AutoCAD MEP Clash Reports

Revit products have had the ability to report all interferences in a schedule since they came out, which has made them fundamentally better than looking all over the place to red lines hidden in a busy drawing in ABS/AutoCAD MEP. Well, here's a gem of an undocumented command for AutoCAD MEP. Type "clashreport" on your command line and check this out.

Choose the types of interferences you are looking for by checking the appropriate boxes and click OK. AutoCAD MEP will prompt you for the location of the report in your drawing. When it is added, it will also add numbered triangle to your drawing indicated where the interferences are that correspond to the numbers in the report. Now that's awesome!

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

Convert to 3D Solids is so ABS 2007

First things first, I had this great idea, I wanted to write up a procedure for creating parametric parts in AutoCAD MEP, but I never seem to get around to it. So What do I do? I decided to write a teaser in this Blog, forcing the next thing I write on to be parametric parts. The down side is it didn't work. I still haven't been able to settle down long enough to get it done. But, don't lose heart, I haven't given up yet. It's on my to do list if that means anything.



That being said, here is something completely different.



I had the good fortune to have Chuck Mies and Ed Deal from Autodesk in my office the other day and we were talking about sharing AutoCAD MEP data with a Revit Architecture model. I have always converted my duct and other ABS objects to 3d solids, saved as a SAT file and finally imported them into a giant Revit family for my architects using Revit. Ed had a take on things that I had not tried. Ed suggests individually exporting duct, pipe, cabletray, whatever to IFC, then importing those IFC into your Revit model. My favorite benefits from using Ed's method is that Revit will recognize the individual components for interference detection and at least for me, the file sizes are smaller and the files faster. Give it a shot and comment back your results. I would love to hear how it works for others.

Parametric Parts for AMEP

I was just looking at the AUGI wish list for AutoCAD MEP and noticed a real theme that I really agree with. There aren't enough parts and they are the wrong size. Somebody named rb.72855 hit it on the head when they said "What I don't understand is why all of the parts aren't parametric. Registers and grilles and louvers are the ones I see the most need for. Auto desk is all the time telling us how easy it is to create parametric parts. If it is so easy why aren't all of there parts parametric?"

I have to agree. But to help everyone out in the mean time, my next two posts will be on creating parametric parts. One using the super easy Parametric Parts wizard in AMEP 2008 and two using the incredibly un-intuitive parametric part builder. A diffuser is a great part to have parametric, I also need a parametric transformer electrically. If you have a part you would like me to demo, post a comment to this article and I will post that. I will also share the finished product on the AUGI ACA/AMEP Exchange so we can all share in the love.

So get busy with the suggestions, or we'll be looking at something you might not need.

Dynamic Blocks inside of ABS - Visibility Solution

For all the awesome tools inside of ABS and ADT one of my favorite tools comes from AutoCAD. The Dynamic block just happens to fit the bill for some special situations. Electrically, I like to use a dynamic block for exit arrows on my exit signage. I could create separate device styles for every possible situation, but I find have one device style with a dynamic block on top is more efficient. The dynamic block I document below, uses Visibility States and Rotation parameters to handle the many different situations you might run into.

Now, this gets me to the real reason I'm writing this article. Visibility states that work great in AutoCAD, do not respond so well inside of ABS and ADT. Here's what happens, the triangle icon used to select the desired state simply issues the previous command like hitting "enter" or "spacebar". One work around is to use the properties palette to choose the required state. I feel like it's too much effort, but I'm Lazy. I have heard that changing your right click settings in Options can correct the problem, but it has not worked for me. What I have done, is insert the few Dynamic blocks I use into the company ABS template. I do this because once a drawing is saved and re-opened, the problem ceases to exist. So by placing the Dynamic blocks I use in the template, they are in effect already saved and reopened from the get go.

Okay, I promised the down low on a Dynamic block so here we go. This block uses visibility states to cover the many different configurations of exit sign arrows. I'm going to draw the entire thing inside of the Block Editor, but if you already have blocks, just insert them into the Block Editor.

I'll either have a double arrow or a single arrow, then either a single sided or double sided device. For this block, I will create a base point that will correspond to the center point of any exit sign. With the point defined, I'll create all the symbology I need for all the arrows See the figure below.






Next select the Visibility parameter from the Author Palette or use the Parameter button shown above.

Once placed, the visibility configuration tools become available. The buttons available are (R to L)Visibility Mode which will show invisible items half toned, Make Visible, which will make invisible objects in the current visibility state visible, Make Invisible, which will make visible objects in the current visibility state invisible, and Manage Visibility States, which opens the Visibility States dialog shown below.

Now its time to give a little consideration to the names of your states. This is what the user will see when they select the visibility icon.

Use the "Rename" button found in the "Visibility States" dialog to rename the default state to "1 Left" (See below). This is the name for a single arrow pointing to the left. Now use the "new" button to add three more states; 2 Left, for two faced signs, 1 Right and 2 Right. Depending on the visibility options you had set when creating your states, use the Make Visible or Make Invisible buttons so the appropriate geometry is visible in each state. I use the Visibility Mode button at this time so I can view all of the geometry whether visible or not.

Next, let's add a Rotation Parameter. Begin at the base point and extend to the right. An angle of zero is fine for our use here. In the Actions tab of the Author palette select the Rotation Action. Choose the Rotation parameter to attach it to. For objects, insure you pick not only all of the visible or not geometry, but also the parameters and actions. This will make them available in every state. Close the block Editor and test your new dynamic block. It should look something like this.

For more ideas for Dynamic blocks, see my Lazy Drafter article "Thinking Outside the Block".

Rejoin Broken Duct and Pipe

It happens. You delete a VAV box or valve and you want to rejoin two sections of duct or pipe. It’s just not very intuitive how so you end up stretching or redrawing. There is actually a function for rejoining although I don’t think it is widely used or known.

To rejoin duct/pipe, select your duct or pipe and right click.

Select Duct Length… or Pipe Length… depending on what you are doing. A dialog box opens that allows you to break or merge. Select Merge, then select apply to Duct/Pipe Run for contiguous runs or select Objects for non contiguous runs.

Hit OK and you have a single run.



I hope this helps with a small annoyance that just seems to happen too often.

A Simple Plan to Implement ABS

If you are implementing ABS in your office there are certain things you have to do, some things you should do, and some things that are simply optional. This time around, I'll ty and size up the task in front of you.

Required

Color Tables

Decide right away if you are going to use an STB or a CTB. If using a CTB, now is the time to consider if your current CTB makes sense. Here's a hint eighter way. Revit Has 13 Line wieghts, for you to have more at this point may make things more difficult in the future.

Layer Standards
Are you going to go AIA? Again you need to consider how what you are doing now will fit into ABS Layer Keys.

Device Styles
Chances are you won't have all the device styles you need or you won't like the out of the box symbology. See my previous post on creating device styles.

MvParts
Parametric and Block Based parts will have to be created or modified for certain jobs, so you better be able to do it.

Optional
Title Blocks
Project Navigator
Display Configurations
Scheduling and Property Set Definitions

Now what did I leave out? Plenty, but here is your start. I'll be adding more based off your feedback. Good luck if you are heading down this road, and don't be affraid to ask for help. Your reseller istanding by.

Layer Key Migration Utility

Richard Binning has developed a routine to help combine layer keys. If you have ever tried to bring together the standard Architectural keys with your Engineering keys, you were looking at a ton of manual labor without Richard's utility. He has recently updated it to include ADT and ABS for 2007 products. Download his routine here .

Creating Drop Down Lists in Property Sets

Brian Tuffin has just posted a great article on creating drop down lists in property sets for ADT and ABS. Read on even if your are sure what I'm talking about because this one will save you time and money.

http://bim-wit.blogspot.com/2006/06/psds-property-set-definitions-better.html

New AUGI ATP Courses for ABS Block Based and Parametric Parts

Kelly Swa has recently Started his own ABS - Revit Systems Blog. Check it out here.

Bucking the Systems

Now, the really cool thing is that Kelly is teaching an online AUGI class on parametric parts this August. I highly suggest you sign up for this one, because I can't think of something more complex to learn on your own.

The same link below will allow you to sign up for my class in September on creating block-based parts. It will be a spin of what I taught at AU last year with a lot more detail and different parts added.

AUGI Training Program (ATP)

It's all free thanks to the fine folks at AUGI. If you are not a member this should be more than reason enough to join up.

Good luck, and I hope to see you in class.

ABS Electrical Device Style and Tags

Last December I posted an article on how to create electrical device styles. Quite often these styles will have tags that need to rotate with the device. Let's say I have a pull station that is represented by a circle with the letter "F" in it.



I got a call from a user that had created some styles like this that seemed to work great until they rotate the style. Upon rotation the tag would begin to spin away from the original object reaching its farthest distance at 180 degrees and returning to the object back at 0 degrees.

They were perplexed and so was I until I discovered that the justification of the created tags play an important role in their behavior. If you need a tag to rotate in a single spot, its justification must be Middle Center. Otherwise it will have a different base point of rotation from your object. I hopes this help anyone that might be creating Device styles.

Something else that might help is a new way of creating Electrical device styles in ABS 2007. Simply select an AutoCAD block, right click and select "Convert to" then "Convert to Device".



This will open a dialog box to assign a Name, type of device and layer key to the new style.



Click next to assign any connector properties, then click "Finish" to complete.



If ABS detects any other blocks with the same name in the current drawing, it will ask you if you want to convert them all. That is pretty much the whole thing.

Coming soon the run down on batch converting your AutoCAD blocks to device styles.

New Carrier HVAC software imports gbXML

ABS has had the ability to hold and modify engineering data in space objects since 2005. The ABS interface greatly improves your ability to design, zone and control spaces in a building as opposed to manually typing this information into your HVAC calulation software. The magic takes the form of a gbXML file that holds the design data. It can be exported from ABS (and Revit Systems) and imported into some HVAC software.

That software supporting a gbXML import has been;
Trane Trace 700 and VariTrane Duct Designer software
Elite DuctSize software
Green Building Studio

Now, Carrier has just released HAP 4.3. It now supports gbXML import. Follow this link for the details.

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=gbxml&sp-k=Commercial+Systems&sp-a=sp09127501&sp-f=ISO-8859-1

No doubt this will be good news for Carrier users that were contemplating a switch to ABS.

As an added bonus, ABS and ADT now share a common space object, meaning doors and windows come directly over from the architect and engineering design data can be added once in ABS without the loss of architectural openings. More to follow on that subject.

Revit Systems and ABS - a Comparison of Features

I have been getting a lot of feed back regarding Revit Systems and ABS, so it's safe to say I will be discussing them both at length for the foreseeable future.

Today's post is simply a look at how they compare by major features. As you review them, you may notice the features in Revit Systems go deeper into the actual engineering of a building than ABS ever has. Next time I will be discussing why this is important as you look at your companies long range plans and procedures.


If you are having trouble reading the features list, right click on the list and select "Open Link". Once you see only the link, select the features list and click on the "Enlarge to normal size" button that appears in the lower right hand corner of the features list.

AutoCAD vs. ABS vs. Revit Systems

We have more choices everyday whether we want them or not. Remember when there were only four television stations? NBC, ABC, CBS and public TV. As a kid I remember when the President’s State of the Union address would come on. “Oh man! The President is on! Now I have to watch a documentary on Barn swallows." Some of you may be too young to remember life before cable, but I bet most can remember a time when your choice of CAD technologies was limited to one.

Digital Drafting
Whether you liked AutoCAD, MicroStation, or whatever. (I was a big fan of Mac Architron.) The technology they all used was the same. Digital lines. We still drafted, but with digital lines. These lines could only be differentiated by color, linetype and layer. So we made a mess of layers to control them.

Object Oriented
Then came ADT and ABS. This was revolutionary. Instead of digital lines, new entities called objects were introduced on the AutoCAD platform that contained specific properties to the object type. Doors have properties like height and width, diffusers in ABS have properties for flow. These properties allow us to step away from layers for display control and give us a mechanism for linked scheduling of any object type. As an added bonus, these objects are three dimensional which gives us relational clean up when similar objects meet, like duct and pipe, and interference detection when differing object types occupy the same space.

Parametric Modeling
Revit Systems and Autodesk’s other Revit based programs take a giant step ahead of digital drafting and object oriented technologies by creating a relational model that can be queried for any type of view, schedule or detail. How many times have you heard draw it once? The minute you draw it twice in AutoCAD or ABS somebody changes one of two and now, there’s a disconnect. A Revit project has only one model. You can only draw it once, literally. Further, it does not matter which view of the model you modify, all views update because they are all referencing the same thing.

Let’s compare these three technologies in a little more detail.

AutoCAD 2007

Advantages
-Highly adaptive to most any drafting use.
-It’s the standard.
-Highly customizable.
-Large pool of qualified users.

Limitations
-It Crashes too much.
-Can’t complete against Autodesk’s vertical products.
-Requires implementation, optimization and administration to be truly effective.

Bottom Line
You know what you got with AutoCAD, it’s comfortable, but I can visualize a time when the building industry uses AutoCAD about as much as we hand draft now.

Autodesk Building Systems (ABS) 2007
Advantages
-It’s plain faster to drop in a complete object in a drawing that automatically connects to objects around it than draw line by line.
-ABS will draft AutoCAD into the ground when properly set up.
-The ability to import and export engineering data to familiar software for engineering calculations.
-Sections and elevations cut and schedules created in just seconds.
-Interference checking between ABS objects and ADT structural objects.

Limitations
-Familiar Interface lures un-trained users to fall back on AutoCAD tools and procedures effectively negating the additional cost.
-Near impossible to implement without an experienced consultant.
-Training is required to effectively use ABS.

Bottom Line
It's the best thing we have for MEP engineering right now. Knowing AutoCAD is not a free ticket to understanding ABS. It goes a long way toward reducing redundancies but still requires manual updates between related design components.

Revit Systems 1
Advantages
-Advanced Engineering capabilities include Load Balancing, Lighting Levels, Voltage Drop and Pressure Loss.
-Bidirectional Associativity.
-A single data base means I get accurate associations between all my data, all the time.
-I have never crashed Revit… Ever.

Limitations
-Did somebody forget Plumbing? Tap, tap… is this thing on?
-Very, very few qualified users. Those who invest in learning how to reap the rewards of Revit Systems will have to be compensated.
-This is the first shot out for Revit Systems, no matter what they got right, you can bet there is going to be a list of things that will need to be fixed or added.

Bottom Line
A true Building Information Modeling solution. If I am going to dream about where BIM can go, currently Revit products are the best the building industry has to offer.

If you want to be on the cutting edge, jump on now.

Wait much longer and you will be playing catch up while your competition is widening the gap between the future (everybody else) and the past (you).

Creating Display Configurations

What are Display Configurations
In the AutoCAD world, layers are used to help control what and how entities are shown. More control has always meant more layers.

Display configurations in ABS simplify the situation by allowing the user to instantaneously set if and how objects are displayed with much finer control. Display Configurations allow users to view an object differently based off the requirements of the drawing. Examples include varying levels of hatch in a wall object depending on the anticipated plot scale. Figure 1 shows a single wall object with the three different display configurations of “Low Detail”, “Medium Detail” and “High Detail” applied to it.

Figure 1

How does it work?
A Display Configuration is selected by the user

A Display Configuration is a collection of rules for all object types that defines how objects will be displayed (not lines, arcs and circles).

The Display Sets are enabled by the selected Configuration

A Display Set contains rules for all objects and is applied by view. (Model, Plan, Section/Elevation, Diagnostic) A Display Configuration can have several Display Sets associated with it.

Display Representations are enabled by the Display Sets

A Display Representation is a set of rules for a particular object that defines how that object will display.

A Display Set contains Display Representations for all object types and applies them to a view orientation.

This should make about no sense at all until you apply it by creating your own display configuration. Let’s create a display configuration for an electrical lighting plan in ABS to demonstrate these relationships. For this article I will only show how to configure a couple of objects, but the methodology is repeated for every object type required for any configuration.

Creating a Display Configuration
The Display Manager is used to create and control all aspects of a display configuration. From the Format pull down select “Display Manager”. To create our new configuration, select “Configurations” in the left hand window, right click and select “New”. Name this configuration “Acme Lighting”. Add a description of the configurations purpose. Apply the configuration. The configuration needs a set of representations to define how objects are displayed. Rather than create one from scratch, copy the standard electrical plan set by expanding the “Sets” folder and selecting “ABS Electrical Plan”. Right click and select “Copy”. Then right click and select “Paste”. Select “ABS Electrical Plan (2)” and rename to “Acme Lighting Plan”. See figures 2 and 3.

Figure 2 – Creating a new configuration.


Figure 3 – Copying a display set.

The “Acme Lighting Plan” set will contain the representations for objects when viewed in plan. Copy “Acme Lighting Plan”, paste it and rename it to create a new set for objects viewed in model named “Acme Lighting Model”. To assign these sets to the configuration “Acme Lighting”, select the “Acme Lighting” configuration on the left and the “Configuration” tab on the right. Select “Acme Lighting Plan” for the display representation set associated with the top view direction. See figure 4.
Figure 4

Next, select “Acme Lighting Model” for the display representation set associated with the default view direction.

Now that we have a configuration that the user can select, and that configuration is calling view specific sets, it’s time to define how individual objects will represent themselves. Expand “Representation by Object” on the left of the Display Manager. A list of objects is displayed. Select “Ceiling Grid” from the list. Select the “Model” display representation for the “Acme Lighting Model” display set and the “Reflected Screened” display representation for the “Acme Lighting Plan” display set. This will show the ceiling grid screened in plan view and normal in a model view. See figure 5.

Note if you use “Plan Screened” your ceiling grid will remain invisible because in a normal plan view ceiling grids are off. This is perfect for a power plan, because the ceiling grid would be meaningless.

Figure 5

Let’s review all three components to defining a display configuration and their relationship’s to each other in the context of the configuration we just made.

Representations
Define how individual objects can look.


Ceiling grid objects have different representations. We selected “Reflected Screened” for when viewing our design in a top or view and “Model” for every other view.

Sets
A group of representations defined for a specific view.


We created two sets of representations called “Acme Lighting Plan” and Acme Lighting Model” We could now open a set and edit all of the representations within.

Configuration
A complete collection of sets required for the desired display of objects.

We created a Configuration called “Acme Lighting”. When selected it calls the appropriate sets which in turn selects the appropriate representations.

Test the new configuration by placing a ceiling grid in the current drawing. In figure 6 the SW isometric view shows a green ceiling grid and the Plan view shows a grey ceiling grid. This demonstrates that a single configuration provides view dependant control if set up correctly.
Figure 6

More Practice
Now let’s set this configuration up to handle mechanical duct and diffusers. In a lighting plan, seeing the diffusers is critical, but the duct will only confuse the drawing. Open the Display Manager and expand “Representation by Object” on the left. Select “Duct” from the list. Select the “Model” display representation for the “Acme Lighting Model” display set and unselect every display representation from the “Acme Lighting Plan” set. See figure 7. With no display representation selected, duct will not appear in the “Acme Lighting” display configuration. Repeat with “Duct Custom Fitting”, “Duct Fitting” and “Duct Flex” to prevent all forms of duct work from showing up in your lighting plans.

Figure 7

Diffusers are Mvparts, select “Multi-View Part” from the Representations by object list, and then select only the “2 Line Screened” display representation for the “Acme Lighting Plan” display set. Select only the “Model” display representation for the “Acme Lighting Model” display set.

Test the configuration by placing some duct and a diffuser into the current drawing. Figure 8 shows the results you should get in model and in plan views.
Figure 8

The Display Manager
When you first get started with the Display Manager it can be confusing. Everything looks the same, yet it’s different. This is due largely to the fact that representations, sets and configurations are linked like box cars on a train. When navigating the Display Manager, no matter which portion you look at you can see the links to the rest of the train. When you select the “Acme Lighting” configuration in the Display Manager, you see the two sets associated with it and can access them directly from there.

The real secret is finding the view of this train that works best for what you are trying to do. As you advance in your use of the Display Manager, having the relationships of representations, sets and configurations so tightly integrated is a real advantage.
Creating a display configuration might take a lot of practice to really master, so be prepared to try this exercise a few times. I hope you find that it’s worth the effort.

Self Underling Tags

It sure would be cool to create a tag that will do something that was so simple in AutoCAD… underline itself no matter how long it gets. Remember “%%u”? If you prefixed an attribute with it the resulting attribute’s underline would be only as long as the number of characters that made it up. Today I’m going to create a Pump Tag that is appropriately underlined whether it’s P-1 or P-2000.

There are 3 important parts involved in making this happen.
1. The Tag
2. The Property that the tag calls
3. The Property Data Format

The Tag
My tag has 2 parts, a static part “P-“ that will never change, and it will also call a property from a property set which is constantly up for change. The underline must span both parts.

To make my tag, I will just place 2 pieces of text in a drawing (“%%uP- “ and “XXX”) as I want to see them for a tag. Notice I added a space after the dash. This is necessary for the underlining of my two parts to overlap. The result should look something like this.

P-XXX

The Property that the tag calls

So much for the first part. Now I need a property to call. I made a Property Set called Pumps in the Style manager, and added a property called “Pump_Number”. If you look at the available formats for this property, Underlined is not available.

The Property Data Format

We are going to have to make a format called Underlined ourselves. In the Style manager, drill to Property Data Formats under Documentation objects, and create a new format. Name it underlined. In the Formatting tab add “%%u” to the Prefix: box. See figure 2.



Now go back to the Pumps Property Set Definition. There we can select the newly made format of underlined.

The two underlines will slightly overlap, but are perfectly aligned so the plots will never show it. When you add or change your pump number, the “%%u” shows until you activate the field to edit it. This is great because users can not accidentally delete it.

Add or Modify Duct Sizes

So, I have this client that does a lot of hospital work and they ran into something I had not noticed before. When adding rectangular duct they informed me that they could not insert duct larger than 96”x96”.



Some jobs are so large, they require larger duct. They were glad to know there is a way to create larger sizes, and I thought there might be others that could benefit from knowing how to add to the available duct sizes.

Ducts are constrained by the catalog in which they are defined. These catalogs can be altered by using the Catalog Editor. Invoke the Catalog Editor by selecting it from under the MEP Common pulldown menu.



Before opening the Catalog Editor, check the ABS Catalogs tab in Options to find the duct catalog you are using. Mine is buried in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ABS 2006\enu\Aecb Catalogs\ Duct US Imperial.apc



Once opened, drill down to Duct US Imperial\Rectangular\Slip Joint\Ducts\Rectangular Duct Slip Joint\Constant Lists.



To add additional heights and widths, scroll to the bottom of the list and right click on the gray square under the last available size. Select “Insert” and then “Cell”. Now type in your new height or width.



I added 98 and 100 to both columns in this example. Save and close the Catalog Editor. Now return to the MEP Common pull down and select “Regenerate Catalog”. Type “D” on the command line to regenerate the Duct catalog. Now when you select the Add Duct tool the new sizes are available.



Keep in mind, we have only added duct sizes. To effectively add duct you will have to repeat this process to add the appropriate elbows and transition sizes.
This is a good place to begin if you are ready to start exploring the Catalog Editor, but please be careful and back up what you don’t want destroyed. Too much exploring and playing around could back fire here with catastrophic results. Till next time, Good Luck.

3 Tips

Tip #1
If you would like to add a joint into duct or pipe, hold down your ctrl key and click. This makes a nice line of demarcation for transitions between existing to new.

Tip #2
Specifying standard elevations in Options/ABS Elevations per project is handy, but because every project is different I have to set up elevations every time a project comes in the door.

A better solution is specifying standard elevations in your template. I specify every 6 inches between 9'-0" and 15'-0".






Tip #3
When plumbing with schematic pipe, fixture units are used to calculate pipe sizes. What happens in a plan where you would normally terminate your pipe with a pipe break and refer the reader to an enlarged plan for the connections? I do this often for large rest rooms because I can't show all of the connections at 1/8". When I want to size pipe now, all of the fixture units that I need for sizing are not there.

I solve this problem by creating an MvPart that looks like a pipe break but holds fixture units like a sink. I assign all the fixture units for the area served to the Mvpart part pipe break and size my pipe as I normally would.

ABS Sizing Standards

I often get questions on how ABS sizes duct, wire and pipe. Well I guess it has happened enought that I have written it all out for you. Read on and all shall be revealed.

Duct
Duct sizing is derived from the ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook 1997 and can be based on Air Velocity or Static Pressure Drop (Friction) per 100 feet of duct. Roughness Coefficient and Air Density can be set by the user.

HVAC Load Calcs
HVAC Load Calcs can be performed using data from inside of the ABS model. That information can be exported in a gbxml or ddxml format to any load calculating software that accepts this standard format. Software that accepts gbxml and ddxml include; Trace 700 for heating and cooling load analyses and Varitrane Duct Designer and Elite Duct Size to calculate optimal duct sizes using static regain, equal friction, or constant velocity methods.

MvParts
Mechanical MvParts (rooftop units, VAV boxes, etc) The sizes of MvParts in ABS were chosen based off of standard manufactures parts. When similar parts are not the same, ABS uses the larger size.

Electrical MvParts are based on leading manufacturers.

Duct and fittings
Duct and fittings are based on the ASHRAE Duct Fitting Database (1994), Round, Rectangular, and Oval Duct Industrial Construction Standards published by SMACNA, and are augmented by offerings from the leading manufacturer of duct and fitting in the United States.

Pipe and Pipe Fittings
Pipe and Pipe Fittings Pipe identification, outer dimensions, and nominal dimensions are referenced against ANSI B36.19 and ANSI B36.19 as published in Crane's Technical Paper No. 410. Pipe fittings are referenced against various applicable standards:
· Flange ANSI/ASME B16.5
· Socket Weld and Threaded ANSI/ASME B16.11
· Cast iron ANSI/ASME B16.12 and B16.13
· Butt Welded ANSI/ASME B16.9
· Grooved Not described in standard. Based off leading manufacturer.
· Brazed ANSI/ASME B16.18, B16.22, B16.23, and B16.29 (and others)

Plumbing Pipe
Plumbing Pipe Sizing is based on the Uniform Plumbing Code-2000, Cranes Technical Paper No. 410, American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) chapter interpretations, and engineering judgment. Also used are the Hazen-Williams friction loss formula and a derivation of the Hunters Curve referenced from ASPE.
Sanitary sizing is based on the Uniform Plumbing Code 2000.

Wire
Wire is sized from the ampacity table in the wire database (ampacity.mdb) arrange similar to NEC table 310-16 and 250-122. An additional table (ambients.mdb) contains correction factors based on NEC 310-16.

Conduit and Cable Tray
Conduit and Cable Tray are based on NEMA FB1 (conduit) and NEMA VE1 - 1998 (Cable Tray).

Anchors Away!

Here’s a tool that probably is over looked by most people new to ABS. That tool is anchors. Anchors are pretty much self descriptive. They are used to anchor one object or entity to another. When an object is anchored a host object, movements of the host trigger identical movements in the object. This might come in real handy to keep switches anchored to doors that change their swing or hinge, or keeping light fixtures and diffusers within a referenced ceiling grid, or keeping receptacles on a wall. Hmmm, let’s take a closer look at anchors.

There are two categories of anchors; automatic like a structural column is automatically anchored to a structural grid, and a manual anchor that can be set by the user. The Manual Anchor category has 6 types.

Object Anchor – to anchor an AEC object to another AEC object.
Curve Anchor – to anchor objects to the base curve of other objects.
Leader Anchor – to anchor nodes on a layout curve with a leader.
Node Anchor - to anchor nodes on a layout curve or grids
Cell Anchor – to attach objects to positions on a 2D layout grid or 3D volume grid.
Volume Anchor – to anchor objects to volumes on 3D grids.

All those anchors can make things seem awful confusing. Let’s simplify things by assuming that your architect is using ADT. In this case we’ll use the Object anchor because we need ABS objects to anchor to ADT objects. The first problem you’ll have is finding the Object anchor. Open the Content Browser and drill down to Sample Tools catalog. All of the manual anchors are inside Parametric Layout and Anchoring Tools. The object anchor, when invoked, asks for the object to anchor then the object to anchor it to… that’s it. But wait, there’s a little more, it works through X-references. Now I’m real happy. The architect can now move the ceiling grids and walls at will, and my anchored lights, diffusers, switches and thermostats cheerfully follow along. Now, that’s why I use ABS.