce
the time and effort required to export the stress
requirements from the 3D design to the stress
analysis application.

Intergraph developers, although those services

will be handled in-house on future projects.
Production projects are generally started using
out-of-the-box delivered piping specifications.
We then convert the pipeline over to the project
specifications once delivered and loaded and the
placement check is completed.
Having the expertise to create your own piping
specifications will save lots of time and effort
on the projects and allow more control of the
specifications output and consistency.
However, not having piping specifications should
not delay the start of a project. We were able to
use the delivered specifications to get started and
convert them to the SmartPlant 3D production
specifications in a timely and organized manner.

fm integration We can merge our 3D

designs with the point cloud data, visually
manage clash detection of the existing
conditions with the new design and establish
tie-ins to existing systems and processes.

Training
For our initial implementation, a team of civil
designers and engineers as well as a team of
piping designers underwent SmartPlant 3D
training. We also trained engineers and designers
from other disciplines on how to effectively
use SmartPlant Review. This would allow team
members not trained in 3D to monitor and
coordinate the design using the 3D environment.

Implementation and customization

We have used Intergraphs implementation
services during our initial setup and
configuration and when we have upgraded to
major releases.

The project teams were trained in-house using

the SmartPlant 3D Virtual Training services and
by attending classes at Intergraphs headquarters
in Huntsville, Alabama. Each class consisted of
approximately 40 hours of hands-on training.

We used SmartPlant 3D out-of-the-box, as

delivered, for approximately six months. As we
have gained experience, we have started to
customize the software as needed. With the
help of Intergraph, we have already created
many customized:
n Reports
n Labels
n Rules
n Drawing styles and formats
n Parts.

Our administrators began training approximately

two years ago and were able to use the
SmartPlant 3D Virtual Training Web site to
maintain their skills until they were awarded
their first SmartPlant 3D project. Having other
trained personnel available in-house proved
very beneficial if there were questions about the
software or specific commands.

When we bring on new projects, we benefit

from our previous experiences and are able
to implement more customization to those
projects. Adding the ability to customize to
the already powerful software provides us an
endless array of options.
piping specifications
We contracted our piping specifications out to

Approximately two weeks after training, the

users were expected to be productive. We made
sure that the newly trained teams had immediate
access to other, more experienced users for
questions and met on a weekly basis with all
users to discuss tips and tricks with the team.

with PDS, it might surprise companies how soon

designers can be up-to-speed and productive.
Implementation
The initial drawing and reports setup took
patience. Once we got those configurations in
place, we found that the experience and the
setup we have put into place will benefit future
projects tremendously.
We were a PDS firm for more than 17 years
before making the switch to SmartPlant 3D.
Now, a little more than two years later, we feel
we are more advanced with our SmartPlant 3D
setup than with the PDS system.
Of course, we had moments when we struggled,
but kept going until each issue was resolved.
When we encountered problems we could not
resolve internally, we would file a service request
with Intergraphs help desk. Fortunately, response
times from Intergraph have been outstanding
and along the way we have developed many
relationships with those analysts who have
helped us become successful.

Rich Vance serves as manager of marketing

and sales at C&I Engineering. He is based in
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
www.cieng.com
About C&I Engineering
C&I Engineering, established in 1983, is a
full-service, employee-owned firm providing engineering, procurement and total
project management services. Nationally
recognized for its refining capabilities, C&I
has more than 25 years of experience in the
refining, chemical, industrial, and food and
beverage industries. With 345 employees, it
is Kentuckys largest engineering, procurement and construction management firm.
C&I recently ranked 18th in ENR Magazines
list of the leading engineering providers for
refineries and petrochemical plants.

For other companies that want to implement

SmartPlant 3D, we believe it is worth the time
and effort to get the system up and running as
soon as schedules allow. Because the training
and use of the software is somewhat easier than
Smart 3D

Insight

27

Case Study: de smet engineers & contractors

With Growing Demand for Alternative Fuels, De Smet

Engineers & Contractors Looks to Intergraph Solutions
SmartPlant Enterprise improves EPCs productivity, worksharing and dependability
n By Wayne Smith
De Smet S.A. Engineers & Contractors (DSEC)
works with turnkey projects throughout the
world involving the alternative fuel industry.
With 150 employees, Belgium-based DSEC
holds a project portfolio of about US$600 million.
The engineering company serves two primary
markets: the sugar and bioethanol industry and
the edible oil and biodiesel industry. For the
sugar and bioethanol industry, DSEC performs
its own process detail engineering.
With the growing demand for alternative fuels,
DSEC faces the challenge of completing turnkey
projects in a limited amount of time and with a
pre-defined budget. That requires flexibility and
precise planning.
To reduce erection costs and construction time,
piping work is pre-assembled. The assembly
work is sometimes completed at great distance
from the actual plant site.
28

Insight

To meet these challenges, DSEC selected the

SmartPlant Enterprise portfolio of solutions.
We felt that with Intergraph, we could benefit
from efficient and responsive technical support
for software implementation, said Bernard
Nokerman, project manager for DSEC. We
were also very interested in the integration of
SmartPlant 3D with SmartPlant P&ID.
Boosting productivity
DSEC selected several products from the SmartPlant
Enterprise suite for their project needs, including:
n SmartPlant 3D
n SmartPlant P&ID
n SmartPlant Basic Integrator
n SmartPlant Review
n SmartPlant Explorer.
The companys primary objective was to improve productivity using software that was easy
to use and that could easily import data from
Insight: Special Focus

subcontractors. DSEC wanted reliable software

that would be supported in the future. The ability
to share the software outside DSECs main office
was also important.
DSEC implemented SmartPlant P&ID four years
ago to use for schematics. That was followed by
the implementation of SmartPlant 3D to improve
productivity and offer the ability to integrate with
third-party products.
SmartPlant P&ID is knowledge-driven engineering software for creating intelligent piping and
instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs). SmartPlant 3D
is a complementary, full-suite solution that provides
all of the capabilities needed to design a plant,
and then keep it as-built throughout its life cycle.
Why Intergraph?
Using SmartPlant Enterprise, DSEC manages
several projects currently in production, including about 650 pieces of equipment and 3,500

Employee training was completed in a matter of

About De Smet Engineers &

Contractors

days instead of weeks.

DSEC is a general contracting company

focused in the agro-industrial field. Its
activity is concentrated on in-house
know-how, such as expertise for the sugar industry, and on technologies owned
by its affiliated companies or available
through cooperation agreements.

Bernard Nokerman
Project Manager, DSEC

pipelines distributed among 15 main process

buildings. All implemented licenses are used on
a daily basis and distributed concurrently.
Nokerman said the main reasons for choosing
Intergraph solutions were:
T he ability to seamlessly integrate data between
SmartPlant P&ID and SmartPlant 3D
n Importing and exporting documents in common
formats (SAT, DWG, XLS)
n Quality of technical support
n Ease of training.
n

Intergraph solutions are commonly used for

DSEC tasks related to structure, equipment,
piping and drawings for these integrations.
SmartPlant P&ID is mainly used in the production process for schematics and the output of
equipment lists. SmartPlant 3D is used in DSECs
production, as well as for new project evaluation
and quotations.
Nokerman said it is too early to have measurable results of how the Intergraph solutions
have benefited the company because they are
still in the learning curve process. But he is confident the company will meet its objectives in
terms of productivity improvements.
In the future, we expect faster startup on projects based on currently developed backgrounds,
including equipment models, specifications and
working procedures, Nokerman said.
Implementation
Once DSEC was ready to begin the implementation process, it looked to Intergraph services.
Intergraph France was closely involved in the
startup process, including training and piping
specification creation.
No data migration was required since DSEC
started on a clean slate. Internal knowledge
was used for data development, with only a few
subcontractors models directly imported.

The time it took to begin initial production

with Intergraph software was very brief. DSEC
wanted to get started with projects quickly, so
the software was used out-of-the-box without
any customization.
Employee training was completed in a matter
of days instead of weeks, said Nokerman.
Nokerman also said that the company had strong
assistance from Intergraph personnel who performed training and setup. The Intergraph team
showed superior knowledge and their quick response time always surpassed our expectations.
For the future
DSEC plans to evaluate SmartPlant Instrumentation for future usage. Depending on its workload, the company may also expand the number
of users.
We expect to use SmartPlant Enterprises
worksharing capabilities where needed, said
Nokerman. The next step for us will be to
improve and set up the collaboration process
between our civil works and structural departments and related external engineering subcontractors with a relay to the workshops.
With DSEC expecting to meet its objectives using
Intergraph solutions, Nokerman said companies
in similar situations should consider working with
Intergraph to solve their own production problems.

This is particularly effective in the edible

oil and biodiesel sectors in which Desmet
Ballestra and its worldwide network are
DSECs key partners for the implementation of complete crushing, refining and
biodiesel production facilities.
DSEC is now making its general-contracting know-how available in other fields,
including bio-energy, environment and
agro-chemical sectors. It has recently begun diversification into technically driven
niche markets in the chemical industry.
DSECs business activity is oriented toward auxiliary sections for processing
plants. Raw material and finished product
storage, handling, packaging and utilities
are usually included in its contracts.
Site construction operations, such as civil
engineering works and installations, represent the most important non-process
discipline that DSEC is capable of contributing to a complete project. DSECs
management skills can also be used in
operations outside its core business by
acquiring the required technologies from
expert companies through carefully established agreements, ensuring complete
security for the end user.

Independent of software implementation and

user training, said Nokerman, it is very valuable to
invest in a well thought-out setup of working procedures in collaboration with Intergraph experts.

From initial studies to post-commissioning training, DSEC can successfully

complete large greenfield projects up to
turnkey, all within the contracts budget
and time schedule.

Wayne Smith is a contributing editor for Insight

and is based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.

www.dsengineers.com

Smart 3D

Insight

29

SMART 3D UPDATE: NEW Enhancements

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Market-leading Smart 3D Offers New Productivity

and Performance Enhancements
SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D improve the entire life cycle and give companies a competitive edge
n By Luther Walke
The latest releases of SmartPlant 3D and
SmartMarine 3D (collectively known as Smart
3D) continue the products positions as the first
and only next-generation 3D design solutions
for the process, power and marine industries.
Smart 3D technology delivers approximately
30 percent more productivity than any other
system available today.
More than 300 plant, ship and offshore providers
worldwide use Intergraphs Smart 3D technology
in production. Key components of the Smart 3D
technology architecture include rules, relationships and automation.
Knowledge management and design reuse
The latest release of Smart 3D leverages its
data-centric architecture to deliver the next
generation in knowledge management solutions. One of the most powerful of these is
the Model Data Reuse (MDR) command which
enables intelligent replication of extensive
30

Insight

portions of model data into another location

in the same model or into a different model
entirely. MDR is not merely a sophisticated copy
and paste command. The newly generated data
reflects the result of Smart 3Ds rules. Launched
and controlled via a wizard, the MDR command
is easily configured and simple to use.
Unique, properly formatted names are assigned
to all first-class business objects. Likewise, reference data rules ensure that the newly generated data reflect any updates or improvements
that have been made to those rules helping to
ensure data accuracy, consistency and safety
through design integrity.
Data interchangeability
Interchanging data between 3D systems is
an ongoing requirement for capital projects.
The Reference 3D (R3D) command brings
externally generated 3D data into an active
model as a reference. Although it may have
Insight: Special Focus

originated in another application entirely, R3D

data brings both intelligence and graphics
when attached to a Smart 3D project. The R3D
command supports:
n

Multiple 3D formats, including PDS,

PDMS, AutoCAD- and MicroStationbased systems, mechanical CAD
applications and point cloud data

Intelligent piping and nozzle connections

Full clash capabilities

The use of tool tips for locating

key reference objects

The creation of general arrangement drawings.

The 3D data that can be brought into a project

are independent of the source database platform, project catalog or version. This makes
the R3D command very useful for evaluating
warehoused project data for applicability in an
active project or bidding situation.

Using Intergraphs product-proven SmartPlant

Review technology for data conversion,
R3D supports a variety of data interchange
workflows that were not previously possible.
Intelligent 3D data from external sources is easily attached to the Smart 3D project for spatial
referencing of sections of project data generated externally.
These datasets can also be checked against one
another and against native Smart 3D data
for interferences. This is handled by Smart 3Ds
sophisticated clash-prevention engine which
continuously checks the entire project.
In addition to preventing clashes with externally
generated data, Reference 3D enables the review
of property information through SmartPlant
3Ds standard user interfaces designed for this
purpose: the Object Property Page; Intelligent
Tool Tips and Custom Labels. This same attribute
information can drive project deliverables such
as annotation of the related 3D graphics on
orthographic drawings.
With its ability to display externally generated graphics and attributes alongside native
Smart 3D data, Reference 3D supports workflows required by large joint-venture projects.
Whether originating from PDMS, PDS or
another installation of Smart 3D, Reference 3D
normalizes information so that all R3D data
behaves identically for optimal interoperability.
Reference 3D can also be used to bring in
graphical-only data from a variety of sources,
including MicroStation, AutoCAD or standard
formats such as SAT. Users can efficiently
execute highly complex projects without risk to
project cost or schedule.

modest improvement in this area can yield tangible reductions in direct labor costs. Given the
high potential for delivering savings to all users,
Intergraph made significant investments in this
initiative. Projects deploying Smart 3D will reap
the benefit of these investments.
The graphics performance of Smart 3D has also
been enhanced. This improvement also promises
direct impact to a projects bottom line, potentially
impacting a broad set of users. These performance
improvements are achieved by fully leveraging the
processing power of the graphics adapter installed
in the workstation running the software.
If project management determines that maximum graphics performance is highly desired on
all or a portion of the 3D design workstations,
higher-end graphics cards can be installed in
those machines. Simply put, an investment by
the project in higher-end hardware will result in
a direct payback in the form of improved user
experience and design efficiency.
The improvements to Smart 3Ds graphic performance are impressive. Users of prior versions
will immediately notice improved responsiveness during refresh-intensive operations such
as pan and rotate. Users running high-end
graphics cards will be particularly pleased.
For example, Smart 3Ds View Navigation Control
is a new command panel which enables traversal
of the model graphics in much the same way as a
typical walk-through or shooter-type video
game. A variety of commands can be invoked
graphically, including pan, zoom, fit and fly.

An attractive user control overlays the

upper corner of the modeling environment.
Alternatively, the commands can be controlled
with the keyboard.
The View Navigation Control improves user
efficiency through an elegant mechanism for
quickly moving around the model. While its
similarity to the gaming experience is particularly attractive to younger designers, even the
most seasoned veterans will benefit from the
rich functionality and quick learning curve.
In addition to assisting with routine navigation
during 3D design, this tool promises to be particularly useful for conducting ad-hoc design reviews
between designers and other project participants.
Not all mission-critical operations occur on
the design floor, so the latest release also
delivers increased efficiency for downstream
and project-wide activities. Intergraph Batch
Services, the long-proven industry leader in the
management of schedule-deferred processing,
has been seamlessly integrated into Smart 3D.
Several back-office operations, including project
archival, can now be automated and managed
via this powerful infrastructure.
Intergraph Batch Services supports queue piping, assignment of jobs at the processor core
level, and the ability to automatically re-map
user logins. Given the lack of these and other
key capabilities in Windows Task Scheduler, all
Smart 3D batch operations will be migrated
from the Microsoft solution to the mechanism
now native to Smart 3D.

Product performance and user efficiency

Time is one of the most closely managed assets
on any capital project. Intergraph constantly
develops improvements that enable the Smart
3D model to be developed as rapidly and
error-free as possible. The latest product release
improves the softwares performance and provides new tools for improving user efficiency.
The first of two performance enhancements
result in a reduction in the amount of time
required to initialize the 3D workspace. Because
it impacts every user on a project, even a
Smart 3D

Insight

31

SMART 3D UPDATE: NEW ENHANCEMENTS

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Electrical solution

Although its 3D electrical solution already leads

the market, Intergraph continues to recognize
and deliver additional value in this area. The latest release of Smart 3D delivers new capabilities
that promise to help capital projects better manage the electrical discipline by saving time and
reducing cost, both in terms of labor required for
designing the electrical cableway network as well
as capital to purchase materials for construction.

Smart 3D now delivers a comprehensive,

specification-driven solution for modeling an
intelligent duct bank. Encasement concrete and
the conduit array are routed simultaneously
following commands virtually identical to those
used for routing cableway. The user can specify
any combination of conduit types and sizes to
be modeled within the duct bank.
In addition to ensuring the proper catalog parts
are placed within the model, the selected conduit

SMART 3D DISPLAY PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Independent testing in separate projects performed by four large companies proves the
significant time savings available in the latest version of Smart 3D technology.
Calculation and display of enhanced edges in the 3D model
Average 88 percent time savings (8.7 times faster)
LEGEND
Previous version of SmartPlant 3D
Current version of SmartPlant 3D

7
6
TIME IN SECONDS

5
4
3
2
1
0

PROJECT 1

PROJECT 2

PROJECT 3

PROJECT 4

Average 77 percent time savings (5 times faster)

2
1.8
1.6

TIME IN SECONDS

1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

32

Insight

PROJECT 1

PROJECT 2

Once the duct bank has been modeled, the conduits created within it are ready to accept Smart
3D cables. Most importantly, the entire cableway network encasement (or naked trench),
conduits and contained cables are all fully
intelligent and are easily modified in response to
subsequent changes on the project while maintaining key relationships to one another.
As a result, the data driving MTO reports for the
cable and conduit, civil drawings for the duct
bank, and cable route information sent to other
applications like SmartPlant Electrical through
the SmartPlant Enterprise are instantly updated
along with the move or other modifications.
Another feature included in the latest release is
accounting for divided trays when auto-routing
cable and making tray-fill calculations. When a
tray divider is inserted into a tray, the software
will recognize the position and allocate space
accordingly. Separate channels are subsequently used by the cable routing algorithm
in determining available space as well as the
allowable signal type (which can be set differently across the divider).
In addition to being modified to account for
tray dividers, the automated cable routing and
fill calculation algorithms now also account for
available bend radius at change-of-direction
components, ensuring the minimum bend radius
for the cable can be maintained. Otherwise, the
path will be rejected as a suitable route for
that cable. Other enhancements to Smart 3Ds
electrical solution include:
n Integration with SmartPlant Electrical
n Enhanced support for multi-routing of stacked
cable trays
n 
More robust conduit specs delivered
out-of-the-box.

Screen refresh operation

specification ensures proper bend radii are modeled for each run of conduit within the duct bank.
Likewise, the software automatically models the
appropriate chamfered turns in the ditch to allow
for the longer radius bends.

PROJECT 3

PROJECT 4

Insight: Special Focus

Fireproofing
Smart 3Ds latest release offers several fireproofing capabilities for designers. The process
is specification-driven. Reference data are preconfigured to enable automatic determination

trimming rules for plate systems that ultimately

make up nodal connections.
Users simply design the required plate system
via a graphical interface, after which the definition including the code required for calculating
the proper sizing and placement is permanently
stored in the catalog. The plate system can then be
placed as needed in the future.
The most important benefit of cans, RBJs and
APS is that the rules behind these features automatically fire when any changes are made to the
model. This provides tremendous productivity
improvements during changes to the design in
comparison to other competitive systems.
Flex hose and duct spools
Other functionalities in the latest release of
Smart 3D benefitting offshore industry capital
projects include specification-driven flex hose
and automated spooling of duct systems.

of key design aspects such as material, grade,

rating, segmentation and setback lengths.
Smart 3Ds new fireproofing can be applied to
both concrete and steel.
Concrete design
The ability to model concrete structures has been
dramatically enhanced in the latest release with
a new set of commands for supporting the modeling of highly complex civil structures which are
constructed of concrete. From the containment
structure for a nuclear reactor or an intricate
system of drainage sumps, a wide variety of
concrete structures can be modeled using these
commands with no special training required.
Marine and offshore solution
Some of the most impressive enhancements
are in SmartMarine 3D. For example, one key
enhancement specifically developed for use on
offshore oil and gas development projects is the
ability to model cans, which are tubular structures added to nodal connections on the jackets
of offshore platforms to provide reinforcement.
The design and modeling of cans in Smart 3D

is driven by placement rules, nominally configuredto ensure compliance with the applicable
American Petroleum Institute (API) standard.
Smart 3Ds latest release addresses another
critical requirement in the design of offshore
jackets, trusses and derricks. Users gain the ability to place steel members with relative spacing
to other members coming into a common joint
using the new Rule-based Joint (RBJ) capability.
The RBJ command provides required behavior
for several key conditions: surface gap spacing;
required centerline distances and minimum
member overlap. As with rule-based cans, the
structural designer can ensure that requirements specified by the API standard are being
met. This eliminates the complex hand-calculations normally associated with this offshore
requirement.
Another rule-based capability further strengthening Smart 3Ds ability to support offshore
design is the Advanced Plate Systems (APS)
creation command. This highly automated
mechanism defines the shape and positioning/
Smart 3D

Flex hosing is used widely on oil and gas projects with each hose and termination assembly.
This requires individual specification and
manufacture. Smart 3D will automatically place
the proper assembly in the model, at the same
time checking minimum bend angle and radius
requirements to ensure the hose will not kink as
designed.
Duct spooling builds on the proven pipe
spooling capability, allowing duct runs to be
automatically broken into uniquely-marked
sections that can be individually manufactured,
transported and installed in a modular fashion.
Summary
In conclusion, the latest release of Intergraphs
industry-leading Smart 3D design solution brings
important new enhancements that will help process and power plant, ship and offshore designers further increase productivity and accelerate
completion while increasing project safety.

Luther Walke serves as product manager for SmartPlant 3D and is based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
www.intergraph.com/smartplant3d
www.intergraph.com/smartmarine3d

Insight

33

did you know?: laser scanning with smartplant enterprise

Gain the Most Value from Laser Scanning with

SmartPlant Enterprise
Intergraph offers superior, unique technology for a complete life cycle solution
n By Robert Christian

How can you best document the existing condition of a plant? Laser scanning can identify
the elements in your facility to show 3D points
in space that reveal what exists. Several terms
are used to describe this data:
n Laser data
n Point cloud data
n Existing condition data capture.
The value of laser scanning is that the information is exact and shows what is already on
site. The facility has already been designed and
constructed. Now youre dealing with the reality of brownfield projects.
Laser scanning delivers a realistic view of what
was built, which is never identical to what was
designed. As a result, pipes are not always
exactly horizontal with 90 degree turns, especially after insulation has been added. So
when it comes to adding, replacing or modifying pipelines based on these existing plant
34

Insight

Intergraph provides a better, long-term

usage of your point cloud data investment.

conditions, engineers have a huge challenge

on their hands to avoid clashes. Referencing
the as-built laser data in the 3D design model
is certainly far superior to the old tape measure approach.
Vendor-neutral strategy
Intergraph maintains SmartPlant Alliance
agreements with all of the leading laser scanning vendors. These vendors offer hardware

and software configurations to collect the laser data and reference the points in 3D:
n

Leica Geosystems

Z+F UK/Hi-Cad

Quantapoint

CSA

Trimble.

Intergraph is vendor-neutral. We work with

laser scanning vendors to enable seamless

Insight: Special Focus

integration to our products. This is important

because each vendor has unique solutions and
service providers available in different parts of
the world.
Life cycle solution
Laser scanning is about more than just one
application its about all of the applications
working together over the complete life cycle:

Smart 3D
With Intergraph Smart 3D technology (which
includes SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D),
you can either replace existing elements or
avoid existing elements.
You can determine clashes and interference
detections of the elements that cannot move,
such as the structures, columns and beams
that cannot be modified. A new pipe cant go
through these items.
Or you might have an existing line thats going
to be completely replaced. It must be put back
in place as it was originally. You can use the
laser points to overlay that line.
Smart 3D provides a reference. Points are used
to aid modeling. As you perform design work,
you reference a group of points. The laser software isnt smart enough to turn it into a pipe.
The engineer has to consult a catalog and
determine the desired pipe specification and
place it. So, the goal is to minimize the number of activities an engineer must perform to
replace a pipe or position a new pipe.
Smart 3D helps you confirm that the pipe is
at the right angle, the right size all the right
characteristics so that it can be properly fabricated and installed in the facility.
The embedded bubble (360-degree) view is
a new technology that all of the main laser
scanning vendors have adopted. A bubble
view is basically a digital raster picture that
enables you to move your mouse to turn in the
view. You can control the resolution to make it
as clear as any photograph.
A year ago, we asked our customers what
they would like in Smart 3D, and the bubble
view was one of the items they requested. This
functionality is now included in our latest release of Smart 3D and SmartPlant Review.

SmartPlant Review
SmartPlant Review can be used as a reference
solution with your laser scanning data. It enables you to perform complete design reviews
outside of the design environment.

the data into triangular surfaces that are ap-

The solution promotes communication among

everyone involved in the project, whether they
have experience working with advanced 3D
design tools or have actually been on-site.
SmartPlant Review is easy for anyone to use,
enabling users to see the new design with the
existing condition of the plant as a reference.

for performance. Intergraphs approach sacri-

SmartPlant Foundation
SmartPlant Foundation helps you take advantage of your laser data by performing queries
of the new design to find the pipe that needs
to be maintained, for example. You can see everything in context and what the existing plant
looks like to know if you can perform needed
maintenance with the new design.

proximations of the original data. They do this

because their 3D rendering software requires
triangles to be processed in advance. This results in limited accuracy. Accuracy is sacrificed
fices neither accuracy or performance.
Our approach ensures data integrity and preservation for long-term viewing because we
continue to use the original data. We see your
laser data as an investment, not something
to be disposed of once its referenced for the
current project. There is no conversion into a
special Intergraph proprietary format. Were
not dumbing it down and combining a lot of
information to make it smaller.
Accuracy is maintained and original data
are preserved for later display. We provide a
better, long-term usage of your point cloud

Dynamic display
Intergraph offers a superior and unique
solution for laser scanning. The first reason
is thanks to our technology.

data investment.

A typical laser scanning project involves literally billions of points. Some applications simply
read one point at a time. Each point takes up a
certain amount of memory. Eventually you fill
up all the memory on your machine and there
are a lot of objects in your 3D model.

laser scanning solution connected to plant de-

We dont take that technology approach. Our

technology is better because we have devised
a way to allow an unlimited number of points
to be displayed and used on the screen without having to import one point at a time.
Our approach is to dynamically import and
display only what the user wants to see. We
can do this at such a high speed that you can
virtually walk through your model in real
time. You can basically accomplish everything
you need to do, such as display 3D views of
the laser data or identify any clashes while
youre modeling. But we dont ever fill up the
memory by sticking all those millions of points
into the model.
Preserve data investment
At Intergraph, we dont convert the laser data
into something else. Some vendors convert
Smart 3D

Second-generation laser scanning

Another reason we are superior to the competition is that this is our second generation
sign engineering. PDS has worked with laser
scanning for 30 years.
Smart 3D represents our second generation
of laser scanning integration. The software
empowers you to perform all of your work in
Smart 3D. All of the commands are built right
in, taking advantage of the powerful Smart 3D
modeling and clash engines.
Laser scanning is well integrated into the Intergraph design environment. You never have to
leave the Smart 3D environment to make the
best use of your laser data.
Now youre in an intelligent plant design
environment, and Smart 3D treats the points
as more intelligent plant objects. This gives you
much more control.

Robert Christian is executive manager for

business development for 3D Modeling & Visualization at Intergraph Process, Power & Marine. He is based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
www.intergraph.com
Insight

35

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

News
INDUSTRY

bytes

ENI Saipem Standardizes on

SmartPlant Enterprise

PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard

Selects SmartMarine 3D
PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard Joint Stock Co.
(PV Shipyard) has selected SmartMarine 3D
engineering and design software to increase
productivity and accelerate the completion of
offshore projects.
To enhance its competitiveness in a bid for an
offshore jack-up rig, PV Shipyard needed next-

ENI Saipem S.p.A., one of the worlds largest oil and gas EPCs, will standardize on the
SmartPlant Enterprise engineering solutions
suite, including Smart 3D, Intergraphs nextgeneration 3D design software, to further
increase productivity and cost savings and to
accelerate project schedules.

generation technology to assist in the design,

An Intergraph customer for 20 years, Saipem

experienced significant benefits and productivity gains using Intergraphs plant design and
information management software solutions.
Saipem will now expand its use of these solutions, using Smart 3D as its new standard on a
worldwide basis to enable complete integration
in production within its onshore, offshore and
drilling divisions and help the company maintain
a competitive advantage in the global market.

the deliverables required for a number of other

www.saipem.it

BBA Chooses SmartPlant 3D for

Metals and Mining Projects
BBA, an independent Canadian consulting engineering firm active in the international energy
and mining and metals sectors, has completed
the design of its first project for Consolidated
Thompson, the Bloom Lake project in Northern
Quebec, with SmartPlant 3D.
BBA chose SmartPlant 3D because it is wellsuited for the specific challenges related
to metals and mining projects large and
complex equipment and very mining-oriented
specifications for components. The softwares
rule-based design and specification-driven
capabilities provide true discipline integration into a single 3D modeling environment,
minimizing rework for changes and ensuring
consistency across designs.
www.bba.ca
36

Insight

construction and production of its current and

future complex platforms. PV Shipyard also
wanted engineering software from a stable
and proven vendor that could ensure quality,
accuracy and automated processes in producing
offshore contracts. After an intensive evaluation,
PV Shipyard selected Intergraph for its comprehensive solutions suite, advanced technology,
commitment to customers, proven track record
and local distributor support from Intergraphs
partner in Vietnam, Credent Technology.
www.pvshipyard.com.vn

Oerlikon Solar Selects

SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant
P&ID Design Software
Oerlikon Solar, the leading supplier of high
performance solutions for cost-effective mass
production of thin film silicon solar modules,
has selected Intergraph SmartPlant 3D and
SmartPlant P&ID engineering design software to
increase productivity and accelerate plant project
completion. With business doubling in just two
years, Oerlikon Solar outgrew its previous CAD
2D design software. To meet growth demands,
the company chose SmartPlant 3D, Intergraphs
next-generation, data-centric 3D design system,
combined with SmartPlant P&ID. Oerlikon Solar
will use SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant P&ID for
end-to-end manufacturing lines for the mass
production of thin film silicon solar modules.
SmartPlant 3D engineering design software is
the most productive, highest quality, multidiscipline 3D modeling environment in the world
for global multi-office execution of process and
power projects. Customers using SmartPlant 3D
typically realize 25- to 35-percent initial increases
in productivity compared to other systems, higher
quality deliverables and shorter schedules.
www.oerlikon.com/solar

Fluor Expands Intergraph Global

China National Chemical
Alliance Agreement
Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR), one of the lead- Engineering Co. Ltd. Expands
ing engineering, procurement, construction Use of SmartPlant Enterprise
and maintenance (EPCM) companies in the Solutions
world and longtime Intergraph customer, has
renewed its Global Alliance Agreement (GAA)
with Intergraph for the next five years. This
agreement covers the Intergraph SmartPlant
and SmartMarine Enterprise software suites,
including SmartPlant 3D, PDS, SmartPlant P&ID,
and SmartPlant Instrumentation and numerous
other solutions.
As an Intergraph customer for 35 years, Fluor
uses Intergraph enterprise engineering solutions
on a significant number of its mid- and large-tier
contracts across multiple industry sectors oil
and gas, power, mining and chemical.
www.fluor.com
Insight: Special Focus

China National Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd.

(CNCEC), one of Chinas largest engineering,
procurement and construction (EPC) concerns,
has expanded the use of Intergraph SmartPlant
Enterprise design and engineering software to
five of its operating companies to further increase
productivity and cost savings and to accelerate
project schedules.
An existing Intergraph customer, CNCEC had
already experienced the benefits and productivity gains using Intergraphs next-generation
3D modeling and visualization, information
management, instrumentation, and piping and
instrumentation diagram software solutions.
Now, CNCEC will expand use of these solutions,
including SmartPlant 3D, further into five more

companies within the CNCEC group: China

Tianchen Engineering Co. Ltd.; Sedin Engineering
Co. Ltd.; East China Engineering Science and
Technology Co. Ltd.; China Hualu Engineering
Co. Ltd. and China Chengda Engineering Co. Ltd

Shin Kurushima Dockyard

Implements SmartMarine 3D
Shin Kurushima Dockyard (SKDY), recognized as
one of the most productive shipyards worldwide,
has standardized on Intergraph SmartMarine 3D
design and engineering software after an intensive two-year benchmark study.
The SmartMarine 3D implementation will
encompass the entire SKDY enterprise, including its yards in Onishi, Hashihama, Ujina, and
Toyohashi, Japan, and offices in Indonesia, with
specific focus on worksharing capabilities across
Southeast Asia. Ship modeling will be managed
in a central location, and SmartMarine 3D worksharing capabilities will permit design reviews
and changes to be seamlessly shared from various locations throughout the entire ship design
process, from initial design through the manufacturing phase. The ability to workshare will save
valuable time and labor costs while increasing
productivity for SKDY.

SABIC Standardizes on
SmartPlant Enterprise
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) has standardized on Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise,
including SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant
Foundation, as its engineering design and data
management platform for all of its manufacturing affiliates.

WorleyParsons to Standardize
on SmartPlant Enterprise
Global project services provider WorleyParsons
has entered into a Global Alliance Agreement
with Intergraph to facilitate the standardization of business solutions across its globally
located operations.
The past year has seen WorleyParsons significantly increase its adoption of Intergraph plant
management software, much of it centered on
the SmartPlant Enterprise plant engineering and
design solution. With 118 offices in 38 countries,
the Australian-based company provides technical, project and operational support services to
customers in the hydrocarbons, minerals and
metals, power and infrastructure sectors, and lists
some of the worlds largest energy companies as
clients.
www.worleyparsons.com

Six Tee Marine and Offshore

Engineering Groups Select
Intergraph SmartMarine 3D
Six Tee Engineering Groups, one of Asias
leading marine and offshore facilities
engineering firms, has adopted Intergraph
SmartMarine 3D software.
The Singapore and China-based company specializes in the basic and detail design and project
management of marine and offshore structures.
Six Tee selected SmartMarine 3D to increase productivity and quality for its work in the basic and
detail design and project management of marine
and offshore structures.
Six Tee projects include floating production,
storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels; jack-ups;
semi-submersibles; drill ships; offshore fixed
platforms; pipe-laying/derrick barges; sub-sea
pipelines; offshore support vessels and a variety
of merchant ships.
www.sixtee.com

Tsuneishi Shipbuilding
COSCO Shipyard Group
Standardizes on SmartMarine
Significantly Increases
Enterprise
Productivity and Quality
Tsuneishi Holdings Corp. Tsuneishi Shipbuilding
Co. has standardized on the Intergraph
SmartMarine Enterprise suite of 3D engineering
design and data management solutions to optimize design efficiency and increase productivity.
Tsuneishi Holdings Corp. is a maritime affair
enterprise composed of a leading Japan-based
shipbuilding group and shipping business.

After only 10 months of implementation, the

COSCO Shipyard Group, one of Chinas major
shipbuilding companies, has already realized
significant productivity and quality results to
warrant a more rapid deployment of Intergraph
SmartMarine 3D engineering design software
solutions to all five of its yards for ship and offshore projects.

SABIC is the largest and most profitable nonoil company in the Middle East and one of the
worlds 10 largest petrochemicals manufacturers.
Its products include chemicals, plastics, fertilizers
and metals. SABIC will use SmartPlant Enterprise
to facilitate data handover from its EPC contractors to its affiliates plants and assist in every
aspect of the plant life cycle. This includes design,
procurement, construction, commissioning,
operation, maintenance, expansions, retrofits and
decommissioning, if applicable.

deliver high-quality ships at an economical price

production programs.

Typical startup times for comprehensive software

solutions use on real projects is one to three
years, but because of SmartMarine 3Ds ease of
use, integration and ability to increase shipbuilding productivity and quality, COSCO is accelerating implementation. SmartMarine 3D streamlines
marine outfitting and structure design processes
and provides all the functionality needed to
design and build many different types of marine
facilities and equipment, including offshore
platforms, naval and commercial ships, and floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO)
vessels.

www.sabic.com

www.tsuneishi.com

www.cosco-shipyard.com

Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company is continuing to

to customers around the world.
In committing to the entire SmartMarine
Enterprise suite, Tsuneishi will now have a comprehensive set of integrated solutions to manage
its shipbuilding operations from early stage
design technologies to next generation 3D design
and manufacturing capabilities in addition to
efficiency-boosting materials management and

Smart 3D

Insight

37

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What the Worlds Top Marine Industry

Leaders and Class Societies Share
in Common
To manage the challenges of producing increasingly complex ships and offshore platforms, the worlds top marine industry
leaders and class societies are continually seeking ways to increase productivity and accelerate project schedules.
Intergraph solutions have been used in offshore projects around the world for more than 20 years. Twenty of the top 25
petroleum companies in the world and 18 of the top 20 engineering companies in this market are Intergraph customers.
Intergraph has been instrumental in advancing marine design and production efficiency. Notable vessels built using Intergraph
marine software include the worlds first Arctic icebreaker tanker, the worlds largest container ship and the Cunard liner
Queen Mary 2. Intergraph solutions have also been used for ships of the Australian, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish and U.S.
navies as well as for French, Indian and Spanish submarines.

Insight

39

from the top

The Industry Gold Standard Smart 3D

Customers results prove strength of technology behind SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D
n By Jana Miller

Intergraph Smart 3D technology is the industrys

only next-generation 3D plant and ship design
solution. SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine
3D are being adopted by customers at a rapid
pace and are in production around the world.
Insight recently discussed Smart 3Ds momentum
with Gerhard Sallinger, president of Intergraph
Process, Power & Marine.
Insight: Can you tell us about Smart
3D technology?
Gerhard Sallinger: Smart 3D is based on a
very powerful software core architecture which is
data-centric and rules-based that is fundamentally different to any other, traditional system.
Although the software is extremely powerful, it is
easy to learn and use customers love it!
Due to its rules-based architecture, Smart 3D
can increase engineering productivity and
optimize design accuracy and quality. Smart
3D includes powerful worksharing capabilities
40

Insight

as a standard feature, based on modern database replication technologies from Oracle or

Microsoft SQL Server.
Insight: What benefits does Smart 3D
offer?
GS: Because Smart 3D is object-oriented and
rules-based, it is much easier to create new
designs and make design modifications. All
components such as pipes, ducts, equipment
and structural elements have true intelligence.
They know who they are, what they can do
and what they cant and how they relate to other
elements.
All design changes are summarized in electronic to-do lists. This enables rapid design
and modifications to be made while retaining
model integrity.
Traditional systems do not provide this functionality or level of change management, so their
Insight: Special Focus

users must delete and redesign elements when

making modifications.
Insight: How does design automation
improve productivity?
GS: In addition to the powerful rules Smart 3D
delivers out-of-the-box, the software comes with
tools to create customer-specific rules to automate
the design process. Other products offer a limited
potential for automation by using old-style command languages to create macros. Smart 3D goes
far beyond this, allowing users to create highly
complex rules which can reduce manual engineering work by more than 90 percent.
At our users conference in Las Vegas, I showcased an example from Linde Engineering, one
of our most experienced PDS customers. To
test Smart 3Ds technical potential to increase
Lindes engineering performance, team members
developed some rules to automate the design of
control stations. In many petrochemical plants,

there are hundreds of control stations needed.

With the rules, Linde is able to design a complete
station in about one minute in comparison to
spending more than 10 minutes using PDS!
Insight: Can you describe Smart 3Ds
rules-based environment and data
import capabilities?
GS: Smart 3D offers a true rules-based design
environment. A range of engineering rules is
provided within Smart 3D to assist design modeling. Users can also capture and develop their
own engineering rules to ensure that engineering knowledge and experience can be retained
within the organization.
Plus, you can import 3D mechanical CAD model
data with our native SAT import interface.
Competitors rely on a partner for the interface,
which introduces a risk.
Insight: How does Smart 3D drafting
stack up against competitors?
GS: We offer the most modern drafting functionality available in the market today. Smart
3D includes a powerful, automated drawing
production environment allowing users to create all drawing deliverables directly from the
3D plant model, with a significant reduction of
manual touch-up work that is surprising many
new clients. Siemens Energy has claimed a 20
percent overall reduction in time requirements
immediately following its implementation, and
I think we can double that initial benefit as we
gather more feedback from clients. Whats more
valuable from a business perspective is the
increased quality of deliverables and the higher
speed of delivery when deadlines are near.
Insight: We are hearing a lot about
integration. How does Smart 3D
support integration?
GS: We fully support integration and interoperability to address the way our customers
work. We are proud to offer the best-of-class
solutions in all key disciplines, including P&ID,
instrumentation, electrical schematics, design
review, materials management and more.
Some of our competitors employ more of a
communication approach than real integration.
We are taking a forward-thinking approach
with integration.

What Customers Say about Smart 3D

Smart 3D technologies are making a difference
around the world. Insight recently spoke with two
customers about their experiences and why they
chose Smart 3D. Terje rbeck is a CAD manager
and 3D coordinator at Grenland Group. Waldir
Pimentel Junior is a systems engineer at Genpro
Engenharia S.A.
Insight: What is your biggest enterprise
engineering challenge?
Terje rbeck: For Grenland, our biggest engineering challenge is to be able to deliver quality
data on time and with limited engineering
resources available.

Waldir Pimentel Junior: Meeting project

deadlines is our major enterprise engineering
challenge, followed by the quality of work delivered and the need for a user-friendly system that
enables quick implementation and training.
Insight: Why did you choose Intergraphs
SmartPlant Enterprise?
T: SmartPlant Enterprise will help us to deliver
quality engineering data on time. With SmartPlant
Enterprises data sharing capabilities, we will
improve the quality and speed up the engineering
work performed by Grenland.
One of the important reasons we started using
SmartPlant Enterprise was the ability to perform
worksharing. Grenland is building engineering
capacity with Grenland Group offices in different
parts of the world. We see the benefit of worksharing on coming projects, especially with our
offices in China and Malaysia, to increase our
engineering capacity and keep engineering
costs down.

WPJ: We made our decision based on our longterm relationship with Intergraph using PDS,
SmartPlant Instrumentation and SmartPlant P&ID.
We are impressed with the proven quality of
Intergraph systems and the total commitment
of their professionals in supporting our work.
We see enterprise-wide value in having a comprehensive solution across the phases of the life
cycle. The main value is the integration between
disciplines (such as process, piping and electrical)
and our customers. Improving data quality is
another major factor.

Smart 3D

Insight: Can you estimate the productivity savings since adopting SmartPlant
Enterprise solutions?
T: We estimate an average increase in productivity by 30 percent in activities directly
connected to SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant
Enterprise. For certain activities, the time savings
are even greater.

WPJ: In todays market, we need to reuse data

to save time, especially in configuration of the
systems environment. Reusing data positively
impacts our major challenge of shortening
project schedules.
SmartPlant Instrumentation yields an increase
of approximately 20 percent in productivity.
SmartPlant 3D gives us a large boost, and
SmartPlant P&ID offers an 80 percent increase.
Insight: Have SmartPlant 3D and
SmartPlant Enterprise resulted in
faster project completion times?
T: Grenland is now performing its first major
project with SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant
Enterprise. It is very important to note that we
are using the learning by doing method.
Any implementation can be a challenge for
the whole project organization when it comes
to meeting deadlines and schedules. Despite
implementing a new system with many new
users, we have still been able to meet the project
deadlines and standards with quality engineering documentation.
Staying on schedule gives credit to the SmartPlant
Enterprise solution as an easy-to-learn and easyto-use system. Soon we expect a tremendous
increase in productivity as the system is adopted
more fully and becomes familiar in our organization.

WPJ:We estimate a huge time savings compared

to the previous systems. Key reasons for this
sizable savings include a simple and friendly user
interface and the evolution of system functionalities. We are looking at SmartPlant Foundation
and believe it would further reduce our schedules
and promote integration with our customers.
Jana Miller is editorial director of Insight and is
based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
www.intergraph.com

Insight

41

Case Study: Samsung Heavy Industries

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Smooth Sailing for Samsung Heavy Industries

SmartMarine 3D cuts design errors and boosts productivity
n By Jana Miller

The second largest shipbuilder in the world,

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. (SHI) is
strongly focused on the shipbuilding and offshore markets. The South Korean company has
almost 11,000 employees and sales totaled
US$8.5 billion in 2008.
SHI designs and constructs high value-added
vessels such as LNG carriers and large passenger ships, as well as drill ships and shuttle
tankers, for which it is globally ranked No. 1.
The company operates eight overseas facilities,
including a ship block factory in China. SHI
holds three international quality standards
ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 and
is internationally recognized for its quality,
safety and environmental awareness.
Seeing results
SHIs Geoje Shipyard began using Intergraph
SmartMarine 3D in production in 2004 and
42

Insight

it has already yielded measurable results that

have impacted SHIs bottom line.
Since choosing SmartMarine 3D, weve made
a remarkable reduction in the amount of design
errors and material costs. Weve also improved
construction productivity, said Yeong Soo Bae,
executive vice president of Shipbuilding Design
at SHI.
With SmartMarine 3D, we have reduced
design errors in half. We have also improved
productivity by about 10 percent.

information to easily interface with ERP systems,

and SHI is working to take advantage of this by
developing an interface.
Integrations with third party solution Enest, a
structure nesting program, along with several
in-house solutions, have proved very beneficial.
These integrations translate into a large reduction in design labor hours at SHI, said Bae.

SmartMarine 3D
SHI uses SmartMarine 3D for designing and
building the structure and outfitting of ships
(see table). The solution helps SHI manage a
Microsoft SQL Server database with 1.1
terabytes of active data.

Across the enterprise

SHI recently chose SmartPlant Foundation,
Intergraphs information management solution,
to improve its productivity. This marks the first
implementation of SmartPlant Foundation in the
shipbuilding industry. SmartPlant Foundation
forms a central data warehouse and engineering and manufacturing data change channel for
large and complicated ship design.

SmartMarine 3D supports concurrent engineering and a front-loading workflow. The

solution provides a large amount of production

As shipbuilding projects grow larger while project

schedules become shorter, an integrated product
and engineering information management system

Insight: Special Focus

represents a key success factor. The shipbuilder

can exchange quality design information and
manufacturing information during the project
and deliver as-built information to ship owners
at the same time the project is completed.
SmartPlant Foundation will be used as a standardized data warehouse in the shipbuilding
division as a first step. SHI has plans to use
Intergraph solutions for the entire design process,
in both shipbuilding and offshore plant projects.
In addition, SHI will standardize its basic
CAD format corporate-wide to Intergraphs
SmartSketch. This SmartSketch standardization will extend to SHIs offshore plant division
and its subsidiary shipyard in China.
In-depth services
SHIs experience has shown that SmartMarine
solutions require far less training than previously
used software solutions and its employees can be
fully productive in far less time in a matter of
months instead of a year or more. Training includes
basic courses such as a seven-week course for
structural users, and a three-week course for
outfitting users.
Intergraph supports our management team with
valuable services, said Bae. The Intergraph staff
has also helped us with a number of customization
efforts, including catalogs, rules, specifications,
drawing labels, plus standards data migration.
Proven experience
We chose Intergraph because they have adopted
the most advanced, state-of-the-art architecture,
said Bae. Intergraph is a steady and promising
company, with strong experience in developing
both plant and shipbuilding CAD software.
SHI looks forward to even greater success in
the future, and is looking at possibly expanding its enterprise solution by adding Intergraph
SmartPlant P&ID to its solution mix.
One thing we plan to achieve in the upcoming year is to reduce design cost, said Bae.
SmartMarine 3D will be used for at least the
next 10 years for all of our projects as our main
CAD tool.

Through the Workflow

SHI takes advantage of SmartMarine 3D
for a variety of shipbuilding tasks, including:
Ship structure design
SmartMarine 3D molded form
Structure

detailing
n Structure manufacturing
n Planning

n Drawing
n
n

Ship outfitting design

S martMarine 3D pipe routing
SmartPlant Structure
n Equipment placement
n HVAC

routing
n Cableway routing
n Cable routing
n Planning
n Hole management
n Hanger and support
n Weight and CG
n Interference check
n Drawing
n
n

Other Intergraph solutions used

S martPlant 3D
SmartPlant Foundation
n SmartSketch
n SmartPlant Markup Plus
n PDS
n
n

Complementary solutions used

n
n

E nest
EzHULL

Samsung Heavy Industries is using Intergraph technology for a variety of highvalue marine structures:
Project

Implementation Area

Delivery Date

97,000 tonnes drill ship

Aft E/R (excluding forward M/C

room, thruster room)

2008

96,000 tonnes drill ship

E/R

2009

950,000 bbls FPSO

All area

2009

910,000 bbls FPSO

All area

2010

Smart 3D

Insight

43

case study: cosco shipyard group

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Speeding Offshore Design

SmartMarine 3D boosts efficiency and ensures data accuracy for COSCO Shipyard Group
n By Gu Xiang, Song Zhiwen and Li Jingjing

COSCO Shipyard Group (CSG) started to

implement SmartMarine 3D in early 2007. Now,
with more than 10 successfully implemented
projects, SmartMarine 3D has become an essential part of CSG. The technology contributes
directly to CSGs vision to become the preferred
partner for the worlds top shipping companies
and offshore oil service providers with professional services and modern management.
Expanding business
CSG originally focused on ship conversion and
repair which required limited design performed
using AutoCAD or only hand-drawn sketches.
In 2006, CSG expanded its business to include
new ship and offshore building design and
construction. A large number of experienced
shipbuilders, as well as new graduates, were hired
to staff a new CSG Technical Center (CSG TC).
For new ship and offshore design and construction, the traditional usage of AutoCAD was
obviously not enough. New design software,
specifically 3D CAD, was required to support
these endeavors.
44

Insight

CSG TC initiated research into current market

offerings for shipbuilding and offshore design
software. A variety of software vendors were
invited to the Dalian Technical Center to present their offerings.
On Sept. 7, 2006, Intergraph was invited to
present its next-generation 3D CAD system
IntelliShip (now known as SmartMarine 3D)
for shipbuilding and offshore design. The CSG
TC evaluation team attended the presentation,
along with a reference group of shipyard and
university experts invited by CSG TC to support
the selection of the next generation 3D CAD. Most
of these experts had Tribon shipbuilding design
experience and had never heard of SmartMarine
3D before attending the presentation.
During the presentation, all of the attendees were
very surprised at SmartMarine 3Ds powerful
capabilities. The group was deeply impressed by the
softwares vision, ease of use, permission management, relationship management, rule-driven
intelligent design and advanced core architecture.
After consultation with the group of experts and
Insight: Special Focus

the CSG leadership team, CSG TC decided to implement a pilot project on Sept. 11, 2006 just four
days after the initial presentation.
Pilot project
CSG had an FSO offshore project from MODEC
International L.L.C. Hull design had already been
subcontracted to a design company that was
using Tribon. Due to the flexibility and openness of SmartMarine 3D, it was possible to use a
Tribon interface that could import Tribon hull
models into SmartMarine 3D as the background
of the outfitting design. The FSO bulk area for
outfitting design, specifically piping design, was
selected as the pilot project for SmartMarine 3D.
In preparation for the pilot project, three
activities were performed:
n

Intergraph provided three weeks of onsite training, including equipment, piping,

electrical, structure and HVAC.
E ach discipline compiled a list of its requirements,
especially for drawing. Intergraph then performed
customizations to fulfill these requirements.

 ith material provided by CSG TC, Intergraph

W
compiled reference data, including not only
the catalog, but also the capabilities of
advanced design rules that would enable
automatic data generation.

CSG engineers and two Intergraph engineers

worked together on this three-month pilot
project that started at the beginning of October.
The pilot project ran smoothly. All of the required
key functionalities and customizations were met
within the timeframe of the pilot project.
After a detailed evaluation, CSG TC decided that
SmartMarine 3D was powerful and well-suited
for its design needs. A contract was signed at
the end of 2006 in which SmartMarine 3D was
chosen as the primary software to design CSG
TC offshore projects.
First production implementation
The first production implementation was similar
to the pilot project. CSG TC sent 10 engineers
to Intergraphs Shanghai office for SmartMarine
3D reference data and administration training.
One of those engineers was then responsible
for catalog management and basic administration with Intergraphs help. The objective was
to provide CSG TC with in-house capabilities of
an automation engine that is part of the core
SmartMarine 3D technology. This would enable
CSG TC to continuously capture the knowledge
it gained during the project and differentiate
itself from its competition by producing better
quality and faster designs.
For the first production implementation project
encompassing all outfitting disciplines, CSG TC
used SmartMarine 3D as its design solution. In
parallel, Intergraph delivered additional intelligent customization for pipe support.
The FSO project design was finished in July
2007, marking just 10 months from the pilot
project to the completion of the first production
project. The vessel was delivered one year later
to the owner on July 17, 2008.
Moving design to a single platform
When Intergraph released its new version of
SmartMarine 3D V7SP4 in April 2008, the
company announced major improvements in hull
design that would incorporate the earlier identified requirements from CSG. Although the hybrid
implementation (hull by Tribon, outfitting by

SmartMarine 3D Benefits
Underscoring the vision of a single data-centric solution, CSG has enjoyed many benefits from
using the software, such as:
n Easy to use and easy to learn New graduates or engineers from other industries require a
very short period of training to perform design work. Just one-to-two days of training are needed
for a single discipline.
n Many powerful functions The relationship management and rule-driven technology are
very powerful and far better than capabilities offered by any other system.
n Efficiency The products efficiency is much better than other systems. For some disciplines
such as piping, the efficiency gains can be calculated in several orders of magnitude compared
to other systems.
n View and rule-driven drawing Using view style and rules is powerful. The solution reduces
the labor needed to create drawings and ensures a uniform style by various designers throughout
the team.
n Robustness of the solution CSG has never lost any design data. This is unheard of compared to other systems.
n Openness The software is very open. CSG can define additional model attributes according
to its practices. If performed with another system, this had to be done manually. It would take
longer and introduce a higher chance of errors. Other systems therefore lack the required quality
that SmartMarine 3D can ensure.
n Advanced core architecture CSG can develop additional functionality or write an interface
to other systems.
n Data-centric approach A powerful database server is required, especially for large projects.
This is mainly due to very rich data for relationship management.
n System administration The knowledge and experience requirements for the system administrator are higher than those needed by other systems.

SSP650 Sevan Driller

COSCO and Intergraph played major roles in a significant
new offshore drilling industry milestone with the building of
the worlds first circular drilling rig. SSP650, the Sevan Driller,
classed by DNV, another strategic partner of Intergraph, was
named at COSCO Shipyard Groups Qidong Shipyard on June
28, 2009.
The successful construction of the Sevan Driller is a milestone for the COSCO Shipyard Group. It is also a milestone for China in the offshore industry.
Offshore newbuilding has been clearly recognized as one of the focus areas for the Chinese shipbuilding industry to develop in the years to come, said Jorg Beiler, the vice president and regional
manager of DNV China.
The Sevan Driller has advanced deep-water drilling capabilities that allow it to drill wells of up to
almost 13,500 meters (40,000 feet) in water depths of up to nearly 4,200 meters (12,500 feet)
and an internal storage capacity of up to 150,000 barrels of oil.
The owner is Sevan Marine. The construction of this rig started at COSCO Nantong Shipyard in May
2007 and was relocated to COSCOs Qidong Shipyard in April 2009 for derrick erection and final
commissioning. The rig will be deployed by Petrobras in the Santos Basin off Brazil.

Smart 3D

Insight

45

case study: cosco shipyard group

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

COSCO offshore projects implemented with SmartMarine 3D

Following the first project, COSCO implemented many offshore projects with SmartMarine 3D
outfitting, including the SSP650, GM4000, MPF1000, Super M2, Octabuoy ,92500 (deck house),
and Sevan300.

SmartMarine 3D) was acceptable, the company

wanted to perform the entire design on a single
platform to gain the additional benefits of such
an integrated approach. SmartMarine 3D outfitting had been successfully used in many projects
and proved to be very powerful in outfitting
design. CSG TC decided to implement the
SmartMarine 3D hull module at an appropriate
time given its ongoing and new projects.
Intergraph was invited to present its new and
existing hull capabilities in June 2008. CSG TC
decided that with the new version of
SmartMarine 3D, it was appropriate to initiate a
hull pilot project to be performed from August
through October 2008.
Hull pilot project
To verify the requirements of implementation
and to test SmartMarine 3D hull functionality,
CSG TC selected a barge project which had been
designed on AutoCAD. The engine room, which
represented a typical hull structure, was selected
as the pilot area.
Intergraph, with CSG being a strategic and
valued partner, gave its full attention to the
project, preparing a very detailed schedule and
assigning its China-based vice president to serve
as project manager.
Intergraph provided on-site support engineers who worked side-by-side with the CSG
TC-assigned engineers for the duration of the
pilot project. All of the hull modules were tested
to cover the complete design process from early
design all the way to production. This included
molded form, structure detailing, planning,
structure manufacturing, structural drawing and
appropriate reports.
Rules that allow automatic structural detail
and manufacturing data generation along with
supporting reference data were customized by
Intergraph in accordance to CSG requirements.
Also, specific drawing report customization was
performed by Intergraph. During each stage,
training was provided to ensure an accurate
knowledge handover to CSG.
The pilot project was completed successfully in
just 35 workdays, shorter than originally anticipated. CSG TC found that the SmartMarine
3D hull module was very close to meeting
actual production usage within CSG. The pilot

46

Insight

Insight: Special Focus

project also revealed that efficiency and productivity could be further increased and risk could
be managed by implementing the SmartMarine
3D hull module in a phased approach. For the
first live project, CSG TC will use SmartMarine
3D for molded forms and planning. The structure
detailing, manufacturing and drawing reports
will be tested in a limited area to ensure the
CSG-based rules are implemented appropriately.
The CSG knowledge-base structural rules will be
developed in parallel.
CSG Windmill project
As its first integrated SmartMarine 3D hull
project, the CSG Windmill project was selected
to implement molded forms and planning. All
outfitting will be performed using SmartMarine
3D outfitting modules already embedded within
CSG design processes.
For the Windmill project, CSG TC will perform
detailed design while CSG Nantong TD will be
responsible for production design. CSG TC will
deliver the integrated 3D hull and outfitting
model to CSG TD for production design. The
Windmill project marks the first time a detailed

design has been created by a 3D CAD system

at CSG.
Creating deliverables with SmartMarine 3D
was much faster than with the other previously evaluated software. This will help to further
reduce production design hours and continuously
improve deliverables and engineering quality.
Currently, CSG is preparing further steps to
implement SmartMarine 3Ds capabilities for
both hull and outfitting into production on a live
project at the appropriate time.

Joe Guxiang serves as principal piping engineer

at COSCO Technical Center. He is the 350POB
and Windmill project technical manager. Song
Zhiwne holds the current position of principal
hull engineer at COSCO Technical Center. Li
Jingjing is a hull engineer at COSCO Technical
Center and is responsible for SmartMarine 3D.

About COSCO Shipyard Group

Founded in June 2001, COSCO Shipyard
Group Co., Ltd. (CSG), a subsidiary of
China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO), is a
large enterprise group, specializing in large
vessel building, marine engineering construction and conversion, and ship repair and
building services. With locations including
Dalian, Nantong, Zhoushan, Guangdong
Province,Shanghai and Lianyungang,COSCO
Shipyard Group offers large ship enterprises
and ancillary services enterprises which lead
the domestic market and enjoy a high international profile as well. Built on professional
services and modern management, COSCO
Shipyard has become the preferred partner
for the worlds top shipping companies and
offshore oil service providers.

www.cosco-shipyard.com

Smart 3D

Insight

47

Case Study: Keppel offshore & Marine

Keppel Offshore & Marine Chooses SmartMarine 3D for

Design Efficiency
Software to speed production of offshore designs
n By Jana Miller
SmartMarine 3D, developed by Intergraph,
represents one of the latest 3D design software solutions in the market. The software
provides shipbuilders with better decision
support capabilities to facilitate global design,
production and life cycle optimization.
In 2006, Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel
O&M) adopted this next generation software as a data-centric solution to streamline
its new-build design processes.
We started talking to Intergraph in late 2003
about using PDS to deliver the P-51, P-52
and P-56 projects, said Aziz Merchant, general manager for engineering at Keppel O&M.
At that time, the SmartMarine 3D software
was new to us. Intergraph provided us with
training which helped our team understand
the tools and their usage.
48

Insight

Keppel O&M completed its trial of SmartMarine

3D in 2007. Its Mumbai engineering office subsequently became the first to use SmartMarine
3D as its modeling tool for a new-build semisubmersible drilling tender for its customer
Seadrill. This drilling tender is built to Keppels
SSDTTM proprietary design which caters to operations in the deepwater regions in the Gulf of
Mexico, Brazil, West Africa and Southeast Asia.
SmartMarine 3D improved our productivity by reducing the man-hours required to design projects.
Its user-friendly interface and excellent graphics
are an added advantage for us, said Merchant.
Intergraph has partnered with Keppel O&M
extensively on this project and has provided
site support and consultation to optimize the
usage of SmartMarine 3D. The SSDT project for
Seadrill is now close to completion.
Insight: Special Focus

From the time we first used PDS, the technical

support we have received from Intergraph has
been very good. This was one of the key factors
we considered prior to making the decision to
take the next step with SmartMarine 3D.
We will continue to build on our win-win
partnership with Intergraph to further develop
the use of SmartMarine 3D to enhance our design processes, added Merchant.
Keppel O&M will soon start another pilot project to integrate SmartMarine 3D with its other
SmartMarine Enterprise software, including:
n

SmartPlant P&ID

SmartPlant Electrical

SmartPlant Foundation

SmartPlant Materials.

This integration will further improve the design to production information and materials
information generated.
SmartMarine 3D is one of our key 3D solutions and reinforces our position as the provider of choice and partner for solutions in the
offshore and marine industry, said Merchant.

Jana Miller is editorial director of Insight and is

based in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
www.keppelom.com

About Keppel Offshore & Marine

Keppel Offshore & Marine is one of the
worlds largest offshore and marine groups.
It has a strategic network of 20 yards serving
regions such as Asia-Pacific, Gulf of Mexico,
Brazil, Caspian Sea, Middle East and the North
Sea. Established in 2002, it is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Keppel Corp.
The company integrates the experience and
expertise of Keppel FELS, Keppel Shipyard,
Keppel Singmarine and its yards overseas.
Quality solutions to customers are enhanced
by proprietary technology and critical engineering expertise.
Keppel O&M is the world leader in floating,
production, storage and offloading (FPSO)
and floating, storage and offloading (FSO)
conversions. It is a leading ship repairer for
liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers and a niche player
in specialized conversions and construction.
Its expertise in specialized new-building extends to a wide range of small to mediumsized customized vessels including anchor
handling tug supply vessels, multipurpose
support vessels and cable ships for a worldwide clientele.

MAXA Award 2008

Keppel FELS was named the overall winner
of Singapores annual MAXA awards, which
recognizes manufacturing excellence. MAXA
is run in partnership by Singapores Economic
Development Board, McKinsey & Co., and the
Singapore-MIT Alliance.
Keppel FELS Ltd. has grabbed a dominant
share of the worlds oil rig market by running
its operation more like a manufacturing plant
instead of a construction yard.
Oil rig makers typically run their business like
a project-based construction job: most companies build these incredibly massive structures one-by-one, from the bottom up. Keppel
FELS has turned its shipyard into a large assembly line, building rigs in modules that are
made at workstations by specialized crews
that do only that.
Keppel has also set up subcontractors yards,
where suppliers make components right on
site. Creating a vendor yard encourages companies to work more closely together. This is
very Toyota-like thinking, says Chinta Bhagat, managing partner of McKinseys Singapore office. you dont expect to see that in
a shipyard.
Operational excellence on everything from
the technical equipment used by factories
to how staff are trained and incentivized
underpins the success of any manufacturing
company, no matter what it makes, says Mr.
Bhagat.
I work across the region and while companies in Singapore could embrace lean production more fully, many are particularly good
on the operations side, says Mr. Bhagat.
One example: the level of investment companies make in technical tools and systems,
especially information-technology systems, is
much higher in Singapore than the rest of the
region, he says.
Singapore-based companies tend to outperform, partly because they have to. Companies
here have had to move aggressively up the
value chain, he says.

Smart 3D

As Signapores economy matured during the 1980s and 1990s, many multinationals began to move lower-end manufacturing operations to cheaper Asian
locations. The manufacturing companies
that are located here today focus instead
on high-value high-end production, tapping
Singapores pool of highly-educated engineers and researchers, the city-states strong
intellectual property laws and its position as a
hub for Asian markets.
Singapores manufacturing sector still contributes one-quarter of the city-states GDP today.
In 2005, the EDB announced that it aimed
to double manufacturing output to US$200
billion and value-added to US$53 billion by
2018.
Keppel FELS is a unique example of a company thats improved its operational model, and
turned its Singapore-based site into a worldleading operation. Innovations in both its operating system and its products have helped
this Singaporean company grab a dominant
share in the oil rig construction business. Keppel FELS has delivered over 50 percent of the
worlds jack-up rigs and 45 percent of the
submersible rigs in the last five years.
The companys proprietary submersible rigs
can operate in deep waters up to 10,000 feet
and drill down to 30,000 feet. These oil rigs
feature sophisticated dynamic positioning
capabilities, which allow the rig to maneuver
smoothly and maintain its position and heading at sea, in place of the traditional mooring systems, which are less flexible. To meet
demand as oil exploration moves into ever
deeper water, Keppel has developed a rig
called the deep draft submersible, which is
ideal for areas like the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil
and West Africa.
We have succeeded in integrating the best of
both project and manufacturing approaches
into our process, says Tong Chong Heong,
managing director of both Keppel FELS and its
parent, Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd.

Insight

49

case study: Grenland Group

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Grenland Group Chooses SmartPlant Enterprise to

Maximize Offshore Production
Integrating huge amount of data in tight timeframe
n By Terje Tvinnereim
Grenland Group needed to be able to deliver
all engineering and manufacturing information
for the Low Pressure Modification Project at
the Oseberg field in the Norwegian part of the
North Sea. The project involved two offshore
platforms connected by a bridge.
Owned and operated by StatoilHydro, the
Norwegian oil and gas company, the enormous
and complex Oseberg field modification effort
required 170,000 engineering labor hours. The
project deadline was also extremely tight.
Meeting the challenge
At Oseberg, the project goal is to be able to
produce more oil from the wells as the field
50

Insight

enters the final portion of its life cycle. Low

pressure modification means that, with a lower
pressure production method, StatoilHydro will
maximize the amount of oil it can extract during the end-of-life of these wells.
The project is a huge challenge with great
potential gain. To succeed will require a monumental effort in integrating disparate data,
including manual drawing information, existing
3D models converted from PDMS, use of new
3D laser scanning technology and new modeling data. The modification project also demands
new process information and instrumentation
Insight: Special Focus

tasks to be generated, in addition to the update

of existing P&IDs and instrumentation.
The company faced extreme difficulty when it
routinely used a wide variety of design engineering applications. The various applications
did not work together, compounding workflow
problems. As the company and its business
grew, design engineering system activities
became increasingly harder to support and
more expensive to manage.
Desired integration
Grenlands new integrated design engineering
system had to deliver information as clash-free
3D models and structural, piping, equipment,

SmartPlant Enterprise met and even exceeded

our expectations.
Terje rbeck
CAD manager and 3D coordinator, Grenland Group

support and raceway modeling elements, as well

as structural assembly and manufacturing drawings, all the way down to the cutting details.
The system would be expected to routinely
and rapidly produce piping isometrics, P&IDs,
instrument loop drawings and materials take-off
data all while maintaining a seamless connection with the purchasing system. On top of that,
Grenlands system would be required to act as
the central source for all engineering information, integrating data from several other systems.
To support multidiscipline projects in the
onshore, offshore and marine markets costefficiently and on time, Grenland needed an
integrated design system that used traditional
3D models and 2D CAD drawings as a design
basis. The desired system would act as a single
platform for all engineering information, especially in large-scale projects.
Putting it all together
The timeframe for StatoilHydros project
completion is very critical. This puts a heavy
burden on Grenland to be able to automate
the information flow to avoid delays. The
projects financial success, both for client and
owner operator, depends on this.
SmartPlant Enterprise is essential to achieving our goal, said Terje rbeck, CAD manager
and 3D coordinator at Grenland Group. The
major requirements influencing the companys selection of SmartPlant Enterprise, and
SmartPlant Foundation in particular, included
the following:
n

An integrated system for all design disciplines that uses a common user interface
Modern system architecture that
can be built upon for the future

structural design, piping isometrics and P&IDs.

Generally speaking, the internal design control
workflows and acceptances will be performed
inside SmartPlant Foundation. SmartPlant
Enterprise and SmartPlant Foundation have great
potential to be the key information source for the
entire projects development and completion.
Intelligent tools on a common platform are
feeding the main information into a single data
source, said rbeck. That means you get
control of your design and can achieve your
project goal on time and within budget.

An easy to learn user interface with modern graphics

A serious supplier with depth of experience in the plant design market
A local, knowledgeable support team with
sufficient resources to follow through.

Setting the standard

To put it mildly, rbeck admits, there was a
lot of very different engineering software in use
at Grenland. Information had to be integrated
from general drafting systems, like AutoCAD
and MicroStation 2D drawings, and from 3D
modeling, such as from PDS, PlantSpace and
PDMS. There was a need for standardization in
order to minimize costs and maximize resources.
Grenland chose the SmartPlant Enterprise suite,
including SmartPlant 3D, SmartPlant Foundation,
SmartPlant P&ID and SmartPlant Instrumentation.
SmartPlant Enterprise met and even exceeded
our expectations, says rbeck.
Approximately 20 designers in the Oseberg
project use the system for 3D modeling, structural design, piping and equipment design and
raceway design. Layout and structural fabrication drawings, piping isometrics and spools are
all extracted from the system. In addition, seven
process engineers and five instrument engineers perform design work using SmartPlant
Enterprise. SmartPlant Foundation is used as
the information source for a wide range of
people who need access to project data.

Quick training
After Intergraphs initial implementation and
educational services, Grenland took over the
ongoing training and project implementation.
Grenland now has the ability to manage huge,
multidiscipline projects in a reliable and easyto-use manner on a common platform.
Our business requires many contractor
resources. Its crucial that training be easy
for these people, said rbeck. They wont
have SmartPlant Enterprise experience, but
we must get them productive in the project
as soon as possible.
Proven technology
SmartPlant Enterprise has proven to us that this
will work. Its intuitive and easy to learn, said
rbeck. This is a really big plus for Grenland.
SmartPlant Enterprise is a great project tool.
Of course, you must have excellent IT people
on the front end to prepare for, adapt and
implement this platform. But the reward comes
for the general user who can learn the system
quickly and put it to work right away.

Terje Tvinnereim serves as senior vice president

of the Technology Centre at Grenland Group.
He is based in Sandefjord, Norway.

www.grenlandgroup.com

Straight from the source

The use of SmartPlant Foundation as the main
design engineering data source for the project will
be further extended to also include publishing of
drawings like layout, manufacturing drawings for
Smart 3D

Insight

51

Case Study: vietsovpetro

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Vietsovpetro Stays on Top of Offshore Design

Upgrade from PDS to SmartPlant 3D improves productivity
n By Dang Dinh Nguyen

Vietsovpetro (VSP) is a Vietnamese-Russian joint

venture focused on the production of oil and gas
from offshore sources; exploration and survey work
for the oil and gas industry; well drilling; and the
design, assembly and repair of offshore facilities.
Responsible for approximately 80 percent of the
nations oil and gas output, VSP helps Vietnam rank
third in oil production and export in Southeast Asia.

With Intergraph technology, we are able to

quickly visualize, question and analyze situations so that we dont make costly mistakes.
We have been a longtime user of Intergraph
applications, beginning with PDS. We chose Intergraph because it offers a complete solutions
portfolio to satisfy project execution needs.

VSP has produced more than US$33 billion

of oil and gas and continues to grow fields
through new discoveries and the enlargement
of existing fields. The company contributes
about 25 percent of Vietnams national revenue, making it the largest contributor to the
states economy.

When we first learned about the advanced

concepts that SmartPlant 3D offered such
as relationships, associations and rule-based
engineering, we knew without a doubt that
SmartPlant 3D is the future of engineering.
We began to migrate our PDS seats to SmartPlant 3D seats soon afterward.

Advanced technology
When it comes to maintaining and managing
our assets, we face a number of challenges.
It is important that we invest in and embrace
good technology to address these needs.

Data integrity
At VSP, we perform a large number of designs and modifications for new and existing
offshore platforms. It is a challenge to keep
track of the changes and the related docu-

52

Insight

Insight: Special Focus

mentation updates when we use a traditional

CAD-based approach.
With Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise solutions, design and documentation activities are
synchronized. This means we can ensure the
data integrity of the design or model.
Keeping track of existing, new and future data
is also important when we work on proposals.
When a change occurs, we want to make sure
that there are no clashes or operability or maintainability issues.
Because of the number of changes we make on
our facilities, we chose the SmartPlant Enterprise
platform. Specifically, SmartPlant 3D was our
top priority.
With SmartPlant 3D, we can easily manage
data in both the 3D model and in outputs such
as drawings. Once our model for a platform
is built, it serves as an as-built model of the
facility. This enables us to query, report and ex-

tract any type of deliverable depending on the

request. We also intend to use the model as an
initial data set when we engage contractors
for major modification projects.

We have received excellent service from Credent for both training and customization. We
customized catalogs, specifications, symbols,
drawing templates and more.

VSPs Science Research and Design Institute (NIPI)

division is focused on design and engineering. NIPI
uses SmartPlant 3D for the design and update of
our offshore platforms. Since there are very few
changes to the structural members on these facilities, the majority of the work is related to mechanical and piping.

We wanted to start from scratch with SmartPlant 3D, so no data migrations were performed. All of the catalog and specification
items were created by referring to the softcopy
documentation and manufacturer catalogs.

NIPI uses SmartPlant 3D for tasks such as design

and installation of new pipelines and equipment
items, extraction of general arrangement drawings,
piping isometric drawings, equipment layouts,
ipe support drawings and various types of reports.
As-built model
SmartPlant 3D manages the as-built 3D model of
our RP2 offshore platform. We use SmartPlant 3D
to model the existing process system and main
structure of the platform. With Intergraphs advanced solution, we designed and modeled the
new process system, including equipment, piping,
auxiliary structure and pipe support.
SmartPlant 3D helped us perform design check
and review. We were able to generate deliveries to meet VSPs standard formats for 2D
drawings as well as equipment and piping
plans, piping isometric drawings and MTOs.
Services
Having experienced and knowledgeable local
partners gives us confidence in upgrading our
Intergraph technology. We chose Intergraph
because of the high level of support we receive from Intergraph and its local partner in
Vietnam, Credent Technology.
The Intergraph consultants are experienced
and very knowledgeable. Most of them have
experience in working for large EPC companies. They bring to the table not only software
experience but also project execution knowledge, which is very important to us.
Our PDS users took a SmartPlant 3D training
course. Intergraph and Credent training staff were
available in the office to offer assistance afterward
for approximately four weeks. This was perfect
for the users to get used to the new system.

Constant support from Intergraph and Credent

was very helpful in guiding us along our initial
path. We started our first SmartPlant 3D project within just two months. We definitely see
productivity benefits in using SmartPlant 3D.
SmartPlant Enterprise
VSP uses a variety of Intergraph SmartPlant
Enterprise solutions:
SmartPlant 3D
PDS
n SmartPlant Foundation
n SmartPlant Instrumentation
n SmartPlant P&ID
n SmartPlant Review
n SmartPlant Spoolgen.
n
n

In the future, we plan to expand our use of SmartPlant 3D in conjunction with our other SmartPlant
Enterprise solutions to ensure that other relevant
information such as P&ID and instrumentation
data is maintained in an as-built status.
We recognize that having access to new technology is vital. One of our most important tasks
is to help our employees enhance their professional knowledge, apply technology and gain
project execution knowledge. This is the biggest
value we add to our organization by building
up our greatest asset, our employees.

Dang Dinh Nguyen is manager of the process,

piping and offshore design department for the
Science Research and Design Institute at
Vietsovpetro Joint Venture. He is based in Vung
Tau City, Vietnam.

About Vietsovpetro
During its 28 years of experience, Vietsovpetro
has accomplished a number of noteworthy
achievements. The company has built a
synchronized and advanced technical system onshore and offshore to supply oil and
gas production.
VSP was the first to discover and efficiently
exploit Vietnams unique basement oil reservoirs, such as White Tiger, Dragon, Big Bear
and Eagle. The company has developed
technical solutions for optimal exploitation
of subsoil resources. These techniques have
attracted the attention of foreign investors
to petroleum exploration and production on
Vietnams southern continental shelf, and the
attention of worldwide scientists as well.
The joint venture has become the main force
of Vietnams petroleum industry and economy.
VSP has produced nearly 161 million tons of
crude oil from its White Tiger, Dragon and Big
Bear oilfields, with total crude oil turnover at
approximately US$33 billion.
VSP has boosted Vietnams economy
across a broad spectrum of industries. The
supply of gas from the White Tiger field
has brought the development of energy,
fertilizer-chemicals and fuel gas industries in
addition to improving shipping repair, port
and warehouse services, petroleum products
distribution and even tourism.
The company plays an important role in the
development of local economy and culture.
VSP has contributed millions of dollars from
both its corporate fund as well as employee
voluntary contributions for building infrastructure, historical-cultural care, schools, hospitals,
and supporting victims of poverty and both
domestic and foreign natural disasters.
The president of Vietnam has twice given VSP
the nations highest award, the Hero of Labor
Golden Star of Vietnam, along with many
other honors. Such great achievements are
the results of tireless efforts of the companys
6,500 employees.

www.vietsov.com.vn
Smart 3D

Insight

53

did you know?: smartMarine 3D

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Intergraph Expands SmartMarine 3D Design Software

Capabilities for Offshore Market
Single, integrated environment offers increased productivity to accelerate offshore projects

Intergraph has released the newest version of

its next-generation 3D design solution with
significantly expanded offshore capabilities.
SmartMarine 3D reduces engineering manhours, improves design quality and consistency,
increases data integrity and improves crossdiscipline collaboration.
SmartMarine 3D, a key component of Intergraphs
multidiscipline SmartMarine Enterprise portfolio,
provides all the capabilities needed to design
and build offshore devices and ships from design
to fabrication to operations and maintenance
all in a single, integrated environment. It is a
data-centric, rule-driven solution for streamlining design processes while preserving existing
data and making it more usable/reusable over
the operation, maintenance and modification life cycle of the device. SmartMarine 3Ds
design reuse wizards also enable companies to
inventory their best-in-class design configurations, allowing them to respond more quickly
and accurately to requests for proposals and fasttrack project requests.
SmartMarine 3D offers additional offshore-specific functionality:
n Rule-based Joints govern joint behavior. For
example, a parametric gap between incoming
54

Insight

members is defined as part of the rule-based

joint. This gap is then maintained by the software as the incoming members change.
n Built-up Members are defined and modified as a single member, but are actually
composed of multiple plates that can be
independently fabricated.
n Advanced Plate Systems are parametric
rule-driven plates that in combination define
complex nodal connections. The Advanced
Plate Systems update automatically as the
incoming members change. The whole nodal
connection can be placed in the catalog for
later reuse.
n 
Automated Detailing trims bounded parts
such as tubes and places end-cuts, chamfers,
welds and weld bevels automatically based on
customizable rules.
SmartMarine 3D represents a step-change in
the marketplace. Where competing solutions
use two or three different applications that are
at best loosely coupled, SmartMarine provides
a single environment to perform structural, hull,
piping, equipment, HVAC and electrical modeling, with automated detailing and drawings for
offshore and ship design, which ensures overall
design consistency with high-speed execution.
Insight: Special Focus

A powerful, 2D drafting system is embedded in

SmartMarine 3D, which eliminates the need for
third-party drafting applications.
At COSCO Shipyard Group, we have been using
SmartMarine 3D in production on numerous
offshore projects, said Liang Guoming, deputy
general manager, Technical Center, COSCO
Shipyard Group. SmartMarine 3D is helping
us achieve greater productivity and higher
quality designs. The enhancements included
in the newest version of SmartMarine 3D will
assist us in gaining a further competitive edge
during these challenging times within the marine
industry.
Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Process, Power &
Marine president, said, Intergraph has been
involved in the offshore and shipbuilding industries around the world for more than 20 years.
SmartMarine 3D, with its impressive list of
new offshore capabilities not available in any
other commercial solution, builds upon our
tradition of technical innovation and provides
our customers real value in challenging times.
www.intergraph.com/products/ppm/sm3d

Changing the way ships are

designed and built
SmartMarine 3D

gain the competitive edge with intergraph smartmarine 3d.

Across disciplines and around the world, SmartMarine 3D is delivering the future of shipbuilding design
and manufacturing today. SmartMarine 3D is the most advanced ship design software offered in decades.
It provides all the tools you need to prosper in a highly competitive, dynamic environment in which you can
design and build many different types of ships. Optimize and streamline your workflows with global and
concurrent engineering. SmartMarine 3D, as part of our SmartMarine Enterprise solutions, provides a single,
integrated environment for all internal and external disciplines involved in ship engineering and building.

Visit www.intergraph.com/go/offshore/ and learn how to gain project, schedule, and cost
benefits throughout the ships entire life cycle.

Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, and SmartMarine are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corporation. 2009 Intergraph Corporation. 10/09
Insight
55
Marine Industry

did you know?: SmartMarine Enterprise

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Intergraph SmartMarine Enterprise Boosts Productivity

Solutions manage data through the marine life cycle
n By Tom Szoka

Advances in the software tools available to

shipbuilding, marine engineering and production organizations have enabled them to move
forward. While these trends are likely to continue,
they will only produce step-wise improvements
in their vertical segment.
To achieve major productivity breakthroughs,
manage the accelerated speed of changes and
provide significant returns on investment in
technology and tools, a broader, more horizontal strategy is needed that extends the domain
across engineering, business, material management, and production systems.
Given the scope of such a task, no single
product or vendor will likely address all the
requirements. What is needed is a scalable,
open solution that can serve as an integration

56

Insight

and data repository platform such that global

project information cannot only be created, but
managed in a controlled and integrated manner throughout the project life cycle.
Effective ERP implementation
A growing trend in the shipbuilding industry is
for shipbuilders to implement enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems like SAP. One of the
keys to effective ERP implementation in a shipyard is effective data exchange and integration
between ERP elements of work planning and
material management, engineering and design
systems, and production systems like nesting
and shop floor management. Effective integration can yield up to an 8x benefit to that derived
from automation alone (see Reference 1, page
30). This article will outline production-proven
Insight: Special Focus

methodologies for implementing effective data

exchange and integration between ERP, engineering and design, and production systems.
Required data exchanges
Figure 1 outlines the effective data exchanges
that will be the basis of the discussion.
Arrows marked with 1 represent the exchange
between materials management and design
systems. A major source for Bills of Material
(BOM) in a typical shipyard is from design tools.
Arrow 1a represents that exchange. For any
effective data exchange to ERPs material management system, there must be synchronization
from the design tools material codes and ERPs
material codes. The arrow marked 1b represents
the synchronization of material codes with ERP.

Figure 1
Data exchange

exchanged in 1a is not required during number

3 data exchange. 2a contains the individual
parts from 3 plus the additional plate and profile stock information.

Material management integrations

There are three parts to material management integrations from the scenario presented in Figure 1:
n

Three conditions exist in this scenario:

n

Arrows 2 represent the exchange between production applications like pipe fabrication, plate
nesting and profile nesting. These applications
create BOM (arrow 2a) and require synchronization of material codes (arrow 2b).
Arrow 3 represents publishing data from design
to production applications. This exchange
includes part information and geometry for
plate and profile nesting and piping materials and connectivity for fabrication. The data
exchanged inherits material codes from ERP.

Three systems (design, production and ERP)

share common information about steel.

The shared information needs to stay consistent.

E ach system needs to add, modify and delete
its data throughout the project life cycle while
maintaining consistency.

Data exchanges for arrow 6 in Figure 1 often

have the same conditions.
A solution to ensuring data exchanged is complete, consistent and correct is to have a common
technical data and document repository as
in Figure 2 with the data exchanges from
Figure 1 moving in and out of the common
repository as a central hub rather than pointto-point exchanges.
Figure 2
Data exchanges with common repository

Arrow 4 represents the publishing of top-down

early design production planning information to
seed the work breakdown structure (WBS) in
the ERP project services system.

BOMs from design and production tools

contain correct material codes for ERP (1b, 2b
from Figure 1)

BOM
information from design and production
tools to ERP (1a, 2a from Figure 1)

BOMs
contain work breakdown consistent
with ERP (5a, 5b from Figure 1).

These parts must contain the required

characteristics of:
n

Standard integrations out of the box

Open and extensible

Manage change.

Material catalog synchronization

Each piece of the integration triad ERP, design
and engineering, and production require
different material information for their tools.
Lets consider two examples from hull and outfitting: steel plates and valve information (Figure 3).

Figure 3
Steel plates and valve material requirements

Arrow 5a represents WBS information published from ERP to detailed design tools so the
detailed design tools can do further bottom-up
assembly planning. Arrow 5b represents WBS
published from ERP to production systems.
Arrow 6 represents data exchange between
design tools for example, functional-to-detailed
design for hull structure and outfitting piping.
Managing data exchanges
Consider exchanges 1 through 5 in the context
of steel plates. Exchange 1a and 3 contain
duplicate information but for different contexts.
In the case of 1a, early in the design cycle, the
exchange is primarily for refining steel estimates.
Later it provides detailed BOM information in
the context of WBS (5a). Exchange 3 contains
the same information that each individual part
contained in 1a, plus the additional geometric
information required for nesting. However, the
detailed bottom-up assembly information

Common data and document repository

characteristics
In order for the common data and document
repository to be effective in maintaining complete,
consistent and correct data, it must contain the
following characteristics:
n


Integration
with leading ERP, design and
production tools out of the box to reduce implementation costs and the time to productivity
 pen and extensible to enable exchange with
O
data and documents with other vendors design
and production tools and in-house systems
P rovide change information what specifically changed, who changed it and when all
in an easy-to-understand context.

Smart 3D

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57

did you know?: SmartMarine Enterprise

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

The E&PI module allows BOM verification and

the addition of information before sending to
procurement, including:
n

Check items against catalog

Check data consistency

In both examples and for most materials, the

ERP system contains information for purchasing
that is not explicitly required in design and
production tools. In both examples and for most
materials, there must be a way of identifying
materials that are common to more than one
application. This is indicated by the overlaps of
all three circles with material code in the middle.

Figure 4
AVEVA integration


Using
rules, calculate attribute values and
adjust bulk quantities

Create
material summaries into requisition
packages with attached documents and vendor document requests.

E&PI contains standard integrations to

Intergraph and AVEVA design tools and SAP.
The same clients that use SmartPlant Reference
Datas AVEVA integration use the E&PI integration. The SAP integration allows you to preset
SAP mandatory fields with defaults like network
activity code, job type, material group, general
ledger and more.
Of the 40 E&PI implementations, 22 include
interfaces to ERP (Figure 5).
The E&PI module manages change with the
following functions:
Figure 5
SmartPlant Materials E&PI and ERP integration

In the case of plate parts, raw stock sizes (length

and width) are required for nesting while this
data is not widely used in design applications.
The overlap between nesting and 3D CAD
includes material, grade and thickness. No
additional information is required in 3D CAD.
In the case of valves, 3D information is required
for 3D CAD while all information required for
intelligent P&ID is contained in the overlap
between 3D CAD and intelligent P&ID. Examples
of characteristics include valve types and sizes.
The Intergraph SmartMarine Enterprise offers
SmartPlant Reference Data to manage and synchronize catalogs between ERP and design and
production systems. SmartPlant Reference Data
is a Web-based application that offers a single
database catalog for all disciplines and tools. It
contains standard integrations to Intergraph and
AVEVA design tools (Figure 4), and SAP MM.
SmartPlant Reference Data is configurable with
supported input/outputs in Microsoft Excel,
XML, comma delimited, etc.
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Insight

Design and production BOM to ERP

As discussed, exchange 1a (design BOM to ERP)
and 3 (design nesting information to nesting)
from Figure 1 contain duplicate information
but for different contexts. Early in the design
cycle, exchanges 1a and 3 could be combined
to provide more detailed material estimates to
ERP, offer bottom-up assembly information,
and provide nesting information without marking lines and beveling for pre-nesting. The data
from 2a is combined with 1a to provide ERP
with a complete picture of parts to be cut and
where they fit in the assembly hierarchy.
SmartMarine Enterprise offers the Web-based
Engineering & Procurement Interface (E&PI)
module for SmartPlant Materials to manage
BOM from various sources, consolidating them
and providing information to procurement.
Insight: Special Focus

S end individual BOMs and/or grouped materials

to procurement, for example, group by block
S ummarize bulk materials into requisition
packages
 anage different phases of BOMs like estiM
mate, final design and revisions
T rack what came from the design system and
what was sent to procurement
 anage changes and compare phase/reviM
sions to items sent to procurement
Analyze change to enable faster decisions.

Work Breakdown Structure Integration

Consistent WBS information is required for
effective production design and exchange of
BOM information.

Figure 6
Relationships between data and documents in
SmartPlant Foundation

Intergraph SmartMarine Enterprise has a general

purpose application for managing exchanges
of information like WBS called SmartPlant
Foundation. SmartPlant Foundation comes with a
built-in data model for WBS, and Intergraphs
design tools support exchange to/from this
data model. This WBS exchange is used in production at plant design and owner companies
like Chiyoda, Dow Chemical and Air Products.
Smart Integration Framework
SmartPlant Foundation allows data exchange in
a variety of ways, but the preferred methodology
is through the Smart Integration Framework.
Smart Integration provides an effective way of
maintaining complete, consistent and correct
data across software systems and applications.
The framework includes open, extensible common schema and documented, supported software components for publishing and retrieval
of data and documents. Implementations of
the software components in the framework are
called adapters. All of the Intergraph tools in
the SmartMarine Enterprise like SmartMarine
3D and SmartPlant Materials come with supported adapters that use the same software
toolkit available for customers and other software vendors.

equipment in SmartPlant Foundation, its drawing and individual graphic elements within
the drawing. In this example, if the equipment
item also appeared in the equipment location
drawing that came from SmartMarine 3D,
Smart Integration would have automatically
created the relationship from the equipment
item to that drawing.
n


Intelligent
comparisons of document revisions
can be made at the data level. Figure 7 shows
a comparison of two revisions of the same
schematic indicating items that were added,
modified and deleted, all the way down to
individual attributes on specific items.

characteristics that must exist for effective

management:
n

Standard integrations out of the box

Open and extensible

Easily and effectively manage change.

This section will focus on the two features that

enhance must exist characteristics: workflow
engine and enabling new applications.
Intergraphs SmartPlant Foundation comes with
a workflow engine that allows you to model
work processes which can enhance the ability to effectively manage change. SmartPlant
Foundations open architecture allows clients to
easily integrate work processes with workflows
Figure 7
Comparing the data and visual representation
of two document revisions

Additional value: workflow and applets

Up to this point, we have focused on the
three common data and document repository

The following features come automatically to

applications that integrate using the Smart
Integration Framework:
n

Security and audit gives you full history of

all data changes with the ability to turn the
clock back in time to see what the project
looked like at any point. You can configure the
system to only allow users with appropriate
privileges to publish, retrieve, view or manipulate data.

Integrated
document management with
SmartPlant Foundations document management capabilities is available.
R elationships between drawings and documents are published with their associated
data. Figure 6 shows the relationship between

Smart 3D

Insight

59

did you know?: SmartMarine Enterprise

SECTION TITLE GOES HERE

Figure 8
Workflow configuration in SmartPlant
Foundation

support of this value, SmartMarine Enterprise

comes fully equipped with components that can
plug into SAPs NetWeaver portal. This permits
the exchange of critical data with instances of
the SAP Business Suite family of solutions and is
integrated successfully with business functions
exposed through the SAP NetWeaver portal.

Integration with leading ERP, design and

production tools out-of-the-box to reduce
implementation costs and reduce the time
to productivity
Open and extensible to enable exchange
with data and documents with other
vendors design and production tools and
in-house systems

Figure 9 shows an example of a NetWeaver portal

using SmartPlant Foundations 3D model to navigate from individual elements in the 3D model to
data in SAP data and a reliability system.
Conclusions
n Implementing ERP provides an opportunity for
shipyards to transform their businesses
n

in ERP. Figure 8 shows a graphical view of a

typical workflow along with a checklist that can
be associated with a step. This same interface
enables users and managers to see the status
of tasks to determine where the bottlenecks are
and what is behind schedule.
The engine can be configured to notify users of
tasks to be done within SmartPlant Foundation
with an option to have notifications done via
email. It also includes the ability to attach
drawings, documents or other data objects to
the workflow. Workflows are fully auditable as
per the rest of objects, documents and data in
SmartPlant Foundation.

 major aspect of the ERP implementation

A
and business transformation is providing
effective data exchange and integration
between design, production and ERP

Implementing
a common data and document
repository is an effective way to ensure data
exchange is complete, consistent and correct
 the common data and document reposiFor
tory to be effective in maintaining complete,
consistent and correct data, it must contain
the following characteristics:

An additional value is to have elements of the

SmartMarine Enterprise solution plug and play
into a larger enterprise application to further
enhance user experience in terms of managing change and seeing the bigger picture. In

Figure 9
Intergraph SmartMarine Enterprise elements
playing in SAP NetWeaver portal

60

Insight

Insight: Special Focus

Provide information that change occurred,

what specifically changed, who changed
it and when, all in an easy-to-understand
context
n


SmartMarine
Enterprise contains all of the
elements required to support integration
between ERP, design and production and has
successfully demonstrated these capabilities
at client sites around the world.

Reference: 1. Guidelines for Specifying Integrated

Computer-Aided Engineering Applications for
Electric Power Plants, EPRI (Electric Power Research
Institute) report NP-5159M, Research Project
2514-3, May 1987
Tom Szoka serves as vice president at Intergraph
Process, Power & Marine.
www.intergraph.com

increase offshore
Design
productivity
SmartMarine Enterprise for Offshore

Accelerate Projects and Gain a Competitive Edge

Choose the industrys only next-generation, data-centric 3D offshore design solution from
Intergraph for the design, construction, and safe operation of your offshore facilities. With the
SmartMarine Enterprise integrated suite of solutions, automated, configurable engineering
rules ensure design-to-production accuracy and consistency. Boost productivity by an average
of 30 percent and build safety into the design from the start. Global workshare, operations,
and life-cycle asset management are also optimized with SmartMarine Enterprise engineering
information management, the industry standard for maintaining your platforms engineering
design data for decades to come.
The future of engineering today.

www.intergraph.com/go/offshore
Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, and SmartMarine are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corporation. 2010 Intergraph Corporation. 7/10
Insight

61

A Safer Tomorrow
has arrived
Safety Management

WHEN BUILDING THE FUTURE, TURN TO INTERGRAPH

In a competitive, yet fragile world, new approaches are needed. To design, build, safely operate,
and sustain todays complex, multi-billion dollar plants demands next-generation engineering software.
Choose the safety management capabilities of Intergraph SmartPlant Enterprise. The worlds leading
engineering firms and owner operators rely on SmartPlant Enterprise to enable their process and power
plants, ships, and offshore platforms to be created faster and more efficiently than ever by leveraging
networked global resources and the industrys only data-centric, automated, rules-based 3D design
software. Trust SmartPlant Enterprise to enhance safe operations and asset sustainability with advanced
data management applications that can catalog and track millions of components for decades.

How Can You Increase Safety in the Engineering Enterprise?

www.intergraph.com/go/safety
Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, and SmartPlant are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corporation. 2011 Intergraph Corporation.