Creating a new Plant 3D model

- [Instructor] Moving on with chapter two, we're going to take a look at working with Plant 3D files. So let's start by opening our project, so we're going to navigate using Project Manager, we're going to open, from our desktop, we're going to look exercise files, chapter two. Now we're going to select our project XML. So, since Plant 3D models contain both graphic information and data, you must always create the new models from within Project Manager. The model should be created in the Plant 3D drawings node of the Project Manager directory tree.

So, we're going to go through this exercise here, this is the Plant 3D node inside our directory tree. Just going to expand this here and take a look at the files and the subfolders that we have in here. To start with, I'm going to create a new drawing, and I'm going to create it under this piping folder. Now, bear in mind the last heading that you have here, the node above in hierarchy, is the location that the drawing will actually be created in, so if I want to continue working in this piping folder, I select this piping folder and I right click.

I'm going to select new drawing, and I'm going to call this drawing 02_01_piping. Now notice we can't change this folder path, this has been predetermined inside our project setup. So we just have to use this, accept this location, and we're going to say OK. Now notice the drawing we created is now the active drawing, you can see that up on the tab here. And the drawing 02_01_piping now resides in our directory tree. So when we create the drawing this way, we know that it's been accepted by the project and that the drawing has been registered into the project.

Just to make sure we understand the difference between where we create the drawings inside Project Manager, for example, I'm going to create a drawing inside peen ID, which is a separate database, and it's a 2D database. So I'm going to come up to the peen ID drawings, I'm going to right click, and I'm going to create a new drawing. I'm just going to call this P ID, and I'm going to say OK. Now notice it looks slightly different when the drawing's created, and we have a peen ID title block. But we're still working within the 3D workspace.

If I try to come and route some pipe in here, for example, this is the error that I'm going to tell me. It's going to say the command you are attempting to enter is not compatible with the active drawing. Do you want to change the workspaces now? So, this is in place to make sure when you try to create a 3D model in the peen ID area, or create a peen ID in the 3D area, Plant won't allow you to access the tool palette items that you need, and by doing this, we can't inadvertently create our files in the wrong locations.