P3DSync Documentation

P3DSync works with Plant3D assets (pipes, valves, equipment and their UDA properties) — not plain AutoCAD block references. If what you need to extract or write back is ordinary block references and their attributes, use BlockSync instead. P3DSync has two modes, switched from the pill in the title bar: Plant3D → Excel (extract) and Excel → Plant3D (write back). Extract is one screen with an Assets/Layers/Viewports tab set; write back is a short sequence — pick a workbook and folder, review a diff, write back, then a separate results screen. Both modes need the project's Plant3D Project Database (ProcessPower.dcf) to read or write anything beyond an asset's Tag, geometry and layer, since custom (UDA) properties live there, not on the drawing entity.

Getting started

Screenshots reflect a recent release — minor visual details may differ from the version you have installed.

Plant3D → Excel (extract)

Adding files and scanning

Add drawings, and P3DSync scans asset classes, layers and viewports automatically.

• Add Files… picks individual .dwg files; Add Folder… scans a whole folder for .dwg files — whether it also scans subfolders depends on "Include subfolders when opening a DWG folder" (Settings → AutoCAD, off by default).
• Adding, removing or clearing files re-scans the whole batch automatically, with a live per-file progress bar.
• The file list shows name, path, and a color-coded Status/Details column; a file that fails to scan is marked with its error and skipped, without blocking the rest of the batch from scanning normally.
• The status line below the list reports the combined result across every scanned file: "{n} asset classes, {n} layers, {n} viewports across {n} file(s)."

Pointing at the Plant3D Project Database

Set ProcessPower.dcf once so Include attributes can actually read UDA values.

• P3DSync auto-detects ProcessPower.dcf next to the DWG folder, or one folder up — Browse… overrides it if the project database lives somewhere else.
• Without a project database set, extraction still works for Tag, geometry and layer — just not the custom (UDA) attributes, since those are stored in the project database, not on the drawing entity itself.

Choosing asset classes, layers and viewports

Pick exactly which classes — and which parts of each drawing — to export.

• The Assets tab lists every scanned class with its reference count, how many files contain it, whether it has attributes at all, and an inline preview thumbnail where one is available — Details… opens the full picture for a class before you commit to exporting it.
• Search by name, or use Select All / Select None / Invert to manage the checklist on a project with dozens of classes.
• Switch to the Layers or Viewports tab to narrow the export further — only assets placed on/visible through the checked layers or viewports are extracted; leave nothing checked to extract everything, as usual.
• Save Profile… stores the current class (or layer) selection under a name for reuse later; Load Profile reapplies it. Free tier caps this at 1 saved profile — existing ones can always be overwritten.

Extract options and running the export

Choose what to include, then produce the workbook.

• Include attributes pulls each asset's custom (UDA) properties from the Plant3D project database, alongside its Tag — requires the project database to be set (see above).
• Include geometry adds position/rotation columns; Include layer info adds the layer column; Space scope limits extraction to model space, paper space, or both.
• Parallel processing scans and extracts multiple files at once on a fast machine — faster, but uses more memory.
• Extract to Excel… writes a timestamped P3DSync_Export_{date}_{time}.xlsx into the output folder shown on screen (defaults to the shared folder of your DWGs), with one sheet per asset class plus a _P3DSync metadata sheet (P3DSync/AutoCAD version, source file names and SHA-1 hashes, selected class/layer names).

Excel → Plant3D (write back)

Matching the edited workbook back to drawings

Choose Excel Workbook and the DWG folder to match it against.

• Choose Excel Workbook… picks the edited export; "Same folder as Excel file" (on by default) sets the DWG folder to the workbook's own folder, matched purely by exact filename, so moving the workbook around doesn't confuse it.
• P3DSync auto-detects both the Plant3D Project Database and the backup folder next to the DWGs — Browse… overrides either.
• Rows with no matching DWG in the folder show up under the Unmatched tab (with a count badge) instead of silently failing or blocking the rest of the run.

Reviewing the diff preview

See exactly what will change, file by file and attribute by attribute, before writing anything.

• The Diff preview tab lists every matched file with a change count and a blocked count. Select a file to see the full table: File, Handle, Class, Attribute, Current, New, each row flagged WillChange / NoChange / CannotWrite with a reason.
• Show unchanged rows is off by default, so a large batch doesn't bury the handful of edits that matter.
• Export Preview… saves the diff grid itself to its own workbook, useful for handing the exact planned changes to someone else for sign-off before writing.

Writing back and verifying

Write the checked files, then confirm every change actually landed.

• Check off exactly the files to include, then Write Back. A confirmation dialog states exactly how many files and how many attribute changes are about to happen.
• "Automatic backup before writing" (on by default) copies each file, unmodified, into the backup folder before it's touched.
• After writing, P3DSync reads every changed Tag and attribute straight back out of the drawing and project database to verify it matches what was intended — any mismatch is named in the results report rather than assumed to have worked.
• Rollback All (in the results report) restores every file touched in that run from its pre-write backup in one click. Restore Backup… (on the write-back screen) restores from any prior run's backup, not just the current one.