PDMS ExPLANT-I

Installation and
User Guide
Version 1.3

expt131/man1/doc1
Issue 01 02 2001

PLEASE NOTE:
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Contents
1
1.1
2
2.1
2.2
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
4
4.1
4.2
4.3

Introduction ............................................................................................1
Before You Begin ..............................................................................1
Installation ..............................................................................................2
Installing on Unix .............................................................................2
Installing on Windows NT................................................................3
Transferring from PDMS to MicroStation.............................................4
Preparing the transfer......................................................................4
Colours ..............................................................................................5
Graphic Group ..................................................................................5
Setting the Units ..............................................................................5
Setting the Representation ..............................................................6
PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver ...................................................8
The Log File ......................................................................................9
Limitations, Warnings and Error Messages ......................................10
Geometry Mapping .........................................................................10
Limitations......................................................................................11
Error Messages ...............................................................................11

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Contents-i

Introduction
The PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver allows the user to
extract 3D geometric models from the PDMS database and
output them in a binary file (called a dgn file) compatible with
MicroStation according to the Intergraph Standard File Format
Specification. The resulting file can then be used to import 3D
graphics models into MicroStation or into other systems that
can read dgn format files.
Version 1.3.x of PDMS ExPLANT-I can be used to transfer
information from PDMS Design 11.3

1.1 Before You Begin

It is assumed that you are familiar with the following:

PDMS

Operating system functions such as installing software

from CD-ROM/tape, creating and editing files and
directories/folders

For general information on using the Export facilities in PDMS

refer to the PDMS Design manual. For general information on
how to install CADCENTRE software products such as the
PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver refer to the PDMS
Installation manual.

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Installation
PDMS ExPLANT-I is usually supplied on a CD-ROM. Please
read the notes that accompanied your release medium for any
updated installation instructions.
Note that before PDMS ExPLANT-I can be installed, the
correct version of PDMS must previously have been installed on
your machine. During installation the files and manuals are
copied to the PDMS ExPLANT-I product directory and a copy of
the driver file is also copied into the PDMS directory.
PDMS ExPLANT-I uses the same Flexman security system as
other current CADCENTRE products. To set up your license
file to allow you to run PDMS ExPLANT-I, please see the
Flexman Installation Guide.
You will need to get a licence from your CADCENTRE
Customer Support Centre that includes EXPLANT as well as
licenses for your other CADCENTRE products, including
PDMS.
NOTE: The directory names used in this installation are intended as
examples only; they may be changed to suit individual requirements.

2.1 Installing on Unix

If necessary, transfer the PDMS ExPLANT-I installation from
the release medium to the computer on which you wish to
install it. (See the instructions on or with the release medium.)
Copy the PDMS ExPLANT-I product directory (e.g. expt131) to
the Cadcentre home directory (e.g. /usr/cadcentre).

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Copy the PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver file explant.so from

the product directory into the correct PDMS directory (e.g.
/usr/cadcentre/pdms11.3).
The PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver requires the entire
PDMS environment as well as environment variables of its
own.
To define these, modify the example explant.cshrc file to reflect
the actual directory names that you have used. The commands
in the explant.cshrc file should be executed once for each user
session in which the PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver is used.
This may be done by the source command, or by including the
commands in your .cshrc file.

2.2 Installing on Windows NT

An ordinary user can install PDMS on Windows NT. However,
a System Administrator is required to make the Cadcentre
Folder of PDMS as common Shortcuts.
To start the installation of PDMS ExPLANT-I, load the CDROM to the CD-ROM drive.
If AutoPlay is selected for the CD-ROM drive, loading the CDROM automatically starts your HTML Web Browser so that
you can explore the contents of the CD to find the product to
install.
If AutoPlay has not been selected, use Windows Explorer to
select the CD-ROM drive and then use the right mouse button
to AutoPlay it. Alternatively, use Windows explorer to navigate
to the CD-ROM drive and double-click to open the start.htm
file.

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Then click the link to see the contents of the CD.

Follow the links shown by the Web Browser until you find the
product you require, which in this case is PDMS ExPLANT-I.
The products are identified both by their title (e.g. PDMS
ExPLANT-I 1.3.1) as well as by release number (e.g. t30261-1).
The label INSTALL on a link initiates the installation, this is
interactive and finally copies files to the selected product
directory and Cadcentre folder will contain the shortcut for the
PDMS ExPLANT-I manuals.
The installation will also have added settings for the
SEED3D_DIR and EXPLANT variables that are required by
PDMS ExPLANT-I to PDMS automatically.

Transferring from PDMS to

MicroStation
The PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver can be used to transfer
geometric information from a PDMS Design database into a
format suitable for input into MicroStation.

3.1 Preparing the transfer

To translate a model file into MicroStation format you must use
the PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver from within PDMS
Design module. However, before you start PDMS you must to
initialise a number of environment variables to appropriate
values. Although the commands can be typed in, it is
recommended that the commands be invoked automatically at
the start of each session (see section 2, Installation).

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3.2 Colours
When selecting geometry for output from PDMS, the user can
choose a colour that is associated with each element or group of
elements. Provided that the PDMS colour number is in the
range 1-63, then that number will be used as the level number
in the dgn file. If the PDMS colour is outside that range, then a
default dgn level number of 1 will be used.

3.3 Graphic Group

When exporting PDMS equipment and structural elements,
PDMS ExPLANT-I will use a different dgn graphic group
number for each piece of equipment or structural element. It
should be noted that because hierarchy information is not
available to PDMS ExPLANT-I, then there are some
circumstances where the graphic group is not always correctly
set.

3.4 Setting the Units

The exported data units are set from the working units in the
seed file seed3d.dgn. The standard seed file supplied with
PDMS ExPLANT-I has MM as the working units but metres,
feet and inches can also be recognised if a different seed file is
used.
In a DGN file the working units are described in terms of:
1.

Master units, these can be named

2.

Sub-units, these can be named

3.

Resolution units (these are not named)

4.

Number of sub-units per master unit

5.

Number of resolution units per sub-unit

Firstly, PDMS ExPLANT-I checks the master units name for

millimetres (MM or mm), metres (M or m), feet (FT, ft or

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) or inches (IN, in or ) for a positive match and if it

finds one will set the scaling accordingly.
If there is no positive match, it then checks the sub-unit name
against the same unit names and if it finds a match sets the
scaling from the sub-unit and the number of sub-units per
master unit.
If the units in the seed file are not recognised, the default is to
assume MM.

3.5 Setting the Representation

The Export command was designed as a what-you-see-is-whatyou-get system, where the visibility and representation settings
in Design control what is exported. This enables you to select
certain elements of the PDMS database for export, and to
choose an appropriate level of detail for your needs.
If you are operating in a graphical mode, and working with
relatively small volume of data this is ideal. When exporting
large models this close integration with the graphical display
can result in slow performance.
In this case you can speed up the export significantly by
running Design without graphics. It is then very important to
ensure that the visual representation is set to what you require
(note that Designs default settings are different when you are
running without graphics).
We suggest that you do the following:

1.

Read section 5.3 Element Representation of the DESIGN

Reference Manual, which discusses the options available.

2.

Using Design with graphics enabled, set the

representation to your requirements, using either the
menus or commands.

3.

Activate the PDMS Command Input and Output form. (A

shortcut to show this is to click on the CADCENTRE logo
window.)

4.

Type the command:

Q REPR

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5.

Note the results, for example:

Centreline Off
Tube On
Obstruct Off
Insulation Off
Hole Off
Ppoints Off
Ppoint Length 50mm
Ppoint Numbers Off
Representation level 6
Representation level PIPE 6
Representation level NOZZ 6
Representation level STRU 6
Mass Properties Detail level 6
Pnode On
Pnode size 100mm
Pnode colour 22
Snode On
Snode size 50mm
Snode colour 31
Points Off
Pline Off
Pline length 50mm
Pkey Off

6.

leave Design, and re-enter, but without graphics (by

typing dev tty to Monitor)

7.

Type Q REPR again, note the results, for example:

Centreline Off
Tube On
Obstruct Off
Insulation Off
Hole Off
Ppoints Off
Ppoint Length 50mm
Ppoint Numbers Off
Representation level 0
Representation level PIPE 0
Representation level NOZZ 0
Representation level STRU 0
Mass Properties Detail level 0
Pnode On
Pnode size 10mm
Pnode colour Visible
Snode On
Snode size 10mm
Snode colour Visible
Points Off

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Pline Off
Pline length 50mm
Pkey Off
8.

Look at the differences, in this case:

Representation level 6
Representation level PIPE 6
Representation level NOZZ 6
Representation level STRU 6
Mass Properties Detail level 6
Pnode size 100mm
Pnode colour 22
Snode size 50mm
Snode colour 31

9.

Either include all of these representation commands in

your PDMS macro file (see below), or select those you do
need using the Design Reference manual as a guide.

3.6 PDMS ExPLANT-I Export Driver

To translate a model file into a MicroStation input file you
must be in the PDMS Design module.
If the model that you are going to export is large, then it will be
a lot quicker to output the file if you enter the device tty mode
rather than the graphics mode of Design and then switch
tracing off (trace off). The Design EXPORT commands can be
stored in a PDMS macro file.
For example:
pdms
Enter project name
bas
Enter username and
password
/CTBHTEST
dev tty
design
trace off
repre level 6
repre level pipe 6

From the operating system start

PDMS. The PDMS banner will be
displayed.
Enter valid project name
Enter your username and password
Select the multiple database
Select tty mode
Enter Design module. The Design
banner will be displayed.
Switch tracing off
Set drawing representation level
Set drawing representation level for
pipes

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repre level nozz 6

repre level stru 6
export system /explant

Set drawing representation level for

nozzles
Set drawing representation level for
structures
Load the PDMS ExPLANT-I export
driver
Specify name of the output file

export file /equip over

Process holes in components
export holes on
Select names of PDMS elements
export /EQUIP colour 3
that are to be exported.
export /PIPES colour 4
Create export data
export finish
Full details of more powerful colour selection and element
selection techniques can be found in the PDMS Design
Reference Manual.

3.7 The Log File

Whenever PDMS ExPLANT-I is run, it writes a log file. This
has the same name as the dgn file, but with a .log extension
rather than .dgn. If a message or warning is printed by Design,
further details will usually be available in the log file.
If warnings or errors are written to the log file, this is usually
mentioned after the banner to the window from which PDMS
was started.
The log file is plain text, and may be viewed with more in a
command window, or any text editor such as vi or notepad.

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Limitations, Warnings and Error

Messages

4.1 Geometry Mapping

The MicroStation dgn data file that is produced by the PDMS
ExPLANT-I Export Driver contains a series of geometry
definition records. The following table shows how PDMS
primitives are mapped to dgn record types.

10

PDMS

dgn File

Cylinder

Truncated Cone

Snout

Truncated Cone

Cone

Truncated Cone

Slope bottomed cylinder

Capped Surface

Sphere

Capped Surface

Dish

Capped Surface

Box

Capped Surface

Circular Torus

Capped Surface

Rectangular Torus

Capped Surface

Pyramid

Capped Surface

Polyhedron

Cell containing a number of Shape elements

Structural Rectangle

Capped Surface or a Cell containing a number of

Shape elements

Structural Annulus

Capped Surface or a Cell containing a number of

Shape elements

Extrusion

Capped Surface

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If the user requests that holes to be output, then PDMS

ExPLANT-I will generate a solid object bounded by a number
of facets. The facets with no holes are translated as Shapes and
the facets with holes are translated as Cells containing no-hole
Shapes and hole Shapes.

4.2 Limitations
The following limitations affect the transfer of information from
PDMS to MicroStation.
1.

The interface translates PDMS 3D geometric elements

only.

2.

The PDMS BOUN and DRAW elements and 3D lines are

not translated.

3.

PDMS names are not translated.

4.

PDMS attributes are not translated.

5.

The PDMS hierarchy is not translated and any catalogue

components are copied for every instance. Some geometry
elements may not have the correct graphic group setting.

6.

PDMS primitives are translated in millimetre units only.

4.3 Error Messages

This section provides details of the error messages that can be
output when running PDMS ExPLANT-I. When an error
occurs the program will output a message to the standard error
stream (usually the screen) and the program will then stop.
A more detailed error message may often be found in the log
file.
Less serious problems will cause a warning to be output to the
log file, but the program will not stop.
The following message is output by Design if there is a
problem with the software licence for the PDMS ExPLANT-I
Export Driver. If this problem occurs you may need to contact
CADCENTRE Customer Support for assistance.
***** FATAL SITEFILE ERROR *****

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The following message is output by Design if there is a

problem with locating or loading the PDMS ExPLANT-I
Export Driver.
Unable to open dynamic library ...

The following error messages may be output during translation

from PDMS to MicroStation.
library does not accept this hardware
iogini has not been called
file does not exist
there is no ISFF file open
cannot close the file
end of file found
insufficient space provided
2D request on 3D file
3D request on 2D file
type does not exist
type is invalid for query routine
invalid level in type 9
invalid dimension
error reading IDGS file
invalid exponent in double
group not applicable to type
attributes not applicable
SEED3D_DIR has not been declared
Can not open seed file
Can not open ISFF file

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