Datum Schema 0.3.4

The user guide.

User guide. Help › User Guide (or File › User guide, or Tell Me) opens the guide: getting started, then every feature in chapters (drawing the plant; data and objects; checks and hydraulics with every check rule; lists and reports; instruments; process flow diagrams; symbols, standards and title blocks; revisions and review; working with other programs; examples), the keyboard shortcuts and the glossary. Search it, jump to a chapter from the contents, or Print / Save as PDF on A4. It is written from the same help as the ? buttons, so the two always agree, and any tool without a chapter of its own is still listed.

Getting started now names all the lists, the I/O summary, the take-off and the stream list.

Datum Schema 0.3.3

Review comments.

Comments on the drawing. Select what a comment is about (or nothing), then Check › Comment and click the sheet where it applies. A numbered pin marks it; the Comments tab under the drawing lists them, open ones first, with replies: Reply, Resolve or Reopen, Edit, delete, or click one to go to it and select what it is about. Comments are signed with your name from File › Options and dated. The status bar counts the open ones.

Several reviewers. Send each reviewer a copy of the project file. When it comes back, Check › Import Review… takes in their new comments, replies and resolutions without doubles (every comment and reply has its own id; the newest resolution wins), and Undo takes the import back.

Print and export. File › Print can include the review comments as a list; the Comments list exports to Excel or CSV. Pins are never printed on the sheets, so a review does not end up on an issued drawing.

Datum Schema 0.3.2

Your company's title block.

Company title block. File › Options › Title block › Use a company title block on every sheet starts from a copy of the standard block; change, add or remove cells, with the block drawn as you edit. The block can be any size up to 400 × 150 mm. Each cell has a caption and shows a field (company, project, client, unit, sheet title, drawing number, revision, scale, sheet n of m, date, drawn, checked, approved), fixed text, a field of your own, or the company logo (the one chosen under Datasheets). The revision table above the block follows its width, and the drawing area keeps clear of it.

Fields of your own (a contract number, a document code) are filled in for each project in the Inspector, with nothing selected, under Title block.

Share it. Save a copy writes the block as a file; Load a title block reads one into another project; Use for new projects starts every new project with it. It prints, exports to DXF (without the logo) and is kept in the project file.

Datum Schema 0.3.1

The valve and fitting take-off.

Take-off. Lists › Take-off (and its tab under the drawing) counts every valve, control valve, fitting and in-line element on the P&IDs by type, size, pipe class and rating, with their tags and sheets: the quantities for a material requisition. The size is the item's own, else that of the lines it sits in (a component between two sizes shows both, such as 3" × 2"); the pipe class comes from its line, the rating from the item. Each object counts once, even when drawn on two sheets; process flow diagrams are left out. Print it, or export it to Excel or CSV; click a row to select its items.

Tell Me now finds the take-off, the I/O summary and the stream list.

Datum Schema 0.3.0

Stream compositions with a component balance, the I/O summary, and three instrument checks.

Stream compositions. File › Options › Stream components lists the components of the project's streams, one per line. Every stream then has a mass fraction for each (Inspector › Composition; blank is none of it), the stream table on the PFD shows a row per component, and the Streams list a column.

Component balance. Check 17: each component balances round every item on a PFD (within 0.5% of the mass in), and each stream's fractions add up to 1 (within 1%). Reactors are left out of the component balance, since they change their components. The Crude preheat example now carries compositions that close by hand.

I/O summary. Lists › I/O Summary (and its tab under the drawing) counts the inputs and outputs each control system takes: analogue inputs (transmitters), analogue outputs (control valves), discrete inputs (switches), discrete outputs (solenoids) and fieldbus devices, with the total and the total with 20% spare per kind. An instrument's control system comes from its Wiring; its kind from its I/O channel ("AI 01-03"), else its signal, else its letters and symbol. Print it, or export it to Excel or CSV; click a row to select its instruments.

Instrument checks. Check 18: a transmitter's or gauge's range (typed as "0–10 bar", "-50 to 150 °C", "0-60 m3/h", or a bare range in the project's units) covers the operating pressure, temperature or flow of the line it measures. Check 19: every control valve has a fail position (FO, FC or FL). Check 20: once a loop's wiring is started, every device in it has its junction box, terminals, cable, control system and I/O channel (the control-system functions need only their system).

Datum Schema 0.2.0

A client's own symbols, old drawings to trace over, links to Datum Pipe and Datum Sim, process flow diagrams with heat and mass balances, and revision clouds.

A client's symbol library. File › Libraries › Import a legend (DXF) reads a client's legend sheet (save a DWG as DXF from any CAD program first). Every block placed on the legend becomes a symbol, described by the text beside it. Datum Schema suggests what each one stands for (a gate valve, a centrifugal pump…) from its description and block name, and puts its connection points where lines meet the drawing. Check the suggestions in the review table, edit the connection points by clicking on the drawing, and save the library: it stays on this computer for every project, and Save a copy / Add a library file share it with colleagues. The palette's Library tab places its symbols one by one.

Drawing standard. File › Options › Drawing standard draws a whole project with a library's symbols. The objects do not change: the same class, tag, data, checks and lists; lines stay on their nozzles (followed by name). Switching back to Datum Schema's symbols restores the drawing exactly. A project keeps its own copies of the library symbols it uses, so it opens on any computer, and DXF export keeps the client's block names.

An old drawing behind a sheet. Sheets › Old Drawing shows a DXF faintly behind the sheet, to redraw an old P&ID as a live one. A drawing larger than the sheet is scaled to fit and centred; set its size and position in the Inspector. It is never picked by mistake, and is printed and exported (on its own BACKGROUND layer in DXF) only when you ask.

To Datum Pipe. Select a process line, then Format › Send › To Datum Pipe: the line becomes a Datum Pipe model to start its stress analysis, with its size, schedule, design pressure and temperature, density and length, and its valves at their places along the run between two anchors. A P&ID has no routing in three dimensions, so the line goes as a straight run; add the bends and supports in Datum Pipe. What was assumed (a missing schedule, length or condition) is listed.

To Datum Sim. Lists › Loop Diagrams › To Datum Sim saves a control loop as a Datum Sim model to tune: set point, PID controller, valve, process and transmitter, with a trend of SP, PV and OP. The dynamics are typical values for the measured variable (flow, level, pressure, temperature), kept as variables at the top of the model to set from the plant; level loops are integrating, with an outflow.

Process flow diagrams. Sheets › PFD Sheet (or tick Process flow diagram for a sheet in the Inspector). On a PFD, process lines are streams, numbered 1, 2, 3… in diamonds, each with mass and volume flow, temperature, pressure, vapour fraction, density and enthalpy flow. A stream table is drawn along the bottom of the sheet in the project's units, and the Streams tab lists them (edit, Excel, CSV, print). Equipment on a PFD can be the same objects as on the P&IDs.

Heat and mass balances. Three new checks: 14 the mass flows into each item on a PFD equal those out (within 0.5%); 15 the enthalpy flows out less those in equal the item's duty or shaft power, or nothing (within 2%); 16 a P&ID line that names a PFD stream (Inspector › PFD stream) carries the stream's mass flow. The P&ID checks (sizes, check valves, relief, isolation) leave PFD sheets alone. The balances check the numbers typed; they are not a simulation.

Revisions, comparison and clouds. Inspector › Revisions › Issue… puts a row in the revision table and keeps the sheet as issued in the project file. Compare with A… lists what was added, removed or changed since (moved, rerouted, a new tag or data); click a change to go to it. Revision clouds draw a cloud round each changed area with the next revision in a triangle, printed and on the REVISION layer in DXF.

Example. File › Examples › Crude preheat (PFD): feed pump, exchanger, fired heater and separator with eight streams whose heat and mass balances close by hand.

Datum Schema 0.1.12

Tell Me shows the drawing behind it, DEXPI import, a check valve's direction, bend points kept, the logo in Excel.

Tell Me (Ctrl+K). The command search now opens over the window, dimmed behind it, instead of hiding everything else.

DEXPI import. File › New › From a DEXPI file opens a P&ID saved in the DEXPI exchange format (XML) as a new project: equipment, valves and instruments with their tags, positions, turns and data (converted to SI from the file's units), each line number with its pieces, valves in their lines and connections to nozzles, and the signal and impulse lines. Files from Datum Schema come back exactly as they were exported; files from other programs are read as far as their content allows, with classes Datum Schema does not know drawn with a stand-in symbol and listed, and drawings larger than the sheet scaled to fit. The DEXPI export now also keeps each symbol's turn and mirror, the exact symbol and the line types, and writes attribute values at full precision.

Check valves the right way round. Check 8 now looks at which way a check valve on a pump's discharge is fitted: one that would stop the flow is reported. Right-click any in-line symbol › Turn round swaps its inlet and outlet, keeping its lines where they are.

Bend points kept. Dropping a valve onto a line keeps the bend points you placed: those before the valve stay on the first piece, those after it go to the second. Deleting the valve joins the pieces with all their bend points.

Logo in Excel. Datasheets exported to Excel carry your company logo (PNG or JPEG) on every sheet.

Datum Schema 0.1.11

Drawing fixes, the cause-and-effect matrix, the DEXPI exchange format, and loop diagrams in DXF.

Drawing lines. The line you are drawing is now shown under the mouse all the way: press on a port and drag, or click a port and move. A click on a port starts a line that follows the mouse, snaps to the port under it (ringed), and ends at the next click: on a port, on a line (a branch) or anywhere (an open end). Escape or a right-click drops it. (Before, the line only appeared once it was finished. The box you drag to select several things is shown again too.)

Adding a symbol by name. A double-click on the sheet (or Add Symbol) opens a small search box beside the point instead of a window over the drawing, so you can see where the symbol will go. Type a name or instrument letters, choose with the arrow keys, Enter places it; Escape or a click elsewhere closes it.

Cause and effect. Lists › Cause & Effect reads the interlocks on the P&ID into a matrix: causes down (the switches and transmitters that trip, with their trip settings), effects across (the valves and drives they act on, and what each does: a valve goes to its fail position, a drive stops), and in each cell the interlock that links them. A switch wired straight to a valve counts too. Click a tag to find it; print the matrix on A3 or export it to Excel. The Compressor package example now has a trip to show it: high-high drum level or high-high gas temperature stops the motor and opens the recycle valve.

DEXPI export. Sheets › DEXPI saves the sheet in the DEXPI P&ID exchange format (Proteus XML): equipment with its nozzles, each line number with its segments, centre lines, valves and connections, the instrument functions with their letters and loop numbers, the signal and impulse lines, and the attributes (DEXPI names in SI units). It is a first mapping, checked for well-formed XML and consistent references, not yet with other programs.

Loop diagrams in DXF. The loop diagram window has a DXF button: the frame, the drawing and the texts on their own layers.

Datum Schema 0.1.10

Datasheets from Excel, your company's datasheet form, and loop diagrams.

Import datasheets from Excel. Lists › Import Excel reads a workbook (.xlsx) and matches it to this project's datasheets by tag. It reads a table (a Tag column and one column per value, such as "Manufacturer" or "Set pressure (psig)") or one worksheet per datasheet, as Datum Schema exports them. Columns match by label, ignoring case and a unit in brackets; numbers are converted from the unit given (psi, °F, m³/h…) or from the project's units; choices match however their dashes were typed. A preview comes first: what will change, what is already the same, and what is not imported. Values that come from the line, the vessel or the drawing are never imported; where the file disagrees, the preview says so and where to change them. Blank cells change nothing. Untick what you do not want; the import is one step that Undo takes back. Tags with no datasheet and columns that match nothing are listed.

Your company's datasheet form. File › Options › Datasheets sets the form number, your logo (PNG, JPEG or SVG, up to 200 KB), a footer line, which rows the datasheet shows and the order of its sections. Hidden rows keep their data, are still imported and are still part of each issued revision. Use this layout for new projects makes it the default, for the examples too. The form number and footer go on screen, in print and in Excel; the logo on screen and in print.

Loop diagrams. Lists › Loop Diagrams draws every instrument loop (LT-101, LIC-101 and LV-101 make loop L-101) on an A3 sheet with the title block. Each field device is drawn with its own symbol, with its function, where it is mounted, its range or fail position, and its signal. It is wired through its junction box terminals and cable to its I/O channel in the control system, and on to the controller. Type the junction box, terminals, cable, control system and I/O channel for each device in the loop's Wiring table or in the Inspector; what is still missing is listed and noted on the drawing. Primary elements such as orifice plates are shown beside their transmitter; relief valves are not part of loops. Print one loop from its Print button, or all of them from File › Print. The Inspector has Loop diagram… for any instrument.

Datum Schema 0.1.9

Datasheet revisions: issue, track what changed, issue again.

Issue a datasheet. Issue… on a datasheet gives it a revision and a status: Preliminary, Issued for Enquiry, Issued for Purchase or As-built. Revisions run A, B, C… before purchase and 0, 1, 2… from purchase on, suggested for you; type your own if your company numbers differently. Each issue records the date, who issued it (File › Options › Your name) and a note, and it appears in the object's history.

See what changed since. The issue keeps what the datasheet said. From then on every value that changes, whether typed on the datasheet or changed on its line or vessel, is marked Δ; hover it to see what it was at the last revision. The marks clear at the next issue.

Revision block. Every datasheet shows, prints and exports its revisions, newest first. Printed datasheets carry the revision in the header and the title block; the Excel workbook has the revision on each sheet, a Δ column with the old values, and the revision state in its index.

Datasheet index. A new list (Lists › Datasheets) shows every datasheet with its revision, status, date, who issued it and how many values changed since. Click a row to open the datasheet. Issue the … shown issues every datasheet in the filtered list at once, each with its own next revision. Like every list, it sorts, filters, groups, prints and exports to Excel and CSV.

File format. Projects saved by 0.1.9 keep the issued revisions in the file, so 0.1.8 and earlier cannot open them; they ask you to update. Files from earlier versions open as before.