Electrical Working with Mechanical

[Sparky]

I have imported the mechanical model into my electrical model (finally have a mechanical engineer working in Revit!) but I cannot connect the RTU units to a panel. When I open the mechanical model by itself I have confirmed it does have an electrical connector and electrical characteristics. I can even attempt to connect the RTU unit in the mechanical model, of course I cant as there are no panels. I cannot do this when linking the mechanical into my model. How do I get this to work.

I am thumbing through a book right now to see if there was a step I am missing but figured I would post here as well.

Again first time I have a mechanical model to work with so be easy on me.

Thanks.

[dennis howell]

In your Electrical model, use the Copy/Monitor function to pull over the Mechanical equipment. Then you will be able to circuit. NOTE: the Copy/Monitor function doesn't pull all the Family types over, and often if the equipment is updated say from 120V to 277V, that data change doesn't flag the CoordinationMonitor and so will not update your Copy/Monitored instance of the Family.

[mhartmann]

the reason is that connectors cannot communicate thru a link. i haven't tried the copy/monitor route, if you modify the equipment in your copy, is there any way to send it back to the mechanical? or will those updates be overwritten with the next mech file update? (i'm asking because my in-house mechanicals have never set up an electrical connector even remotely correct). i think i would link in their file so you can see and tag their equipment, but make your own junction box (with instance or type loads, depending on the equipment) and stick one on each piece of equipment, then circuit your junction boxes (you can hide them when you're done circuiting)
just something else to try
mike

[Sparky]

mhartman, thats the route I took prior to having a mechanical load, used a junction box with parameters I set up through my template that will schedule certain ones as mechanical equipment. Although I did not hide them, which looked pretty bad and made my plans a bit clustered. How would you go about hiding them with out hiding other junction boxes you want to show up?

I will try the copy monitor for now. If that does not work I like the idea of using the junction boxes like I was doing before.

[mhartmann]

you can circuit it, then show a homerun arrow to note the circuit, then right click on the j-box and - hide in view - element. the wire and homerun tag will remain on the drawing, a circuit number tag on the device would hide with the device however. you can use the light bulb to turn them back on if you need to make a change, or create a different view with everything turned on.

[Sparky]

I have parameters that go with the junction box that get scheduled in my mechanical schedule. I also tag the junction box with a mechanical tag I created. As you eluded to when I hide the junction box the mechanical tag hides with it. Is there a way around this?

[Ning Zhou]

perhaps make that junction box or dummy mechanical equipment w/ connectors invisible in 2D but visible in 3D, and use invisible lines for overall shape in 2D so you can still select / tag it in 2D view.

[neightyeight]

Or make a generic junction box that has it's model elements visible only in Fine detail level. Have your sheets set to Medium detail level when printing. Any circuit tags associated with the junction boxes should remain visible.

[BCERCad12]

In your Electrical model, use the Copy/Monitor function to pull over the Mechanical equipment. Then you will be able to circuit. NOTE: the Copy/Monitor function doesn't pull all the Family types over, and often if the equipment is updated say from 120V to 277V, that data change doesn't flag the CoordinationMonitor and so will not update your Copy/Monitored instance of the Family.

As SMART as REVIT is, how come it can not let the electrical engineer/designer know that the loads changed. It appears it pulls the "default" information that is in the family but if the voltage or apparent load is changed in the project, the copy/monitor function doesn't see that, it just sees what was changed in the family. It did not matter if the parameter was instance or type based. I even went as far as to change the default values in the mechanical family, loaded into the mech test project, reloaded into the elec test project but because the family wasnt updated in the elec project, it still saw the previous information. it did give me a collaboration notice, but the info didnt change. I think this kind of defeats the purpose of copy/monitor and that function is only good for location monitoring.

Does anyone know why this info doesnt transfer?