Digital Energy Journal- Liberty Drilling Equipment uses Autodesk / Symetri design software

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Liberty Drilling Equipment uses Autodesk / Symetri design software

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Dutch/Scottish well construction systems company Liberty Drilling Equipment has started using Autodesk manufacturing design software supplied by UK company Symetri.

Liberty Drilling Equipment (LDE) was founded in October 2010 and has 3 employees.

At the time the company was founded, the employees had never used 3D digital prototyping software, they were skilled in 2D design.

The LDE employees first learned about Symetri at a presentation in Offshore Europe Aberdeen in 2011.

They chose Symetri partly because it had an office in Aberdeen.

LDE bought three (seat) licenses for the Autodesk Inventor software, which Symetri is a reseller of, and a number of sessions at Symetri's Aberdeen training facility.

'This was our first move into 3D design but we found the software very user-friendly,' says Lindsey Macaulay of Liberty Drilling.

"We certainly wouldn't have been able to meet our January deadline using 2D design software.'

'The training was thorough and we came away feeling confident we could start using the software straight away."

After these sessions, the team became productive quickly and were able to develop, 'a huge number of brand new and innovative products in a short space of time, including a surface wellhead system, a variety of mudline suspension systems and a range of large diameter pipe correctors.'

One way that the software enables faster design is by helping designers to check the interfaces between all the individual parts.

Changes made anywhere in the model are automatically updated everywhere else in the design, something which is very hard to do using 2D software.

'This means designers can afford to experiment and try out ideas to optimise the design without wasting too much time," he said.

"The process is faster - and because designers have time to reach the best possible solution, confident that all parts of the model and associated documents have been coordinated, the design is more reliable and accurate saving more time further down the line.'

The software can also generate top quality drawings, which can be delivered to the machine shop, where the equimpent is built.

'There have been very few queries or errors from our colleagues here which is another massive benefit,' he said.

'As time goes by, fewer people will be able to read a 2D drawing,' he said. 'With a 3D model even customers who are not trained in engineering can understand what we are doing. This boosts their confidence which, in turn, leads to faster decision making.'

Using digital prototypes, the team can check the footprint of a product and ensure it fits.

LDE is now planning to install Autodesk Vault data management system to store all its files and control who can revise a drawing or model and prevent changes being made inadvertently.

It is considering exploring Autodesk Publisher to enable the fast and cost-effective development of manuals for the installation of its equipment from Inventor models.

'This eliminates the need for costly design and printing and means we can update them quickly and whenever needed," he said.

'We actually began to rent an office next door to Symetri as we thought we would need their constant support, but in fact, although we knew they were there if we needed them, we only had to contact them once or twice," Mr Maculay said.

Associated Companies
» Autodesk
» Liberty Drilling Equipment
» Symetri

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