subject: Customising Aveva PDMS with the Programmable Macro Language (PML) [print this page] Customising Aveva PDMS with the Programmable Macro Language (PML)
Aveva, once known as CADCentre, created the PDMS (Plant Design Management System) application in the late 1970s. Since then it has become one of the forefront Plant and Marine design systems used worldwide in the engineering industry. A prominent contributing factor to the success of PDMS is the customisation language known as Aveva PML (PML Guru).
PDMS is a 3D AutoCAD based application which facilitates design in the fields of Equipment, Instrumentation, Piping, and Cabling amongst others. PDMS can interact with a variety of other applications to provide a full work flow in the plant and marine design fields. Aveva Instrumentation, Schematics, P&ID, Review, and Diagrams are but a few related software packages. PDMS is used worldwide from it's development home in England to America, Australia, Europe, and the far reaches of Asia.
PDMS has excelled in the Plant and Marine design fields with the help of a domain specific language that allows the application to be customised for the specific requirements of an industry. That language is known as the Programmable Macro Language (PML).
PML developers, also known as Appware or Aveva Appware developers, are few and far between. It is a niche subject with very little available information. The inherent problem with this is that development is laboured and tedious and often of a substandard quality. This is not a result of the PML language as such but of the lack of knowledge on the subject. Websites such as the PML wiki resource website PML Guru aims to alleviate such difficulties with PML development.
Despite the PDMS platform being in development for over three decades it is still constantly being reviewed and revised. PML has come on a long way since the first release of PML 1 in the eighties. The 2nd revision of PML incorporates more modern object-oriented development techniques as well as greatly improved control of Windows forms and menus. PML.NET functionality enables AppWare to be developed with the modern day Microsoft .NET development environment, allowing for greater flexibility if required. This said, in most instances the PML 2 language is capable enough of creating most AppWare.
