P3DSync
Export Plant3D asset Tags and UDA attributes to Excel, edit, and write them back safely.
AutoCAD Plant3D 2021–2027 · English / 日本語 / 简体中文
3 drawings scanned, 23 asset classes found — Files, asset class list and extract in one screen.
The problem
Plant3D's own Reports and Data Manager can pull asset data out, but there's no built-in way to bulk-edit Tag/UDA values in Excel and write them back across many drawings at once — every custom property lives in the project database, not the drawing.
How P3DSync works
These are the tabs inside the actual app, in the order they appear — every screenshot below is a real, unedited capture of P3DSync running.
Step 1 — Extract every asset Tag and UDA attribute to one Excel file
Add DWG files, browse the asset classes found across the batch with inline preview thumbnails, and get a single workbook with one sheet per class and one row per asset instance.
- 1Add Files… or Add Folder… (with optional subfolder recursion) — mix and match any number of DWGs from anywhere on disk into one batch.
- 2P3DSync scans every file for Plant3D asset classes, layers, and paper-space viewports, with a live per-file progress bar.
- 3In the Assets tab, check the class(es) you actually want. Each row shows its reference count, how many of your files contain it, whether it has attributes at all, and an inline preview thumbnail where one is available — click Details… for the full picture before committing to an export.
- 4Search by name, or use Select All / Select None / Invert to manage the checklist on a project with dozens of asset classes.
- 5Need a narrower export? Switch to the Layers or Viewports tab and check specific layers or paper-space viewports — only assets placed on/visible through the checked ones are extracted.
- 6Point Plant3D Project Database at the project's ProcessPower.dcf (auto-detected next to the DWGs, or one folder up) — this is required for Include Attributes to pull anything beyond Tag, geometry and layer, since custom (UDA) properties live in the project database, not on the drawing entity.
- 7Open Options to include UDA attributes, geometry (position + rotation), layer info, and pick a space scope (model space, paper space, or both). Turn on Parallel processing to scan and extract multiple files at once on a fast machine.
- 8Click Extract to Excel. A timestamped .xlsx appears in the output folder shown on screen — Open Output Folder jumps straight there.
Options on this screen
- Include attributes
- Extract each asset's custom (UDA) properties from the Plant3D project database, alongside its Tag. Requires the Plant3D Project Database to be set.
- Include geometry
- Extract each asset's position and rotation as extra columns.
- Include layer info
- Extract the layer each asset is placed on.
- Space scope
- Limit extraction to model space, paper space, or both.
- Parallel processing
- Process multiple DWG files at once instead of one at a time. Faster, but uses more memory.
Step 2 — Preview the exact diff, then write back
Edit the exported workbook in Excel however you like — P3DSync matches every row back to its exact asset instance and shows you precisely what will change before touching a single drawing or the project database.
- 1Choose Excel Workbook (Step 1's export, edited), and the DWG folder to match it against — this defaults to the workbook's own folder, and matches purely by exact filename.
- 2Choose a backup folder, or leave Automatic backup before writing on — every file that's about to be written gets copied there, unmodified, before anything changes.
- 3P3DSync reads the workbook and matches every row back to the exact asset instance it came from (by file + object handle, not just row order). Anything in Excel with no matching DWG in the folder shows up under the Unmatched tab instead of silently failing.
- 4The Diff preview tab lists every file with a change count and a blocked count. Select a file to see the full attribute-by-attribute table: File, Handle, Class, Attribute, Current, and New value, side by side, each flagged WillChange / NoChange / CannotWrite with a reason. Rows with no change are hidden by default — tick Show unchanged rows to audit everything anyway.
- 5Export Preview… saves the diff grid itself to its own workbook if you want to hand the exact planned changes to someone else for sign-off first.
- 6Check off exactly the files you want to include, then Write Back. A confirmation dialog spells out exactly how many files and how many attribute changes are about to happen — no surprises.
- 7After 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 called out by name in the write results report rather than assumed to have worked.
- 8Restore Backup… restores files from any prior run's backup; Rollback All in the results report undoes everything touched in the current run in a single click.
Options on this screen
- Automatic backup before writing
- Each written file is copied, unmodified, into the backup folder before any change is made. Turn this off only if you don't need to roll back.
- Show unchanged rows
- By default the diff view hides attributes with no change, so a large batch doesn't bury the handful of edits that matter.
Also included
Selection profiles
Save the exact set of checked asset classes — or checked layers — as a named profile (Save Profile…) and reload it later (Load Profile), useful when the same handful of classes get exported on a recurring basis across different units.
Read-back verification, not blind trust
Every write-back re-reads the Tag and each attribute it just wrote — from both the drawing and the Plant3D project database — and compares it to what was intended. If a value was silently rejected or altered, P3DSync tells you which file and which attribute, rather than assuming success.
Asset preview thumbnails, before you export
Each scanned asset class can show an inline preview thumbnail in the Assets list, so picking the right class among dozens of similarly-named valve/fitting types doesn't mean exporting blind and checking afterward.
Dry-run diff preview before anything is written
Write Back always previews the exact Tag/attribute changes — file, handle, class, current value, new value — with a WillChange/NoChange/CannotWrite verdict per row, before a single drawing or the project database is touched.
Environment & requirements
Everything that determines whether P3DSync will run on your machine, and how it behaves once it does.
- Requires AutoCAD Plant3D specifically, not vanilla AutoCAD — asset classes and UDA attributes are Plant3D object types that a plain AutoCAD license can't read or write.
- No Microsoft Excel installation required — P3DSync reads and writes .xlsx directly with its own engine (ClosedXML), so it works on a machine that has AutoCAD Plant3D but not Office.
- Windows 10/11, 64-bit only.
- Requires a licensed, full version of AutoCAD (2021–2027). AutoCAD LT is not supported — LT can't run the background automation P3DSync depends on.
- If more than one AutoCAD version is installed, pick which one to use under Settings → AutoCAD, or leave it on "Auto (newest installed)" — if that version fails to load for any reason, it falls back to another installed version automatically.
- Built on .NET 8. If the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime isn't already on your machine, the installer prompts to fetch it from Microsoft (free, one-time, roughly 60 MB).
- Network access is used only to check your license at startup and periodically afterward. Scanning, reading and writing all happen locally through AutoCAD's own engine — no drawing content is ever uploaded.
- Interface language: English / 日本語 / 简体中文.
- Batches of many files can process several drawings in the background in parallel — tune "Max parallel AutoCAD instances" in Settings to trade speed for CPU/memory headroom.
- Every long-running action shows a progress bar with a percentage and estimated time remaining, and can be canceled mid-run.
- Settings → Diagnostics → Open Log Folder gets you straight to the host and plugin logs if something needs troubleshooting.
See also the site-wide system requirements page comparing all tools.
Scenarios
A few of the situations P3DSync is built for — if yours isn't listed, it's probably still covered by one of the tabs above.
QA before delivery
Before
Opening dozens of drawings one by one to check asset Tags and attribute data before a submission deadline.
After
Extract every asset's Tag and attributes to one sheet, scan for mismatches, fix in bulk, write back with a diff preview confirming exactly what changes.
Time saved
~5 hours → 20 minutes
Tag renumbering after a P&ID revision
Before
A revision renumbers valve and equipment Tags across a unit, and every drawing referencing the old Tag needs updating consistently — miss one and the asset list no longer matches the field.
After
Export every Tag across the unit to Excel, apply the old-Tag-to-new-Tag mapping as a lookup formula or find-and-replace, write back — the diff preview shows every single Tag change before anything is committed.
Time saved
~4 hours → 20 minutes for a 150-drawing unit
Vendor/manufacturer data update across a class
Before
A component's vendor or manufacturer UDA field changes for a whole class of assets (a valve model gets superseded), and the old value is baked into every drawing that uses that class.
After
Filter the export to just that class's UDA attribute, replace the old value, write back to every affected drawing in one pass instead of opening the project database asset by asset.
Time saved
~3 hours → 10 minutes