Valve Hover Inspector | AseptSoft Documentation

The Valve Hover Inspector lets you quickly inspect and interact with Engineering Items directly on the P&ID drawing by simply hovering your mouse over them. A floating popup appears showing the item's current state, all available states, the item's behavior across process steps, and Equipment Module memberships — all without opening any dialog or selecting the item.

💡 Why use it: During design review or process configuration, you often need to check Engineering Item states across steps, adjust a percentage, or quickly switch states. The hover inspector eliminates the need to open editors — just point at an item and interact immediately.

⚙️ Enabling the Valve Hover Inspector

The feature supports three modes. To change the mode, use the settings command in the AutoCAD command line.

Mode	Behavior	Best For
🚫 Disabled	Hover popups are off	When you need a distraction-free drawing environment
✅ Auto	Popup appears immediately when you hover over any Engineering Item	Active design sessions where you frequently inspect items
⌨️ Ctrl+Hover	Popup appears only when you hold Ctrl or Alt while hovering	Review sessions where you want popups on demand, not constantly

💡 Recommendation: Use Auto mode during active process configuration. Switch to Ctrl+Hover when navigating the drawing without needing constant item info.

🔵 Bullet Overlay

When the hover inspector is active (in Auto or Ctrl+Hover mode), you can see small colored circles at each Engineering Item's position on the drawing. These bullets give you a bird's-eye view of all item states:

Bullet Color	Meaning
🟢 Colored (matches state)	Item has an active state assigned — the color corresponds to the state color
⚪ Gray	Item has no state assigned in the current step

The bullets appear as a subtle overlay on the drawing and help you quickly locate items before hovering over them.

When you hover over an Engineering Item, a floating panel appears with several sections:

Element	Description
Item name	The item's tag/identifier (e.g., "V-101", "P-301")
State indicator	A colored dot showing the current state color
State name	The name of the active state (e.g., "Open", "Closed", "Running")
Percentage	If the state is percentual, shows the current opening percentage (e.g., "75%")
Flow badge	A green FLOW badge if fluid passes through, or a red BLOCK badge if fluid is blocked

🎨 States Gallery

A row of clickable state buttons, one for each state compatible with this Engineering Item's type. Each button is colored to match the state's assigned color.

Action	What Happens
Click a state	Immediately applies that state to the item in the current step — the drawing updates in real time
Click "None"	Removes the state assignment, returning the item to its unassigned state
Click a percentual state	A slider appears, letting you set the exact opening percentage (0–100%) with 10% steps

💡 Quick state assignment: Instead of opening the status editor or navigating menus, just hover over an Engineering Item and click the desired state. This is the fastest way to configure states during process design.

📊 Steps Timeline (Phase Strip)

A horizontal strip showing the item's state across all steps in the active process.

Element	Description
Step cells	Each cell shows the step name (abbreviated), the state color, and the state abbreviation
Active step	Highlighted with a blue border
Change indicator	A small amber triangle appears when the item's state changed compared to the previous step
Click a step	Switches the active step and refreshes the popup to show that step's state

💡 Step navigation: Use the phase strip to quickly scan how an Engineering Item behaves throughout the entire process. Click any step to jump there instantly — no need to use the process navigator.

📦 Equipment Module Section

If the item belongs to one or more Equipment Modules, an additional section appears:

Element	Description
Module name	With a colored bullet matching the module
Select button	Highlights all entities belonging to that Equipment Module on the drawing
Configuration buttons	Colored buttons for each configuration — click to apply the configuration to all items in the module at once

⚡ Quick Actions

Button	What It Does
📊 Matrix	Opens the Valve Phase Matrix viewer for a complete grid view of all Engineering Items across all steps

🏭 Workflow: Reviewing States During a Design Walk-Through

Imagine you're reviewing a CIP process for a pharmaceutical filling line. You need to verify that all Engineering Items are correctly configured across every cleaning step.

Enable the hover inspector in Auto mode
Open the process and navigate to the first step (e.g., "Pre-Rinse")
Hover over the first item — the popup shows its state is "Open" with the green FLOW badge. The steps timeline shows it stays Open for the first three steps, then Closed for "Drain"
Notice an issue — V-103 should be at 50% during "Final Rinse", not 100%. Click the "Final Rinse" cell in the steps timeline, then click the percentual state button and drag the slider to 50%
Continue down the line — hover over each item in sequence, using the phase strip to quickly confirm the pattern matches the design intent
Spot an item with no state — its bullet is gray. Hover over it, select "Open" from the states gallery — done
For a group of items that should all be in the same configuration, hover over one, then click the Equipment Module configuration button to apply the configuration to all items in the group at once

💊 Pharma Example: Verifying a Steam-In-Place Sequence

During SIP qualification, you need to confirm that all steam isolation valves open in the correct order:

Step	V-201 (Steam Inlet)	V-202 (Condensate Drain)	V-203 (Vent)
Pre-heat	Open	Open	Closed
Sterilization Hold	Open	Closed	Closed
Cool-down	Closed	Open	Open
Idle	Closed	Closed	Closed

Using the hover inspector, you can hover over V-201 and immediately see the full step timeline. The amber change indicators help you confirm exactly where state transitions occur. If something looks wrong, click the step and correct the state right there — no need to switch windows.

Engineering Item — Engineering Item properties and state assignment
State — State definitions and fluid responses
Valve Phase Matrix — Complete grid view of all Engineering Item states
Equipment Module — Item grouping and configurations
Fluidstream Simulations — How states affect fluid flow
Process Design - Processes and Steps — Process steps where states are assigned