PipeCloud Launches AVEVA E3D PCF Export Script Unlocking Full Automation From Design to Fabrication

Built with AVEVA, exclusive to PipeCloud customers 

PipeCloud has partnered directly with AVEVA’s engineering team to build a dedicated PCF export script for AVEVA E3D Design. The script is available exclusively to PipeCloud customers, it is not a generic, publicly distributed utility. Customers on AVEVA Unified Engineering are covered too: PCF export is available there as a native AVEVA feature, so both AVEVA platforms now have a clear, supported path into PipeCloud. 

Installation is straightforward: the script is placed in the PMLLIB directory and picked up automatically through the standard PML environment configuration already used in most E3D deployments. PipeCloud’s team handles setup end-to-end as part of onboarding. 

From PCF to production-ready spool in a few clicks 

Once exported, PCF files are imported straight into PipeCloud. Any number of spool PCF files can be brought in together, in a single batch there is no need to import spool by spool. 

From that one import, PipeCloud automatically builds: 

• A complete digital spool structure: components, materials, welds, and geometry
• Machinery and pipe-bending programs, ready for shop-floor equipment
• Work effort estimates for planning and capacity management
• Production-phase-specific work orders, generated automatically
• A weld map for every spool automatically generated

That automatic weld map is what makes welding traceability practical in the first place. With it in place, welding data – welder, process, consumable, weld result, component heat numbers and NDT results – can be captured straight from the shop floor in PipeCloud’s paperless setup and tied back to the exact weld it belongs to, rather than reconstructed afterwards from paper travelers. 

What used to be a manual, drawing-by-drawing exercise becomes a single import step with the full digital thread from design to fabrication, including traceability, built automatically underneath it.

Live today and not limited to AVEVA 

This isn’t a roadmap item: the workflow is already in production, supporting existing PipeCloud customers for PCF-based spool creation today. For one customer, the shift has translated into an 80% reduction in work-planning effort – roughly a 5x speed-up. Results will vary by shipyard or fabricator depending on how manual and paper-based the starting process is, but the direction is consistent: significantly less time spent preparing spools for the shop floor. 

The same PCF-based workflow isn’t exclusive to AVEVA E3D. Any design system capable of exporting standard PCF – including Cadmatic and SSI ShipConstructor, among others – can feed spool data into PipeCloud through the same import process. This latest script simply gives AVEVA E3D customers a dedicated, supported route to the same benefits. 

Everything automated except the shop floor itself 

The bigger story behind this release is how much of the path from design to fabrication now runs without manual intervention. With PCF import in place, PipeCloud removes the need to: 

• Manually build bills of materials and material take-offs 
• Create work orders and work packages by hand 
• Physically move paperwork and drawings between production phases 
• Re-key data from paper reports back into a digital system 
• Track project and production status on paper, or reissue drawings physically when they change 
• Manually record welding traceability data on paper travelers and re-key it into another system afterwards 
• Manually track and write down material heat numbers, then match them back to the right component later

Instead, everything is managed in one place. Welding traceability data and material heat numbers are captured straight from the shop floor as work happens, tied automatically to the right weld and the right component instead of being written down and matched up afterwards. A work planner equipped with accurate, automatically generated work-effort estimates and real-time visibility into spool status can plan capacity with confidence rather than relying on experience-based guesswork effectively multiplying what one planner can oversee. 

Revisions and rework, traditionally one of the most disruptive parts of pipe prefabrication, are handled digitally as well. Stop-work and annotation features let issues be flagged and resolved directly in the system, removing the usual scramble that follows a revised drawing on a paper-based shop floor. 

Availability 

The AVEVA E3D PCF export script is available now to all PipeCloud customers, and to AVEVA E3D users evaluating PipeCloud. Customers using other PCF-capable design systems can begin importing spool data into PipeCloud without any additional script. 

To learn more about enabling PCF import for your project, contact your PipeCloud representative, reach out to the PipeCloud team, or book a demo using the button below!