When opening a 2010 project in Revit MEP 2011, the project will not have fittings for Conduit, Cable Tray, or Oval Duct. In fact, Oval Duct won’t be listed as an available type at all. Default Conduit and Cable Tray system families will be created (i.e., With and Without Fittings for Ladder and Channel), however these types will not be useful until you load fittings, and associate the fittings with the types.
An easier method is to use Transfer Project Standards, and this process will be outlined below. Transferring Cable Tray, Conduit, and Duct types will also transfer the fitting families that the various types are dependent on.
1. Create a new project based on the Systems-Default.rte 2011 template.
2. Open your 2010 (or prior) project in 2011 to upgrade it.
3. In the Project Browser, scroll down to Cable Trays, and expand both Cable Tray with Fittings and Cable Tray without Fittings. Under both are listed two types: Channel Cable Tray, Ladder Cable Tray. Rename all four of these types to include the suffix ‘Default’.
4. On the Manage ribbon, Settings panel, click Transfer Project Standards.
5. Make sure Copy From is set to the newly created in step 1 (probably named something like Project1)
6. Click the Check None button.
7. Check Cable Tray Types, Conduit Types, and Duct Types, and then click OK.
8. When prompted, click New Only to avoid overwriting your round and rectangular duct type settings.
You will receive some warnings… these will be addressed in the steps below. Warnings received when transferring Duct Types between projects are listed after the steps below. If you have additional warnings, you may want to export the warnings so you can decide how to address them later.
9. In the Project Browser, scroll down to Cable Tray, and expand both Cable Tray with Fittings and Cable Tray without Fittings.
10. Delete the four types with the ‘Default’ suffix.
11. In the Project Browser, scroll down to Conduits, and expand both Conduit with Fittings and Conduit without Fittings.
12. Delete the two types named “Conduit”.
13. In the Project Browser, scroll down to Duct Fittings.
14. One-by-one, select each of the following, and press the Delete key to remove the duplicated families: Rectangular Takeoff1, Rectangular Transition – Angle1, Rectangular to Round Transition - Angle1, Round Takeoff1.
Now, you can use Cable Tray, Conduit, and Oval Duct in your upgraded project. Other settings found in Manage > MEP Settings > Electrical Settings > Cable Tray / Conduit Settings > Size are populated automatically.
This video demonstrates this process. It starts with two models open: a blank model based on the 2010 template representing a model you're upgrading as well as a new project (named Project5 in the video) based on the Systems-Default 2011 template.
List of warnings received when transferring Duct Types:
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Family "Rectangular Takeoff" has been renamed to "Rectangular Takeoff1" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.
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Family "Rectangular Transition - Angle" has been renamed to "Rectangular Transition - Angle1" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.
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Family "Rectangular to Round Transition - Angle" has been renamed to "Rectangular to Round Transition - Angle1" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.
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Family "Round Takeoff" has been renamed to "Round Takeoff1" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.
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Type "45 Degree" has been renamed to "45 Degree 2" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.
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Type "45 Degree" has been renamed to "45 Degree 2" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.
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Type "Standard" has been renamed to "Standard 2" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.
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Type "Standard" has been renamed to "Standard 2" to avoid conflicts with the existing Element.