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MPDS, the MEDUSA Plant Design System (known as MPDS4 since 2006), is a suite of plant engineering applications for 2D/3D layout, design and modelling of process plants, factories or installations. The systems history is closely tied to the very beginnings of mainstream
Developer(s) | |
---|---|
Initial release | 2006 |
Stable release | 5.2.1
/ February 6, 2014 |
Operating system | MS Windows, Solaris |
Available in | Multilingual[which?] |
Type | Computer-aided design |
License | Proprietary |
Website | http://www.cad-schroer.com/ |
History
editMPDS’ history[2] is tied in with the Computer-Aided Design Centre (or
Famous British computer scientist Dr. Dick Newell worked there on a file-based macro language driven 3D plant design system called PDMS (Plant Design Management System). Together with colleague Tom Sancha he left the
Around 1980, CIS partnered with Prime Computer, a U.S.-based computer hardware provider. Prime had an option on the MEDUSA source code should CIS ever fail. In 1983 the U.S.
ComputerVision/CIS started developing the MEDUSA Plant Design System (MPDS), the first plant design software based on a relational database. Developers knew from their prior experience with a file-based macro-language driven system that the next generation plant design system had to be built on a relational database and with a much more powerful programming language to handle large data volumes, complexity and relationships. Whereas mechanical
The first MPDS sales date to around 1988 to NEI Parsons (Northern Engineering Industries later became part of the Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Group). Courtaulds Engineering, which had been using MEDUSA since 1983, was also an early MPDS adopter.
In the same year Prime Computer merged with ComputerVision and adopted the name ComputerVision to concentrate on software, due to declining hardware sales. MEDUSA continued to be developed throughout the 1990s in Cambridge, UK at ComputerVision's R&D Centre at Harston Mill.
In 1993, the next generation of MEDUSA and MPDS was released. What would have been version 13 was released as MEDUSA NG and MPDS NG. They signified the shift from tablet-driven menus to a graphical user interface, although tablets could still be used on that release.
In 1994 ComputerVision closed its R&D facility in Cambridge, moving to Boston, Massachusetts. As a result, five former ComputerVision staff members and MEDUSA experts formed the company Quintic Ltd in Cambridge, which continued to provide MEDUSA and MPDS development and consultancy services to ComputerVision and the MEDUSA customer base. Work included the porting of MEDUSA NG to Microsoft Windows.
Note: The above doesn't quite work. According to Companies House, Quintic Ltd was not actually formed until 27th February 2013, 19 years after the Cambridge R&D facility closed.
In 1998 the American
The largest MEDUSA user base was in the heavily, manufacturing-driven, economy of Germany.
In 2001,
In 2005,
In 2006,
Technical Description
editDatabase Architecture
editMulti-user engineering design in MPDS is relational database-driven. The project database can be deployed as a central design database or as a project-specific database and contains component catalogs with assigned component attributes. The database drives the design graphics as well as user administration and can be integrated with other database-driven systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
3D Graphics
editMPDS combines use of the HOOPS 3D Graphics System with the relational database, whose catalog component attributes define the visual representation of each component. Because 3D plant models can be generated from catalog-based drawing routines, the demand on computer memory and resources is limited. Plants of hundreds of thousands of components can be designed, edited and exported to a compact .HSF format for external visual review. The system support varying display detail levels, allowing designers to visualize components either in great detail, visually simplified, or merely as an outline object in space, required for effective clash detection.
User Administration
editCentral user administration and access controls in MPDS allow Administrators to set up a variety of users who can work on a plant design simultaneously, and who can have different access privileges - limited, for example, to certain design disciplines or to certain areas within a plant. This is supported by integrated version and change management.
Quality Assurance
editMPDS4 includes hard and soft clash detection, which can be applied to a whole project, to separate systems or between selected components. Consistency checking tools allow users to check work against specific design rules. Results can be passed to customizable reports, and components used in a design are automatically included in parts lists.
Modules
editThe MPDS4 Assembly Manager is at the core of the plant design and factory layout system, and can be extended with several user extensible and customizable modules covering plant engineering disciplines.
- PIPING DESIGN
- MPDS4 PIPING DESIGN is an industrial piping design software add-on with extensive libraries of catalogue components to a variety of industrial standards, including DIN, ANSI and BS. Its routing tools are used for loading, positioning and replacing components, manually or automatically. The module supports P&ID-driven piping design and is pipe specification driven, so that only components from the same specification can be connected. MPDS4 PIPING DESIGN is fully integrated with ISOGEN (from ALIAS Piping Solutions) for automated piping isometric production.
- P&ID
- P&ID is an application for creating intelligent process and instrumentation diagrams; for data extraction, and for use of data to create and cross-check the 3D world. Design can be database-driven and based on existing parts lists. P&ID diagrams can be used to form the basis of 2D layouts and 3D designs, with the ability to cross-check P&IDs and automatically load P&ID components not yet included in a 3D plant design in the appropriate position.
- FACTORY LAYOUT
- MPDS4 FACTORY LAYOUT is a hybrid 2D/3D design environment where 2D layouts or drawings are used as the basis of 3D designs. Height attributes added to 2D building plans are used to produce 3D buildings. Symbols used in a 2D layout are linked to 3D model files which are automatically generated when users switch to 3D. Other components or product specials can be modelled using a sheet-based modelling approach.
- MATERIALS HANDLING
- MPDS4 MECHANICAL HANDLING is a design application with a series of configurable catalogs of mechanical materials handling components, which can be physically interconnected to form part of an industrial process. It includes catalogs of conveyor belts, cranes, fork lift trucks, industrial racking, and robots, and allows installation designers to select, lay out, configure, visualize and add intelligence to process machinery in a plant. The module also supports the controlled creation of product specials for materials handling.
- STEEL DESIGN
- MPDS4 STEEL DESIGN is a module for constructing steel frames for buildings and equipment support. MPDS4 STEEL DESIGN includes catalogs of steel sections for many worldwide steel standards and allows users to design steel members, plates, stairs and ladders.
- DUCTING DESIGN
- MPDS4 DUCTING DESIGN is a software module for routing HVAC, of differing sections, into a plant or factory. MPDS4 DUCTING DESIGN includes catalogs with different types of ducts, valves, fans and other supporting components.
- ELECTRICAL DESIGN
- MPDS4 ELECTRICAL DESIGN is a design module for routing or connecting electrical systems with components throughout a plant, ship, or factory. The user extensible and customizable catalogs contain many different types of electrical and control systems, as well as cable trays, cable ducts and links, and other supporting components. Auto routing functionality finds the shortest cable route between two designated points. By adding a KVA (kilovolt-ampere) rating to selected components, users can analyze the required power rating of an entire network of connected instances and cables.
- HANGERS & SUPPORTS DESIGN
- MPDS4 HANGERS & SUPPORTS DESIGN is a design application for accurately modelling supports between pipes and steelwork in a plant or installation.
- ENGINEERING REVIEW
- MPDS4 ENGINEERING REVIEW is an application for conducting realistic engineering design reviews within the MPDS4 plant environment, visually presenting all of the plant project data. The module contains functionality for sectioning and setting transparency and allows users to define and generate movie-like walkthroughs of an installation.
- REVIEW
- MPDS4 REVIEW is an external review application for users who do not have the MPDS4 plant design system installed. MPDS4 can generate .HSF (Hoops format) files of a plant design, which can be e-mailed to users of the MPDS4 REVIEW tool. They use the software to conduct interactive design reviews and walk-throughs, or present designs to third parties.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ The CADCentre has been described as one of the most important factors in what is now known as the "Cambridge Phenomenon", - the transformation of Cambridge into a high tech centre of world renown in the 1980s. See Segal Quince & Partners. "The Cambridge Phenomenon - The Growth of High Technology Industry in a University Town", 1985. ISBN 0-9510202-0-X
- ^ Various interviews of Cambridge software developers who worked with Dick Newell and Tom Sancha, and were employed by all or some of: CIS, Computervision, PTC, Quintic Ltd and
CAD Schroer - ^ See also Lichten, L. "The emerging technology of
CAD /CAM", Proceedings of the 1984 annual conference of the ACM on The fifth generation challenge, 1984.