General

Most of the general 3D model capabilities of E3D Design works just as well with imported models as with models that have been natively created withing E3D Design. These include clash checking, picking, dimensioning and so on.

However, one difference between natively modelled and imported equipment is that the imported equipment will be represented by General Primitive (GENPRI) elements rather than boxes, cylinders ans so on. The GENPRI elements can be individually moved and rotated, but not scaled or modified in any other way that the native primitives can be.

Modelling activities for placing equipment on structural foundations and connecting pipes and cables heavily rely on snapping to P-Points and P-Lines as well as graphical snapping. Imported models will not have any P-Points or P-Lines, but the graphical snapping can still be used. However, many GENPRI elements from imported CAD models may have curves and details making it more difficult to find a distinct point to snap to, than with natively modelled equipment objects.

One thing to note is that the dynamic snapping that is enabled by default may not work very well on imported models, as the application will try to dynamically identify snapping points when you move the cursor over the model. With imported models containing large amounts of geometry elements this may take a long time, for instance while taking measurements, and give the appearance of the mouse cursor "lagging" as it is moved across the model. For this case it is recommended to disable the dynamic element snapping and only enable when needed. For large models it may work best to zoom in closely before enabling the element snapping, thereby reducing the amount of objects that the mouse will pass over.