Creating MEP systems

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Creating Custom MEP System Types for Ducts and Pipes.

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In many cases, the system types that come with Revit

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will be enough.

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But what if you want something more specific?

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Such as a high pressure supply air system or refrigerant

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piping systems.

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That's where custom system types come into play.

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Custom system types are created by duplicating an existing

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type.

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For example, in the small Medical Center,

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in the project browser in the family nodes,

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I'm expanding the duct system area.

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And then I'm going to select the supply air and click Duplicate.

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On the new supply air choice, I'm

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going to double click slowly so I can rename it,

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and I'm going to call it high pressure supply air.

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Now, let's apply that new duct system

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to one of the existing systems in the project.

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I'm in the O1 ground floor HVAC plan.

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And I'm going to hover over one of the ducts and press Tab

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until I see that the system is highlighted.

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Now, I can use a type selector to change this duct system

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from supply air to high pressure supply air.

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If I try to do the same thing with the return air system,

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it won't work because the new system was created off

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of a supply air system.

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Still, my new duct system is an exact replica

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of the previous system.

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So let's make a change.

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In the project browser, I'm going

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to right click on high pressure supply air and select type

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properties.

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Here are the things that I can control for a duct system--

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the graphic overwrites, the material, calculations.

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And here's a list of what you can change--

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the identity data, this is information found in schedules,

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and the rise drops symbols.

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There's a list of ones you can choose from.

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Now in this case, I'm just going to select

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the graphic overrides.

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So I'm clicking the Edit button, and I'm

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going to see that the color is set to blue,

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but I'm going to change this to red so it's very different.

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Click on K to close all the dialog boxes.

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And back in my drawing, you can see

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the difference between the two supply air systems.

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But what about piping systems, you may ask.

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Well, the process is basically the same.

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I'm switching over to the O1 ground floor HVAC piping view,

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where I have some existing refrigerant lines showing.

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When I check out system type of each line,

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you can see that it's set to other.

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But my system names have terms, like gas in this case.

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And when I select another piping system,

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you can see this one has liquid.

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I want to have a better understanding

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of the uses of these systems, so I'm

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going to create two new pipe types named gas refrigerant

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piping and liquid refrigerant piping.

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As you see, when I open up the piping system types,

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there are a lot of premade systems,

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but none are related to these uses.

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I must start a new system type from an existing one.

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So I'm going to choose other and duplicate it.

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I'm going to select the new one, and then rename it

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to gas refrigerant piping.

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Then I'm going to do this again, right click Duplicate, make

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sure I highlight the new one, and rename

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it liquid refrigerant piping.

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Now, let's take a look at the type properties.

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When I right click on the liquid refrigerant piping,

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I can select type properties.

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You can see that there are a lot of options that are the same as

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ducts, but there are more options for the rise and drop

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symbols.

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Now in this case, I'm just going to set up

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the graphic overrides.

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For liquid, I'm going to set it to orange.

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And I'm going to click OK, and close that.

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For the gas, I'm going to set that style, the type

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properties, the graphic overwrites,

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and I'm going to set that to purple.

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Going to click OK until I get out of the dialog box.

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Now, before I leave the piping system types,

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I want to show you one other twist.

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When I select domestic cold water, in the type properties,

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you can see that there are a lot more options

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in the mechanical area rather than just calculations.

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This is also true for the domestic hot water.

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But it's not for the fire protection

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systems, or for others, like the sanitary systems.

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So keep this in mind if these options--

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if you're creating new piping systems.

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Now, let's assign these new systems

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to some existing piping.

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I'm hovering over, and then pressing Tab

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until I see the system highlighted.

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Notice that this system name, when I select it, is gas.

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So I'm going to use those type selector

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and change this one to gas refrigerant piping.

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When I do so, you can see that it turns purple.

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I'm going to repeat this with the piping next to that.

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So, I highlight, Press Tab, select when I see my system,

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and you can see that the system name is liquid,

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so I'm changing this to liquid refrigerant piping.

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And this one turns orange.

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Of course, you can create totally new piping systems

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as well.