Frequently asked questions

Browser-based software for designing and installing industrial piping. The piping is drawn once in 3D; isometric drawings, the bill of materials and the cost estimate follow from the same model, so a change in the model carries through everywhere. Fitters use a tablet or phone to draw, submit drawings and report progress.

For companies in industrial piping. Piping engineers and designers build the model, drawing sheets, bill of materials and cost estimate, and review submitted drawings. Fitters draw on site, submit drawings and report deviations and progress. Directors and owners get one environment for work preparation and the site.

No. FlowCAD3D runs in the web browser on computers, tablets and phones, and new versions are available to all users at once. A recent version of Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge is recommended; Firefox and Safari are also supported. Graphics acceleration (WebGL) must be enabled in the browser. A suitable tablet or phone is an iPad, iPhone or Android device with an up-to-date browser; for drawing, a tablet of about 10 inches or more works best. An internet connection is needed to sign in and to open drawings in the cloud.

No. FlowCAD3D is made for piping and is used alongside a general CAD package. Models from Revit or Tekla Structures, for example, are imported as IFC or STEP and serve as reference models. Drawing sheets go to AutoCAD as DXF, the model goes to Inventor or SolidWorks as STEP, and the lines go to ISOGEN and CAESAR II as PCF.

Dutch and English; the language can be chosen in the user menu. Material, standard and type from the library appear in the interface language, including in the bill of materials, on the isometric drawing and in the Excel export. The manual is available in Dutch only.

In 3D with Draw pipe (P): each new segment is typed (DX DY DZ or Length + angle) or picked in 3D. Elbows are added automatically, as are the gasket and the weld neck flange at a flanged connection. Pipe from–to connects two open ends with a clash-checked route.

They are generated from the model in the Drawing sheets workspace with New drawing sheet…: isometric drawings (also per line and per spool), views, sections and detail views. Dimensions, elevations, labels, the bill of materials and the title block (A4 to A0, with the company's own logo) are placed automatically. When the model changes, the sheet is marked Out of date; Regenerate updates it.

More than 15,000 component variants (sizes and pressure classes) from 78 standards and data sets, including ASME, EN and ISO. Also included are 32 piping specifications, all for DN 15 to DN 300: carbon steel to ASME Class 150, 300 and 600 and to EN PN6 to PN100, stainless steel 1.4404 (316L) and 1.4301 (304), and heat-resistant steel 16Mo3, the last three to EN PN6 to PN100. Custom components are imported from STEP or IGES files or made with the 3D modeller; custom piping classes are imported as JSON. The data from the standards are representative and must be checked against the supplier's data before fabrication.

Run checks (Checks tab) tests geometry, data and engineering rules and runs clash detection for pipes, components, equipment, reference models, point clouds, insulation and clearance. A component that does not fit the piping specification is reported or blocked. Suggest supports…, thermal expansion and the hydraulic check are for guidance only; for a stress analysis, the model goes to CAESAR II as PCF.

The bill of materials is generated from the model and lists pipe per metre, elbows, tees, reducers, flanges with gaskets and bolt sets, valves and supports; it can be grouped per line or per spool. Further tabs include the cut list, welds and spools. Export to Excel (XLSX) and CSV. Weights and bolt lengths are indicative.

Cost estimate and quotation… calculates from the bill of materials, the company's article master and the price list imported into the drawing: material, workshop and installation hours by the inch-dia method, insulation and painting, contingency and margin. It produces a quotation to print or save as PDF. The result is not a fixed price: labour norms, rates and prices are indicative and are checked by the user before a quotation is sent.

Yes. Suggest spools… in the Fabrication → Spools tab proposes a division: welded parts form a spool, flanged joints and valves interrupt a spool, and a spool that is too large is split at a field weld. The proposal is a first draft and is checked by the work preparer. Each spool has a spool iso, a bill of materials and its weight.

A revision is a formal issue of the drawing (Rev. in the title block). Revisions and snapshots… (the Revisions button in Drawing sheets) records it with a snapshot, a description and a document status (Work in progress, In review, Approved or Released for production). Compare revisions… shows what has been added, changed, moved or deleted since a revision, as a list and in colour in 3D. Revision clouds are placed by hand or created from the comparison and are included in SVG and DXF exports.

The fitter starts in My assignments and makes a drawing for a project on a tablet or phone, with large buttons, a keypad or by picking in 3D, and adds photos. Submit… shows the isometric for annotations; the fitter then submits the drawing to work preparation. The work preparer approves it or returns it with a comment. Deviations during installation are drawn on a copy of the drawing and submitted for review; the fitter never changes the drawing of a project directly.

Fitters and work preparers record progress in the Progress tab; for work preparers it is under Fabrication. Progress is recorded per spool, weld and line, from planned to tested or approved, with a comment and photos. In a drawing in the cloud, a record is stored immediately, even while a colleague is editing the model. Parts can be coloured by status in 3D. The Excel export contains the current status and the weld dossier.

Partly. A drawing made available offline beforehand can be viewed on that device without a connection, but not edited. Progress records and drawings submitted without a connection are queued and sent as soon as the connection is restored. Offline mode works for up to 30 days after the application was last started online, as long as the user stays signed in on the device: signing out removes the offline copies. A connection is required to sign in and to open and edit drawings in the cloud.

A drawing in the cloud is edited by one person at a time; others open it read-only and see who is editing it. Progress can be recorded and comments added at the same time. Colleagues communicate through comments with photos and through messages, and walk through the 3D model with Walk together.

Reference models as IFC (IFC2x3 and IFC4) or STEP, for example from Revit or Tekla Structures. Supplier components as STEP or IGES. Line lists, price lists and master data (articles, suppliers and customers) from Excel or CSV, and piping classes as JSON. Point clouds as LAS (1.0 to 1.4), PLY or ASCII (XYZ, PTS, TXT, CSV).

Drawing sheets as DXF (R12), SVG and PDF; the 3D model as STEP AP214 with exact solid models, as OBJ and, for AR, as GLB and USDZ; lines as PCF for ISOGEN and CAESAR II. The bill of materials as XLSX and CSV, the cost estimate as XLSX, the quotation as PDF and progress to Excel. DWG is not exported; AutoCAD and other CAD programs read DXF. IFC is import only.

Through an export: the bill of materials as an XLSX or CSV file and the cost estimate as an XLSX file, for import into the ERP system. There is no direct integration; the ERP system remains the system of record for finance.

Yes. The FlowCAD3D Scan app scans a room on an iPad Pro or iPhone Pro with a LiDAR scanner and sends the point cloud to the project only after a user action. Point clouds from other scanners are imported as LAS, PLY or ASCII, with at most 16 million points; a larger scan is thinned out evenly on import. An E57 or LAZ file must first be converted to LAS, PLY or PTS, for example with CloudCompare. New pipes snap to scan points, and clash detection checks them against the scan.

Engineer costs € 169 and Fitter € 119 per user per month, excluding VAT, invoiced monthly in advance; the subscription can be cancelled at the end of any month. A yearly subscription gives 10% off: € 1,825.20 for Engineer and € 1,285.20 for Fitter per user per year, excluding VAT. Custom implementation (setting up the company's own component libraries and specifications) is available on request.

Engineer is for work preparation and engineering: the 3D piping model and isometric drawings, bill of materials and cost estimate, projects and the review of submissions, component libraries, specifications and standards. Fitter is for fitters on site: drawing and submitting isometric drawings, reporting installation progress, messages and notifications, on tablet and phone. A user with a Fitter licence has the Fitter role only.

One Engineer licence, for the main user who manages the company's licences. Fitter licences are optional and can be added later. Each active user takes up one licence; an account becomes active once its password has been set. If no licence is available at that point, one is added automatically.

A monthly subscription is invoiced monthly in advance on the 1st, with the first invoice pro rata for the rest of the month, and can be cancelled at the end of any month. A yearly subscription gives 10% off, is paid for the full year at once, runs from the day of the order and renews every year on the same date unless it is cancelled before the renewal date.

Yes, the main user changes it in the application with Licences… in the user menu. Additional licences take effect at once and are invoiced pro rata for the rest of the month or year. A reduction takes effect from the next monthly invoice, or at the renewal of a yearly subscription, without refund; the number of licences cannot be lower than the number of active users.

Payment is by SEPA direct debit, iDEAL, Bancontact or credit card through Stripe; payment on invoice can be requested via info@flowcad3d.com. Orders can be placed from the Netherlands and thirteen other EU countries, including Belgium and Germany. Outside the Netherlands, a VAT number is required and VAT is reverse-charged on the invoice.

FlowCAD3D creates the accounts at the request of the company; there is no open registration. An account for a new colleague is requested through Help → Submit a help request…, stating the name and email address. The colleague receives an email from info@flowcad3d.com with a personal link and sets a password; a password is never sent by email.

The database and files are stored with Supabase in Frankfurt (European Union). Notification emails are sent through Resend, which processes data in the United States. Payments run through Stripe; FlowCAD3D does not store account or card numbers. A point cloud imported in the browser stays on the device; a scan from the FlowCAD3D Scan app is only sent to the project after an action by the user.

Each company's data is kept strictly separate in the database, and permissions are checked on the server, not only in the interface. Accounts are created by invitation only. By default, a user can be signed in through the browser on at most two devices at the same time. After a period of inactivity (60 minutes by default), the user is signed out automatically. Sign out everywhere in My profile ends all sessions on all devices.

Yes. Every save is a version; Files → Versions of the drawing… lists them, and restoring creates a new version without erasing the history. By default, the last ten versions are kept. A deleted drawing stays in the trash for thirty days by default (Files → Drawing trash…). A newer version saved by a colleague is never overwritten silently.

Yes. Drawings, drawing sheets, bills of materials and cost estimates can be exported at any time in open formats: STEP, DXF, PCF, XLSX, CSV, PDF and SVG. A drawing can also be saved as a model file (.fc3d.json), for example for archiving.

Yes. The Draw your first Pipe! button on the website opens the try-out, which is limited to drawing. It can be used to draw a pipe, insert a valve or a Y-strainer and view the isometric drawing. The try-out runs entirely in the browser, without signing in and without a connection to the cloud; the drawing stays on the device. A demo can be requested through Request a demo; FlowCAD3D then contacts you personally. The demo shows FlowCAD3D on a project of your own, including the fitter's work on the tablet.

The company is created and the main user receives an invitation by email to set a password and sign in. With iDEAL, Bancontact or credit card the invitation follows within minutes. With SEPA direct debit it follows after the bank has confirmed the debit, which can take several working days. The link in the invitation is valid for 24 hours; a new invitation can be requested via info@flowcad3d.com. In FlowCAD3D, Guided start (in the top bar and under Help) shows the main user the progress on five steps: first project, import own components, invite a fitter, first isometric and first drawing on the tablet.

In FlowCAD3D through Help → Submit a help request…, for a question, an error or a feature request. The answer appears in the notifications and is sent by email; Help → My help requests lists the user's own requests. Questions can also be sent to info@flowcad3d.com. The manual, available in Dutch only, is under Help → Manual… and can also be downloaded as PDF. Help → Guided tour… shows the workflow in the application itself.