Today I am working at a power plant that is undergoing a large expansion. Some very large equipment items are being extracted and replaced with even larger equipment items. There is limited room to accomplish this and a construction animation system used to choreograph the equipment moves can help us avoid costly delays.

We are using CATIA to model the equipment, piping and steel. This is probably not the ideal application for this purpose, but it is what we have. We also have DELMIA which has some animation capabilities, but it looks pretty weak for our needs.

Today I am unaware of what group of systems are true contenders for my needs. Not only do I need to move the equipment in and out, but to be truly confident that it can be done then the cranes, slings, and other equipment must be modeled as well. I wish there were a conference where I could spend time in the exhibit hall looking at application and talking to vendors to learn what is available today.