Indian PSU Refinery, Hydrocracker Turnaround
2,400 isometric drawings extracted to piping MTO in 9 days. 18,400 line items keyed to ASME B31.3 PMS. 92% time-saving vs manual baseline.
2,400
Isometrics Processed
18,400
Piping MTO Line Items
9
Days to Delivery
92%
Time Saved vs Manual
An Indian PSU refinery running a major turnaround cycle on a hydrocracker unit needed piping material take-off (MTO) extracted from 2,400 legacy isometric drawings to size the replacement material procurement for the turnaround scope. The refinery's isometric archive was a multi-decade mix of 1990s blue-line prints, 2000s PDF scans, and 2010s ISOGEN PCF / IDF exports. No 3D plant model existed for the hydrocracker scope. The refinery's internal turnaround planning team estimated 12-16 weeks of manual MTO extraction, against a turnaround start date 6 weeks away.
2,400 isometric drawings spanning three drawing-era cohorts: 1990s blue-line prints (faded paper baseline), 2000s PDF scans (low-resolution heritage), 2010s ISOGEN PCF / IDF exports (modern revamp scope). Each era used different drawing conventions and material specification reference styles.
No 3D plant model existed for the hydrocracker unit. Conventional MTO software (AVEVA E3D Isometrics, Bentley OpenPlant Isometrics Manager) requires 3D model input and could not address the legacy 2D-only scope.
Refinery internal turnaround planning team estimated 12-16 weeks of manual MTO extraction. Turnaround start date was 6 weeks away with no extension flexibility (downstream units already shut down for the turnaround window).
MTO output had to be keyed to the project Piping Material Specification (PMS) per ASME B31.3 with NACE MR0175 sour service compatibility on hydrotreating-to-hydrocracker tie-in piping. Out-of-spec material orders would compromise the refinery's IBR Form IV register and sour service compliance.
Ingested 2,400 isometric drawings across three drawing-era cohorts. Pre-processing handled scanned blue-line print baseline, PDF scan heritage, and ISOGEN PCF / IDF native exports.
Extracted piping topology using vision-based 2D recognition: pipe segments (by size and length), fittings (elbows, tees, reducers, caps), flanges (by class and material), valves (by type, size, class, end connection), supports, and insulation. Multi-page isometric drawing continuation tracked automatically across sheet boundaries.
Extracted line numbers and keyed every component to the refinery's project Piping Material Specification (PMS) per ASME B31.3 service category. Sour service piping per NACE MR0175 flagged for hardness compatibility validation against mill test reports.
Generated MTO line items consolidated by pipe size, material grade, fitting class, valve class, gasket type, and bolting material. Output formatted for refinery's SAP MM procurement system loading with PO line-item-ready structure.
Cross-validated MTO output against the refinery's existing material master to surface 47 procurement scope gaps (lines in turnaround scope without corresponding material master entries) and 23 specification deviations (material grades in scope deviating from current PMS specification).
Inspector-ready gap report formatted for TÜV SÜD third-party inspection review covering missing certifications, specification deviations, traceability breaks, and documentation gaps identified during MTO extraction.
2,400 isometric drawings extracted to piping MTO in 9 days against 12-16 week manual baseline. 92% time-saving on the turnaround critical path.
18,400 piping MTO line items consolidated across pipe, fittings, flanges, valves, gaskets, and bolting categories.
All line items keyed to project PMS per ASME B31.3 with NACE MR0175 sour service flagging for hydrotreating-to-hydrocracker tie-in scope.
47 procurement scope gaps identified and resolved before turnaround start, preventing material shortfall during the shutdown window.
23 specification deviations surfaced for engineering review, preventing out-of-spec material orders.
Refinery's turnaround planning team received structured MTO 5 weeks before turnaround start, against the original manual-baseline expectation of 7-11 weeks late.
Refinery contracted Pathnovo for the next two scheduled turnaround cycles on adjacent units based on the hydrocracker turnaround MTO results.
“Manual MTO extraction at our scale during a turnaround window is the bottleneck that delays material procurement and ultimately delays the unit's return to service. Pathnovo collapsed 12-16 weeks of MTO work to 9 days. The procurement team received clean structured MTO 5 weeks before turnaround start. That is the first time we have had material on site ahead of the turnaround instead of catching up during the shutdown.”
TMTurnaround Manager
Indian PSU Refinery, Hydrocracker Turnaround
Documents Processed
Isometric Drawings (2,400)
Piping Material Specification (PMS)
Existing Material Master
Mill Test Reports (sour service scope)
Capabilities Used
Target System
SAP MM Procurement + Refinery PMS Compliance Register
Both AVEVA E3D Isometrics and Bentley OpenPlant Isometrics Manager generate isometrics and MTOs from an existing 3D plant model. The hydrocracker unit had no 3D model: the original commissioning was pre-3D-modelling era, and subsequent revamps had been delivered as 2D isometrics without back-feeding a 3D model. The legacy 2D-only scope is the blue-ocean workflow Pathnovo is built for: vision-based 2D extraction from the isometric directly, with no 3D model required.
The 2,400-isometric baseline spanned 1990s blue-line prints (faded paper), 2000s PDF scans (low-resolution heritage), and 2010s ISOGEN PCF / IDF exports (modern revamp scope). Pre-processing normalised each cohort: vector reconstruction for paper, upscaling and de-skew for PDF scans, native parsing for PCF / IDF. The extracted MTO consolidated across cohorts with single-output format keyed to the current project Piping Material Specification.
Hydrotreating-to-hydrocracker tie-in piping carries H2S-bearing streams that fall under NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 sour service requirements: hardness limits (22 HRC for carbon steel, 235 HV for low-alloy steel), HIC testing per NACE TM0284 for plate, and stricter material control. An out-of-spec material order on this scope would compromise the refinery's IBR Form IV register and trigger Chief Inspector rejection. Pathnovo flagged every sour-service-scoped line for hardness compatibility validation against mill test reports before procurement issued the PO.
Pathnovo cross-validated the extracted MTO against the refinery's existing SAP MM material master. 47 lines in turnaround scope had no corresponding material master entry (potential procurement gap risk during the shutdown window); 23 line items used material grades deviating from the current PMS specification (likely from a prior commissioning era where the PMS was different, now requiring engineering review for revamp acceptance). Both categories surfaced before procurement issued POs, preventing material shortfall and out-of-spec orders.
Conventional Indian PSU refinery turnaround practice is procurement chasing material delivery during the shutdown window, with replacement piping arriving incrementally as the field crews wait. This extends the shutdown by 1 to 3 weeks beyond plan at typical refinery on-bar value of $250,000 to $1M per day. With Pathnovo's 9-day MTO delivery, procurement issued POs 5 weeks before turnaround start, material arrived on schedule, and the shutdown ran without procurement-driven delay for the first time in the unit's turnaround history.
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