Add electrical equipment

00:01

In this lesson, we will cover loading electrical equipment families into a project, selecting the appropriate electrical equipment type to place,

00:12

and placing electrical equipment at the correct location.

00:17

In this model there's an electrical room on the ground floor level and there's also an equipment pad placed outside of the electrical room.

00:27

We'll place a couple panel boards inside the electrical room and then we'll place a transformer on the pad located outside.

00:37

Yeah, you can load electrical equipment families into a project before using the electrical equipment tool.

00:44

To do this switch to the insert ribbon and in the load from library panel click Load Family.

00:52

Or you can switch to the systems ribbon and in the electrical panel click Electrical Equipment.

01:01

This activates the electrical equipment tool and you can see that the load family tool is also available on the contextual ribbon.

01:10

When you click load family, the load family dialog opens,

01:16

for this example, we'll use the default family library, open electrical M. E. P. Electric power, distribution.

01:30

In this folder you can see several different types of families, we'll load in a couple panel boards.

01:38

You can see that some of them are indicated as surface, meaning they are surface mounted and the ones that are not are recessed.

01:47

You can use control to select multiple families and you can also use shift to select multiple families at once,

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and then load them all into the project.

01:60

For this example, will select the 208 volt MC. B. Surface panel along with the 480 volt M. C. B surface panel.

02:12

With those two selected click Open.

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When you do those families are loaded into the project and when you expand the type selector,

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you can see those two families that we just loaded along with any other families that have already been loaded into the project.

02:34

For this example, I'll select one of the 208 volt panels that we just loaded.

02:41

With one of those family types selected.

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You can see that when I move my cursor into the drawing area there is a cannot place symbol.

02:50

And the reason is because this is a faced based, a face based family.

02:57

You can see this or you can you, you can tell that because there is a placement panel in the contextual ribbon.

03:06

For a panel board you're likely going to use place on vertical face.

03:10

But depending on what type of component it is.

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You could also do place on face if it was going to be on the floor or even place on work plane.

03:19

And then you could select a level or a reference plane to place it on.

03:25

For this example, I'll leave place on vertical face selected and then I'll move the cursor into the electrical room.

03:33

And I can, when I move my cursor over a wall you can then see the panel board,

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and I'll simply click to place one of the panel boards on the back wall of the electrical room.

03:49

Next I will select one of the 4 480 volt MC. B panels and I'll place one on next to the first one that we placed.

04:02

And then I'll click Modify to end the command.

04:07

Now when I select one of the panel boards you can see that there are several parameters on the properties palette.

04:15

Yeah, you can see that there is a scheduled level parameter and then there's an Elevation From Level.

04:22

Now this will control the height of the panel board.

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You can also see a host parameter and this will show you that it's a linked architectural model and it'll show you the actual link.

04:35

And this parameter will move the panel board either away from the wall or closer to the wall.

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So for example, if I input one foot, it will move it away from the wall one foot, I'll change it back to zero and I'll be on the wall again.

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So Elevation From Level will move it up or down offset from host.

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It'll move it away or closer to the wall.

05:03

There are also several other parameters.

05:05

And when you click Edit Type, you can view the type parameters and depending on the family that you loaded and placed these parameters will vary.

05:19

Next we will place an electrical transformer outside of the electrical room.

05:29

So once again on the systems ribbon in the electrical panel we'll click electrical equipment and then we'll expand the type selector.

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We will select one of the dry type transformers.

05:44

I'll select one of the larger ones for this example.

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And when you move the cursor into the drawing area, you can see the equipment attached to the cursor.

05:56

And there is no placement panel in the contextual ribbon.

05:60

So this is a non-hosted family, there is a level parameter and an Elevation From Level and then there's still a host parameter.

06:09

So even though this is not a hosted component, it will still have a host parameter.

06:15

It just does not have to be placed in a host.

06:20

If you press spacebar, the component will rotate in 90 degree increments.

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And in this case we have a pad that is at a 30 degree angle.

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And so there's obviously several buildings that are at an angle or there are certain rooms ah that are at an angle.

06:40

And when this is the case you can hover the cursor over an edge.

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So really over any line.

06:46

And then press the spacebar and the component will rotate and increments relating to the angle.

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And so in this case will simply click to place it when we have rotated appropriately.

07:01

And then also if you if you don't want to do that or you depending on the situation, you may also want to use rotate after placement.

07:09

So when this option is selected, When you click to place one of the components, then the rotate control will become active,

07:18

and you can then type in any angle such as 45 degrees and press Enter and the component will be rotated just like you are using the rotate tool.

07:30

I'll click modify to end the command.

07:33

And then since we don't need this one, I'll actually select it and delete it.

07:39

And that is how we can place electrical equipment.