Publishing large 3D models to SmartPlant Foundation can exceed memory resource limitations of the publishing computer. To make publishing some large 3D models possible, you can divide the large model into separate smaller models using filters in Smart 3D. The separate smaller models are treated as one large 3D model (known as a Composite Model) by SmartPlant Foundation for viewing. The scope of the filters should be defined to avoid overlaps resulting in duplicated objects when viewing a composite model, which causes duplicate graphics in the 3D model.
You publish these separate smaller models with a specific workflow configured to represent a composite model. See your administrator to have a composite model workflow established for you. The composite model workflow is the AutoLoadPublishWithMerge workflow. This workflow has MergePublishedFile process step configured.
This workflow creates the published 3D document, loads the 3D data in SmartPlant Foundation, then merges these object sets into a new composite document that represents the entire 3D model. The name of the composite document created is the same as the name of the workflow, for example, AutoLoadPublishWithMerge, to which the published 3D model is submitted. To publish to different 3D model composite documents, you can copy the AutoLoadPublishWithMerge workflow to a different document name.
If you have existing published 3D models in SmartPlant Foundation and want to merge these into one representative model document, you can create a 3D composite document manually, and then relate the published models to the document.
Any workflow can be configured to include the MergePublishedFile process step. It allows you to use any workflow to consolidate 3D models. However,
the name of the workflow will be used as the name of the 3D model composite document.
Contact your SmartPlant Foundation system administrator to configure your workflows.
For more information on configuring workflows, see How to Configure the Workflow Model.
Version Maintenance of the Composite Document in SmartPlant Foundation.
The first 3D model published to the workflow (with process step MergePublishedFile configured) creates a composite 3D document, the first version of the document, and copies the 3D model from the published 3D model.
Subsequent publishing of the 3D models into the same workflow result in the following actions:
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Create a new version of the composite 3D document.
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Merge the newly published 3D model into the existing composite 3D model.
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Attach the merged composite 3D model to the new version of the composite 3D document.