Case study: integrating CAD and cloud for prefabricated contract overseas

Construction company Mercury Engineering’s contract to link a new process plant in the Netherlands to an existing facility came with a demanding time challenge.

In order to achieve the project goal, the Dublin-based firm needed to route new pipelines along an existing pipe bridge. However, the owner of the site near Groningen wanted the project schedule to be reduced by prefabricating the pipes before installation.

Mercury Engineering needed an accurate design basis for the new pipe routes and tie-ins that had to be created. This would guarantee that the new piping would fit on the pipe bridge and could be constructed inside the existing building without clashing.

Mercury Engineering needed a solution that was able to detail mechanical, electrical and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) design, as well as produce trusted, high-quality, industry standard piping isometrics

In order to ensure successful delivery, it would have to laser scan the existing building, roof space, and pipe bridge. Particular attention had to be paid to the tie-in points, with extra scans done in these areas to ensure that enough detail was captured to accurately design the tie-ins. Benefits were schedule certainty, correct first time design and reduced labour costs.

Mercury Engineering needed a solution that was able to detail mechanical, electrical and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) design, as well as produce trusted, high-quality, industry standard piping isometrics.

The company turned to Hexagon PPM for guidance in the use of the necessary products to cope with a task requiring accuracy and speed, and selected CADWorx Plant Professional for its breadth of modelling capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and its ability to produce 2D deliverables in DWG formats.

Three days training by Hexagon PPM was sufficient to ensure Mercury staff new to the product were proficient. Also, the company’s BIM (building information modelling) group had successfully used CADWorx for more than three years.

Ciaran McCreary, 3D VC/BIM engineer at Mercury Engineering, says: “We were very happy with the Hexagon PPM staff who performed our training and implementation services. Using CADWorx tools enabled us to get started immediately – we were able to produce fabrication isometrics immediately after completing our co-ordination process.”

Leica CloudWorx was employed with CADWorx Plant Professional to manipulate the piping route. Visualisation of the pipe bridge inside the CAD system helped to identify space for the new pipelines, enabling them to be routed easily alongside other existing services.

Using CADWorx tools enabled us to get started immediately – we were able to produce fabrication isometrics immediately after completing our co-ordination process

Ciaran McCreary, 3D VC/BIM engineer, Mercury Engineering

Pipework installation was detailed before the new building was constructed. As it took shape, it was laser scanned and the new point clouds integrated with CADWorx Plant Professional.

Using CloudWorx in combination with CADWorx, Mercury Engineering was able to make minor modifications to the pipework as the project was on-going, align the routings and make changes to the overall design.

This increased confidence in the accuracy of the isometrics issued to the fabrication workshop, which were auto-generated via Isogen directly from the CADWorx design model.

The benefits of CADWorx solutions were better tracking allowed for schedule certainty, accurate data inside CAD environment ensured design was correct first time, and high-quality isometrics avoided on-site fabrication and reduced labour costs.