Autodesk announces AutoCAD Plant 3D 2010 software for process engineers

The announcement came at the SPE Offshore Europe Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition 2009. Mark Strassman, vice president, AEC Plant Solutions Group at Autodesk, says that project teams will be able to increase productivity and improve accuracy and coordination of shared information. Strassman makes the point that the vast majority of plant design and engineering projects support the operation, maintenance and expansion of existing facilities. These projects, he says, are typically executed by small teams facing tight time and budget constraints. For him, the power of AutoCAD Plant 3D is that it is tailor-made to increase the productivity of these teams by reducing setup time, facilitating information sharing, and minimising the impact of changing project information. "The value of 3D modelling is proven in the process plant industry, but existing design solutions are complex and expensive, serving primarily the largest projects," says Strassman. "The teams that execute these projects simply can't afford to waste time and overhead with complicated solutions. Since AutoCAD Plant 3D leverages the familiarity of AutoCAD and the popularity of the .dwg file format, project teams can get up and running quickly, more easily share design information and finish projects faster – with potentially significant savings in time and cost."