PDMS (Plant Design Management System) as it is known in the 3D CAD industry, is a customizable, multi-user and multi-discipline, engineer controlled design software package for engineering, design and construction projects in offshore and onshore.

PDMS
Developer(s)AVEVA
Initial release1974
Stable release
12.1 SP5 / June 2020 (June 2020)
Operating systemWindows
TypeCAD
LicenseProprietary software
Website[1]

The Computer-Aided Design Centre (or CADCentre as it was more commonly referred to, and later formally became) was created in Cambridge, England, UK in 1967 by the UK Ministry of Technology. Its mission was to develop computer-aided design techniques and promote their take-up by British industry. The centre carried out much pioneering CAD research, and many of its early staff members went on to become prominent in the worldwide CAD community, such as brothers Dick Newell and Martin Newell.[1]

Dick Newell oversaw the creation of the Plant Design Management System (PDMS) for 3D process plant design. He later co-founded two software companies – Cambridge Interactive Systems (CIS) which was known for its Medusa 2D/3D CAD system, and Smallworld with its eponymous Smallworld GIS (Geographical Information System). Martin Newell later went to the University of Utah where he did pioneering 3D solid modelling work; he was also one of the progenitors of PostScript.

Subsequently, the UK government, via the British Technology Group (BTG) established a separate company, Compeda Ltd, to exploit software developed and owned by the government and they took over the marketing and user support of PDMS, while the software continued to be developed by the CADCentre, with funding from Compeda.

When the UK government decided to privatise (sell) anything that did not need to be government owned, Compeda Ltd was sold to Prime Computer Inc. for a net negative sum of money. Prime Computer decided that PDMS had no commercial value or future and returned the marketing rights for the product to CADCentre.

CADCentre was privatised and in 2001 changed its name to AVEVA.

The latest release, as of March 2021, is AVEVA PDMS 12.1.SP5[2]

AVEVA has introduced the latest version of PDMS is AVEVA Everything 3D (E3D). The current version of AVEVA Everything 3D is 2.1 (Expected to Launch 3.1 very soon)

AVEVA Everything 3D has been introduced with the new UI and with advanced functions. Ease of modelling, Quick Modelling functionality, More User friendly.

User Groups

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Existing

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Name URL Date Started Members
AVEVA World Forum http://www.avevaworldforum.com 2006 17.933
3D Cad PDMS : PDMS Tutorials http://www.3dcad-pdms.com 2016 NA
PDMSMacro http://www.pdmsmacro.com (closed) 2013 NA
PDMSMAX http://pdmsmax.free.fr (offline) 2008 10
Communauté PDMS http://forumpdms.superforum.fr 2008 555
Club d'Utilisateur Francophone de PDMS CUF-PDMS http://www.cuf-pdms.org 2009 230
PDMS.INFO http://www.pdms.info/ 2017 NA

Defunct

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Name URL Date Started Date Ended Members
CADarena http://www.cadarena.com (closed) 2000 2004 1500
PDMS Forum http://www.pdmsforum.com (closed) 2005 2007.11 NA
PML Guru (AVEVA PDMS PML) https://web.archive.org/web/20110208031247/http://pmlguru.com/ 2010 ? NA
Viewpoint Americas https://web.archive.org/web/20061208104916/http://www.viewpointamericas.com/ ? ? NA
ALIPERSIA http://www.alipersia.com ? ?

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Exploding the Myths of UK Innovation Policy: How 'Soft Companies' and R&D Contracts for Customers Drive the Growth of the Hi-Tech Economy" (PDF). aveva.com. January 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 December 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2012. by David Connell and Jocelyn Probert Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge
  2. ^ "AVEVA PDMS - Full release history". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2015.