When purchasing a Product Design and Manufacturing Collections software bundle from Autodesk a set workflow is not always clear. Every company works in a different way and that is one of the reasons Autodesk has created different mechanisms to transition data created on one platform into another.
When working in an environment where piping needs to be created, there are 2 options for your CAD modelling. Inventor or AutoCAD Plant. Some companies like the fact that you have many options but others see it as a headache because there is now more files to manage. (this could be done easily with Autodesk Vault but that is for another discussion).
One question to ask yourself before getting started with either program is do you design and manufacture the piping? The equipment and structural elements that needs to be created are you designing and manufacturing that as or well or is it just a place holder to see where your pipes run?
If the design and/or manufacture is purely for piping then I suggest that AutoCAD Plant is a good way to go as you get out your piping isometrics quickly and efficiently and the equipment and structural is also very quick to be created and spatially correct. The detail that yo get is sufficient if you are not manufacturing the steel or equipment. With the addition of your spec and catalog in Plant 3D which will very quickly give you a Bill of Materials, which includes number of bolts and gaskets for flanges,
If design and manufacture for the equipment is what you do, and you just need to know spatially what the piping is doing, then create your equipment in Inventor and save it out as an ADSK file. This then allows you to import the part as equipment in Plant 3D and assign automatic nozzles so the piping is accurate in your Plant 3D space.
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