Why Annotate a P&ID?

The Question

Why Annotate a P&ID?

It’s a fair question, especially in an age where SmartP&IDs are the norm during project execution. Why go back to marking up PDFs? Who needs annotation anymore?

The answer lies in understanding when and why P&IDs fall out of the “smart” ecosystem, and what engineers actually need at different stages of a plant’s lifecycle.

The Answers

1. During Cost Estimation: Data Without the Overhead

At the cost estimation stage — often before detailed design begins — companies work with vendor packages, early-stage process diagrams, and PDF-based P&IDs.

No one wants to spend time or money making these P&IDs “smart.” But they still need:

• Equipment and instrument counts
• Line specs and quantities
• Control valve and special item identification
• Bulk MTOs and BOQs for pricing

In short, they need structured data — fast.

Manual Extraction: Painfully Slow

For a 100 P&ID plant, manual extraction typically takes:

• 1–2 hours per P&ID by an experienced engineer
• That’s 100–200 hours, or 3–4 weeks of effort
• Cost: ~$3,000–6,000 assuming $30/hr internal cost

It also leads to errors, inconsistencies, and repeat effort when P&IDs are updated.

Semi-Automated with eAI: 80% Faster

Using a tool like eAI, you can:

• Extract 60–70% of data automatically
• Review and annotate the rest manually
• Bring total time down to 0.2–0.4 hours per P&ID
• That’s 20–40 hours total — a single engineer can finish in a week
• Cost: ~$600–1,200

And the output is structured — ready for Excel, cost estimation, or internal systems.

Below is a comparison chart for easy reference.

Metric	Manual Annotation	Semi-Automated with eAI
Time per P&ID	1–2 hours	0.2–0.4 hours
Total Time (100 P&IDs)	100–200 hours	20–40 hours
Duration (1 engineer)	3–4 weeks	4–5 days
Estimated Cost (@ $30/hr)	$3,000–6,000	$600–1,200
Error Risk	High (manual entry)	Low (with review workflow)
Output Format	Unstructured (notes, markups)	Structured (Excel, database)
Reusability for Future Edits	Low	High

Read More: Data Extraction from P&IDs Using eAI

2. After Handover: SmartP&IDs Are Often Abandoned

Once a project is commissioned and handed over, the operations team typically inherits a full set of SmartP&IDs. But in reality:

• Operations teams rarely have licenses for SmartP&ID viewers.
• The software is expensive and seen as unnecessary for day-to-day changes.
• Plant engineers revert to PDFs — printed or digital — to track changes, troubleshoot, or plan upgrades.

Over time, these PDFs become the living record of the plant, while the SmartP&IDs remain untouched.

Annotation, in this context, is how plant engineers:

• Track field modifications
• Add operational notes
• Update line routes or valve changes
• Maintain consistency across shifts and audits

3. Annotation = Making P&IDs Work Harder

Whether you’re estimating costs or managing an aging plant, annotated P&IDs help you:

• Extract actionable data
• Keep records up to date
• Enable collaboration between teams
• Avoid the cost and complexity of heavyweight systems

This is exactly why we built eAI — to make P&ID annotation easier, faster, and semi-automated, without forcing teams to change their existing workflows.

Final Thoughts

SmartP&IDs have their place — but they’re not the whole story. In cost estimation and operations, it’s often annotated PDFs that carry the project forward.

Annotation isn’t a step backward — it’s how we bring static documents to life.