Add pipe components

00:01

In this lesson, we will cover modeling piping and adding pipe fittings and accessories.

00:09

When modeling pipe, you can use the pipe tool or you can use an existing pipe connector in the model.

00:17

For this example, we will route four pipe mains from the mechanical room through the corridor and place some branches as well.

00:26

And we'll take a look at some of the challenges that can arise when modeling piping.

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On the Systems ribbon, in the Plumbing and Piping panel, click Pipe.

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The first thing you should do is select the correct type in the type selector.

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We'll use the standard pipe type for this example.

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Next in the Properties palette, scroll down to the mechanical section and then you can see the system type parameter.

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When modeling piping It's important that you select the correct system type, especially when you're modeling mains and branches.

01:10

We will select heating hot water supply.

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Then in the Options bar, you can set the diameter and the middle elevation.

01:21

If you'd rather work off of the bottom or the top elevation, you can control those parameters in the Properties palette.

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The middle elevation is also there as well.

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I'll change the bottom elevation to 10 feet.

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When I do You can see that the middle and top elevations update accordingly.

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I'll move the cursor into the mechanical room and click to place the starting point of the pipe segment.

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I can then move the cursor in any direction.

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I'll move the cursor down and then click in this corridor and move the cursor at a 90 degree angle and click again.

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When I do You can see that an elbow was automatically placed.

02:11

For the most part I prefer working in modeling pipe segments and having Revit place the fittings automatically.

02:19

Only in special circumstances will you place pipe fittings first.

02:26

Next I'll reduce the diameter and then place the pipe to the end of the corridor.

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You can press escape once to end the current pipe run and keep the Pipe tool active.

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Or you can press escape twice to end the command altogether Or click Modify to end the command.

02:48

I will create a branch here and we'll take a look at some of the challenges that it provides when using parallel pipes.

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I'm going to adjust a couple of these parameters here.

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I'll select heating hot water return, I'll change the middle elevation and the diameter here is 4 inches,

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and so in some cases you may start the Pipe tool and you may have five or six piping systems modeled,

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and you just want to connect to an existing pipe segment and you want to match that size, elevation and system.

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Now you could select Inherit Elevation, Inherit Size, double check the system,

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but if you want to do it quickly simply click to snap to an existing pipe segment and then press the space bar,

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and what that's going do is it's going to update the system type to match and then it will inherit the elevation and the size.

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And then you can place a pipe segment.

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Then I'll click Modify to end the command.

03:53

Now if we want to create the heating hot water return and then the condenser water supply and return, we can use the Parallel Pipes tool.

04:02

So on the Systems ribbon, in the Plumbing and Piping panel, click Parallel Pipes.

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When you do the contextual ribbon will update with options for your parallel pipes.

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Set the horizontal number to 4 and then the horizontal offset to 6 inches.

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At this point when you hover over a pipe, you can see an outline for the other parallel pipes.

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In this case there are three additional because I chose to be four total.

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Now typically you press tab and Revit will highlight the rest of the run.

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In this case we have a branch here, it branches off in two directions and so Revit is unsure of what to do.

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So if you have a situation like this, what I recommend is to delete the connection.

04:58

So in this case we have a T.

05:00

And then reconnect the main and then activate your Parallel Pipes tool,

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press tab and then create the parallel pipes for the mains and then do the same thing for the branches.

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And then you can use Trim and Extend to connect those.

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So in this case, we won't go through the process of connecting those but we could use the modify on the Modify ribbon and Trim/Extend Single Element,

05:31

and we could connect those up.

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In this case, we'd want to, we need to want to be tapping off at the top and so we'd want to adjust the elevation of those.

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But what I want to point out next is the you need to change the system type and that can also provide some issues here.

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So in this case they are all heating hot water supply, and in this case I'd want to change it to return for this one,

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but when I do you can see that it changes all of them,

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and so sometimes Revit thinks they're all on the same system but in this case, we need them all to be on different systems.

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And one way that we can go about fixing that is hovering over a pipe,

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pressing tab until it highlights the system and then clicking to select the system,

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and you can see now we have the piping system selected and I'm going to delete it.

06:30

When I do that, they all become undefined.

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So the system type is now undefined,

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and now I need to create a pipe of the correct system and connect it to each main in order for it to pick up the correct system.

06:44

So I can select a pipe and right click the connector on the end and select Draw Pipe.

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And then I can In this case I have heating hot water supply,

06:54

and I'm going change the middle elevation to zero because I want to place a drop here and then now it's heating hot water supply.

07:03

Since the tool is active I'm going to change the system type to heating hot water return.

07:09

And when I hover over the endpoint of the pipe, you can see a round snap and that means that I'm connecting to a pipe connector.

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And then middle elevation zero and click Apply.

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And now I have a heating hot water supply pipe, sorry heating hot water return.

07:29

And now I will do condenser water supply and we'll do the same thing,

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and then lastly condenser water return.

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So if you're in a situation where you're piping systems get crossed up and it's all, Revit is trying to put them all together.

07:48

You can delete that piping system for all the pipes and then connect piping to it of the correct system.

07:56

And that pipe, all the connected pipe will take on the correct system.

08:02

Lastly if you want to place pipe accessories or even pipe fittings, there are associated tools on the Systems ribbon in the Plumbing and Piping panel.

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I'll click pipe accessory and then I'll expand the type selector, and I will select a 4 inch motor control valve,

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and I'll hover over each pipe and when I click, I can place that motor control valve in the piping.

08:34

And I will obviously need a little more room here because I'm hitting the adjacent pipe and so I need to make some adjustments to my spacing.

08:44

But you can see that the pipe accessory is being placed in the pipe and it's taking on the correct system that we placed it in.