By Andy Davis
A hot topic at the moment is the addition of Isometric symbols to the 2012 version of Plant 3D. Now that Autodesk have replaced Isogen with their own Isometric engine, the creation of new Iso symbols has been simplified. All symbols are now created as AutoCAD dynamic blocks and are stored in the file IsoSymbolStyles.dwg - this is similar to the ProjSymbolStyle.dwg file used in P&ID. The name of the block is mapped to an 'SKEY' value through the key map file IsoSkeyAcadBlockMap.xml. Both of these files are located in the Isometric folder of a project.
To create a new symbol, just follow these steps:
1) Create a new block in the Isometric symbols drawing file (IsoSymbolStyles.dwg).
2) Add the block name and SKEY to the symbol key map file (IsoSkeyAcadBlockMap.xml).
3) Add the TYPE & SKEY values to the catalog information and/or components in the model.
Just one note of caution: TYPE and SKEY value are CasE SensitiVE!