[2026 Design Software] SPP&ID—SPI (INTools) for the transmission of temperature and pressure data in instrument design

If instrumentation designers need to determine the design temperature and pressure for a particular instrument, they must first locate the pipeline or equipment on which that instrument is installed using the instrument’s tag number listed in the instrumentation process data sheet. Once they have identified that pipeline or equipment, they can then find out its design temperature and pressure, thereby obtaining the required design parameters. This process not only increases the workload for instrumentation specialists but also makes errors more likely. In the SPE integrated design environment, the data transfer rules for SPP&ID along with SPF’s attribute mapping functionality make it possible to address this issue.

The design temperature and pressure transmission from the pipeline to the instrument will be used as an example below; the principle of data transmission from the equipment to the instrument is similar.

II. Solution: The common process relationships between the instrument and the pipeline it is installed in are shown in Figure 1.

(1) Online control valves or shut-off valves are directly installed on the pipeline. (2) Primary instruments without root valves are connected to the main pipeline through connect to process. (3) The primary instrument with a root valve is connected to the main pipeline via connect to process. (4) The primary instrument with a capillary is connected to the main pipeline via connect to process. (5) It should be noted that secondary instruments convert the electrical signals output by primary instruments into analog signals; they do not measure the process materials directly nor need to store process data. Therefore, there is no need to establish data transmission rules for secondary instruments.

Software configuration instructions: 1. Open the Data Dictionary Manager module of the SPP&ID software, and under the Instrument category create new attributes named DesignMaxPress, DesignMinPress, DesignMaxTemp, and DesignMinTemp. These are used as means for instruments to receive design temperature and pressure data, while also enabling the adjustment of the process parameters related to those instruments.

In engineering design, the process parameters of instruments are generally the same as those of the pipelines they are connected to; however, due to factors such as pipeline pressure drop, there are slight differences between the two.

2. Data transfer principles of the rule manager in the SPP&ID software configuration: By configuring rule manager rules within the SPP&ID software, it is possible to transfer temperature and pressure values from pipeline design to instrument design.

Since the process parameters of the instrument may differ from those of the pipeline it is connected to, the principles for data transmission should meet the following requirements: (1) When the instrument’s data is empty and pipeline data is entered, the instrument should automatically receive that pipeline data. (2) When the gauge data is the same as the pipeline data, the gauge data changes along with the changes in the pipeline data. (3) When the gauge data is not empty and differs from the pipeline data, modifying the pipeline data leaves the gauge data unchanged. (4) When the gauge data is modified, the pipeline data remains unchanged.

To meet the above requirements, for the data transfer from the pipeline to the instruments, that is, the “Copy” operation, the “≤” mode should be selected. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain consistency checking between the pipeline data and the instrument data; for this purpose, the “Compare” operation should use the “=” mode. The “=” symbol serves two purposes: first, it ensures that the data transfer from the pipeline to the instruments (i.e., the “Copy” operation) functions properly; second, it alerts designers to any discrepancies between the pipeline data and the instrument data. Designers can decide whether to accept such discrepancies based on the project’s requirements. It is recommended to set the status for such discrepancies to “Warning”, and the severity level to “5”. The “Status” and “Severity” values can be adjusted according to the project’s specific needs. The schematic diagram of the rule configuration is shown in Figure 2.

Last edited by The one on 2026-6-14 14:19 in this post. Figure 2: Design temperature and pressure transmission rules for online instruments and the pipelines in which they are installed