Introduction:

SmartPlant Foundation 2008 introduced the concept of domains to separate the data published by the tools
and also to separate working data in SmartPlant Foundation from its published data. The following terms are
important for understanding the environments in which SmartPlant Foundation is working.

Stand-alone SmartPlant Foundation

SmartPlant Foundation is considered stand-alone when it is used without any tool integration and uses the
regular create, update, and delete commands in SmartPlant Foundation to manage data just like in the
SmartPlant Foundation 2007 integrated systems.

Data Warehouse

SmartPlant Foundation can be used to manage data across the integrated enterprise. The data warehouse
holds all the data published by the tools, allowing users to browse the data and view inconsistencies across the
different tools. They can use SmartPlant Foundation to create support and reference data such as
manufacturers, transmittals, and so on.

SmartPlant Foundation Authoring

"SmartPlant Foundation authoring" refers to the action of creating data in SmartPlant Foundation and
publishing it to the data warehouse. It must not be confused with the creation of data that is not published.
SmartPlant Foundation authoring is like a design tool and should be used as a design tool with no visibility to
the data warehouse and vice versa.
Before a user can publish or retrieve data, the SmartPlant Foundation authoring application must first
be registered with the data warehouse. This is just like any other authoring tool, and the registration identifies
the plant into which the data is published.

Mapping and Data Transformations

The data stored in the data warehouse is defined by SmartPlant schema. This describes the data in a consistent
schema to maximize the efficiency of managing the published data by, for example, using common properties
for each of the tool's published data. Each tool, such as SmartPlant P&ID, has its own internal data dictionary
that can in no way be expected to match the SmartPlant schema. To accommodate these differences, each
tool exposes its data dictionary, which is mapped to the SmartPlant schema. As the tool publishes data, it uses
this mapping to transform the published data into the SmartPlant schema format and save it in a file. This file
is transferred to SmartPlant Foundation and stored in the data warehouse. The data is loaded from the files
into the data warehouse once it has been approved.
SmartPlant Foundation Domains

Domains are a convenient way of grouping together data of a particular set of classes. Domains can be turned
on and off by the users roles and are used to segregate data. Users in one role may not have access to a
domain that is accessible to another user in a different role. To facilitate the different ways of working
there are three categories or informal groupings of domains that are combined when using SmartPlant
Foundation in each of the environments described above.

Data Warehouse Domains

These are the shared and published domains. The publish domains store the documents and data
published by the tools, and the shared domain links together the different versions of the same object
published by multiple tools.

Authoring Domains
These are private domains used by SmartPlant Foundation to author equipment lists (and so on) that are then
published to the data warehouse. They are used to manage engineering data before it is released to the
enterprise through a publish, just like P&ID manages its data. Separate authoring domains may be configured
to isolate data by different disciplines in SmartPlant Foundation. Alternatively, a single domain may be
configured for multiple roles all working on a common data set.

Common or Reference Domains

Data in these domains is visible by anyone using SmartPlant Foundation in any environment. The users role
controls access to the system, part of which is setting up the different domains to be queried.

When working in stand-alone, the user would have access to the common domains only.
When working in the data warehouse, the user would have access to the data warehouse domains
and the common domains.
When authoring data, the user would have access to one or more authoring domains and the
common domains.
Overview of SmartPlant Foundation Data Segregation

Stand-alone SmartPlant Foundation

The user is working with a set of core SmartPlant Foundation domains to create and manage data.

SmartPlant Foundation Authoring

The user is working with one or more authoring domains and a set of core SmartPlant Foundation domains to
create and manage transmittals, documents, and so on.

The SmartPlant Foundation authored tag is in the authoring domain and is only visible when this domain is
turned on by the user's role, usually only when the user is creating and updating the tags (such as an
equipment list). It is then published to the data warehouse, and the tags are loaded into the published domain,
which creates new tags that are linked up to the shared object. If other tools have published the same tag then
it is linked by the same shared object. During this process, the authored data is transformed into the
SmartPlant schema format so that it can be effectively managed.

The user logs into the data warehouse using a different role that exposes the shared and published domains
but not the authoring domain. Now the user sees the published data and even if another user is logged in and
authoring more tags, they do not see changes until that user publishes them.

Data Warehouse

The user is working with a set publish domains that store the tools published data, the shared domain linking
them together and a set of core SmartPlant Foundation domains to create and manage transmittals,
documents, and so on. Note that this diagram shows data published by two tools and also by a SmartPlant
Foundation authoring application.