Define MEP connectors

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In this video, we will cover placing MEP connectors and adjusting connector properties.

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In this project Several components have been placed.

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When you select a component, you can see various options on the contextual ribbon in the Create Systems panel.

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These options are indicative of the connectors that have been placed on the component and control the systems that they can be added to.

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To take a closer look at this, I will select the water source heat pump and then click Edit Family in the contextual ribbon.

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As you can see, there are several connectors that have been placed on this equipment family.

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To place a connector You can use one of the tools on the Create ribbon in the Connectors panel.

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These tools will control the discipline of the connector, which then controls the type of system that the component can be added to.

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I'll click Duct Connector.

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When placing a connector, you can use one of the placement options.

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You can select Place on Face or Place on Work Plane.

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Most of the time you will want to use Place on Face.

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This option gives you the most control over where that connector is placed.

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I'll click Modify and we'll take a closer look at this.

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As you can see, the pipe connectors are placed on cylinders and then the duct connectors are also placed on geometry.

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And so a good practice is to create geometry that is obviously constrained to the overall geometry of the equipment,

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and then place the connector on that geometry and you can use the same parameters to control the size.

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That's why the pipe connectors match the size of the cylinders and the duct connectors match the size of the geometry that they are placed on.

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You'll also notice that there are arrows pointing out on all of these connectors,

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and you'll also notice that there is a flow direction parameter in the Properties palette.

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Now, this is something that a lot of people will get confused about,

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as they think that the arrow controls the flow direction and that's not really the case here.

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And so what the arrow means is that that is the direction that the associated duct or pipe is coming from and will be connected to.

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In other words, it will control the side that the duct or pipe will connect to.

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So if I use the flip arrow here on this duct connector. Now that duct connector is pointing to the inside of the equipment.

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And so some people think well if that's the way the air is flowing, then that's how I need to set the connector and that's not the case.

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You will want it to be pointing toward the direction that the duct or pipe is coming from and will be connected to.

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Then you can control the flow direction and that can either be in or out or bidirectional.

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So in this case, this is the supply air connector.

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So the supply air duct connector on this equipment and air will be flowing out of that connector.

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And then if I select the return air connector, you can see that the flow direction is in and so it's coming into this connector.

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So even though the arrow is pointing out, the air will be coming into this connector and then obviously into the equipment.

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So that's something you need to be paying attention to when it comes to the flow direction.

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Another important thing to be aware of is the system classification.

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This will determine the system type that the connector can be added to.

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And so as you can see here, there's Supply Air, Return Air, Exhaust Air, Those matched the system classifications in Revit.

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And then similarly for pipe connectors, you can see the system classifications that are available there and that those will match the system types.

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The system classifications of the system types in Revit.

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So you'll also see a couple more there, you may see in Other and then there's a Global and a Fitting.

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Now when Fitting obviously can be used for fittings and then Global can be used for accessories.

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Or even sometimes you may want to use a Global system classification on some types of equipment or other fixtures.

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But the important thing to note here,

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is that the system classification of the connector must match the system classification of the system type that you are creating in your project.

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A couple other important things to pay attention to.

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The Flow Configuration, that is something that you're going to want to pay attention to.

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Now in this equipment family. The flow configuration is set to calculated.

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And so what's going to happen here is that any air terminals that are downstream of this connector.

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The flow will be totaled and that will be the flow for this duct connector.

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When it is set to preset, then it's simply a user preset value.

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And then if I select System, you'll notice that this flow factor becomes available

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and when the flow configuration is set to System, then a percentage of the system airflow is allocated to each of the downstream components,

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and that percentage is controlled by the flow factor.

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So, typically equipment, you'll have the flow configuration set to calculated.

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And then for things like air terminals, you'll have it to set to preset.

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I'll leave this one set to calculated.

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And then you can specify a loss method for the connector.

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If you select Coefficient then the loss coefficient will become available.

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If you select a Specific Loss, then you'll be able to define a specific pressure drop.

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I'll leave it set to Not Defined and then the flow you'll typically want to associate that with some type of parameter.

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In this case, an airflow parameter has been created and the flow for this duct connector has been associated to that parameter.

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As far as pipe connectors, very similar, you want to set the Flow Configuration, Flow Direction, System Classification.

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Those are all extremely important.

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And then once again you want to associate the flow parameters,

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so that you can control the flow in the project and you'll have specific parameters that you'll be able to do that.

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And you can also associate some of the other parameters here, such as the Pressure Drop.

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And then you can also enter a connector description that's always useful when adding certain components to systems.

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Okay.

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The last thing we'll touch on here is you'll notice that there's a pipe connector that has crosshairs there and then there's also a duct connector.

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This represents the primary connector.

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And really the primary connector is something you want to focus on when you're creating some type of fitting that uses a global setting,

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or using a global fitting, you'll want to pay attention to those.

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And also when you select a connector, if you notice these dashed lines that represents connectors that have been linked.

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And so you can link connectors there.

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And so that's typically when you're dealing with supply and return on the same piece of equipment.

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So once again, connectors are extremely important.

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You'll want to make sure that you have those defined correctly so that you can get your system set up correctly.