For utilities, design engineering can be extremely complex and time-consuming.
Armed with Spatial Business Systems design tools, engineers can streamline utility workflows, boost productivity, and even produce higher quality work. With the SBS engineering design suite, utilities were able to better utilize spatial and design data for their businesses.
Check out this graphic to learn more about our streamlining efficacy and learn about SBS Success Stories, too.
This new release provides a new bus tool that will give users new options in placing round bus. A new ribbon command has also been added to access Utility Content. Along with this release, SDS – Physical is now available for Autodesk Inventor 2021.
SBS will be hosting a webinar on the new SDS – Physical release next week.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 11:00a.m. – 12:00p.m. CST.
If you are interested in registering for this webinar, click the following link https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4263796547464473101
Among the number of new enhancements for SDS – P&C, the rollover tool now displays cable information, including length and estimated voltage drop. The user interface has been improved for both Schematic and Wiring Diagram terminal strip insertion tools. Additional enhancements have been added to the new three part ergonomic SDS Tools ribbon that made it debut in our last release. Along with this release, SDS – P&C is now available for AutoCAD Electrical 2021.
Last summer we had the opportunity to hear from a number of our Automated Utility Design (AUD) customers at the annual SBS Peer Utility Group, held at Puget Sound Energy in Bellevue, Washington, USA. One of our partners, Atwell, LLC gave a particularly interesting presentation on an innovative use of AUD for the design of wind farms.
Atwell is a full-service consulting, engineering, and construction services firm and their experience in engineering design combined with their long history in power and energy systems formed a great combination to provide a creative solution making renewable energy an affordable reality.
AUD has an excellent track record for performing integrated distribution design for electric and gas utilities. The product, based on AutoCAD Map3D, can natively perform design layout, voltage drop analysis and a nearly unlimited set of custom design checks when rules are configured within the system. Now we have learned that it can also be a great tool for designing the collection systems that support the design of wind farm systems.
The design of wind farm collection systems can be a challenging task. Traditional electric distribution system designs performed by AUD typically span a few city blocks; a wind farm can stretch 50 to 100 square miles, or more. The collection system, which consists of medium voltage cables between the wind turbines, in the Atwell design project exceeded 80 linear miles. These large-scale geographies are further complicated by numerous design constraints such as non-participating properties, environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands and cultural sites and transportation corridors such as underground gas pipelines, railroads and roadways. It is not uncommon to have hundreds of crossings that need to be managed as part of the design and construction process.
These competing constraints make the design process complex and if the design is not properly optimized project costs can spiral out of control causing the well-intentioned goal of achieving renewable energy standards to be cost-prohibitive.
To understand how AUD can streamline wind farm design it is important to understand the current, semi-manual process. A wind farm project typically involves initial studies which then support creation of preliminary collection system layouts. The layouts are analyzed to determine groupings of turbines for purposes of defining conductor pathways as part of the collector system. All of these steps are subject to numerous constraints mentioned above. Many of these constraints can have very significant impacts on overall system costs. And they can get complex quite quickly – a moderately sized project can easily have hundreds of constraints that can impact an optimal design.
The Atwell team had been using a combination of AutoCAD, multiple spreadsheets and digital maps to perform the layouts and associated analyses. By using AUD they were able to include cable sizing, cable
loading along with the wide variety of constraints involved in the projects. These were then processed dynamically to generate summaries of the conductor designs. High-cost constraints such as borings can be included in the costing summaries. The results allowed Atwell to create a highly optimized design with greatly reduced manual effort.
Other benefits included auto-generation of callouts, sequential naming of splices over long conductor runs and optimal splice locations which all help to improve constructability in the field.
Using Automated Utility Design provides the opportunity for numerous, real benefits when designing wind farms. Here is what the team at Atwell, LLC has experienced:
· AUD greatly reduces interdependencies and manual data entry
· AUD provides design change flexibility
· Routine tasks become highly automated – a typical manual iteration can take 1 ½ days to implement but can now be accomplished in just minutes.
· Material usage can be much more highly optimized
· Overall design time is significantly reduced, while improving overall quality
· Better designs support better construction, reducing field construction costs and project changes.
Automated Utility Design has a highly configurable set of modeling constructs along with a powerful rules engine that can streamline many aspects of utility construction. We look forward to hearing about the design challenges you are having and will welcome the opportunity to discuss how AUD might work for you. Please contact SBS at [email protected], or feel free to meet us at our next Peer Utility Group event. Visit the PUG site at http://spatialbiz.comm/support/peer-utility-group/.
The new location is:
1890 West Littleton Boulevard
Littleton, CO 80120
Please update your records with our new address. We will be moving and starting business at our new location as soon as the COVID-19 issue has ceased. Our phone numbers and email addresses will remain the same, as will our website address and social media accounts.
Our new facility offers us the opportunity to better serve our loyal customers and work with our valuable business partners. We look forward to continuing to serve your needs and work with you at our new location.
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
March 23, 2020
Dear Customers,
We appreciate your business and want to let all of you know that SBS is continuing to do well in spite of all the challenges presented by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Most of our employees already work from their home offices so we have been able to continue SBS business functions with minimal disruption. Consistent with US federal guidelines, all SBS travel has been placed on hold; as a result of this we are holding project-related meetings, workshops and training remotely and we are prepared to do so as long as necessary.
Many of you have moved your employees to remote work environments and this has required a need for changes to your SBS product licensing. If you are in those circumstances please contact [email protected] and we will work with you to issue temporary licenses to address these circumstances. Please note that we have had quite high demand for license changes so please bear with us as we address your needs. We will endeavor to turn things around as promptly as possible.
During these times there are many things to think about. At SBS we are all very mindful of the fact that we are in homes that are serviced by electricity, gas, water and telecommunications services provided by so many of you. We appreciate the tremendous contributions you make to our society and wish all the best to you and your families during this unique time.
Regards,
Dennis
Dennis F. Beck
President / CEO
This open enrollment training is priced per student and is a cost-effective alternative to our group training offerings that cover the same material. Availability is limited and spaces fill up fast, so hurry and book your spot today!
Course cost, descriptions and requirements are below. If you would like to register for this course or have any questions, please contact Jared Yates at [email protected] or Register Here!
Course Cost: $1,495 USD per student
COURSE SCHEDULE: June 8-11 (4-hour sessions each day) June 15-18 (4-hour sessions each day)
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Remote instructor-led web environment consisting of up to 32 hours of training for one (1) attendee. Course participation will be limited to no more than eight (8) students. Training will be provided in daily 4-hour web training sessions over a two-week period. The training covers the topics below:
Remote Web Training Sessions 1-4:
Basic Inventor Topics as required for SDS Physical Design Training
Remote Web Training Sessions 5-8:
Strategic Modeling and Working with Large Assemblies
Remote Web Training Sessions 9-12:
Introduction to Substation Design Suite™ Physical Design, Above Grade Tools (Cable runs, Bus runs, Lightning Protection) and Below Grade Tools (Grounding, Trenching, Conduit)
Remote Web Training Sessions 13-16:
Advanced Substation Design Suite™ Physical Design, Substation Design Content Editor, Design Checks and Substation Output
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: A minimum of four (4) students are required to conduct this course. If the minimum required attendees are not met two (2) weeks prior to the course start date the course will be canceled and the customer or registered attendee will be notified.
SOFTWARE PREREQUISITES: Autodesk Inventor or Inventor Professional Software and the Substation Design Suite™ Physical Design plug-in.
HARDWARE PREREQUISITES: The SDS Physical Design plug-in requires the same hardware specifications as Autodesk Inventor. Autodesk Inventor hardware specifications are shown at the following webpage: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-Autodesk-Inventor-Products.html.
In addition to the list above, 32 GB of RAM (memory) and a Solid-State disk drive is recommended.
When we announced the future availability of AUD for Substations back in November 2019, we noted that this new member of the SBS Substation Design Suite™ holds a lot of potential to improve brownfield substation design workflows. As we have begun some of our early-stage testing we are finding that the initial results continue to hold a lot of promise.
Much of this has to do with the underlying Map3D platform that powers Automated Utility Design™ (AUD). Map3D is based on AutoCAD®, which has been nicely enhanced over the last several releases to support the handling of large point clouds. This, combined with a number of enhancements we are making to AUD to support 3D viewing and editing, has created a particularly interesting opportunity to facilitate brownfield design.
The video below shows AUD 8.1 set up with a template configured for substation design, running on Map3D 2019. The LiDAR data shown in the video is based on a scan performed by a Leica BLK360 3D imaging scanner. The data was then pre-processed using Autodesk ReCap™ 2020.
In the video you can see the capability of AutoCAD to “snap” to a point cloud using LINE feature (creating “construction line”), first snapping to “structured data” (auto-detected surfaces in point cloud) and then snapping to individual points in the cloud. Structured data allows AUD to accurately place and snap new devices to the “real-world” structures/ connectors represented in the LiDAR scan.
The video continues by showing the placement of lightning arresters that snap to locations along the scanned structural support. AUD can then display the feature attributes of this intelligent design element. Other pieces of equipment, such as the new transformer shown in the video can be placed and connected to the arresters with flexible conductors.
We hope you find this sneak-peek look at AUD for Substations interesting and helpful as you plan out your substation design needs. We welcome your feedback on how AUD for Substations might be able to support your needs for intelligent substation design.
Substation Design Suite™ – Physical
Among the new product enhancement, the SDS – Physical code has been redeveloped in order to bring more extensive new features in future SDS – Physical releases. SDS – Physical also has a new tool to extract work point coordinates from a selected part to work with the SDS – P&C tool for control cable lengths.
Substation Design Suite™ – Protection & Control
We are excited to announce among the new features in SDS – P&C is a user modifiable SDS Tools ribbon that will provide a better workflow for our customers. With this new menu, the F1 keystroke “Help” now displays the 150-page SDS Tools Command Reference with TOC hotlinks to jump to and display the desired commands. Job/Work-order, status assignment, tracking, and reporting has been significantly enhanced. The original limit of three predefined status levels are now unlimited.
These are just a few on the many new enhancements for Substation Design Suite 7.4.2. For a more extensive demonstration of all the SDS-Physical and P&C features, SBS will be hosting two webinars this month.
Wednesday, February 26th 11:00am – 12:00pm CST
Register for this webinar at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2480574503441751820
Thursday, February 27th 11:00am – 12:00pm CST
Register for this webinar at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1251077511669730829
SBS would like to thank the members of the Substation Design Solution Industry Consortium (SDSIC) for their continued feedback and recommendations on SDS feature development.
New Looping Feature Provides More Flexibility for Rules-Based Design
AUD 8.1 brings improved stability and over 20 new product enhancements. For example, the AUD rules engine now has a looping feature that simplifies the process for performing advanced functions in AUD. AUD looping streamlines the creation of iterative rules that can be used to support such things as specialized design calculations and more elaborate engineering analysis.
AUD is being extensively enhanced to support additional 3D capabilities. These enhancements support both distribution design as well as substation physical design per SBS’ recent announcement of AUD for Substations at Autodesk University, November 2019. AUD now supports direct 3D editing and digitizing for points and lines. This enables such things as placement of flexible and rigid bus conductors. Improvements to 3D viewing and clearance checking are also provided.
We continue to listen to feedback and ideas from our SBS Peer Utility Group. Please consider submitting your thoughts and ideas by joining the Peer Utility Group.
For additional information on Automated Utility Design please contact Stefen Dobrec, [email protected].
Back by popular demand! Many of our customers have utilized this lower cost option for SDS Training. This open enrollment training is priced per student and is a cost effective alternative to our group training offerings that cover the same material.
There are still spaces available for SDS Remote Physical Training so hurry and book your spot today!
Course cost, descriptions and requirements are below. If you would like to enroll for this course or have any questions, please contact Jared Yates at [email protected]
Course Cost: $1,495 USD per student+$395 for SDS Physical Design eLearning Schedule
COURSE SCHEDULE: February 24-27 (4-hour sessions each day) March 3-6 (4-hour sessions each day)
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Remote instructor-led web environment consisting of up to 32 hours of training for one (1) attendee. Course participation will be limited to no more than eight (8) students. Training will be provided in daily 4-hour web training sessions over a two-week period. The training covers the topics below:
Remote Web Training Sessions 1-4:
Basic Inventor Topics as required for SDS Physical Design Training
Remote Web Training Sessions 5-8:
Strategic Modeling and Working with Large Assemblies
Remote Web Training Sessions 9-12:
Introduction to Substation Design Suite™ Physical Design, Above Grade Tools (Cable runs, Bus runs, Lightning Protection) and Below Grade Tools (Grounding, Trenching, Conduit)
Remote Web Training Sessions 13-16:
Advanced Substation Design Suite™ Physical Design, Substation Design Content Editor, Design Checks and Substation Output
COURSE PREREQUISITES: Each student is required to purchase eLearning training material.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: A minimum of four (4) students are required to conduct this course. If the minimum required attendees are not met two (2) weeks prior to the course start date the course will be canceled and the customer or registered attendee will be notified.
SOFTWARE PREREQUISITES: Autodesk Inventor or Inventor Professional Software and the Substation Design Suite™ Physical Design plug-in.
HARDWARE PREREQUISITES: The SDS Physical Design plug-in requires the same hardware specifications as Autodesk Inventor. Autodesk Inventor hardware specifications are shown at the following webpage: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-Autodesk-Inventor-Products.html.
In addition to the list above, 32 GB of RAM (memory) and a Solid-State disk drive is recommended.