Electrical Arc Video

Obviously we are into engineering. I came from Structural and ended up in Electrical. Today I saw a video of and incident of an electrical arc that was gigantic, so I went to see if it was on You Tube. Yup, it is. Check it out the fun part of engineering for yourself.

Service Pack 1 out for AutoCAD MEP... At Last!

Yeah the headline says it all. Here is where you can down load the service pack, and here's the low down directly from the readme file on what should be all better now. Let's hope we are all smiles tomorrow.

Electrical
· Devices and Panels with an model representation will be detected by Interference Detection if they collide with other MEP objects.
· The system filter for the Circuits property during WireAdd will update correctly.
· The connection a wire with a circuit assigned has with a device will be maintained after using the Publish command.

HVAC
· CER: Changing the connection types on a duct fitting to a flanged connection type no longer causes a fatal error.
· Flanges are now displayed on duct fittings within a model view, when the flange values are specified on the duct fittings.
· Duct fittings endcap snaps to the open end of vertical or sloped duct segments properly.

Piping
· Pipe segments copied from one pipe run to another pipe run will align properly to the new pipe run.
· Using AecConvertto3dSolid command will convert pipe fittings more successfully to 3d Solids.
· Auto-Routing pipe between two pipe connectors with an elbow using custom sizing will add the needed angle to the part to resolve the connection in the current drawing.
· When a single line pipe is being crossed multiple times by another AutoCAD MEP object at a different elevation, the hidden line gap is properly applied to the pipe.

Plumbing
· Plumbing Lines and Plumbing Fittings will continue to obey Annotation Scale after changing the drawing units and cancel the Drawing Setup dialog.

Schematics
· CER: Performing a Fillet or Join on schematic lines with schematic symbols anchored to them no longer causes a fatal error.

System
· Etransmit will no longer enter an infinite loop of prompting to save the drawing.
· CER: Grip editing the location of MEP objects with various setting combinations of Object Snaps, Snap, Ortho, Polar, Dynamic UCS and Dynamic Input settings will no longer cause a fatal error.
· CER: Erasing an inline MvPart will no longer cause a fatal error.
· CER: The adding of automatic properties to a Property Set Definition that is generated automatically when objects are added to the drawing will no longer cause a fatal error.
· Switching to the Extended Data tab in the Properties Palette with AutoCAD objects selected will no longer cause Resource Manager errors.
· CER: Part Catalogs containing the “’” symbol will no longer cause a fatal error during Catalogtest.
· CER: Saving of concurrently open drawing which contain annotative dimensions no longer cause a fatal error within Content Builder.
· CER: Parametric parts which produce an invalid solid will no longer cause a fatal error. Instead the erroneous solid will not be displayed

Will render for food...: Revit MEP File Installation

Is nothing easy in this world? Maybe beau can help. Check out his post about the file restructuring that occurred in build #2 of Revit MEP. Will render for food...: Revit MEP File Installation Thanks Beau.

Revit MEP - Heads up for First Time Users

It is never easy to change, especially when you know you can do it the old way and the new way seems riddled with problems. Well I hope to point out some of the potential problems you might encounter if you are going down the Revit trail. I hope to follow up this out line with some "how to do it" posts that will give you a little more detail on getting the Revit train a rollin'.

One way to figure out where the bumps might be is to step through your current process and ask your self "Can Revit do this?"

Here's what I wondered about.

First define the expectations

• What is the goal? To just get the documents out on time or a complete interactive BIM model?
• Make sure your engineers and design staff know what to expect.
• Communicate with your architectural partners. Make sure the correct expectations exist there as to how you can best collaborate and what level of collaboration can be achieved.

Get your infrastructure in place

• Create Template files that address the different needs of Electrical and Mechanical design.
• Set up all your necessary line weights and get some typical test plots to look correct.
• Think about plotting.
• View templates for Lighting, Power, HVAC, Piping, etc.
• Create content - Learn the Family editor first and start checking out sites that share families.
• Annotation - flag notes, title blocks, section cuts, etc. You will need to accept what comes with Revit or customize for your office use.
• Schedules - Optimize them too for appearance, but also consider how you will now schedule considering Revits capabilities.

Find Your Champions

• Your first time out be looking for the right job and the right people to make it happen.
• Drafter drafting or engineer engineering?

Is your hardware up to it?

• System requirements

Learn then teach

• The Tutorials are fair to start, but don't really address an engineering process in my mind.
• Colleges and Tech Schools may offer Revit classes.
• My real advice is to contact your reseller or Autodesk about an implementation and training. You or your boss may not like the cost of a good Revit implementation/education but consider this, you need a colonoscopy. Do you see the guy who read the tutorials or would you rather see a physician that took the time and money to learn from professionals. I know where I put my money. Your client may feel the same as me.

Plan for the worst

• You may have to bail out of Revit. Projects have a life of their own and anything can happen. Pull the plug if it makes sense. Learn what you can and go on.