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The Utility of 3D
7 Jul, 2011 By: Cyrena Respini-IrwinUser Profile: As a multi-discipline designer of water treatment plants, Bob Beatty bridges the gap between 2D and 3D every day.
Bob Beatty, a senior CAD designer and CAD manager at American Water Engineering in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, is a man who sees the world in 3D and 2D. To work efficiently on both new and legacy plant designs, Beatty has embraced what he calls "the future of CAD" — without forgetting his roots.
Cadalyst: How did you become involved with CAD?
Beatty: My first job was with Stone & Webster in 1977, where I worked on the design for a nuclear power plant, which was completely done on the drawing board. I learned my first CAD program after I moved to a fire-protection design firm. They had developed their own CAD system, which I helped beta-test. From there, I went back to S&W and was taught three other systems: AutoCAD, MicroStation, and a mainframe system.
I joined American Water in 1996 and have been using AutoCAD and [AutoCAD MEP (mechanical/electrical/plumbing)] ever since. In designing water treatment plants, I use MEP 2012 to its fullest 3D capabilities; I have been told many times by my AutoCAD vendor that I "model to the extreme."
Bob Beatty uses AutoCAD MEP in his work as a senior CAD designer and CAD manager at American Water Engineering.
What motivated your leap to 3D CAD?
When I started to work for American Water, we were a 2D engineering department. We design all aspects of water treatment plants: architectural, structural, process piping, mechanical, electrical. We began to receive literature on [Autodesk] Architectural Desktop, and it just fascinated me. As I collected information on this software, I realized that this is the future of CAD, and I did not want to be left behind. I was getting bored with 2D drawings and saw the 3D world as both a challenge and a way to save time and money on projects. We have been using 3D CAD ever since my company purchased the second edition of the Architectural Desktop software.
Beatty created this 3D CAD model of major process equipment components within a water treatment facility.
The main reason we use a hybrid 2D/3D system is the scope of the work. For designing new plants, we use full 3D. For existing plants that we modify, we usually stick to 2D linework, because implementing 3D on an existing set of 2D CAD files is not very efficient. However, we always look at the project first to determine if there is real value in using the 3D capabilities.
How did you go about teaching yourself to use the software?
When I first started to learn CAD in the late '80s, there was an engineering job shortage. Most employers were trying out new employees on a temporary basis before hiring full-time; you really had to be at the top of your game to stay employed. I had to either learn CAD as quickly as possible or head to the unemployment office. I had a couple of days of one-on-one training, and then it was "go to it" — but go as fast as you can! I would dive into the training manuals and learn as much as I could, as fast as I could. When I needed to perform a certain task, I would research that task and complete it over and over until it was a piece of cake to accomplish.
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Comments
on: July 7, 2011 - 11:16pm
3D is more and more popular now.