Find data faster with hotspots in technical documents
Overview
Manually cross-referencing engineering drawings with key information consumes valuable resources, and is prone to human error, while extracting data from PDFs, images, and papers can be costly. We transform technical drawings into machine-readable data and create links between documents and the engineering data.
The challenge
Many oil and gas companies operate with document-oriented systems that contain legacy documents that haven’t been managed or digitalised. This means the engineer have to manually review documents to identify the right equipment (for example in P&ID drawings), locate any references on the drawing, and cross-check for related documents.
It’s a time consuming, exhausting process that might not even give you the information you need to properly perform your job. A member of your maintenance team might be able to identify a valve on a technical drawing, and successfully cross-reference the service record history and user manuals, but is unable to figure out the physical location of the valve. This impacts your team’s safety, efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
Companies who try to extract and compile data locked in PDFs and 2D technical drawings often face exorbitant costs – but that doesn’t have to be the case. Draga provides a high-value service that ensures your team can transform technical drawings into a way to interact directly with engineering data, based on your unique needs and requirements.
Searchable technical drawings
With our technical data management services, we transform your legacy documents into searchable diagrams with interactive links that automatically cross reference to multiple records and documents – from user manuals to service record history. We make sure that your P&ID symbols link to the engineering content you need through hotspotting.
What is hotspotting?
Hotspotting turns an equipment’s symbol and name (otherwise known as its tag number) into a clickable link. When you tap on a symbol in a hotspot drawing, it will parse the name into a document management system and retrieve all the relevant documentation and information. For example, if you click on a valve in a hotspot drawing, you’ll retrieve maintenance schedules, operational information, user history, and its location.
Our hotspotting tools also make equipment names searchable. If you type the valve’s tag number into the tailor-made tool, you’ll be directed to the valve symbol in its specific location on the technical drawing.
Here’s how drawings can be searchable
An equipment list will include the valve’s full, correct tag number, while CAD technical drawings will contain a corresponding visual representation of the valve. Every company has their preferred way of arranging information (for example, placing the equipment’s serial number at the top left of its P&ID symbol). We work with our customers to ensure their tool recognises both the tag number text and the scattered text (the text that surrounds the symbol) by using optical character recognition for technical drawings and algorithms for spatial analysis.
How this improves your technical drawing management
Hotspotting, creating links, and making drawings searchable allows your engineers to automatically cross-references complex engineering data in the format your company needs. This extracts and compiles relevant engineering content scattered across various documents, and reduces the manual load on technical drawing management by owner operators. Overall, this makes your CAD technical drawings more accessible and usable.
The results
Safer
operations
Find the information you need when you need it so your engineers operate complicated assets like oil rigs with increased safety.
More
efficiency
Your engineers and technicians can find key information faster, cutting down the time they need to complete their work.
Plan ahead
better
Hotspot drawings offer engineering content at your fingertips, so you can connect all the dots and get the context you need.
By adding hotspots to engineering diagrams, and augmenting cohesive, intuitive technical drawing management, your engineers have all the information they need to plan ahead for efficient operations. There’s no need to have a huge team advising them on where to find things or where to find the records they need – it’s all accessible by clicking on the right technical symbol or equipment tag number.
Plus, if you link your data management system to a digital twin 3D model, your engineer can navigate and identify the quickest route to the physical location.
Every company has their own rulebook on how to define their engineering data and information. That’s why the Draga team tailor each technical drawing management service to your specific needs. Contact us today to chat about your requirements and how we can help.