Customer Success Stories > Way Engineering

Way Engineering uses CADPIPE to Design Central Cooling Plant
 
A central cooling plant built by the Northwind Union Station District Energy Center in Houston, Texas is a new concept for cooling buildings. This service allows owners of office buildings a choice to 'plug into' the system, rather than the traditional method of “every man for himself,” in which individual buildings have individual cooling systems. The new method, which is already working well in Chicago, will save millions of dollars in labor and maintenance for building owners.

The cooling plant consists of compressor/chillers, an 88,000 ton-per-hour ice storage system, cooling towers, heat exchangers, and primary and secondary pumping systems. The plant runs economically because the chillers generate ice overnight, when energy costs are lower, and the water runs through the ice during the day. The peak instantaneous cooling capacity is 33,000 tons, and the underground two-pipe system supplies chilled water to dozens of office buildings in downtown Houston, as well as the new Houston Astros Ballpark. Any building in the area covered by the plant is allowed to hook up to the system and receive complete cooling services without the maintenance headaches.

Way Engineering Company, Inc., also in Houston, won the contract to design the layout and coordination drawings for the plant based on their reputation for finishing jobs on time and within budget, and they are living up to that reputation with this project. There are many factors that contribute to achieving that goal, and one of them is their use of AEC Design Group’s CADPIPE Commercial software, which is an AutoCAD-based mechanical designing program that runs with AutoCAD 2002, 2000i, and 2000.

CADPIPE Commercial helps designers and contractors save time and money. It's easy-to-use and powerful commands dramatically reduce unprofitable preparation hours and allow designers to begin the piping plans almost immediately. “After using [other software packages], I found CADPIPE to be less complicated and more user-friendly,” says James Merchant, Manager of Coordination for Way Engineering.

Although it is less complicated than other programs, it boasts a full range of materials, connection types, and fittings for pressure, waste, and copper pipe. The program creates 3D models, including horizontal, vertical, sloped, and rolled pipe shown in any view, and it is driven by user-defined specifications.

As CAD operator and department head at Way Engineering, Mr. Merchant introduced the rest of the company to CADPIPE. They chose to switch to CADPIPE “for its extensive plumbing and mechanical piping databases and its spooling capabilities,” and they have been using CADPIPE ever since. “It has given us an accurate material count, which eliminates excess materials. It has also given us the spooling capabilities to send it to the fabrication shop for prefabrication,” says Merchant. Shop fabrications are simple with CADPIPE Commercial. The Isometric Pipe feature automatically creates an isometric drawing from any section of your design, and you can automatically create spool drawings without having to change the user coordinate system. This saves an extraordinary amount of time and money, which is the bottom line of any contracted job.

Mr. Merchant believes that using CADPIPE is an essential factor in the successful completion of designing the layout and coordination drawings for the central cooling plant in Houston. “To me, it has been the easiest and the quickest pipe package to learn and use, and I can safely say that for my department employees, as well. Creating the design [for the central cooling plant] was faster than anticipated.”