Draftech services

The advent of plant design software has brought great benefits to engineers and designers responsible for those tasks. We’re seeing true, quantifiable, improvements in the way we design and build industrial plants.

Good field people are hard to find. It can be grueling work – extreme temperatures, a lot of stair climbing, up and down on fixed industrial ladders and high noise levels. They also need to be well versed in process flows, different equipment types, equipment purpose and function, valve types, instrument types, instrument signals and drawing symbology. A good field technician will also have good communication skills, exceptional note-taking habits, and be able to “think on their feet”. At Draftech, we pride ourselves in obtaining the services of highly respected and experienced field personnel. We then pair them with up-and-coming technicians to engage in a mentoring process. Usually, these young techs are being promoted from our drafting department.

The image of the General Motors drafter, in suit, tie, and coke bottle glasses, hunched over his drafting board, preparing a 3D cutaway of a V8 engine (in ink!) is now relegated to a display case in an industrial museum. How did we ever get things done? The advent of reliable 3D modeling software has revolutionized the way we design most everything. Now, one designer can produce in a day what once took a whole department full of drafters and designers a week! However, there are still issues. To effectively utilize the advantages of 3D modeling software, we need highly trained, experienced technicians. Parts, weldments, sub-assemblies and assemblies are connected parametrically in ways that makes proper development of those models imperative for smooth workflow through the various shops, manufacturers, and assembly lines. Anyone with any experience in large assemblies knows that a manufacturing neophyte can wipe out the productivity gains that we expect from our software.

A new paradigm shift in the plant engineering / plant maintenance model is the complete or semi-complete outsourcing of CAD drawing modifications to an offsite provider. New advances in engineering drawing management system (EDMS) software have introduced a highly effective and extremely stable mechanism for drawing management. Draftech has recognized the advantages and has embraced this technology.

Our business was built on the foundation of exceptional CAD services. Our founders were old school – board drafters using pencils, T-squares, triangles and “drafting machines”. They honed their skills at the end of the “Golden Age”, when drafting was where art and science intersected. Form was as important as function, and they knew what a good drawing looked like, and knew that a well laid-out drawing improved the efficiency of everyone who used it. While “form” is barely taught in drafting class anymore, if at all, it’s still a point of emphasis at Draftech. If drawings are not cristal clear, if information is not where one would expect it, if information is missing or ambiguous, mistakes will be made. Mistakes lead to increased costs and blown deadlines, which is why we feel that “form” still plays an important role, even today.

The most important aspect of any new plan is understanding what you have to start out with. What are your assets? What is the starting point? More and more, companies are using the “reality capture” component of 3D scanning as the important first step in answering those questions. 3D scanning involves the use of a rotating laser that takes millions of measurements in mere minutes, delivering highly detailed 3D documentation. 3D images of complex environments and geometries can be generated with remarkable clarity in a fraction of the time it would take to perform the same work manually. These images can then be effectively used for any number of functions that could readily benefit from “reality capture”, like architectural preservation tasks, accident reconstruction, forensic documentation and deformation monitoring. Possibly the most significant benefits, however, can be realized in the 3D modeling of process plants and digital factory layouts.