On most process plants, the electrical raceway is one of the last systems to find its route. Pipe racks, structural steel, ducting and equipment are already placed, and cable trays have to thread through whatever space is left. When that routing is done in 2D, the clashes are discovered on site — where every correction costs labour, material and schedule.
Electrical BIM and 3D cable tray routing move that discovery to the design stage, where a clash costs only a change to the model.
Clashes resolved before construction
We model the full raceway — cable trays, conduits, supports and electrical equipment — in Revit and E3D, inside the same coordinated environment as the civil, structural, piping and HVAC models. Navisworks clash detection then checks every route against every other discipline before a single support is fabricated.
- Trays that pass through steel members or pipe runs are rerouted in the model, not cut on site.
- Access and maintenance clearances are verified around switchgear, MCCs and junction boxes.
- Routing through process buildings, pipe racks, substations and outdoor plant areas is coordinated as one model.
Automated MTOs instead of estimates
A 2D layout gives an estimate of material; a 3D model gives a measurement. Because every tray, fitting and support exists in the model, quantities are extracted directly from it:
- Exact cable tray lengths and support steel
- HT and LT cable quantities, with cable and drum schedules
- Glands and junction boxes
Ordering against measured quantities eliminates the over-ordering margins that inflate procurement, and avoids the shortfalls that stop installation crews mid-run.
Every clash removed in the model is a site modification that never has to be made.
Where the savings come from
The reduction in rework and CAPEX is not a single saving but the sum of several smaller ones: fewer site modifications, less material wastage, procurement against exact take-offs, and installation that follows a route already proven to fit. The result is a raceway design that is maintainable, buildable and correctly quantified before construction begins.
TRP Engineering provides Electrical BIM and 3D cable tray routing using Revit, E3D and Navisworks for process plants, pipe racks, substations and outdoor plant areas. Talk to us about the routing on your next project.