Three-Dimensional Digital Design in

Substation Based on Microstation

Wenjie Li , Huachen Fu, Huan Shi
Henan Electric Power Survey &Design Institude, Zhengzhou, China
ABSTRACT: In view of the limitations of traditional two-dimensional substation design, this paper
presents the idea of taking the database as the core, and using the intelligent, parametric three-dimensional
model to achieve multi-professional accurate, intuitive, efficient collaborative 3D digital design of substation,
and describes the Microstation based 3D digital design key steps.
KEY WORD: substation three-dimensional (3D) digital design Microstation
working memory space, has to bear the
I. INTRODUCTION construction of the virtual image, but also
complete the design thinking, which work load
The traditional substation design from 3D to can be imagined. By contrary, 3D digital design
2D, from 2D to 3D relies on the engineer's space has a complete database design technology,
imagination and basic drawing skills to complete engineers spends less time to solve the problems
the space design, with limitations and referring to memory or analysis, reducing the
particularity, and under the constraints of project burden of storing the three-dimensional model,
schedule it lacks of control , and has relatively and some rules to follow are processed by
low efficiency on the detailed layout of economy software, more thinking space and time is
and optimization. With the development of available for other innovative design thinking.
modern information technology, object-oriented
technology has brought the fundamental changes III. SUBSTATION 3D DIGITAL DESIGN
in engineering design. Three-dimensional digital
A. Equipment modeling
design complies with this trend, realizes the
Device modeling is the first step of 3D digital
digital, refinement and intuitive visualization of
design, with the restriction of computer
the substation project design, and provides a data
hardware and software, the equipments’
base for subsequent information system,
information must be simplified in ensuring the
especially the digital transfer system.
effectiveness of 3D layout verification. The
II. ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF 3D reasonable equipment model and additional
DIGITAL DESIGN attributes can not only meet the late design
3D digital design takes the database as the core, requirements, but also can ensure the fluency of
by calling the intelligent, parametric 3D model, 3D design, improve the efficiency. Part of the
in a three-dimensional environment, to produce equipment simplified model show in figure 2-1.
the accurate, intuitive, efficient
multi-professional cooperative design, and on
the basis of this, it can be further collision
analysis, as well as an effective adjuvant on the
whole process of substation design.
Cognitive psychology research points out that
design thinking is closely related to working Figure 2-1 Simplified model of the equipment
memory, whose space is very limited, only 7
units [1] . Traditional 2D design, in the limited The ideal modeling process should be that

978-1-4577-1600-3/12/$26.00 © 2012 IEEE

equipment manufacturers, according to the
design institute, provide the needs of the
specified file format for 3D model of a strict 1:1
mapping, and also responsible for the accuracy
of their model. Considering the equipment
manufacturers could not achieve
above-mentioned requirements at present, the
equipment’s 3D modeling would be completed
by the Design Institute. Modeling process is
illustrated in figure 2-2.
Figure 2-2 Model flow chart
B. Model denomination
In the device model creation, the way of
denomination should be standardized [2] . The
denomination of 3D digital model should be
uniqueness, accuracy, rationality, easy to identify,
manage, store, issue and change, at the same
time, it should be extensible, easy to trace and
effectively control for the Version (Revision),
use letters, numbers and underlined to describe.
This paper recommends the model named by
four-level coding as "voltage level _ device
attribute _ device type _ model sequence
number". Among them, device attribute is the
device name code; model sequence number is
the modeling object ID, which is consistent with
the first three-level code.
For example, the GW4A-40.5 35kV isolation
switch, in 3D digital model, can be named:
35_DS_GW4A-40.5_001
IV. THREE-DIMENSIONAL DESIGN
A. Real-time collaborative design
3D digital technology transfers the traditional
substation equipments and facilities designed on
drawings to a real substation "built" in the
virtual three-dimensional space. It
the
comprehendsively combines with every different
kind of majors in substation design, involving
electric, structure, construction, general view,
hydraulic engineering and HVAC. Each major
can simulate each part of the substation, and use
collaborative design mode in the same basic
function module and respective professional
module. Every designer could "see" the work of
others, to fully communicate, cooperate, and
continually modify and update. In a 3D
environment, designers can see the real-time
results of design decisions after using software
tools to input the data, thereby, they can quickly
grasp the effective spatial location, and
reasonably complete layout design. The
workflow is shown in figure 2-3.
B. "Collision-free" design
Collision detection is one of the most important
functions of three-dimensional design [3]. In the
3D digital design, all designers collaboratively
establish a three-dimensional model which is full
of information, three-dimensional, multifaceted
view, basically solve some collision problems
through collision detection before construction,
greatly reduce the rework costs of site
modifications, and improve design quality.
The use of real-time characteristics of 3D
collaborative design can not only skim over fault,
missed, collision, lack through a simple model,
but also make the live distance verification by
the method of three-dimensional space
ranging ,shown in Figure 2-4. This method is the
traditional 2D design extension of live distance
check. Designers, based on their experience and
intuitive feelings for model, choose the "key
point", use 3D design platform to automatically
measure the minimum space distance between
two entities, then ensure whether the design
could meet the requirements of Electrical Power
Engineering Design Manual. Compared with the
traditional two-dimensional design, it cancels the
conversion from the 2D to 3D distance, reduces
the deviation caused by estimating the minimum
distance point error, and acquires more accurate
measurement results. Besides, it can effectively
guarantee the reasonableness of distribution
equipment arrangement to optimize the scheme,
save space, and reduce the cost of the project.
For the arrangement of relatively complex area,
advantages of "collision-free" detection in
three-dimensional digital design are more
obvious.
Figure 2-3 Workflow of 3D collaborative design
Figure2-4 “Collision-free” detection
V. SUBSTATION ROAMING
When completing the design, there are
substation’s overall rendering pictures and 3D
animations fulfilled by Microstation to show the
three-dimensional panorama of substation.
Compared with the traditional mode, the
animations or rendering pictures, based on the
model established by 3D software, can be more
accurately react to the actual situation of the
project. Regarding some simple demonstration
effect, or the project specific details, designers
could use some built-in functions of
Microstation to finish them, thereby to reduce
the model conversion, to avoid the data missing,
to express the design thought practically, and to
reflect the design concept. A substation
panoramic rendering picture is shown in Figure
2-5.
Figure 2-5 Substation panoramic rendering
picture
VI. DATA BUTT
The information in the traditional project
construction period (from design, construction,
purchase, to debugging stage) mostly takes the
paper medium as a carrier, and transfers to the
operating units in the form of drawings and
documents. All kinds of information scattered in
different chart file, and there are no correlation,
no mutually check between them. The same
information has been repeating in different data
sources, and conflicting situations have occurred
sometimes. Besides, fault handling at run time
often spends more time to search the right file
and accurate information and delay.
Microstation which takes the project facility as
an object assigns a unique identification code
(ID) to a variety of device model. The 3D model
which takes the identification code as a clue
interconnects with the digitized network
platform automatically, and forms the unification
with the engineering data. 3D digital model
includes all the principal elements of the project,
and is a full-information model that not only the
size and positioning are true, but also through
digital platform for asset management,
information search and retrieval would acquire a
great convenience.

VII. C0NCLUSION AND OUTLOOK

Substation project involves electric, structure,
construction, general view, hydraulic
engineering, HVAC, etc. At present, all different
kinds of majors use their relatively independent
software platform to calculate, analyze, and
complete the design through 2D graphics
software. 3D digital design is that every major
takes the design in the shared data platform,
within which each subsystem can not only run
independently to complete the design, but also
accomplish the collaborative design with others
for resource sharing. Three-dimensional effects
and animations are the way of their display,
while the design flow for forming data sharing
between all kinds of majors is the core.
Looking ahead, there are a great number of
aspects need to improve or meliorate in 3D
digital design, but in future we look forward to
carry out the further three-dimensional digital
design practice, build the solid foundation for
the construction of digital grid and smart
network, and provide the information safeguard
for owner's asset life-cycle management.

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