Running Electrical Conduit in RevitMEP

[ito.264687]

Does anyone know of a source for detailed tutorials on how to run electrical conduit in REVIT? I have 6 months, 2 classes and 4 jobs under my belt using it, but it still takes me too long to run the conduit, especially in the vertical plane. Drawing in any plane is pretty easy, its making the transition from x/y to z that is giving me trouble and usually entails starting the run in both planes then joining the two which seems very cumbersome.

Any advice would be appreciated.

ITO

[ALM BIM]

I just change the offset while drawing in plan view. If I am running @ 8' and need to go up to 15' I just Change the offset to 15' and the next click turns it up to run @ the new elevation. Seems to work ok for me. Sometimes connecting to equipment is a little combersome but using the draw from face tool helps. You just have to make sure the family has a face connector on it. (Option when Placing the connector in the famiy) Hope this helps.

[ito.264687]

Thank you, will try that.

I feel kinda dumb for missing the obvious but I am still grateful for any advice.

[Ning Zhou]

is there any trick or best practice to do it? especially when trying to connect to others in relatively "narrow space"

sometimes sucessful, but most of time i got the following 2 error warning messages, and keep trying, and trying, and trying, ...

i'm using 2011, don't know if 2012 makes this task much easy

[mmcmicheal]

First you need to be sure that there is enough space for the fitting to actually fit. You're not going to be able to stuff a 24" radius elbow in a 12" space. A 2011 trick I found that works pretty well for me is as follows:

Revit seems to be able to draw things pretty well when you are in a flat plane view (floor plan or elevation). So... if you have two items you want to interconnect, try drawing a reference plane between the two center points of the connectors at the ends of the conduit. Then draw a section, aligning the section to the reference plane you just drew. Then switch to that section view and you should be then able to interconnect them fairly easily. You'll need to delete the section and reference plane when you're done, but it works most of the time for me.

Also, when you are having trouble interconnecting items, the align command helps to make sure that the items are co-planar. Even if they are off the slightest amount Revit may give you the messages your seeing. I've found this aligning method can reduce the frustration.

Let me know if that helps,
Mark

[Ning Zhou]

thanks Mark, great tips and i'll try later.

[Karlfucious]

, don't know if 2012 makes this task much easy

Well no, you still get errors. But 2012 does have this nice new tool that allows you to offset multiple runs of conduit very easily. It even lets you do concentric bends instead of all the bends being the same radius.

As mentioned before those errors are from there not enough space to create the required fitting. I personally would leave the elbows alone but I have created a few replacements for the Tee And Cross Fittings That are a bit more detailed and take up much less space making things easier to work with. And they look nicer.

The size values are kind of rough and don't meet any manufacturers specs but work fine and seem to be more accurate than the standard junction box fittings which seem to be far too large anyway. The only problem is that I couldnt figure out how to make them upgrade from a Tee to a cross like the default ones but other than that they work as expected without any errors that I have noticed. Some of the Formulas are only set up for up to 4" since that is the largest we use but you can alter the formulas if larger conduits are needed.