Modern design has become so complex that in order to maintain competitiveness in the design work market, it is necessary to automate many routine and repetitive operations. Automation leads to saving time and minimizing errors, simplifying many operations, and ultimately this has a positive effect on the efficiency of the design process and on the quality of the final product.
The desire of the engineers of the state enterprise "Belorusneft-Neftehimproekt" for constant self–development and improvement of their own competence, as well as the desire to shorten the design time and minimize the number of routine tasks, led to the need to master a new mechanism - the creation of special scripts and plugins for CAD, which are a set of actions and instructions for automating various project tasks.
As part of the BIM design development strategy, training was organized at the enterprise so that design engineers could not only perform a standard set of tasks, but also improve processes for automation.
The first steps to automate this process were made by design engineer, BIM coordinator Mikita Nestsiarovich, who, after assessing the resource intensity of individual tasks, detailed study and correlation of all technological nuances, was able not only to create, but also to visually present the idea to future users of the script - his colleagues. With the support of the top-managers, which contribute the development of this direction, a full-fledged presentation-protection of the created product was organized.
Two tools were used to create scripts – one of them is a visual programming tool that does not imply any special knowledge in the field of programming, the second is programming in Python. With the help of scripts, you can go beyond the basic functionality of the design program, automate routine "mechanical" processes, simplify the processes of transferring and processing tasks, conveniently manage the process of creating a BIM model by exploring different variants of the dynamics of its elements.
The following scripts have been developed:
1) script for automatic filling of parameters (mass, color area) of assembly elements (products);
2) script for automatic filling of positions of elements in assemblies (products);
3) script for automatic verification of the information content of the model elements (within the company's regulations);
4) plug-in for automatic placement of holes for engineering communications in floor slabs using the geometry of the linked file (adjacent sections).
The first two scripts reduce the time for routine operations and eliminate the possibility of errors. The third is an element of controlling the completeness of filling in all elements of the model and reducing the risk of errors, which is quite difficult to do manually – flaws are identified in the process of involving other employees. The use of the latter script is useful because it eliminates the stage of transferring the task and analyzing it – and this, in turn, saves time spent on design.
Mikita Nestsiarovich successfully completed training, created scripts and conducted an internal presentation of his products, defended his work, indicating the benefits of these tools for the common cause, as well as the potential for further refinement of these scripts for the needs of different departments. The next stage of these innovative developments is to discuss and evaluate the possibility of their practical application, feedback from departments and implementation in the design process. It is important that the script creator is not an outsider, but an employee involved in the overall infrastructure who can take into account all the design features, is open to dialogue and is ready to train and adjust the result of his work to the changing needs of the enterprise. In the future, it is planned to involve other employees who want to master automation processes in this process.
The undeniable advantage and strength of the designers of the state enterprise "Belorusneft-Neftehimproekt" is a creative approach to business and the potential for continuous development, which always entails positive changes and improvement of the design process and, in general, indicates the ability of the enterprise to innovative development and progress.