Object Relationships and Associations - Intergraph Smart 3D - Help

Intergraph Smart 3D Common

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Smart 3D Version
13.1

All existing 3D design tools use a minimum number of relationships between items in the design because relationships are hard to manage in the software. The more relationships, the greater the intelligence of the application. While the intelligence typically increases linearly with the number of relationships, the complexity and cost of processing time in the software typically increases geometrically. To address this problem, Smart 3D deals with relationship management in a generic way, increasing the number of data relationships in Smart 3D without the exponential increase in software complexity. Thus, Smart 3D makes liberal use of relationships between design objects to make the applications behave as intelligently as possible.

It is important to understand the relationships that are established when you create a design object so that you can build designs that reflect your design intent when modifications are made. If you do not pay attention to the relationships that you are creating, then you might get confused by the editing behavior you see when you try to make modifications. For example, if you tried to just select a corner brace and move it away from the corner, it would not move. That is because the column and the beam define its position.

The key relationships currently maintained by Smart 3D design objects can be broadly classified as:

  • Positions defined by associative points entered when creating design objects (key point on design object, intersection between two linear elements, point on linear element, point on surface, and so on). Examples include:

    • Slab or plate system by 3 points

    • Handrail path

    • Volume by 2 and 4 points

    • Volume by path

    You see these relationships at work when you place a handrail by path and then modify any of the related objects.

  • Positions defined by reference to planes. Examples include:

    • Structure slab or plate system that depends on referenced surface

    • Structure ladder that depends on an elevation plane

    • Equipment that has mate and align relationships with planes

  • Positions defined by reference to another design object as a whole. Examples include:

    • Route object that depends on the connectivity to ports of other route objects and equipment. This is evident when you modify the piping rolling offset.

    • Hanger or support that depends on the route object and supporting structure.

    • Structure member that depends on the connection to other structure members and on connection to grid system lines.

      You see these relationships at work when you change the beam section size and see changes in a vertical corner brace. The connected brace adjusts automatically to maintain the correct work point alignment, and the corner plate adjusts according to the design rules.

      Bracket that depends on referenced plate or profile systems.

  • Properties defined by correlation to information from SmartPlant Enterprise

The design object requires some of the relationships because the information from the related object is needed to calculate the object. Some of the relationships are optional. You can see which are mandatory and which are optional when you copy and paste a design object. The optional relationships are indicated. You must pick new required inputs (or keep the same inputs) to paste. You can elect to delete the optional relationships. For more information, see Paste.