• Chorus S.r.l.

Chorus S.r.l. discovers BricsCAD® Pro’s 2D/3D productivity tools for customized workflows

Chorus migró a BricsCAD® Pro e inmediatamente aumentó la productividad 2D/3D con COPYGUIDED, MOVEGUIDED y Express Tools. Con las personalizaciones de LISP y las aplicaciones de la industria, los ingenieros de diseño tienen flujos de trabajo más rápidos que ofrecen un mayor valor.

Storage tank design on 3D CD - industrial plants

Chorus provides engineering and design services for industrial plants and facilities in the chemical, petrochemical, electrical, and renewable energy sectors.

Industrial plant engineering requires multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders to collaborate on designs for electrical systems and instrumentation, piping and mechanical equipment, and structural designs.

The Challenge

Challenge #1: Customizable and interoperable 2D/3D CAD for multiple design workflows
The electrical engineering teams at Chorus use 2D CAD to draft electro-instruments and systems, such as floor plans, technical room layouts, instrument assemblies, cable routes, and connection diagrams.

The workflows for electrical diagrams are highly customized, for example, running ad hoc LISPs to print collections. To manage these efficiently, customization is essential for simpler and quicker production of deliverables.

2D CAD to draft electro electro-instruments and systems

On designs for engineering on piping, the design engineers create and work with 3D models for plant skids and equipment. The plant models require a 3D CAD solution with an open API backed by third-party app solutions. Chorus runs the ESApro application to create views and sections of the plants and to deliver BOMs.

Customized DWG-CAD workflows for industrial plants on BricsCAD Pro

A key to Chorus’ CAD upgrade was the interoperability between accurate 2D detailing capabilities and 3D parametric modeling.

Challenge #2: CAD migration without workflow productivity disruption
With 15 engineers designing and drafting, the upgrade from their legacy CAD had to be seamless. Any complexity of migration had to be eliminated by switching to a highly compatible DWG-format and intuitive CAD environment.

The CAD upgrade also had to have intelligent tools and commands, and powerful LISP commands for productivity gains.

The Solution

Customization and open API
The trial period demonstrated that BricsCAD Pro addressed each challenge to provide the best solution. Used with the third-party app by ESApro, BricsCAD Pro’s 2D/3D DWG interoperability and open API improved workflow productivity.

Marchigiani Antonio, IT Manager and Electro-Instrumental Designer at Chorus, confirms:

“Above all, the ad hoc customization of the LISPs allows (us) to speed up the workflow so much.”

Talking about managing multiple sheets of electrical diagrams on BricsCAD, Marchigiani said:

“Using a multi-sheet (with LISPs), you get great potential. You can take advantage of a whole series of commands that can work on the entire collection.”

DWG CAD multipage from LISP

For the deliverables, Marchigiani continued, “We print all or part of the collection without using the PUBLISH command, which would involve the creation of as many pages as the layouts inside the DWG.”

Productivity with intelligent tools
As well as easily managed multi-sheets and ad hoc LISP customizations, BricsCAD Pro’s intelligent tools and commands remove repetition from Chorus’ workflows.

For example, on workflows for piping and instrumentation, Chorus’ design engineers instantly valued BricsCAD Pro’s commands to copy, move, and align entities using automatically generated guide curves from 2D and 3D data. Marchigiani Antonio explained:

“When managing electrical functional or mechanical process diagrams, the COPYGUIDED and MOVEGUIDED commands are really useful and help speed up the frequent operations.”

Discussing the tools that Marchigiani most valued, he identified Express Tools, now standard in BricsCAD V23’s ribbon. These tools allow him to extract the attribute information in a tabular format or excel sheet with one click.

Express tools and block function in BricsCAD Pro

Seamless CAD migration
BricsCAD Pro’s industry-standard DWG format allowed Chorus’ team to migrate without any compatibility issues. Marchigiani Antonio spoke about the transition to BricsCAD's familiar interface and ribbon panel, highlighting:

“The transition was practically painless ... just a couple of days used to become familiar ... it was immediately possible to work at full speed.”

For Marchigiani’s role as also IT Manager, he confirmed that his colleagues with multi-sheet workflows required minimal training to use BricsCAD:

“After installing and setting the basic configuration, I only dedicated less than an hour to instruct on the use of LISPS and how to manage the documents in our business.”

Discussing the transition for design engineers working on piping designs, Marchigiani said that “practically no time was spent, as the user interface is identical to the other CAD.”

Chorus was introduced to BricsCAD through EmiCAD, a local Bricsys partner. Acknowledging their role in assisting with minor early issues, he highlighted:

“In a very short time, I had the answers I needed, and I was guided to solve the problem.”

Results

During the trial, Chorus was convinced by BricsCAD Pro's powerful 2D/3D CAD interoperability, customizable LISPs, and productivity tools. When discussing the switch to BricsCAD, Marchigiani Antonio was clear:

“Following the testing period, it was immediately evident the performance of the software was excellent, starting from the reactivity on opening up to the simplicity and linearity of the user interfaces.”

Marchigiani also confirms the high value delivered by BricsCAD Pro’s licensing cost, recognizing:

“Undoubtedly, my company has been able to take advantage, at a relatively low cost, of a very powerful tool, which has absolutely nothing to envy compared to the classic AutoCAD®.”

  • Tuscany, Italy

  • Industrial Plant Design and Engineering

  • Chorus S.r.l.

  • Chorus S.r.l.
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