XMpLant is the tool today to enable Lifecycle Information Interoperability using ISO 15926 (LI3) between commercial systems and other standards. XMpLant has been adopted by the major vendors of process plant design systems because it has been proven to work on major projects and it is the only tool that handles geometry for process plant. As it can handle any class of object and has a powerful mapping subsystem, it can be used to convert between any object Classes. It works with systems across the lifecycle as well as enabling exchange between systems in any given part of the lifecycle.

 

 

XMpLant - Technology for implementing ISO 15926

1、Interfaces for the major process plant systems (PDS, PDMS, AP, SmartPlant etc)
2、Generic core – can handle complex structured models and geometry
3、Powerful rule based mapping subsystem – powerful attribute handling
4、Powerful analysis and reporting tool
5、Generic interface for XML, Spreadsheets and RDBMS tables
6、Exchange XML file model defined in Schema - ISO 15926-3,4 classes
7、Specification and Piping Catalogue conversion
8、Multi-Model handling merge and split
9、Converts unstructured dumb drawings to structured intelligent ones
10、Converts unstructured dumb Excel Datasheets to intelligent Datasheets
11、Generic Comparator for process plant model comparison – P&ID & 3D
12、Read interface for IFC’s for building models

 

XMpLant is technology for integration of intelligent information with a key focus on process plant. Due it's flexible data model core it can handle any class of object. In this way objects from proprietary systems, general XML files, CSV files and RDBMS tables can all be managed. The neutral XML model is an ISO 15926 Dictionary compliant file.

 

The mapping subsystem is driven by XML mapping files which define the relationship between the external classes and those of ISO 15926. The mapping of attributes can be very complex with nested mapping, attribute concatenation, processing substrings etc. In this way one interface for a given system can be configured to suit any project where the usage is different – without changes to the interface software itself.

 

Using an import interface the native model is converted into the neutral model defined by the Schema and similarly the export interfaces convert the neutral model to the native model. A key benefit of this is that the model created by any read interface is the same. This allows new applications to be written that operate on this model that are independent of the system that created the information. The Generic Comparator, Model merge and Dumb to Intelligent drawing conversion are examples of such applications. The neutral XML exchange file is ideal for handover and archive.

 

 

Exchange - Integration - Data handover - Graphical navigation

 

XMpLant – Mapping subsystem

The mapping subsystem has many powerful features that enable manipulation of the generic object, allowing the interfaces to be data driven. These include

•Class and Attribute name mapping
•Format change of the value of an attribute, decode value / units or ranges
•Map the value of an attribute by calling a nested map
•Split an attribute string into substrings and pass each to a nested map
•Concatenate values of attributes
•Add structure by defining this in the mapping file
•Pattern matching of value for object selection
•Reclassify based on the value of an attribute
•Exclude an object by class name or attribute name or value

 

Spreadsheet interface – Datasheets etc

This interface reads the Excel spreadsheet into XMpLant and the mapping file defines how to map the cells of the spreadsheet into a structured intelligent Document. The mapping file defines how to create the structure for the sections of a Datasheet and which cells are to be mapped into the appropriate part of the structure created. In this way the Datasheet becomes useful as the information is computer readable, enabling it to be converted to operations systems without manual transcription. The structured document can also be written directly to a spreadsheet.

 

IFC XML interface - see BIM for details

IFC XML files (BIM exchange files)  are XML files that conform to the ifcXML Schema which are ISO 10303 (STEP) based. As with all interfaces the IFC geometry is converted to objects of ISO 15926-3, the form used by XMpLant. Building objects classes are mapped to ISO 15926 classes and Associations are used where there are multiple references to a single object. There is also a plan to write ifcXML files from XMpLant.

 

Generic Comparator 
This is an XMpLant application that loads two XMpLant models and compares the topology and attributes of the Elements. The mapping file is used to filter out objects and attributes that are not relevant to the comparison. Equipment and Nozzle Tags are expected to match but it is not necessary for PipingNetworkSegment labels to match – the comparator will trace the PipingNetworkSegment from its connections to a Nozzle. The report is both textual and graphical for 3D and later for 2D.

 

Model Merge 

This is a facility allows models from any source can be concatenated, merged by by Tag or ID. The result will be a single model with the data merged. Splitting of models is also possible.

 

Dumb to Intelligent
This facility combines a graphical pre-process to collect together graphics that represent a plant item and collect text strings contained within them. The text strings are processed, as a human would read them and Pattern matching is used to identify TagNames from which a new plant item of the relevant class is created. This works with any document with Tags (PFD, P&ID, ISO’s etc) enabling dumb drawing to be turned into intelligent structured ones.

 

XMpDE – XMpLant development Environment

XMpDE is the core and program Development Environment for XMpLant. It provides high level access functions of the generic object for plant items as well as the geometry objects. There are also many functions for manipulation of the objects and direct access to the mapping sub-system. This environment is the most effective way of developing interfaces for proprietary systems as well as for ISO 15926 Dictionary compliance XML files created by any system. It will later support the use of the sharing technology (iRING) for ISO 15926. It is also a very efficient general XML processor, especially for large files.

 

 

Source : http://www.noumenon.co.uk/