Thank you again – another Top Speaker award at AU 2016!!!

Man…I can’t tell you how happy and honored I was to find out one of my labs at Autodesk University 2016 (au.autodesk.com) finished in a two way tie for top speaker. The lab, Perfecting the System for Revit, included my first ever perfect score in one category, with an overall rating of 4.79 out of 5, based on a minimum number of responses. The class tied with another lab taught by one of my good friends, Mike Massey from Applied Solutions. This was Mike’s first win, and well deserved. He’s taught at AU for many years, and now that I’m out of the Autodesk reseller channel, has been the guy in the Southeast US that I’ve been referring people to for years. He provides the same service I used to – training, consulting and program optimization, and came up through the Building Design solutions ranks the same time I did. He was one of the first MEP Implementation Certified Experts, a title we both received at the same time when Revit MEP was first getting its feet wet.

It’s a tough job to win one of these awards, but the real effort goes into the prep and planning for the class. The lab this year was the first time I taught three sets of discipline tools – duct, pipe and electrical circuiting – concurrently in a lab. We went through each of the keys areas, focusing on the similarities and differences. The course would up with five – yes, five – handouts, including an overall document that explained the features; three separate lab exercise documents for each track; and an overall tips and tricks document that featured key takeaways.

But I think what made the difference was fixing one of the things about labs that drove me nuts – and almost got me to where I didn’t want to teach them anymore. For years, we had problems with datasets in the labs – the wrong files, users not be able to locate the files, as well not understanding the software well enough to know the difference between the applications (yes, I had users a few years ago open AutoCAD MEP in a Revit MEP lab before). We also had users that could not keep up due to the lack of familiarity with the software.

To make it easier, it started with Autodesk using a web-based version of Revit for the labs this year. This made the files open quickly, and kept local users from editing items like the interface and location of palettes, etc. Another key step was having the lab datasets stored by lab location and day of the lab, which helped us locate the files easily. But I think what made the biggest difference came from my lab assistants – Matt Dillon, Matt Stachoni, and Ron Onderko – who went around and opened Revit 2017, opened the dataset project files (2) and made sure they were all already open to the view we needed to start in. When the student came into the lab, everything was ready to go, allowing us to focus on the lesson, rather than waiting for everyone to get where they needed to be. Even a few of the early arrivals pitched in and helped the lab rats get everything open and ready – for that, I can’t thank you guys enough.

The course included learning how to use Revit software systems help us to define the MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) design in several ways, but the main purpose is to understand the relationships between system equipment, such as air terminals to air handling units, or from light fixture to panel. We taught the users comprehensive steps needed for controlling project system settings, and then demonstrated how to capitalize on (or disable) sizing and analysis tools related to the system. We also covered creating the target-source relationship between parts, and then how to use the systems to improve the quality of documentation. Included were project files based on a project template that already defines everything in the class, so the user could take advantage of these topics right away. The class covered HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning), piping, and electrical items.

AU is already over, but if you want the handouts or datasets for the lab, let me know and I’ll send you a link.

And for all the folks that came in, spent 90 minutes and walked away with a fresh perspective, or learned something new, and showed your appreciation – I can’t thank you enough. We’ll see you again next year!

Drawing Yard Piping in Revit MEP

In some projects, you might want to add the piping that connects between buildings and structures as Revit pipe instead of Civil 3D. I do this when I'm trying to maintain a connected system that doesn't go out beyond a campus, or scope of a project.

It can get a little tricky, so here's a few tips. First, make sure you have your site file linked in to your view. You need that as a point of reference. In our case, we have a project that is based on shared coordinates (site is linked center to center, then we acquired the coordinates from the site file to line our project up to those coordinates).

Next, get your levels added. You can either work from an overall relative level elevation of 0, which we do include on some of our projects. When you have this level in your project, you can use the actual invert elevations from the existing or proposed pipe.

If not, you need to do a little math - for example, you have a level defined at 303'. The pipe invert is 322.43'. You need to do the math, subtracting the level from the true invert, so our pipe is at 19.43'. You don't need to do any conversion if your project is in feet and inches instead of decimal feet - typing this value in will do the conversion for you.

You also need to know if the invert elevation is to the top, middle or bottom of pipe. That will come in handy as you start to draw the pipe.

Next up - calculating slope. This is why I decided to add this post - for the life of me, I couldn't do the basic math to convert slope to inches, so being the geek I am, I did a Google search and found a great table from a book called Basic Engineering for Builders, written by Max Schwartz. Here's the conversion table:

Before you add the pipe make sure you have the right fittings, such as the ductile iron mechanical joint library. We use a modified version of an old CADWorks library based on Clow for ours, but make sure your outside diameters are correct.

Now you're ready to add the pipe. From the home tab, select the Pipe command. Set the size and invert elevation for the offset, after doing the math. Next, select Justification to bottom, middle or top based on what you have as you invert elevation.

If the pipe is sloped, make sure you turn slope on. The direction you're drawing determines whether you use slope up or slope down. If you're starting from the highpoint, select slope down. Set the slope to the right value - if the values you were given were based on percentage, use the table to find the inch to 12 inch value (re: .5% = 1/16"/12" slope).

After you review this, pick your second point. And this is where the fun begins. Sometimes, Revit doesn't want to add a right angle to the pipe, especially if the view is not at right angles. What you want to do, when this happens, is rotate your view based on a pipe segment. Make sure your view crop region is turned on.

Select the crop region, and then pick the Rotate tool from the Modify tab. The center of rotation will show up in the middle of the view. Move your mouse over the center, pick it and drag it to the end of your pipe. After you've moved the center, you can rotate the view around this point. You can either pick a line that is orthographic first, then the center line of the pipe. That usually works, but sometimes you have to pick the first line for the rotation as the centerline of the pipe, then pick an orthographic line relative to your view. Either way, get the pipe in view flat.

Once it's flat, the fittings should work as designed. If you want to see this solution live, then join me at Autodesk University this year in Las Vegas, for my class, Revit MEP - On Steroids. We're going to have a lot of stuff revolving around site based projects in that class. If you can't make it to AU, it will be available after the event if you're signed up as an AU member. You'll have a handout with pretty pictures, and they may even have a recording of the class.

Hope this helps - happy BIM'ing...David B.