Inside the System

Slow graphics generation in AutoCAD MEP 2013?

Several folks have inquired why AutoCAD MEP 2013 seems to regenerate slowly compared to 2012.   

This is an intentional addition to the 2013 products called ‘progressive update’…. What it does is allows you to make modifications during the regeneration of hidden lines, so you don’t have to wait in the case that generating hidden lines is very time consuming… for example, when you have many drawings xreferenced together.

You can turn it off using the command SETENABLEPROGRESSIVEUPDATE… then the functionality will return to as it was in 2012.  This is a profile wide change that will be retained across all drawings, and re-starts of the application.

Here is a video demonstration:

  

Adjusting the Elevation reported by an element in AutoCAD MEP

"I have a question, if I draw pipe at 10’ elevation, but I want to tag it to sea level elevation of say 925’, is there a setting I can change that will allow my new 0 elevation to be 915’ ?"

The 'built-in' way to do this is to use Project Browser, and associate your Construct drawing with the appropriate level.  Once you have done so, you can modify your elevation properties in the pipe property set to add the elevation from the level.

  

An alternative way to do this if you are not using Project Browser is to use a location property from a Space.  To do this, add a manual elevation property to the Space... then add a location property to the pipe's property set to read the elevation property from the space.  When the pipe is in the space, it can read the space's elevation.  Now, you can add this elevation to the pipe's elevation properties to achieve the desired result. 

  

Adding Conduit Sizes for PVC in AutoCAD MEP

You may have noticed that the Plastic conduit catalog in AutoCAD MEP only goes up to 2".  You can add sizes using the Catalog Editor.

1. From the Manage tab, MEP Content panel, click Catalog editor (or, enter command: LAUNCHCATALOGEDITOR)
2. In the catalog editor, open C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\MEP 2012\enu\MEPContent\USI\Conduit\Conduit (US Imperial).apc (or wherever you happen to have the content installed)
3. In the Catalog Editor, browse to Plastic > Glued > Conduit Plastic Glued (these represent the conduit ‘segments’) > Basic Table
4. In the table on the right, add the rows for the missing sizes (D1 is for the actual diameter, ND1 is for the nominal diameter)

5.  Now, do the same for the Bent Conduit and the Conduit Elbow (depending on which you use).  LenA1 and R1 are detailed below.

6.  When done, save the file in Catalog Editor, and close Catalog Editor.
7.  In AutoCAD MEP, enter the command CATALOGREGEN
8.  Select the conduit (O) option.
9.  Modify your PVC/Plastic Routing Preference as detailed in this post.

Don't forget, the Routing Preference is stored in the drawing... so make sure after you restart AutoCAD MEP that you open that same drawing again to verify that you can now route the additional conduit sizes.

 (adding these sizes has been logged as a request for a future release)

 

Routing Conduit up to 6" in AutoCAD MEP

The conduit catalogs in AutoCAD MEP include sizes up to 6" for Aluminum and Galvanized conduit, however, the default part routing preferences only allow routing of sizes up to 4".  This is because the transition fitting in the preference is only avaialble up to 4", and therefore, restricts the available sizes.

If you remove the transition from the preference (or modify the transition to include sizes up to 6") you can then route 6" conduit.  

The embeded video demonstrates how to modify the preference to remove the transition.  Note that it is likely you will need to save/close/reopen the file after modifying the preference.

  

Re-justifying pipes in AutoCAD MEP

I was recently posed this issue:

 

All my piping was drawn at center justification with an elevation of 10'0". However, I need to change it so that the bottom of pipe is at 10'-0". I do not want to have to manually calculate the new bottom of pipe dimension for each size pipe obviously but there does not appear to be a way to change the justification after the pipe is already drawn.

 

Do you know how I can accomplish this?

 

My initial thought is to do something like the following :

 

 

 

Of course, this won't fix everything - i.e., if you have concentric reducers, you will need to swap them out for eccentric reducers, etc... but at least you don't need to re-layout and re-compute the new pipe elevation.

Cheers-

Martin Schmid, P.E.

MEP Customer Success Engineer

 

Un-pin AutoCAD MEP Dialogs in Vista

In AutoCAD MEP, although many windows have been migrated to the Properties Palette (such as PipeAdd), some still remain, such as the DuctAdd window.  If you are using Vista, you may have noticed that the 'Pin' control on these windows (which allows the windows to auto-hide) is not visible due to the Vista themes... however, if you right-click on the title of the window, there is an 'Enable Rollup' option that will accomplish the same thing.

You can now display intersecting (straight) centerlines in AutoCAD MEP 2010

Did you know that you can now change the display of centerlines for all round elbows in AutoCAD MEP 2010? The new command is “DisplayStraightCenterlines”

You can independently control the setup for Conduit, Duct and Pipe or set all of them to the same setting.

Centerline display for elbows. Select domain to change setting

[Conduit/Duct/Pipe/All]:

The settings are saved in the drawing so if your company prefers the centerlines on Elbows to show as intersecting make the change in the Templates.

this image shows the different displays of Piping, but all other round elbows will look like this also.