CAE options

CAE innovations and new options for consistent engineering, that save both time and money, are particularly valued in periods of economic upturn by companies in every industry. EPLAN 2.0 has many new features such as extended reports and parts management, flexible terminal design, new check functions and individual revision management. In maintenance and servicing the new PDF/A format guarantees long-term access to cross-discipline project documentation.

Individual pages can now be controlled in the revision process through the page filter as required by the respective project phase. At the same time certain types of pages, such as cover sheets, tables of contents and revision directories, can be excluded generally from completion. A clearer structure is provided in the process by using colours and symbol forms for different identifications. All project participants recognise, at a glance, whether project information has been added, modified or deleted.

EPLAN forms can be created dynamically so that different types of items can be reported in a common form. This form reacts to the corresponding item properties by using special partial tables for reporting, displaying suitable product graphics or special symbols and, for example, highlights safety-relevant items through a different colour. The resultant reports not only ensure that the required overview of the project data is available in the engineering phase, but also makes the decisive information available in a compressed but well structured form available for all the downstream project phases.

In accordance with the ISO 19005-1 the new PDF/A format is a standard for the long-term archiving of electronic documents. In particular this reliable archiving also provides added value in light of the requirements of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC that requires a complete documentation for at least 10 years. At the same time PDF/A supports paperless workflow and thus simplifies the complexity of large projects.