Parallel Conduit Kick

[ekryck962011]

Hello Everyone,
Sorry if I am posting in the wrong place, or if this has been asked/answered before (I did a quick search, but didn't find anything).

Currently I am using MEP 2011. I was wondering if there was any (easy) way to draw a parallel conduit run with a kick. This is really a work of art to do in the field, and I have no idea on how to model it. For those of you that don't know what a kick is, I'll try to explain:

I have a run of (3)3" and (4)1" conduits parallel to each other. They go up the wall, parallel to the wall, then transition to going across the the ceiling. BUT this is where it gets tricky. If you are looking at the wall, facing the conduits. When the conduits get to the ceiling rather than bending towards you, they actually bend to the right and end up parallel to the ceiling. So each conduit is going to have multiple bends to make this work.

Is there any easy way in Revit to do this, while keeping the conduits parallel the entire time? Does what I explain make sense? I would really like to model this for coordination with other diciplines.

Thanks

[cparvez]

The is not an easy way... you might try to model one of exterior conduits then offset the section between bends and hook it up to your vertical/horizontal runs. A kick isn't the easiest thing to get right to begin with and multiple sizes just make it harder because you need to keep it flat so you will need to adjust the 1" conduits elevation at both sides of the kick to keep things in line.

- good luck

[Misteracad]

I agree that this is not easy, but it can be done with a little time and effort. Whether or not the time and effort is worth it, is for you to deterimine

What I've found is that the most important aspect of doing this is to model the change in direction, elevation, etc using multiple sections and/or elevation views to tweak the run as needed. In my experience, Revit cannot manage the minuscule changes in elevation while modeling in plan view. Once in section/elevation, you'll have to place the elbows/fittings manually, and chances are you'll be laying out the run using elbows with a radius larger than what you really need. However, if you draw the conduit between them and "force" Revit to trim them back to fit, you can clean up the results and make it work. Time consuming and tedious, but doable...much like what I used to do manually in AutoCAD when running pipe thru tight quarters.

Perhaps someone out there has a better way, but this is what has worked for me.

Another thought might be to look at creating additional conduit elbow families for various radiuses, or perhaps create a "smarter" elbow family with more angle options.

HTH

[mhartmann]

i just tried real quick, fail... it's harder than it sounds. your field artist might get that built in real life faster than you could model it in revit correctly

[drewj]

Hello Everyone,
Sorry if I am posting in the wrong place, or if this has been asked/answered before (I did a quick search, but didn't find anything).

Currently I am using MEP 2011. I was wondering if there was any (easy) way to draw a parallel conduit run with a kick. This is really a work of art to do in the field, and I have no idea on how to model it. For those of you that don't know what a kick is, I'll try to explain:

I have a run of (3)3" and (4)1" conduits parallel to each other. They go up the wall, parallel to the wall, then transition to going across the the ceiling. BUT this is where it gets tricky. If you are looking at the wall, facing the conduits. When the conduits get to the ceiling rather than bending towards you, they actually bend to the right and end up parallel to the ceiling. So each conduit is going to have multiple bends to make this work.

Is there any easy way in Revit to do this, while keeping the conduits parallel the entire time? Does what I explain make sense? I would really like to model this for coordination with other diciplines.

Thanks

I may have got this all wrong, but does the video here help?:

http://www.screencast.com/t/dl5wtSmXqq

I find that certain views allow you to do certain things, and the choice of view is not always obvious. The trim command can connect the 2 conduits, but seemingly only in a section view today....

HTH

[Steve_Stafford]

How close is this to the path you described?

[drewj]

Steve may have the route you were looking for, its easy to do:

http://screencast.com/t/70i5z7jhBBMI

anything is easy to route as long as you can get the objects to align in 2 perpendicular view (ie a plan and a section) then you can use the trim command to join them, or drag the end of one couduit/pipe/duct/tray to the end of another (use SX to snap to the connector point.

[Monza]

One thing we have to question ourselves on daily is 'how detailed do I really need to be?'. Do you really need to accurately show the kick? Or does a 'volume' (box) that reserves your space suffice? It all comes down to how much time can be spent on it, and is it worth the time...

[Steve_Stafford]

or perhaps this one?

The key is to take advantage of the 2012 ability to disregard slope when connecting conduits. Get the ends of conduit where they should be and then sketch another piece between them using "Ignore Slope to Connect". The images I've posted are using the system family: Conduit without fittings: Electrical Metallic Tubing (EMT)

I suspect the second image is closest? If so, that's definitely not a problem in 2011. The others are solved more easily in 2012.