When two P&IDs are near-duplicates of each other — the same physical layout, the same valve roles, but a different tag numbering scheme — Cross-Tag Valve Function Migration lets you reuse all the behaviour you already configured on one drawing instead of designing the second one from scratch. It copies each valve's function — its per-step open/closed states, its instrument-control relations, its equipment modules and their step assignments, and its interlocks — from the valves of a source P&ID onto the matching valves of a destination P&ID, even though those valves carry different tags.
💡 This is the tool to reach for when you have, for example, a fully configured CIP Skid A P&ID with valves tagged V-101 … V-148 and a brand-new CIP Skid B P&ID that is physically identical but tagged VB-201 … VB-248. Rather than re-authoring every Pre-Rinse / Caustic Wash / Final Rinse / Drain state on Skid B, you describe the tag correspondence once and let AseptSoft clone the behaviour across.
🆚 When to use this versus renaming a P&ID
AseptSoft offers two distinct kinds of migration, and the right one depends on whether the valves are the same objects or merely equivalent objects.
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Situation |
Use |
|---|---|
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A P&ID file was renamed, and you want its existing configuration to follow the new name. The valves are the same drawing objects — only the drawing's identity changed. |
Migrate PID Name |
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Two P&IDs are near-duplicates with different valve tags, and you want one drawing's behaviour reproduced on the other's differently-tagged valves. |
Migrate Valve Functions (this page) |
🖱️ Opening the tool
The migration tools live on the Modules gallery.
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Right-click the module in the Modules gallery.
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Choose Migrate… from the menu.
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A chooser appears describing the two migration kinds. Pick Migrate Valve Functions to open the cross-tag workbench.
📋 The chooser exists so you don't have to remember which migration does what — each option carries a short description of when it applies. Selecting the wrong one is harmless; just close and reopen the chooser.
The migration chooser
⚙️ Step 1 — Describe the tag correspondence
The workbench opens with a setup panel across the top. Here you tell AseptSoft which two drawings to compare and how their tags relate.
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Field |
What it does |
|---|---|
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From PID (source) |
The drawing whose valve behaviour you want to reuse. |
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To PID (destination) |
The drawing whose valves should receive that behaviour. |
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Source tag pattern |
A pattern that extracts the comparable part of each source tag. The part you mark is the part that must match. |
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Destination tag pattern |
The same idea for the destination tags. A copy ⇐ source shortcut reuses the source pattern when both drawings number their valves the same way. |
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Valve types |
A type filter that limits the match to specific valve families (for example, only control valves), so unrelated valves don't clutter the lists. |
🔍 How the tag pattern works. The pattern isolates the meaningful part of a tag and ignores the prefix that differs between the two drawings. For instance, a pattern that captures the three trailing digits reduces both VP-101 and VA101 to the same key 101, so the two valves are recognised as the same role even though their full tags differ. Leave the pattern empty to compare the whole tag verbatim.
When the From/To drawings and patterns are set, choose the families of behaviour you want to bring across:
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Family |
What gets cloned |
|---|---|
|
Valve states Always |
The per-step open/closed/under-control state of each valve (for example, the Pre-Rinse, Caustic Wash, Final Rinse and Drain settings of XV-101). This is the core of the migration and is always included. |
|
Control relations |
Instrument-to-valve control links — for example, PIT-101 modulating CV-202 — re-pointed to the destination drawing's matching instruments and valves. |
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Equipment modules |
The equipment-module definitions that group the valves, rebound to the destination valves so the modules stay valid on the new drawing. |
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Equipment-module step assignments |
Which equipment modules are active in which steps, carried across with the modules. |
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Interlocks |
Interlock sets and their conditions, with valve references substituted for the destination valves. |
Each family is independently switchable, so you can clone only the per-step states and leave control relations or interlocks behind if the destination drawing handles those differently.
Press Compute matches to build the correspondence lists.
📊 Step 2 — Review the matches
AseptSoft sorts every candidate pairing into three colour-coded lists. Source-to-target always reads left-to-right, and the extracted (matched) part of each tag is highlighted so you can see why two valves were paired.
|
List |
Meaning |
What you do |
|---|---|---|
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— Clean 1:1 matches |
Exactly one source valve and one destination valve share a key. The safe, unambiguous case. |
Already checked and ready. Glance through and uncheck any you don't want. |
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— Ambiguous groups |
Several valves on one or both sides share a key, so the pairing isn't obvious. |
For each destination valve, choose which source valve feeds it. Targets you don't want can simply be left unbound. |
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— Manual correspondences |
Pairings you build by hand, for valves the pattern could never relate. |
Add manual, then pick a source and a destination for each row. |
💡 Show full tags expands the green rows from the highlighted key to the whole tag, so you can confirm a pairing at a glance. The yellow list always shows full tags. The search box filters both lists at once; a yellow group survives the filter if any of the valves inside it match.
Binding ambiguous (yellow) groups
A yellow group appears whenever a single key matches more than one valve — common when two parallel trains share a numbering block. Each destination valve in the group gets its own row with a source picker, so you decide which source behaviour each target adopts.
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Binding is strictly one-to-one: a source valve can feed at most one target. Choosing it for a new target automatically releases its previous link.
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Any destination can be left unbound — it simply won't receive a function.
🔍 Step 3 — Verify against the drawings
Every valve in every list shows its position so you can confirm a pairing is geometrically sensible before committing.
|
Control |
Action |
|---|---|
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📍 Locate (green map-pin) |
Activates that valve's P&ID and zooms straight to the valve. The workbench stays open and keeps working as the active drawing changes. |
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🖱️ Pick in drawing (blue hand-pointer) |
Override either side of a pairing by selecting the valve directly in AutoCAD. The overridden side is shown in blue while its partner keeps its colour. |
📋 Picking in the drawing is a deliberate two-step: the first click activates the correct P&ID, and the second enters selection. This keeps the pick from being dropped while AutoCAD is still switching drawings.
2D auto-match for tricky groups
When a yellow group is hard to resolve by tag alone, the 2D auto-match button overlays both drawings for you.
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Both P&IDs' valves are normalised onto their own 0–1 plane and drawn on top of each other, so layout — not tag — drives the comparison.
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AseptSoft proposes a complete binding automatically, pairing the closest dots.
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Adjust by clicking a destination dot and then a source dot to bind them; click a bound destination again to release it.
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Zoom with the mouse wheel and pan by dragging to inspect dense areas.
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Choose Use this match to push the result back into the yellow group, or Cancel to discard it.
💡 The overlay is the fastest way to match two identical skids whose only difference is the tag numbers — the dots line up, the proposed binding is usually correct on the first try, and you confirm in a click.
The 2D auto-match overlay
✅ Step 4 — Apply and save
Nothing is written to the project until you explicitly commit. The bottom bar always shows how many correspondences are currently checked and will be applied.
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Apply migration stages the checked correspondences — the functions are cloned in a working copy so you can review the result.
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Save (commit) writes the staged result permanently to the project.
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Closing the window without saving discards everything — nothing about the destination drawing changes.
⚠️ Exploring, computing matches, locating valves and building bindings are always available. Committing the migration writes project data and requires a valid AseptSoft subscription.
🏭 Worked example — cloning a CIP skid
You have a finished CIP Skid A P&ID with valves V-101 … V-148 fully configured across a CIP Rinse Cycle (Pre-Rinse, Caustic Wash, Final Rinse, Drain), including PIT-101 controlling CV-120 and a high-pressure interlock. The identical CIP Skid B P&ID is drawn but blank, tagged VB-201 … VB-248.
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Right-click CIP Skid in the Modules gallery → Migrate… → Migrate Valve Functions.
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Set From PID to Skid A, To PID to Skid B.
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Enter a source pattern that captures the trailing digits, and use copy ⇐ source so the destination pattern matches too. Now
V-101andVB-201both reduce to a comparable key. -
Leave all behaviour families on — you want states, control relations, the equipment modules and the interlock.
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Compute matches. Most valves land in the green list as clean 1:1 pairs. A pair of parallel drain valves lands in yellow.
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For the yellow group, click 2D auto-match; the overlay pairs the drains by position. Confirm with Use this match.
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Spot-check a few pairings with Locate, then Apply migration and review.
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Save (commit). Skid B now carries every per-step state, the PIT-101 → CV-120 control relation re-pointed to its own instruments and valves, the equipment modules, and the interlock — without a single state authored by hand.
🔗 Related pages
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Valve Traceability — keeps each valve's function attached to the right valve as a single drawing evolves through copy/paste, rename and tag changes.
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State — what the per-step "function" of a valve actually contains.
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Status Editor — the Valve × Step matrix where functions are normally authored.