Autodesk 235B1-05A761-1301 - AutoCAD MEP 2010, AutoCAD MEP 2010 User Manual

AutoCAD MEP 2010

User's Guide

March 2009

©

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ACIS Copyright© 1989-2001 Spatial Corp. Portions Copyright© 2002 Autodesk, Inc.
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©

Contents

Chapter 1 New Features in This Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Features for Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Features for Drawing Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Features for Drawing Piping Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

New Features for Drawing Radiant Heating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

New Features for Customizing Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

New Features for Customizing Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

New Features for Building Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2 Moving from AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP Task Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Creating Building Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

AutoCAD MEP Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Insertion Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Layer Keying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Modifying Building Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Automating Design Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Domain-Specific Ribbons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Auto Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Interference Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Connectivity Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Working With Sizing and Calculation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Sizing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Electrical Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Plumbing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Pipe Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Solution Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Creating Accurate Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Section Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

iii

Tagging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Labeling and Annotation Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Layout Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Project Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Leveraging AutoCAD Knowledge in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Working with AutoCAD Commands in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

ALIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

ARRAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

BREAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

CHAMFER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

COPY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

ERASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

EXPLODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

EXTEND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

FILLET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

JOIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

LENGTHEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

MATCHPROP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

MIRROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

MOVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

OFFSET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

PURGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

ROTATE and ROTATE3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

SCALE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

STRETCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

TRIM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Help Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Chapter 3 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

About AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

AutoCAD MEP Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Intelligent Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Location of Part Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Analysis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Project Management Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Contacting Autodesk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Courseware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

E-Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Discussion Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Updating AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

The AutoCAD MEP 2010 Drawing Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Workspace Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Default Workspaces in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Creating Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Switching Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Workspace Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Workspace Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Displaying the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Locating Commands in the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

iv | Contents

Static Ribbon Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Contextual Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Accessing the Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Using the Application Menu to Locate Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Displaying Recently Opened Documents in the Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Displaying Currently Open Documents in the Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Changing the Number of Recent Files and Actions in the Application Menu . . . . . . . . 51

Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Context Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Showing and Hiding Commands on the Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Showing and Hiding the Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Application Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Showing and Hiding Commands on the Application Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Project Navigator Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Finding Information in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

InfoCenter Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Communication Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

F1 Context Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Command Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Controlling the Display of Command Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Dialog and Palette Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Object Rollover Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Property Palette Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Thumbnail (Preview) Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Solution Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Object Grip Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Working in Model Space and Paper Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Customizing the Display of MEP Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Using Custom Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter 4 Drawing Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Drawing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

About Layout Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Initialization Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Specifying Part Catalogs and Style-Based Content Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Layout Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Defining System Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Configuring Tooltip Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

AutoCAD MEP Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Equipment in Building Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Working with Catalog-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

How Catalog Parts are Stored and Referenced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

How Catalog Parts Are Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Part Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Default Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Importing a Building Component into AutoCAD MEP 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Working with Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

How Style-Based Content is Stored and Referenced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Orthographic and Isometric Views of Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Working with Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Opening the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Changing the Active Group in the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Contents | v

Modifying the Appearance of the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Docking the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Hiding the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Adjusting the Transparency of the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Modifying the Appearance of Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Working with the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Opening the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Modifying Object Properties Using the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Modifying Display Properties Using the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Modifying the Appearance of the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Docking the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Hiding the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Adjusting the Transparency of the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Working with Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

About System Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Creating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Specifying the Design Rules of a System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Specifying the Rise/Drop Style of a System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Specifying the Display Properties of a System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Attaching Notes and Files to a System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Copying Systems Between Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Purging Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Selecting a Display Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Essentials of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Object Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Matching Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Working with Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Working with Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Attaching Objects with a Curve Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Attaching Objects with a System Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Attaching Objects with a Reference Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Rotating Objects Attached with Curve Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Releasing Anchored Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Part Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Using the Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Customizing the Compass Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Designing with Dynamic Input and Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Dynamic Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Grip Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Grip Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Trigger Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Grip Editing Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Drafting with Flow Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Selecting Similar Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Selecting MEP Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Regenerating an AutoCAD MEP Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Viewing Part Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Basic Part Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

System Assignments for Parts and Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Part Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Part Property Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Part Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Chapter 5 Working with Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Working with Drawing Management Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Establishing Project Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

AutoCAD MEP Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Layer Standards Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

vi | Contents

Layer Key Styles and Layer Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Layer Standards Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Layer Properties Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Specifying a Layer Standard and a Layer Key Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Accessing Layer Key Styles and Layer Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

AutoCAD MEP Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Display System Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Display Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Display Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Display Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Hierarchy of Display Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Managing Display Settings During Project Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Configuring Display Settings During Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Display of Objects Based on Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Workflow for Displaying Objects Based on Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Enabling the Elevation-Based Display Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Specifying the Cut Plane and Display Range for a Display Configuration . . . . . . . . . 147

Configuring Elevation-Based Display Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Modifying Elevation-Based Display Components on the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . 149

Overriding the Cut Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Display of Crossing Objects in 2-Line Plan Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Configuring the Display of a Gap Between Crossing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Modifying Hidden Lines for Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Display of Center Lines on Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Display of Objects by Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Adding Custom Graphics as a Display Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Troubleshooting Object Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

AutoCAD MEP Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Default Drawing Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Creating a Custom Template from a Template or Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Creating a Custom Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Working with Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Attaching or Overlaying Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Reloading Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Clipping Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Changing the Display Configurations of Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Chapter 6 Drawing HVAC Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

HVAC System Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Mechanical System Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Duct System Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Flow Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Flexible Duct Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Auto-layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

HVAC System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Duct Fitting Vanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Takeoff Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Duct Sizing Methods and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Duct System Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Configuring Duct System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Configuring Duct Layout Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Configuring Justification for Duct Insertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Configuring Sloped Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Breaking Duct at Even Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Adding Lining or Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Adding Labels or Flow Arrows to Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Configuring the Display of Turning Vanes and Flanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Contents | vii

Configuring Flexible Duct Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Specifying Default Parts for Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Configuring Duct Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Configuring Duct System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Creating a Duct System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Specifying a Calculation Method for Duct Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Configuring the Display of Ducts and Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Using Spaces for Load Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Configuring Space Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Viewing Classification Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Configuring Zone Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Adding Spaces to a Floor Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Adding Engineering Data to Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Attaching Property Sets to Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Attaching Spaces to Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Exporting Zones for Load Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Reviewing Spaces and Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Importing Load Analysis Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Using Space and Zone Calculated Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Creating a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Adding HVAC Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Adding HVAC Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Adding Parts In-Line to Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Configuring Mechanical Parts for Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Adding Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Drawing a Duct Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Adding Duct Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Drawing a Vertical Duct Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Drawing 1-Line Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Calculating Duct Sizes for a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Adding a Duct Fitting Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Drawing Flexible Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Adding a Parallel Duct Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Offsetting Duct from Existing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Drawing Sloped Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Using the Elevation Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Connecting Ducts Through Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Adding a Takeoff to a Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Converting a Line to Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Converting a Polyline to Flexible Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Adding Turning Vanes to Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Creating a Custom Duct Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Using the Part Size Not Found Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Annotating a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Adding a Label to a Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Adding a Hatching Pattern to Identify a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Modifying a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

About Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Selecting Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Modifying Components Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Moving Duct Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Modifying the Elevation of HVAC Parts and Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Modifying the Length of Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Rotating Duct Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Modifying HVAC Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Modifying HVAC MvPart Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Modifying HVAC Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Changing a Part to Match Another Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Modifying the Flow Value Assigned to a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Modifying the System Assigned to a Part Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

viii | Contents

Modifying Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Modifying the Size or Shape of a Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Modifying Duct Using AutoCAD Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Breaking or Merging Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Locking the Size of a Duct or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Modifying the System Assigned to a Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Modifying a Duct Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Modifying the Layout of Flexible Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Moving an Off-Center Takeoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Modifying a Custom Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Modifying Turning Vanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Modifying Insulation or Lining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Checking Connectivity in a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Modifying Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Modifying a Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Calculating Duct Sizes Using External Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Specifying ASHRAE Fitting Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Exporting Duct System Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Importing Optimized System Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Resizing a System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Creating Duct System Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Chapter 7 Drawing Piping Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Pipe Systems Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Workflow for Designing a Pipe System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Movement of a Pipe Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Movement of a Pipe MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Auto Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Routing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Sloped Piping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Pipe System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Pipe System Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Display Configurations in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

1-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Graphical 1-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

2-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Placeholder Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Pipe Parts Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Pipe Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Pipe Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Connector Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Connection Types for Pipe and Pipe Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Male-Female Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Pipe Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Pipe Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Pipe Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Pipe Elevation Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Pipe Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Configuring Pipe System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Configuring Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Creating or Copying a Routing Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Configuring Properties for a Routing Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Configuring Size Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Deleting a Routing Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Configuring System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Creating a System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Contents | ix

Configuring System Definitions for 1-Line, 2-Line, or Single Line Graphics . . . . . . . . 282

Configuring Graphics for Single Line Pipe Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Configuring the Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Creating a Piping System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Adding Pipe Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Placing a Pipe MvPart in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Adding Parts In-Line to Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Adding Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Pipe Properties Palette (Add Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Adding Pipe Using the Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Configuring Basic Properties for Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Configuring Pipe Layout Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Configuring Justification for Pipe Insertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Specifying Cut Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Drawing a Pipe Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Adding Pipe Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Manually Specifying Parts During Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Using Routing Solutions to Connect Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Adding a Pipe Fitting Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Creating a Custom Pipe Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Drawing Sloped Piping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Drawing a Flexible Pipe Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Viewing Connection Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Adding a Parallel Pipe Run Using Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Offsetting Pipe from Existing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Locking Pipe Elevation During Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Adding a Takeoff to a Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Adding Insulation to Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Adding Labels or Flow Arrows to Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Converting a Polyline to Flexible Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Modifying a Piping System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Selecting or Filtering Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Filtering Pipe Objects with Quick Select . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Filtering by Pipe Part Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Modifying Components Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Moving Pipe Components Using Location Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Modifying the Elevation of Pipe Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Rotating Pipe Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Modifying the Length of a Pipe Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Modifying Pipe Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Modifying the Location or Elevation of an MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Modifying the Size or Elevation of an MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Matching an MvPart of One Type to Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Modifying the K-Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Modifying the System for an MvPart Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Modifying Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Pipe Properties Palette (Modify Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Modifying the Routing Preference and Nominal Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Modifying the Pipe or Fitting Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Modifying Connected Objects Along a Pipe Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Breaking or Merging Pipe Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Locking the Size of a Pipe or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Modifying the System Assigned to a Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Modifying a Pipe Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Modifying the Layout of a Flexible Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Modifying Insulation on a Pipe or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Checking Connectivity in a Pipe System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Modifying a Label or Flow Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

x | Contents

Chapter 8 Drawing Radiant Heating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Radiant Heating Systems Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Creating Radiator Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Using a Calculation Program to Add Radiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Adding Radiators Using Calculated Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Rules About Updating Existing Radiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Exporting Drawing Information for Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Designing Radiant Heating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Adding a Radiator MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Modifying a Radiator MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Radiator Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Adding a Radiator Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Modifying a Radiator Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Moving a Radiator Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Connecting MvParts Using Alignment Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Creating Pipe Runs for Radiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Adding Parallel Pipes to a Radiant Heating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Correcting a Parallel Pipe Routing Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Connecting Multiple Radiators to Parallel Pipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Correcting a Radiator Connection Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Chapter 9 Drawing Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

About Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Design Workflow for Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Define System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Design the Electrical System Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Electrical Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Wire Size Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Cable Trays and Conduits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Auto Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Cable Tray and Conduit Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Electrical and Wire Ways Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Customizable Electrical Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Control the Appearance and Behavior of Electrical System Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Creating Electrical System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Creating Load Category Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Configuring Electrical Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Specifying Voltage Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Configuring Circuiting Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Specifying an Electrical Project Database File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Device Style Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Specifying Design Rules for Device Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Configuring Connectors for Device Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Specifying Classifications for Device Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Configuring Styles for Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Specifying Design Rules for Panel Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Configuring Connectors for Panel Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Configuring Styles for Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Defining Design Specifications for Wire Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Specifying Annotation for Wire Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Configuring Layout Preferences for Cable Tray or Conduit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Specifying Alignment for Cable Tray or Conduit Insertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Contents | xi

Specifying the Slope for Cable Tray or Conduit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Breaking Cable Tray or Conduit at Even Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Specifying Annotation for Cable Tray or Conduit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Specifying Default Parts for Cable Tray or Conduit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Configuring Connections for Cable Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Working with Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Using an Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

How the Electrical Project Database Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Creating an Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Linking to the Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Reloading the Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Unlinking From the Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Using Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Creating Circuits Using the Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Configuring a Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Viewing Circuit Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Linking Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Managing Circuits in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Creating Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Adding Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Configuring the Electrical Connectors of a Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Example: Aligning a Device to Floor Plan Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Example: Adding Devices at a Specific Distance Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Example: Adding a Specific Number of Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Example: Inserting a Device into a Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Adding Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Example: Aligning a Panel to Floor Plan Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Copying Devices and Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Example: Copying a Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Example: Copying a Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Adding Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Drawing or Generating Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Drawing a Home Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Creating a Wire from a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Adding Electrical Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Drawing Cable Trays and Conduits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Drawing a Cable Tray or Conduit Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Adding a Cable Tray or Conduit Branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Adding Cable Tray or Conduit Fittings Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Checking Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Calculating Wire Sizes Using the Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Viewing Circuit Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Checking Circuit Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Generating a Circuit Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Showing Circuited Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Showing Connected Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Viewing Power Totals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Modifying Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Modifying Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Moving Circuits to Manage Demand Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Modifying Circuit Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Deleting Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Modifying Devices and Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Moving a Device or Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Modifying Device Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Modifying Panel Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Modifying Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Modifying Wire Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Modifying Wire Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Moving Tick Marks on Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

xii | Contents

Flipping Tick Marks on Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Modifying Electrical Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Modifying Cable Trays and Conduits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Modifying the Layout of a Cable Tray or Conduit Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Changing the System of a Cable Tray or Conduit Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Changing the Elevation of a Cable Tray or Conduit Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Modifying the Size of a Cable Tray or Conduit Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Modifying the Length of Cable Tray or Conduit Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Breaking and Merging Cable Tray or Conduit Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Modifying a Cable Tray or Conduit Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Rotating Cable Tray or Conduit Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Annotating Electrical System Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Adding Labels to Wire, Conduit, and Cable Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

About Panel Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Generating Panel Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Updating Panel Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Exporting a Panel Schedule to Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Creating Panel Schedule Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

Creating Electrical System Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Chapter 10 Drawing Plumbing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Plumbing Design Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Plumbing Systems Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Plumbing Runs and Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Plumbing System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Plumbing Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Movement of a Plumbing Line Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Movement of an MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Plumbing Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Grips for Adding to a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Grips for Modifying a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Rise/Run Angles and Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Fixture Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Plumbing Line Sizing Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Customizing Plumbing Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Creating Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Creating Catalog-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Configuring Plumbing System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Creating a Plumbing System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Specifying the Default Fittings for a Plumbing System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Configuring Fixture Unit Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Applying a Default Fixture Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Creating a Fixture Unit Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Importing a Fixture Unit Table into a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Specifying Plumbing Line Sizing Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Configuring Styles for Plumbing Lines and Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Specifying Annotation for a Plumbing Line Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Specifying Standard Sizes for a Plumbing Line Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Specifying Type and Subtype for a Plumbing Fitting Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Connectors for a Plumbing Fitting Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Specifying Plumbing Preferences for Labels and Flow Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Creating Plumbing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Adding Plumbing Equipment and Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Adding Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Drawing a Plumbing Run from Equipment or Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Drawing a Plumbing Run Using Add Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Drawing a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Contents | xiii

Creating a Plumbing Run from a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Connecting Plumbing Lines at Different Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Overriding the Default Plumbing Fittings for an Individual Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Adding Plumbing Fittings Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Adding an Expansion Loop to a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Modifying Plumbing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Component Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Selecting Connected Branches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Filtering Plumbing Objects by Part Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Filtering Selections by Part Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Modifying Plumbing Equipment and Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

Calculating the Slope of a Plumbing Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Modifying Plumbing Lines and Fittings Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Moving Plumbing Lines and Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Modifying the Length of Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Rotating Plumbing Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Modifying Plumbing Lines and Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Modifying the System Assigned to a Plumbing Line or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Reversing the Flow of a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Modifying the Elevation of a Plumbing Line or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Modifying the Location Coordinates of a Plumbing Line or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Modifying the Nominal Size of a Plumbing Line Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Modifying the Style of a Plumbing Line or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Calculating the Sizes of Supply Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Sizing Supply Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Reviewing the Sizing Results for Supply Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Calculations for the Longest Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Calculations at Selected Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

How the Software Performs Calculations to Size Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Calculating the Sizes of Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Overview of Sizing Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Sanitary Branch Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Sanitary Offset Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Sanitary Stack Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Sizing Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Sizing Sanitary Plumbing Lines for Multiple Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

Reviewing the Sizing Results for Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Chapter 11 Drawing Schematic Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

About Schematic Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Drawing in Orthographic Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Drawing in Isometric Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Customizing Schematic Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Configuring Schematic Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Creating Schematic System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Configuring Styles for Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522

Defining Designations for Schematic Line Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522

Specifying Annotation for Schematic Line Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

Creating a Schematic Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Adding Schematic Lines in Orthographic Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Adding Schematic Symbols in Orthographic Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Adding Schematic Lines in Isometric Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Adding Schematic Symbols in Isometric Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

Adding Schematic Lines Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Creating a Schematic Line from an AutoCAD Line, Arc, or Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Modifying a Schematic Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

xiv | Contents

Selecting Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

Modifying the Properties of a Schematic Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Modifying the Properties of a Schematic Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Moving Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Moving Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

Modifying the Length of Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Rotating Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Rotating Orthographic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Rotating Isometric Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Resizing Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Resizing by Scale Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Resizing by Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Resizing Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Chapter 12 Creating Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Construction Document Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Creating Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Scaling Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Label Curve Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Adding Annotation Symbols from DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Adding a Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Modifying Property Set Data for a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Using Part Number Tags and Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Working with Part Number Tags and Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

Adding a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

Linking a Schedule to an External Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Creating an Electrical Panel Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Updating a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Exporting a Schedule to a Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Creating a General View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Creating a Detail View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Creating a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Creating an Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Updating a Section or Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

Creating a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

Creating a Cover Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

Ordering Sheets in the Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Publishing a Sheet Set to DWF™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Adding Elevation Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Checking Your Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Showing Solution Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Showing Connected Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Showing Connected Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Finding Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Running Interference Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Viewing and Resolving Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Tagging Interferences or Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585

Exiting Interference Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586

Excluding a Material from 2D Section Shrinkwrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586

Collecting Project Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

Defining Property Set Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Defining Property Set Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Using Classifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Contents | xv

Copying a Schedule Table Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Purging AutoCAD MEP Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Sharing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Displaying Custom Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Object Enablers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Proxy Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Export to AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Posting and Plotting Your Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Comparing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Using Industry Foundation Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

Select a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

Chapter 13 Customizing Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Workflow for Creating Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Creating a Style-Based Content Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Creating the Blocks for a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Creating a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

Editing Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Configuring Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Specifying the Design Rules of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Defining the Views of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604

Defining Style Views for Devices, Panels, and Plumbing Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

Defining Style Views for Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607

Configuring the Connectors of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

Configuring the Display Properties of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610

Attaching Notes and Files to a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611

Copying Styles Between Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612

Rise/Drop Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612

Defining Rise/Drop Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614

Connector Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616

Categorizing Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

Creating Categories in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

Customizing Device Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618

Converting Blocks and Parts to Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618

Converting Device Styles to Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620

Converting Blocks to Device Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

Creating Device Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

Modifying Device Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625

Customizing Schematic Symbol Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

Converting Schematic Symbol Styles to Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

Converting Blocks to Schematic Symbol Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Creating Symbol Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Modifying Symbol Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Chapter 14 Customizing Catalog-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

Understanding Parametric and Block-Based Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

Approaches to Creating Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

Tips for Using Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

Allowing for Automatic Layer Mapping of Part Sizes for Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . 647

Starting Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647

Working with Parametric Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649

Building Parametric Fittings Using Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

Best Practices for Creating a Parametric Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

Recommendations for Creating Parametric Fittings Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651

Rules for Connector Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

Parametric Part Creation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

xvi | Contents

Workflow for Creating a Parametric Fitting with Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674

Creating a Parametric Fitting with Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Building Parametric Parts Using the Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694

Building Parametric MvParts with Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696

Workflow for Creating a Parametric MvPart with Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696

Starting Content Builder for Creating a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698

Specifying the Part Configuration of a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698

Modeling a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700

Adding Connectors to a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Adding Dimensions to a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Generating a Preview Image of a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

Defining the Part Insertion Behaviors of a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

Validating, Saving, and Previewing a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

Creating a Schematic Symbol of a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735

Modifying Parametric Parts Using Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Starting Content Builder for Modifying a Parametric Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Modifying a Parametric Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

Working with Block-Based Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Converting MvBlocks to Block-Based Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Best Practices for Creating a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Block-Based Part Creation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

3D Model Block for a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Schematic Symbol of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

Behavior of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

View Blocks of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Preview Image of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

Connectors of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

Property Set Information for a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752

Workflow for Creating a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Creating Block-Based Parts Using Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

Creating a 3D Model and Schematic Symbol for a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . 754

Starting Content Builder for Creating a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Defining the Part Behavior of a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Assigning Part Size Names and Views of a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

Generating a Preview Image of a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Adding Connectors to a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Adding Property Set Information to a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763

Modifying Block-Based Parts Using Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764

Starting Content Builder for Modifying a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764

Modifying a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Working with Custom Parameter Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Saving Custom Parameters in Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Adding Groups of Saved Custom Parameters to Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

Testing Parts Created with Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

Testing the Display Representations of a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

Testing the Connectors of a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769

Testing the View Block Orientations of a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769

Chapter 15 Customizing Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

About Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

Key Catalog Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

Opening Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Opening a Part Catalog in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Customizing Catalogs in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Working with Part Data in the Tree View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Working with Part Data in the Table View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Creating Parts in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

Adding Part Sizes in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

Adding Custom Data to Parts in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

Contents | xvii

Creating Part Catalogs in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

Working with Part Data in Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780

Validating and Regenerating Part Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781

Validating the Parts in a Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781

Regenerating a Part Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782

Migrating Part Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782

Redefining the Catalog Parts in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Chapter 16 Customizing AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Creating Drawing Environment Configurations for Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Styles and Support Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786

Customizing Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Creating a Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Creating a Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Customizing a Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788

Specifying Different Tool Palettes for the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789

Renaming the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789

Customizing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789

Creating Tools for Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790

Creating Tools from Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

Creating Tools from AEC Content in DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

Creating Command Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793

Creating Property-Based Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794

Changing Tool Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795

Changing Tool Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795

Deleting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796

Chapter 17 Working with the U.K Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797

Using Other Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797

Working with Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

Configuring Hanger Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

Adding Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799

Modifying Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801

Rotating Cable Trays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Glossary Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Appendix - Reference Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Definitions of Part Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Using Object Match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

xviii | Contents

New Features in This Release

NOTE AutoCAD® MEP 2010 is built on AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architecture. See the Help systems for those products
to learn about their new features and enhancements.

1

New Features for Getting Started

Improved Ribbon-Based User Interface

Ribbon tabs group commands according to the current architectural task. For example, there is one tab for
annotating a drawing and another for generating output files. Seeing only the tools required for the current
task reduces learning time. Logical and thematic panels group subtask commands, making them easier to
find and access. For more information, see Workspace Components on page 38.

New Features for Drawing Electrical Systems

Panel Schedule Enhancements

As you design and refine electrical systems, a graphical representation shows that an electrical panel schedule
is out of date. Adding or changing circuits and panels, plus certain other operations, require that panel
schedules be refreshed. Use the Regen command to update the schedule. For more information, see Updating

Panel Schedules on page 459.

Wire Add Grips on Devices

As you lay out electrical designs, use the new Add grip ( ) on electrical devices to invoke the add-wire
mode for connecting one or more devices. When using the Add grip, you add wire of the same style as that
used by the previous use of the command. For more information, see Drawing or Generating Wires on page

413.

1

New Features for Drawing Piping Systems

Drawing Sloped Piping Layouts

Catalog content has been expanded to support gravity-based designs for sanitary drain, waste, vent, and
sewer/storm drainage systems. Auto layout can generate routing solutions for sloped piping systems based
on points you specify in the drawing. Sloped piping layouts model real-world piping requirements. For more
information, see Sloped Piping on page 256 and Drawing Sloped Piping on page 308.

New Parts Added to Pipe Routing Preferences

The Pipe domain has been expanded to include fittings, such as laterals and eccentric transitions, that you
can use in sloped piping designs. You can also connect to a sloped pipe with a wye (lateral) or an angled
tee, instead of a 90-degree tee. For more information, see Routing Preferences on page 250.

Updated Pipe Properties Palette

New settings for sloped piping layouts on the Pipe Properties palette include slope and slope format, bend
and branch angles, and branch fitting. For more information, see Pipe Properties Palette (Add Mode) on
page 286 and Drawing Sloped Piping on page 308.

You can apply a slope value to an angled pipe run as you lay out pipes and fittings, without having to
manually calculate angles. AutoCAD MEP includes different slope formats (such as angle, percentage, and
rise/run) to accommodate your piping requirements. For more information, see Configuring Pipe Layout

Preferences on page 293.

Angle of deflection (also called fitting tolerance) specifies whether to allow deflection at joints with a tolerance
angle and includes female connection types with non-standard angles based on manufacturer requirements.
To enable angle of deflection as you add pipe, select Yes for the Use fitting tolerance option on the Pipe
Properties palette. For more information, see Angle of Deflection (Fitting Tolerance) on page 267, Pipe

Properties Palette (Add Mode) on page 286, and Drawing Sloped Piping on page 308.

Customizing Symbols for Pipe Connection Types

You can customize symbols for pipe connection types (such as grooved, glued, and flanged) for 1-Line display
configurations. You match a pipe connector type with a graphics block. For more information, see Configuring

System Definitions for 1-Line, 2-Line, or Single Line Graphics on page 282.

New Features for Drawing Radiant Heating Systems

Creating Parallel Pipe Runs

Using a single routing as the guide, you can create the parallel pipework required for a radiator system.
Create two pipe segments, invoke the Parallel Pipe tool, select one segment to be the baseline pipe, and draw
pipe, which will create a second pipe run in parallel with the baseline pipe. For more information, see Adding

Parallel Pipes to a Radiant Heating System on page 347.

With one radiator connected to a pipe system, select it, right-click, and click Connect Multiple Parts, and
connect all other radiators in your design to the pipe system. For more information, see Connecting Multiple

Radiators to Parallel Pipes on page 350.

2 | Chapter 1 New Features in This Release

New Features for Customizing Catalogs

Migrating Part Catalogs

To ensure that you are using the most current catalog data in your engineering designs, you can upgrade
catalogs in a domain. For more information, see Migrating Part Catalogs on page 782.

Redefining the Catalog Parts in a Drawing

You can scan the pipe fittings and MvParts in a legacy drawing and update the drawing with any modified
catalog parts. For more information, see Redefining the Catalog Parts in a Drawing on page 783.

New Features for Customizing Display

Configuring the Display of AutoCAD MEP Objects Based on Elevation

Enable Display by Elevation on the Options dialog to configure display components to show or hide MvParts,
as well as pipe, cable tray, conduit, and duct objects, based on elevation. You can differentiate the display
attributes for these parts relative to their location above or below the active cut plane and display ranges.
For more information, see Display of Objects Based on Elevation on page 144.

New Features for Building Systems

Converting Solids or Mass Elements to Block-Based Parts

Convert 3D solids or mass elements directly to block-based MvParts. It is no longer necessary to convert the
3D solid or mass element object to an AutoCAD block, and then convert the block to an MvPart. For more
information, see Converting MvBlocks to Block-Based Parts on page 743.

Importing Manufacturer-Specific Parts from Autodesk Inventor

Use the Building Component command to import manufacturer-specific content created by Autodesk
Inventor or similar applications into AutoCAD MEP as block-based MvParts. No intermediate conversion to
AutoCAD blocks is necessary.

New Features for Customizing Catalogs | 3

4

Moving from AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP

AutoCAD MEP, an AutoCAD-based building design solution, enhances AutoCAD functionality with tools designed for
mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineers, designers, and drafters. This section describes several features where
AutoCAD MEP builds on AutoCAD capabilities for designing building systems.

2

AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP Task Comparisons

The following table contrasts functionality that is available in AutoCAD and AutoCAD MEP.

In AutoCAD MEPIn AutoCADFunctionality

yesyesAutomate sheet management

yesyesManage and update project standards and deviations

yesyesEdit geometric elements (such as lines, polylines, arcs, and circles)

guage (gbXML) format for analysis by third-party tools

and snaps on page 11 on MEP objects to create intelligent, connected building
systems

drawing

and Z planes without breaking connectivity in existing layouts

yesyesImport or export data in DWG, DWF™, IFC, and other formats

yesnoImport or export engineering data in the Green Building Extensible Markup Lan-

yesyesAdjust annotation on page 17 style and scaling

yesnoUse the AutoCAD MEP workspaces on page 6, along with the grips on page 8

yesnoUse layer keying on page 7 to automatically map objects to defined layers in a

yesnoUse associative movement on page 7 to modify building systems in the X, Y,

5

interference detection on page 12, and connectivity checks on page 13 using

domain-specific ribbons and palettes

and display components based on elevation as you lay out the run.

Creating Building Systems

AutoCAD meets the fundamental drafting needs of the AEC, civil engineering, and manufacturing industries.
You use basic geometric elements, such as lines, arcs, and circles, to draw engineering layouts.

With AutoCAD MEP, you create intelligent building systems that exceeds AutoCAD capabilities. You use
MEP parts to create complete, connected systems that contain information you can use to analyze and refine
your designs. For example, you can create a duct system on page 194 that contains ceiling diffusers with a
specified flow rate. The system can detect the amount of downstream airflow required by the diffusers. You
can use sloped piping on page 256 to design gravity-based piping system. You can use circuit features on page
380 to create and manage circuits for your electrical plans. You can place plumbing equipment and fixtures
in a drawing to create a plumbing run on page 464.

In AutoCAD MEPIn AutoCADFunctionality

yesnoAutomate many building system design tasks such as auto layout on page 12,

yesnoCreate accurate construction documents on page 15 with tagging and annotation.

yesnoAutomatically add layout symbols on page 18, such as rise/drop, hidden lines,

AutoCAD MEP Workspaces

Out of the box, AutoCAD MEP contains tools geared to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing professionals
in the building industry. The workspace environments (electrical, HVAC, piping, plumbing, and schematic)
include individual palettes and domain-specific ribbons to optimize your workflow tasks.

Duct system in AutoCAD MEP HVAC workspace

The tool palette includes parts related to the current domain. You can define tool properties from the tool
or properties palette. You can also customize the tool palette to include unique tools commonly used in

6 | Chapter 2 Moving from AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP

your company’s engineering designs. For more information, see Working with Tool Palettes on page 87 and

Customizing Tool Palettes on page 787.

RELATED See also Workspace Components on page 38.

Insertion Tools

You can use add grips ( ) along with the domain-specific palettes in AutoCAD MEP to add components
to your drawings. After adding a part from the tool palette, use add grips on a segment or object to route
the pipe, plumbing, electrical, schematic, or duct system to ensure connectivity along the run. You can draw
a run from one end of the part segment, from a midpoint of a part segment, from a multi-view part (called
an MvPart), or from a fitting, such as an elbow or a tee. For more information, see Grips for Adding to a Pipe

Run on page 272.

AutoCAD MEP also lets you automatically insert fittings into a run. For example, AutoCAD MEP can identify
the type of elbow fitting to insert into a plumbing layout, based on the preferences defined for the plumbing
system. When drawing pipe runs, you can use different routing preferences on page 250 that match your
pipe specifications to ensure that the proper fittings are inserted automatically. As you draw cable tray or
conduit in the Electrical workspace, the software adds fittings based on the defined preferences.

Layer Keying

As you add parts to your layouts, each object is automatically placed on the correct layer. With layer keying,
AutoCAD MEP automatically places an object on a predefined layer that conforms to a particular layer
standard. You can modify the layer standards to map to specific company standards. You can also turn layers
on or off for a particular system or use filters to disable objects on a particular layer. For more information,
see AutoCAD MEP Layer Standards on page 132.

Modifying Building Systems

In AutoCAD, you modify the geometric elements, including lines, arcs, and circles, in your design projects.
You use common editing tools in the software, such as COPY, TRIM, and EXTEND. See the AutoCAD Help
for more information.

AutoCAD MEP helps you streamline the task of modifying building systems using techniques such as
associative movement, grips, and snaps.

Associative Movement

You can move, shrink, or stretch connected objects (such as part segments and fittings) to a new location
in a drawing without breaking the connection between parts or altering other portions of the run. For more
information, see Associative Movement on page 248.

With associative movement, you use grips to move the connected parts as a single unit while other parts
remain in place in the same layout. The software identifies the parts that are connected and maintains their
connectivity. The following illustrations show the progression of the associative movement feature in the
Piping domain.

Insertion Tools | 7

Moving pipe using location grip

Dragging to new location

Resulting layout

Grips

NOTE Associative movement lets you move objects in the XY plane. You can also modify the elevation of connected
parts relative to their top, centerline, or bottom orientation in side and isometric views.

You can use grips to make direct changes to a part segment in a drawing. Hovering over a grip displays a
tooltip describing the grip’s function. Some tooltips also suggest options, such as using the CTRL or ALT
keys. For more information, see Designing with Dynamic Input and Grips on page 114.

Several types of grips are available:

■ Add grips ( ) add segments, such as duct, pipe, plumbing line, wire, cable tray, or conduit, to a new

or existing run without sacrificing connectivity along the run.

8 | Chapter 2 Moving from AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP

Pipe segment

Pipe fitting (elbow with flange connections)

Base-mounted pump (MvPart)

■ Location grips ( ) move a component in the current XY plane. Location grips appear at the insertion

and connector points on a part.

Plumbing

MvPart

■ Lengthen grips ( ) change the length of a part segment. Lengthen grips use the segment's current

orientation to maintain connectivity in the existing run.

Grips | 9

Piping

Plumbing

■ Flip grips ( ) switch the orientation of some parts (such as fittings or takeoffs) based on the direction

of the grip.

Takeoff selected — Flip grip shown

Orientation flipped

■ Diamond-shaped rotate grips ( ) in isometric views rotate an object around its centerline to any angle,

if that object has round connectors on opposite ends. Rotate grips are available on parts and fittings that
can be rotated without breaking the connection with existing objects.

Rotating a damper in an isometric view

10 | Chapter 2 Moving from AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP

Snaps

■ Elevation grips ( ) modify the elevation of part segments in side and isometric views relative to the

top, centerline, or bottom of the segment. Elevation grips appear at the insertion and connector points
on the specified part segment.

AutoCAD MEP includes AutoCAD object snaps and AutoCAD MEP snaps. You use object snaps to snap
drawing points to geometric locations on other objects. For example, you can snap to the endpoint of a line
or snap to the intersection of 2 lines.

AutoCAD MEP snaps connect MEP objects to other objects, maintaining the integrity and connectivity of
the system. For example, you can use pipe snaps to connect a pipe, fitting, or MvPart directly to a pipe end
connector at the end of a pipe segment. AutoCAD MEP snaps are available in all the engineering workspaces.
For more information, see Configuring AutoCAD MEP Snaps on page 75.

Segments, such as duct and pipe, contain end connector snaps and curve connector snaps. End connector
snaps connect new objects to the ends of existing objects. Curve connector snaps connect a segment anywhere
along the centerlines of existing objects. For example, when you can use pipe curve connector snaps on an
existing pipe run, the software inserts a pipe fitting in the resulting branch, as shown next.

Snapping a pipe to an existing run using the pipe
curve connector

Resulting branch with an inserted fitting

You can use electrical snaps to wire a junction box to a light. You can also use wireway snaps to make
connections to a cable tray, conduit, or electrical MvParts.

Snaps | 11

Electrical

Wireways

Automating Design Tasks

In AutoCAD, design tasks are performed manually. AutoCAD does not automatically update the part
specification data in construction documents.

AutoCAD MEP includes features that automate many engineering tasks and provides immediate feedback
as you perform those tasks.

Domain-Specific Ribbons

Out of the box, each engineering workspace in AutoCAD MEP includes a contextual ribbon with preferences
and system definitions unique to the active domain. You can use preferences to automate many design
layout functions. For example, you can define default parts to use during layout, and you can also specify
properties, such as annotation labels, connection behavior, and display settings.

AutoCAD MEP provides system definitions, such as design rules, display properties, and rise/drop
configurations. System definition settings control the appearance and functions of parts in a system. You
can also override system settings to accommodate unique part requirements. For more information, see

Workspace Components on page 38.

Auto Layout

Auto layout can generate routing solutions that you can use as you lay out duct, pipe, cable tray, or conduit
runs. AutoCAD MEP automatically inserts the appropriate segments and fittings based on the current part
or routing preferences. For more information, see Auto Layout on page 252.

Interference Detection

You can improve project coordination using the interference detection tool. The software checks for
interferences between different types of objects, such as between ducts and pipes or between these MEP
objects and architectural/structural objects, such as walls. Interference detection can occur on objects within
the current drawing, objects in referenced drawings (xrefs), or objects in both the current drawing and in

12 | Chapter 2 Moving from AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP