You can place various types of instrumentation in your drawing, such as orifice plates, flow controllers, and pressure regulators. Instruments are devices used directly or indirectly to measure or control a variable, such as flow or temperature, in a plant process. Instruments can be items such as flow control elements, computing devices, or electrical switches. Two types of instruments exist: inline instruments and offline instruments. Signal lines are intelligent line strings that connect offline instruments, inline instruments, and piping.
Inline Instruments
Inline instruments are components that you can insert into a piping segment. Inline instruments include instrument valves, such as pressure regulator valves, flow controllers, flow indicators, and other instrument components, such as orifice plates. As you drag inline instruments over a pipe segment, the pipe segment appears selected. If you place an inline instrument when a pipe segment is not selected, the instrument is placed in free space.
Offline Instruments
Offline instruments are components that you do not insert into a piping segment. Typically, these instruments monitor and control inline instruments. Offline instruments include flow controllers, level gauges, and system functions such as digital control stations or computers.
Instrument Loops
You can create instrument loops containing any combination of inline and offline instruments. Instruments loops are a group of one or more instruments or control functions arranged so that signals can transfer from one function to the next to measure and control a process variable.
The software includes a standard group of instrument and instrument loop symbols; however, your plant administrator can change and add to these symbols as your plant requires.