Development of Feature-Based 3D CAD Assembly Data Simplification System for Equipment and Materials

It is necessary to construct an equipment catalog in plant design. A different level of detail may be needed for the three-dimensional (3D) computer aided design (CAD) data for equipment, depending on the purpose. Equipment suppliers provide CAD data with high complexity, whereas plant designers need CAD data with low complexity. Therefore, it is necessary to simplify the 3D CAD assembly data. To resolve this issue, a system for automatically simplifying the 3D CAD assembly data of equipment was developed. This paper presents the architecture of the system, the detailed functions of the system, and a neutral data format used for uploading simplified 3D CAD assembly data to a plant 3D CAD system. In addition, experiment results using the prototype system are explained.