Lumistrel questions, answered

What is Lumistrel?

Lumistrel is P&ID software that runs in a web browser. You draw a piping and instrumentation diagram with ISA-5.1-style symbols, and every symbol you place becomes an engineering record, so the instrument index, the line list, the design checks and a live operator screen all come from the one drawing. It is made by Praharsh Nagpure in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, and until 26 October 2026 it was called IPD Studio.

It has three parts that share one drawing: the P&ID editor with its engineering lists and checks; the operator screens and plant simulator, built from the P&ID for design review and operator training; and Lumistrel Academy, labs for learning to read a P&ID and run a plant.

What is a P&ID?

A P&ID, a piping and instrumentation diagram, is the drawing a process plant is designed, built and operated from. It shows the equipment (vessels, pumps, exchangers), the piping between them, the valves on that piping, and every instrument and control loop, each with its tag. Engineers use it for hazard studies, for the instrument and line lists that drive procurement and construction, and for training the operators who will run the plant.

The symbols and tag letters most plants use come from ISA-5.1, the Instrumentation Symbols and Identification standard. Lumistrel follows those conventions: a tag such as FIC-101 is read as flow, indicating, controlling, loop 101, and checked as you type.

Who is Lumistrel for?

• Engineering and EPC firms that produce the P&ID and every list that hangs off it, and want the instrument index to never disagree with the drawing.
• Skid and package builders that hand over tagged P&IDs, line lists and DEXPI files with every package, checked before they leave the shop.
• Operations and training teams that turn the unit’s P&ID into a training simulator and practise start-ups and alarm response away from the live control system.
• Universities and colleges that teach ISA symbols, tagging and control loops on engineering software, with the plant running in front of the class.

What makes it an "intelligent" P&ID editor rather than a drawing tool?

A general drawing tool stores lines and shapes. Lumistrel stores instruments, lines, equipment and loops. When you place a transmitter it has a tag, a service, a range and a signal; when you draw a line it has a class, a size and a fluid service that propagates along it. Because the drawing is data, the engineering lists are read from it rather than typed up beside it, a rule engine can check it the way a reviewer would, and an operator screen can be built from it that actually runs.

Is Lumistrel a process simulator?

Not in the sense of a validated steady-state or dynamic process simulator. Its plant model is a hydraulic network solve: flows, pressures and pump head worked out from valve positions, pump curves and levels, with PI and cascade control, alarms and trends over it. That is enough to make an operator screen behave like a plant for design review and operator training. It is not a validated model of any real process, and its numbers are not design figures.

Do I need to install anything?

No. Lumistrel runs in a desktop browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. There is nothing to download, no plug-in and no CAD licence to hold. You can also install it from the browser as an app, which gives it its own window and lets it open .pnid files from your disk.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Once a browser has loaded it, drawing, checking, simulating and exporting carry on without a connection, and your work autosaves in the browser. Installing it as an app makes that the normal way of working. Only the parts that need a server, such as cloud projects and teams, wait for the connection to return.

Does it work on a phone or tablet?

You can read about it on any device, but drawing a P&ID needs a mouse and a desktop-sized window, so the editor is built for laptops and desktops. On a phone the page says so and offers to send the link to your computer.

Do I need an account?

Not to draw, check, simulate or export. Without an account your drawings stay in your browser and in the .pnid files you save to your own disk, and nothing about them reaches us. An account is for what has to be shared or kept in the cloud: cloud projects, teams and review, and keeping your Lumistrel Academy progress on more than one device.

How do I start?

Open the editor, drag a tank, a pump and a control valve from the symbol library, drop in a level control loop, and connect them port to port. Then build the operator screen from the drawing and press Start simulation. It takes a few minutes in the browser you are using now, and the homepage’s recordings show every step on the same demo plant.

Which symbols does it have?

195 ISA-5.1-style symbols: vessels, rotating equipment, heat exchangers, manual and control valves with their actuators, inline fittings, instrument bubbles and primary elements, safety devices, and the annotation a sheet needs. The symbols are original artwork drawn from public-domain geometric conventions. If your company has its own, you can import them as SVG and they take tags and connections like the built-in ones.

Which line types can I draw?

16 line classes: major and minor process lines; instrument impulse lines; electric, pneumatic, hydraulic and electromagnetic signals; capillaries; data and software links; jacketed, heat-traced, existing and underground pipe; and battery limits. Each class draws in its own convention, and a line’s fluid service follows the stream it belongs to.

How are instrument tags handled?

A tag is read against the ISA-5.1 letter tables as you type it: the first letter is the measured variable, the following letters its functions, and anything that does not parse is flagged at once. Loops number themselves, so a new transmitter in loop 101 joins its controller and valve, and the loop list, loop diagrams and the instrument index follow. The tag format, its prefixes and numbering are settings of the drawing, so they can match your company’s standard.

Can a drawing have more than one sheet?

Yes. A drawing is as many sheets as the plant needs, with off-page connectors linking a line that leaves one sheet to where it continues on another. Lists, checks and exports cover every sheet; a PDF export can be one sheet or all of them.

Can I place a whole control loop at once?

Yes. Typical control loops, such as a flow loop with its transmitter, controller and control valve, are placed in one click as a connected set, tagged into the next unused loop number. You then adjust what differs on your plant.

Can I mark up a drawing for review?

Yes. Notes, HOLDs and revision clouds mark what is open or has changed, and review comments can be attached to any object. Revisions are issued from the drawing, and the Project page compares the current drawing with the last issue. In a team, reviewers leave notes and markup on a shared drawing and approvers sign a revision, with an audit trail of who did what.

Which engineering lists does it produce?

7 lists, read from the drawing: instrument index, i/o, line, equipment, loop, nozzle and valve lists. They are edited in place in the Data workspace, with CSV in and out, so a value corrected in the instrument index is the value on the drawing.

What does it check?

73 engineering checks run across every sheet, with severities you set per project: a vessel with no relief device, a control valve with no failure position, a tag whose letters are not valid ISA-5.1 letters, a duplicate tag, a controller with no measurement, an incomplete loop, a line with no service, a pump whose suction is not supplied, a required field left empty, and so on. Your company’s standards are held per project, and the Project page shows completeness, quality and revisions in one view.

A passing check means only that the rules it ran found nothing. It does not mean a design is complete, correct or safe; every deliverable is a draft for a qualified engineer to review.

Does it produce loop diagrams and instrument datasheets?

Yes. Loop diagrams in the style of ISA-5.4 are drawn from each loop on the P&ID, and instrument datasheets in the style of ISA-20 are filled from each instrument’s record. Both are read from the drawing, so they cannot disagree with it.

Which formats can I export?

6: PDF, SVG, PNG, DXF, DEXPI and CSV. PDF of one sheet or every sheet, SVG and PNG of a sheet, a layered DXF that CAD tools open, DEXPI XML for exchanging the P&ID with other engineering software, and CSV of every engineering list.

Can I open the drawings in AutoCAD? Can I import DWG?

Yes to the first, through DXF: every sheet exports as a layered DXF that AutoCAD and other CAD tools open. DWG files cannot be imported directly. Save one as DXF and load it as an underlay to redraw over, which is how an old drawing is brought into the data model one symbol at a time.

Does it support DEXPI?

Lumistrel writes DEXPI XML from a drawing and reads it back, so a P&ID can be exchanged with other software that speaks DEXPI. Its DEXPI support is still being developed and has not been assessed by the DEXPI initiative; where a file holds a component class it does not know, it reports that rather than guessing.

What file format does it save?

A .pnid file: plain JSON that a person can read, holding every sheet, symbol, line and engineering record of the drawing. The format is versioned, and every .pnid file ever saved still opens, including those saved when the product was called IPD Studio. Because it is your file on your disk, you are never locked in.

Can it read a scanned or PDF drawing?

With your own AI provider key, the optional assistant can read a photo, scan or PDF of a drawing you attach and help you copy it into the editor as symbols and lines. What it produces is a draft to check against the original, like everything the assistant does. Without a key, bring the drawing in as a DXF underlay and redraw over it.

How do the operator screens work?

One click builds an operator screen from the P&ID: the equipment and lines become a process graphic, and every instrument becomes a faceplate with its value, alarms and trend. Start the pumps from their faceplates, put a loop in manual, open a valve, and watch pressure, temperature and level respond in a live simulation. The screen follows the high-performance conventions of ISA-101, and its alarms carry priorities and shelving in the manner of ISA-18.2.

What happens when the simulation cannot solve the plant?

It says so. When the hydraulic network has no solution, because the mass is not balanced or a pump has no curve, the screen shows the words “NO HYDRAULIC SOLUTION — mass is not balanced. Flows and pressures below are not readings.” rather than a number that only looks right. The same rule runs through the product: where it cannot give a sound answer, it refuses instead of guessing.

Can I use it for operator training?

Yes. That is what the simulator is for. Malfunctions, such as a pump trip, a valve that fails open or closed, a transmitter that drifts or a line that plugs, are set off against the running plant, and exercises score how the trainee responds. An instructor’s window opens beside a running simulation with the malfunction library, a freeze button and the watched values, so a trainer can set off a fault and watch the response. Lumistrel Academy adds structured labs, classes and trainer sign-offs on top.

Can the simulation be used for operating decisions?

No. It represents process behaviour for engineering study and operator training. It is not a validated process simulator, it does not replace a plant’s DCS or safety system, and it must never be connected to real plant control, safety instrumented systems or live equipment.

What is Lumistrel Academy?

Learning tracks for process and instrumentation work, each made of labs with hands-on activities: reading a P&ID, instrument tags and loops, and running a plant on the simulator, including on a drawing of your own. Trainers can run classes, set labs as assignments, follow a gradebook and record sign-offs. It issues no certificates and makes no claim that anyone is qualified or competent.

Can a university or college use it to teach?

Yes. A class works on real engineering software, with ISA symbols and tags checked as they draw and the plant running in front of them, and the trainer sees every learner’s progress. Teaching plans will be paid, like every plan; until plans go on sale, the evaluation terms below apply to a class as to anyone else.

Can my team work on one project?

Yes, with accounts. A team holds projects, and each member has a role: owner, engineer, reviewer or viewer. One person edits a drawing at a time, by checking it out; everyone else sees who holds it and since when, so nobody overwrites anyone. Reviewers leave notes and markup, approvers sign revisions, and an append-only audit trail records every action.

Two people cannot edit the same drawing at the same moment, by design: for engineering drawings, a clear check-out beats a silent merge.

Where are my drawings stored?

Without an account, in your browser’s own storage on your device and in the .pnid files you save; nothing is sent to us. With an account, the drawings you choose to save to it are kept in our database, run by Google (Firebase) in the United States, and reachable only by you and the team members you share them with. Our privacy policy lists every place in that database.

Do you use my drawings to train AI?

No. We never use your drawings or anything else you make to train AI, never sell them, never share them for advertising, and never read them except as the privacy policy describes. A P&ID can reveal a whole plant, and we treat it that way.

Do you track me?

No. The site and the app run no analytics, no advertising, no tracking cookies and no session recording, and the app sends us no usage data, logs or crash reports. A feedback report leaves only when you send one.

Is there an AI assistant, and what does it send?

There is an optional assistant that answers questions about your drawing from the drawing’s own data, and it is off until you paste in your own key from Anthropic, OpenRouter or Groq. Your key stays in your browser; requests go straight from your browser to the provider you chose and never pass through us. It sends your question and a summary of what is in view, never the drawing file itself, and the privacy policy lists exactly what is and is not sent. It can be wrong: check everything it says against the drawing.

Can we run it on our own servers?

Yes, under a written agreement. One Docker image serves the whole product, either with no backend at all, where drawings are files and nothing leaves your network, or on your company’s own Firebase project for accounts, teams and review. The licence key is checked offline; there is no update check and no usage reporting. Company single sign-on is supported. Write to contact@lumistrel.com to arrange it.

How do I report a security problem?

Privately, to contact@lumistrel.com with Security at the start of the subject. We acknowledge within 72 hours and assess within 7 days; the contact page has the full process, and security.txt (opens in a new tab) is published for researchers.

Which standards does it follow?

Lumistrel implements conventions from ISA-5.1 (symbols and tag letters), ISA-5.4 (loop diagrams), ISA-20 (instrument datasheets), ISA-101 (high-performance hmi), ISA-18.2 (alarm management) and IEC 62682 (alarm management, iec). DEXPI support is developing.

It has not been formally assessed or certified against any of these standards, no standard text is reproduced in it, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Society of Automation. Those sentences are on every page of this site for a reason: it names standards only to say which conventions it follows.

If every check passes, is my design compliant?

No. A passing check means the rules you ran found nothing. It does not mean the design is complete, correct, safe or in line with any code or standard. Every drawing, list, loop diagram, datasheet and export is a draft for a qualified engineer to review before anyone relies on it.

How much does Lumistrel cost?

Lumistrel is sold as a paid subscription, and every plan is paid, for individuals, companies and colleges alike. Paid plans are not on sale yet. Until they are, you may use it without charge for 60 days to decide whether it suits you, including at work and for a company, and then keep using it on those evaluation terms until plans are announced, which will be at least 30 days before a paid plan is required. The terms say this in full. For a quote or a plan for your team or your class, email contact@lumistrel.com.

What is the refund policy?

It is on the refunds page: what can be refunded, how to ask, and how long it takes. Refund requests are acknowledged within 24 hours and decided within 5 business days.

Who makes Lumistrel?

Praharsh Nagpure, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He designs and builds it, answers the email and is the person responsible for it; no company has been registered for it yet. The about page says more, and you can write to him at contact@lumistrel.com.

Was it called IPD Studio?

Yes. Until 26 October 2026, Lumistrel was IPD Studio. Only the name changed: drawings saved as .pnid files with IPD Studio open in Lumistrel unchanged, and the old address forwards here.

How do I get a demonstration or ask a question?

Email contact@lumistrel.com. A person reads every message, and sales questions get a first reply within two business days. For a demonstration, say what your plant or your course looks like, and we will walk through it on the demo plant or on a drawing of yours.

What is coming next?

In development: fluid property model, DEXPI conformance hardening and custom HMI widgets from imported SVG. Further out, on the roadmap: automationML exchange, MTP / modular automation, APIs and plugins, real-time co-editing, SIS and cause & effect matrices, management of change and in-app DWG import. Nothing on either list is described anywhere else on this page as if it had shipped.