FAQ - Frequently asked questions
Interesting facts & questions about our P&ID software PlantEngineer
You need a 64 bit Windows operating system at least version 10 or higher.
PlantEngineer is compatible with Microsoft Office 2010, 2013, 2019, and 365 and supports both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions. We recommend the 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 365.
PlantEngineer supports both the Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visio. As a prerequisite, you need Visio version from 2010 to be installed on your device. We recommend using a Visio version from 2019. Visio Plan 1 is not supported.
No. All versions of Microsoft Visio are supported. PlantEngineer allows you to take advantage of the full range of functionality of Visio Standard and Visio Professional.
An internet connection is required during the installation. Once the software has been successfully required, you can work without an internet connection. The validity of your software license is checked at regular intervals, which requires an internet connection. The use of a WebFloat licence requires an existing internet connection.
No. Visio is only available for Microsoft Windows.
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 is required for the new reporting functionalities of PlantEngineer 2023.
Greifen Sie auf über 1.000 intelligente Symbole aus den internationalen Industriestandards zu. Sie erhalten Symbole nach folgenden Normen:
- ISO 10628 – Diagrams for the chemical and petrochemical industry
- DIN 28000 – Chemical apparatus – Documentation in the life cycle of process plants
- DIN 1861 – Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – System flow diagrams and piping and instrument diagrams
- DIN EN 12792 – Ventilation for buildings – Symbols, terminology and graphical symbols
- DIN EN 62424 – Representation of process control engineering – Requests in P&I diagrams and data exchange between P&ID tools and PCE-CAE tools
- DIN 19227-1 – Control technology; graphical symbols and identifying letters for process control engineering
- ANSI-ISA-5.1 – Instrumentation symbols and identification
- PIP PIC001 – Piping and Instrumentation Diagram – Documentation Criteria
Yes. Create your own custom intelligent symbols and save them in your library. With additional property shapes, you can quickly and easily create new symbols and add property sets for apparatuses, aggregates, or pipe fixtures to them.
Yes. Create multilingual lists, datasheets, instructions, and documentation (e.g. for commissioning) in Microsoft Excel or Word directly from the flow diagram, out of the box. Customize all reports, lists, and datasheets to reflect corporate design and content or add your own documents to them.
Yes. Visio drawings can be imported. You can then replace the symbols with intelligent PlantEngineer symbols.
No. Importing CAD drawings is currently very time-consuming, cost-intensive, and is not error-free. We therefore recommend recreating CAD drawings in PlantEngineer. The DEXPI standard hopes to allow P&IDs from different manufacturers to become interchangeable in the future.
Yes. In addition to the usual Visio .vsd and .vsdx formats, you can also save your PlantEngineer drawing as a .dwg or .dxf file.
Yes. Generate component lists, ICA lists, apparatus lists, instructions, datasheets, and project documentation “out of the box” in just a few clicks in Microsoft Excel and Word. You can then adapt or supplement these documents according to your company’s specifications.
The OperationMode feature allows you to visualize and document a variety of plant statuses in color directly in the P&ID.
The latest planning status of the components is visualized in color directly in the P&ID. If the component status changes, the color of your chosen symbols automatically changes accordingly. This gives you an overview of your plant’s planning progress at a single glance.
Thanks to XML technology, data can be exchanged bidirectionally with other systems. Our customers take advantage of this to compare data from their drawings against ordering data in their SAP systems. PlantEngineer can also be connected to other ERP or third-party systems.
Depending on the export quality, AutoCAD drawings can be imported into PlantEngineer, for example as pure symbol blocks. These blocks can then be replaced with PlantEngineer symbols.
Yes. PlantEngineer drawings can also be saved in AutoCAD formats (.dxf and .dwg). You can save PlantEngineer drawings in any standard file format supported by Microsoft Visio (…).
Due to the large number of third-party systems, a standardized interface does not currently exist. But thanks to XML technologies, you can export and import data to and from other systems. This allows you to connect PlantEngineer to other ERP or third-party systems.
PlantEngineer is available as a subscription in three editions. Choose between the Basic, Professional and Enterprise Editions. You can rent all editions as a single-user license on a monthly or annual basis
Software maintenance is already included for the first 12 months when you purchase a PlantEngineer license. Ordering a license always concludes a software maintenance contract that is automatically renewed after one year. You can cancel this contract with a 3-month notice period if you no longer wish to receive these services.
Software maintenance gives you services such as general customer service, support, regular updates, and annual upgrades to the latest version of PlantEngineer.
Most of all, our customers appreciate receiving personal support from our qualified support team in Berlin and rapid inquiry processing by our support & development team combined with an exchange on development issues.
Yes. You can always upgrade your PlantEngineer license later if you discover that you want to use features from a higher edition of PlantEngineer.
Yes. PlantEngineer can alternatively be rented for a minimum period of 6 months. This is available for both single-user licenses and network licenses. The renting option tends to be preferred by smaller engineering offices but can also be used to introduce PlantEngineer to a larger company. You can always convert a rented license into a fixed license later.
Yes. The current PlantEngineer manual can be found as a .pdf on the PlantEngineer menu bar under the Info button. The manual includes a clearly organized table of contents that makes it easier for you to navigate through each section.
Yes. We would be happy to organize user training courses for you that are adapted to your individual needs. The scope, contents, and structure of our training courses are tailored to the current knowledge and learning objective of participants. Our training courses teach basic knowledge about the capabilities of PlantEngineer and Microsoft Visio and the skills needed when working with this powerful combo. To improve learning success, each topic is consolidated with independent and practically oriented exercises. User training courses can be held on your company’s own premises as in-house training or at our training rooms in Berlin.
One or two hours of training is enough to teach the basics and will make it easier for your employees to get started with PlantEngineer.
Using standardized symbols, terms, and designations allows you to establish company-wide quality standards. This avoids data redundancies and improves project and data quality.
PlantEngineer supports both the Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visio. As a prerequisite, you need Visio version from 2010 to be installed on your device. We recommend using a Visio version from 2019. Visio Plan 1 is not supported.
No. All versions of Microsoft Visio are supported. PlantEngineer allows you to take advantage of the full range of functionality of Visio Standard and Visio Professional.
Yes. Visio drawings can be imported. You can then replace the symbols with intelligent PlantEngineer symbols.
You can use any of the features of the standard version of Microsoft Visio with PlantEngineer. Visio Professional offers many additional features, such as displaying data graphics on shapes or linking to external data sources such as databases and Excel lists.
You can import custom shapes from Microsoft Visio into PlantEngineer. Then you can add our predefined property sets for apparatuses or aggregates to these shapes and display them in reports.
You can also open and view PlantEngineer drawings in Visio. However, you can only use intelligent PlantEngineer shapes and their extensive functionality with PlantEngineer.
Advantages of the P&ID software PlantEngineer
Symbols according to international industry standards
Easy to learn and intuitive to use
Integration into existing IT systems
Representative reports directly from the P&ID
Consistent data management
High scalability
Learn more about our P&ID software PlantEngineer
Start intuitively and out of the box with drawing professional flow charts and creating Excel lists and data sheets.
