Overview of the MDS Application

The MDS application allows you to create supports for piping, cable trays, (Both piping based cable trays (BRAN) and cable trays (CTRAY) created by the Cabling System) and HVAC. It is highly interactive, enabling you to design supports with the minimum of effort. The MDS application is also highly configurable, allowing the administrator to define project-related defaults, to control the design of supports, and to determine the range and types of ancillary components that can be used on a project.

The standard framework supports in the MDS application are designed using structural sections and are template driven. A default set of structural templates based on British Standard steelwork sections is supplied with the MDS application. Any relevant national standard for steelwork sections can be used by configuring the supplied templates. For further information refer to the customization Guide.

If the templates supplied do not suit your project or company requirements, get your MDS administrator to configure them, or contact AVEVA Solutions to investigate your requirements or create a special. The requirement to add an extra member to an existing template configuration is an example of a special. The support would be designed as, or converted to, a special and then the extra member added to the special structure with the standard Beams and Columns application.

Ancillaries are elements, such as u-bolts, bolt-on shoes, anchors, or slip-units, which are attached to pipes. Ancillaries associated with the template are those suitable for, or available with the standard.

Ancillaries for cable trays and HVAC, sometimes referred to as fixings, are deemed to be the responsibility of the relevant contractor and are not dealt with in this application.

The creation of every support follows this process:

1. Select a support type from a menu or icons.

2. Enter a name for the support.

3. Create a datum atta (attachment point element) and select an ancillary type.

4. Set distance and/or position for the datum atta.

5. Choose the steelwork from a list of available sizes.

6. Create using the required creation method.

7. Select miscellaneous options.

8. Select the packing if required.

9. Complete the process (the Integrity Checker runs automatically at this point).

10. Run the MDS Health Check Utility, which performs a comprehensive check for the existence of any problems.