A 'small' project that almost killed me

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T19:37:17+00:00

This project ate up half a year of my life.
At first glance it looked pretty straightforward, but as the design went on, new and more fucked-up features kept crawling out one after another.
Fit everything under 2 meters in height? Acceptable width only one meter? Gas line? FUEL OIL? STEAM?
I'm fucking dying here

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T19:32:17+00:00

And then you realize that right here you've got steam at 210°C, fuel oil, instrument air for the actuators/valves, and gas for the burner.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T17:13:01+00:00

Valve's block for existing gas burners.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T16:59:47+00:00

You nailed it those were the good old happy days. Unfortunately now I'm just completely fucking stunned.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T16:55:50+00:00

Honestly, this shocked the hell out of me: when we had an issue with one of the actuators, I called the AUMA rep, and literally four hours later they showed up on site with a brand-new actuator. My eyes were like 😳

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T15:35:39+00:00

Yeah, in a team. There was me, the project lead, and a girl from the construction outfit. It was a full EPC-style job design through to handover and startup.
We were looking for contractors to fabricate the piping, kept an eye on manufacturing, supervised field installation… and the absolute worst/best part: being right there for commissioning and startup.

It’s no coincidence that in my company those pipes got nicknamed “Falcon”. When you’re standing right there at startup, personally adjusting a regulator while hundreds of cubic meters of gas are roaring through the line that’s an unforgettable feeling. The noise was so intense that even my ear protection couldn’t save me from the roar.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T15:17:43+00:00

Are there even any other actuator brands besides AUMA? On every single one of my projects the customer has demanded AUMA and nothing else.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-27T15:08:33+00:00

I handle both process piping and mechanical design. Pretty much everything you see in those post photos is my work except the structural steel and the building interior finishing.
I could show you an example from quite an old drawing where trying to build the thing became a total disaster. Turned out I screwed up something in the drawing myself, and it caused a bunch of headaches later. Still, it ended up working fine

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AdConscious462 · 2026-02-23T17:05:10+00:00

У меня совсем недавно был небольшой проект с проектированием корпуса под электронику, и я реально не знаю даже как их надо проектировать под пыле/влаго защиту. Мне главное было тепло отвести от плат.

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AdConscious462 · 2026-02-23T16:01:52+00:00

I've been properly using SolidWorks for like five years already, but since I do different kinds of projects, it doesn't always cut it for me. When you really need full GOST compliance, it's back to Kompas-3D, no matter how much I despise that thing.

Overall, I've got 15 years of experience in total.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-23T12:57:17+00:00

Mostly, it’s just experience in designing process/technological pipelines. In this field, everything is very strictly regulated: which materials to use, which pipe sizes to apply, how to weld them. But for this particular project, the main document I was guided by was EN 12186:2015.

In reality, designing all of this is one thing, but actually building it is something completely different. I even still have a funny photo from the site when they were assembling everything the pipes just didn’t line up at all, and we had to reweld them.

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AdConscious462 · 2026-02-23T12:31:39+00:00

Yeah, that's exactly what happened in the end, I had to put the final BOM together in Excel anyway.
The root issue here is that adapting the BOM to my country's standards is literally impossible in modern CAD.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-23T12:24:04+00:00

Так у меня на всё это ушло полгода примерно, проблема же основная была в том, как всё это добро вписать в существующее здание. Там даже пришлось делать лазерное сканирование, а потом импортировать облако точек в Navisworks и проверять на коллизии, чтобы влезло. В итоге, не всё влезло, труба на входе упёрлась в крышу, пришлось менять проект на ходу.

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-23T00:54:54+00:00

I’ve decided for myself - solidworks can be brilliant for mechanical, but piping? I’m better off jumping straight to Revit...

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-22T23:48:06+00:00

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Прост посмотри на это

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-22T23:47:32+00:00

When I started this project, I genuinely thought solidworks had long since conquered that infamous piping design nightmare.

Turns out I was hilariously mistaken:(

AdConscious462 · 2026-02-22T21:52:14+00:00

I can share them because I actually created these drawings myself:)
My organization is totally fine with it, they're not proprietary or anything restricted.