Fyfe Engineers & Surveyors first started out offering only surveying services. However, its oil and gas clients, impressed with Fyfe’s can-do attitude and efficiency, encouraged the company’s expansion into engineering.

Today, Fyfe’s team of over 250 planners, engineers, surveyors, and drafters quickly takes projects from inception through to construction documentation.

To make its design process even more efficient, Fyfe recently expanded its engineering toolkit to include AutoCAD Plant3D software, which also integrates with Fyfe’s laser scanning capabilities. The company’s designers recently used AutoCAD Plant 3D to help complete an urgent project for a major Australian gas producer.

With AutoCAD Plant 3D software on the project, Fyfe was able to:

Article continues below…

  • Review and optimise the design with the client more easily;
  • Spot and address interferences more easily using a 3D model; and,
  • Produce construction documentation faster.

By using a single pad for multiple wells, the client can save money on leasing and by sharing well support facilities, including gas/water separation, flow metering, and gas flaring.

However, the shared processing facilities require more intricate piping and instrumentation diagrams than single wells, increasing the risk of design interferences. The most pressing and common issue on oil and gas projects – time – added to Fyfe’s design challenge.

Fyfe Managing Director Mark Dayman explains “After a company signs an extraction lease, it wants to begin realising value from its investment as soon as possible. Piping interferences, inaccurate bills of materials and miscommunication can delay projects. It’s essential that our design tools help us work quickly and avoid issues.”

Mr Dayman reports seeing even more benefits on subsequent projects. “We’re now generating construction documentation about 50 per cent faster than before, and we hope to realise even greater timesaving in the future,” he says.

“Though we have only used AutoCAD Plant 3D for a short time, it’s clear the software supports the essentials for successful projects: less interference, more accurate takeoffs, speed, and clear communication.”