PI-Mod

An information model for plant construction and mechanical engineering (and others).

The PI-Mod information model was developed in 2008 in collaboration between several companies. It is intended to cover the main semantic information structures for user and service documentation. The main industry that will use this information model is plant construction and mechanical engineering, along with its connected industries (such as the automation and electronics industry or consumer products).

The information model provides an entry structure that allows information to be recorded in modular fashion. It is as implementation-independent as possible in order to allow easy integration in content management systems (CMS). PI-Mod can be used free of charge and is only subject to an open source licence.

Concept

The general aims of PI-Mod are:

  • Standardising information modelling in mechanical engineering and plant construction
  • Easy to implement and adapt in content management applications
  • Meta data modelling for the classification of modules by product and information categories (PI)
  • Making modular information exchangeable between companies (supplier documentation) or company divisions

For this purpose, PI-Mod defines semantic XML elements to map information structures. Information is recorded in modular fashion in functionally motivated module types; there are currently seven of these types. The information model mainly includes descriptive and instructive information. These are entered in two main modules:

  • descriptive (used, among others, for composition and function descriptions, technical data and general descriptions)
  • task (used for instructions for individual steps)

In addition, there are five more module types that accommodate the specific requirements of the industries mentioned:

  • task intervals (maintenance plans)
  • tools (tool lists)
  • lubrication (lubrication plans)
  • diagnosis (troubleshooting)
  • glossary (glossaries)

PI-Mod also provides mechanisms that can create maintenance plans automatically, for example, or automatically convert metric and non-metric units. A further essential core of PI-Mod incorporates the meta-data modelling of information. Modular information is labelled according to its allocation to product or information classes (“PI”). This is important in the practical implementations of CMS in order to develop a consistent modularising concept for users.

The aggregation of modules for documents depends on the editorial concept and a CMS implementation. That is why PI-Mod does not provide any technical specifications for the aggregation of modules at present. However, the PI-Mod packages also contain a prototype publication structure for operating manuals. There is also an XSL-FO style sheet for PDF publication.

Scope

The current version 1.2.1 contains the modularised core DTD and a template for project-specific adjustments of the standard content model. Existing software applications and documentation are currently under review and will be published in a complete package with the DTD as soon as possible.

Earlier versions contain the following software applications:

  • The PI-Mod information model as DTD (document type definition)
  • Element reference (can be used as part of an editorial guideline), under revision
  • XSL-FO style sheet for HTML PDF publication
  • XMetaL editor customising for PI-Mod

Participants

The PI-Mod project group was formed out of companies that have been collaborating on several CMS projects.

The core of PI-Mod is offered as standard in the above scope, and is available without commercial background from this website and/or an independent committee.

Companies using PI-Mod and those interested in PI-Mod are invited to contribute their experience to the project group and further developments.

Further developments

The project group is planning the following further developments that will be made publicly available:

  • PI-Mod as XML schema definition (XSD)
  • Continuous transfer of relevant models from projects to the PI-Mod standard
  • XSL applications
    • for further publication formats and media
    • for transformations and data exchange
  • Applications for other editors

Implementations

PI-Mod is currently in use in the following projects:


PI-Mod implementations exist in the current projects and in test and demo systems for the following editorial systems: