Let’s get started with the new CADWorx 2015 Plant Profession ISOGEN Interface – Enterprise Control Panel (ECP).  Below are the main areas:

1. ISOGEN Configuration Menu
2. Navigation Bar/Breadcrumb trail
3. Search Box
4. Category/Editing Pane
5. Drawing Set-Up Tool

SECTION 1: ISOGEN Configuration Menu – The ISOGEN Configuration menu provides access to online help and printed documentation, the Technical User Forum on Linked In, the information needed when entering service requests into Smart Support or emailing support@ecedesign.com, and access to the Options Screen. 

1. Home – Selecting this menu item will bring the user back to the Main ECP screen as shown in Figure 1 above.

2. Options – The Options dialog allows switching the interface from mm to in or in to mm.

3. Help – The Help Menu provides access to the all the help files, printed documentation, User Forums and the venerable “About Screen” for program information.

SECTION 2: Navigation Bar: Breadcrumb Trail

I-Configure organizes the hundreds of ISOGEN drawing controls using a hierarchical structure that consists of three levels of content:

• Style Category – This is the current ISOGEN Style Sheet to be edited.
• Style Group – This is the current style options group
• Option Group – This is the current options group

The breadcrumb trail hierarchy allows one-click access to freely move through and configure ISOGEN settings.

1. Style – ECE-Fab
2. Style category – Drawing Area
3. Style group – Piping Components
4. Option group – the list of options displayed in the panel below the Style group
   The breadcrumb trail indicates in which collection of drawing properties you are, and more importantly
   allows you to navigate your way through the product to find other collections of drawing properties. The
   breadcrumb trail starts with the name of the active style. After this, the active style category is listed,
   followed by the active style group.

SECTION 3: Search Box

The search box is a helpful tool to find settings. It works as most search boxes do, in that you type a string and it will display the results if found.

There are also additional features that can assist those who are transitioning from previous versions. By using the enhanced search features as shown in Figure 6 you can find specific Option Switches, Alternate Text switches, or I-Configure switches.

SECTION 4: Category Pane

The Category pane is full of hyperlinks to quickly navigate you to a main Option Group to check out the switches shown inside. However, once a link is selected you will quickly be transported to an enhanced user interface. This editing pane is where you will see a list of switches on the left and an example iso on the right.

In the options switch pane on the left, you will see a list of switches. Some are graphical and some are textual. If you are unsure what the switch does, you can click on the information button to see a brief description. The graphical switches show you how that switch will impact your iso. Some of the graphical switches give you the ability to see a flyout with all of the options available. See figure 7 below for an example of the options switch pane area.

In the example pane you will see an example iso. This iso will update when changes are made in the left options switch pane. There are some navigation tools in the upper right, but you can navigate the example area similar to CADWorx,  using middle mouse button panning and zooming. You can also double click a component and it will navigate you in the options switch pane to view the available switches.

SECTION 5: Drawing Setup Tool

The Drawing Setup Tool hasn’t been updated much since the previous release of I-Configure. But if you are coming from Project Manager, this tool is a huge time saver. In the drawing setup tool you can control your titleblock, the location of the BOM, North Arrow, and other Attributes, all in an easy to follow graphical interface.

Across the top you will find several tabs to help navigate you through the process of setting up your drawing area.

The first tab is Basic Setup. In here you will find settings to setup the overall feel of your iso. In the Backing sheet area you will choose which titleblock will be inserted, along with the size and units of that titleblock. Note, you will need to have your units set to decimal in your titleblock in order to use the inches units in the Drawing Setup Tool.

In the Reports area, you will select what type of lists you want to have shown on the drawing. You can have three types of reports:

• User Defined Material List – BOM
• User Defined Weld List – Weld List
• User Defined Cut List – Cut/Spool List

The “Number of sections” applies to the User Defined Material List option. One Section would be used for a  combined material list (Fabrication, Erection, Misc, & Offshore components together). Your other options are Two or Three sections where the components are broken up into different sections in the BOM area. In Figure 9, I have shown a combined material list with a cut list.

In the drawing area, you will notice a green boundary. This boundary is the area in which is considered the plotable area. Your titleblock and all switches must fall within this boundary in order for ISOGEN to work properly.

The next tab is Drawing Areas. In this tab you will be able to select the drawing area for the ISO. You will also be able to set the location of your lists just by dragging the box/icons around on the screen. For those of you who like more precise control, you can also type in the exact coordinates in the panel on the left.

The next tab is Material List. Note this is only available if User Defined Material List is selected on the Basic Setup tab as shown in Figure 9. In this tab you will be able to determine which columns are shown in your material list. You can also change several other properties, either by moving them in the drawing area or changing their values in the panel on the left.

Our next section is the Cut List. Again this is only available if User Defined Cut List is selected on the Basic Setup tab as shown in Figure 9. Similar to the Material list, this tab allows you to set which columns are visible and what their values will be set to.

If you had selected User Defined Weld List you would see another tab across the top to set those settings. In our case we only have the Attributes tab left. In here we will be able to have different ISOGEN attributes be placed as AutoCAD DText in the ISOGEN drawing output file. This tab is similar to the other tab, where you can modify properties, by either moving them in the drawing area, or by changing the text in the panel at the bottom.

Now that we have visited each of these tabs, its time to save and start running some iso’s.

Keep in mind that as you work in this nice graphical interface, you can still find all of these settings back in the previous category pane. Once you are happy with your settings you will need to Save and Exit the ECP and finally Export your settings for ISOGEN to read them. There are many switches in ISOGEN and hopefully this gets you started in learning where to find them in the new interface.

Now that we have gone through the new Interface, we thought it would be good to demonstrate.  Below is our latest ISOGEN Training Video: