General recommendation for import of equipment or plant models

It is often most practical to import models into separate databases. This also gives the opportunity to merge those databases (Dbs) more frequently, which may improve performance as updated supplier models are re-imported during the progress of the project.

By using separate Dbs for imported models, it provides the opportunity to have different MDBs for designers to work with/without imported models.

After import, consider adding a simplified native E3D equipment item over imported models, again in separate Dbs/MDBs, allowing designers to have a choice between full context or improved performance for different use cases. If preferred, the Model Simplification tool can be used to create the simplified overlay, avoiding the need to model it manually.