Chemical Engineering Block Flow Diagrams in Microsoft Visio

This short video provides a beginner tutorial on how to generate block flow diagrams (BFDs) in Microsoft Visio Professional 2013 for use in chemical engineering applications. The principles outlined here are also applicable for process flow diagrams (PFDs) and process and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs).
Topics covered include:
• Engineering Stencils: Access, organization and quick shapes
• Process “Blocks”: Construction, resizing, reorienting and labeling
• Process Streams (Pipelines/Connectors): Attaching to blocks, labeling using shape data, adjusting weights, adding arrowheads, switching from horizontal to vertical line gaps in line overlaps, ensuring right angles
• Tag Formats: Altering pipeline/equipment tags using the process engineering tab
• Text Boxes: Adding boxes and text, adjusting text alignment, adjusting shape styles

[@robdunning6285]

Just started using MS Visio again after a few years away. Very useful intro. Thank you.

[@taimoorali3451]

Hello Ma'am you really made it easy for us to use Ms Visio. I'm having an exam tomorrow about Ms Visio and i'm really hopeful to get good marks in that subject because of your this video. Thanks a lot to you

[@rebeccaong2820]

That's great! Best of luck on your exam!

[@Andomosity]

I was looking for this info for a while and I ran across this video and I recognized your name from some of the emails I get at Michigan Tech. Small world! But thanks again👌

[@rebeccaong2820]

Great! Hopefully it helped! Feel free to come say hi when the university reopens. :)

[@gustavofuriati4209]

Hello, professor Rebecca. How can I add a new data to the pipes? I'd like to add molar fraction to pipes but I can't figure out how to do this. Hope you can help and thanks for the video.

[@cinnamonfern]

There are instructions for adding custom fields here: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-data-to-visio-shapes-09272394-5243-4e1b-bcfa-425a8b4d1ce2 I hope this helps!

[@nassah2010]

hi Dr Ongdo you have one for PFDs and P&Ids?

[@rebeccaong2820]

I don't at the moment - sorry! But the principles are the same. You just use different templates to add specific pieces of equipment or instrumentation.

[@WretchedNZ]

Fantastic. Any chance of a part 2?

[@rebeccaong2820]

Eventually I'd like to! Maybe in a few months when I'm less busy. Anything you'd like to see?

[@keropiboy]

Can Visio be used to create complex P&ID with parameters? (i.e. pipeline and equipment properties)

[@cinnamonfern]

Yes - you can use shape data (4:00) to specify parameters for pipelines and equipment. There are some built in fields depending on the shape, but you can also make custom fields. There are instructions for how to do this here: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-data-to-visio-shapes-09272394-5243-4e1b-bcfa-425a8b4d1ce2

[@keropiboy]

@@cinnamonfern thanks a lot

[@shehabsoliman]

Can I draw and solve material and energy balance problems including the calculations within Microsoft Visio?? I was searching for this for a long time and concluded that it has something to do with shape data but I still can't figure it out completely yet 😔😔 I hope you can help me!

[@rebeccaong2820]

You can draw the flowchart for a material and energy balance problem, and you can assign masses and enthalpies to streams, however I would not recommend using Visio to run the calculations (I don't even know if this is possible). Visio is a flowcharting software, not a process simulator so it is not really designed to run calculations. I would recommend either exporting a stream table with the data from Visio into excel (assuming you added this to the streams as material properties), or just manually input the data into Excel, skipping Visio entirely. Then run your calculations in Excel.

[@shehabsoliman]

@@rebeccaong2820 Thank you so much for your response, that's what I managed to do and by using some flowcharting software add-in to excel it has become an easier process. However, I was just hoping to exploit Visio's diagramming capabilities in chemical engineering applications & problems instead of referring to the ordinary way to do this via Excel or Aspen Hysys or Plus, and so on. But thank you again for your answer. Appreciated!