DWV How do you make it work??

[Mustangman6799]

O.k... ABS 2006.

We started modeling DWV using '06 and it worked. Not well mind you, we would place every part individually, copy, paste, rotate, mirror. Eventually we were able to make it look like we wanted although there were no sticky moves and virtually nothing was connected due to the sloped systems.

Now we have made the dreaded switch to '07. We are working with drawings that were started with '06 some are fresh, none work well. I have found that although there are some features in '07 that I really like (i.e. flipping fittings and rotating by clicking an arrow) are great. Why didn't they make the rotate feature every 45 degrees instead of 180 and 90. 90 and 45 would have been more useful. Is that changeable?

This isn't the reason for my post; this is. We have MANY projects that we are working on and we need to have the ability to reliably and quickly model drain waste and vent systems. We have spent days literally redrawing systems, moving individual parts, resizing pipes etc to make the systems work. Is there a way on 2007.1 to set up a style, system definition- that will allow you to draw sloped pipe, throw in the correct fittings, utilize the sticky moves feature and stop me wanting to shoot myself in the head because of the inefficiency of the program?

I have been searching through tutorials, looking on Augi and searching the internet but to no avail. I would think that someone out there knows how to make this work! I have heard and noticed that they piping/plumbing has been vastly improved and expanded with the release of 2007 as far as the fitting library etc, but what's the point if it doesn't work. Please, someone help me become un-frustrated.

[CGM]

...I have been searching through tutorials, looking on Augi and searching the internet but to no avail. I would think that someone out there knows how to make this work! I have heard and noticed that they piping/plumbing has been vastly improved and expanded with the release of 2007 as far as the fitting library etc, but what's the point if it doesn't work. Please, someone help me become un-frustrated.Hi bbrown,
Here are a couple of 1 day training manuals available for Autodesk® Building Systems 2007:
Piping Essentials (http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/sat5/ec_Main.Entry17C?SID=19515&SP=10023&CID=0&PID=833428&PN=1&V1=833428&V2=&V3=&V4=&V5=11033742&CUR=840&DSP=&PGRP=0&ABCODE=&CACHE_ID=0) & Plumbing essentials (http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/sat5/ec_Main.Entry17C?SID=19515&SP=10023&CID=0&PID=862662&PN=1&V1=862662&V2=&V3=&V4=&V5=11033742&CUR=840&DSP=&PGRP=0&ABCODE=&CACHE_ID=0). Perhaps they may shed some light on adapting the fitting library, etc. to your company's needs.
(Hmm, they are not free though.)

[stearnskl]

Hi bbrown,

We started with 06 as well but were told not to attempt sloping piping. I didn't listen, and got very frustrated, so long story short, we didn't use it. We have recently upgraded to 07.1 and I have had some success with using the grooved routing pref. but there aren't DWV fitting for those from what I can tell. I did goto AU2006 this year and talked with someone from AutoDesk about this problem, and they thought that the could improve the fittings in a future release. I know this probably doesn't help, but thought I would let you know that your not the only one with this problem.

[Mustangman6799]

Well, since I first started this post I have spent about 40 more hours working on the DWV issue. We are starting to formulate a template that has the information that we need to model the DWV in '07 but it's still not perfect. All in all though, I think it's going faster that 2006 went... could be that I'm just getting better though too.

My bosses are very particular about running with the correct spec for the different systems so running with grooved on an ABS or PVC system wouldn't work for me, although, thank you for the idea. It isn't a problem finding the fittings that are needed to properly model the space, it's just getting them to pop into the model in the same fashion fittings come in for regular pipe. I must say though, I started modeling some flat system piping yesterday and had a tough time even getting it to work properly.

They way I decided to model my latest DWV drawing- I simply went through and modeled the entire system flat. I didn't worry about slope. When I was done, I went through the drawing and erased all of the flat pipe (by flat I mean horizontal and not sloped there were still all of the elevation changes etc.). I then went through and started placing a sloped pipe where I had removed a non-sloped pipe. The biggest problem with doing this was the sloped pipe would frequently flatten back out when it was dragged to a fitting or the fitting would rotate to accompany the pipe. neither were acceptable. I found that when moving a piece of sloped pipe, instead of picking directly on the end node if you drag back just a tiny bit so it is picking almost from the end node but from a center of the pipe you could move it to pair up with the fitting without adverse effects. Once this was done, I would stretch the sloped pipe to the adjacent fitting. Then to an Iso view, using point filters, I would start moving the pipe and fittings so they would appear to be connected, even though they weren't. For visual purposes and routing reasons, it works fine. So far, this is how we have to do it. It's the best idea we have come up with, other than switching to PD3D. Making adjustments for coordination can be a nightmare though. Does anyone have a better idea to share?

I was thinking about buying the manuals mentioned by Frenchie, but what Stearn says about AU doesn't make me get the warm fuzzy that it would solve or even help my problem. I guess we wait until someone with a better idea that is willing to share reads this or until Autodesk comes up with a better product.

Thank you for your help Guys!

[Mustangman6799]

Weeelllll... the saga continues. I have an update for all of the people that are taking the time to read this- I found that if you have taken the time with an 06 drawing to set layer key styles and system definitions your drawings can be much more useful in 2007 than previously anticipated. When we first started with 07 every time we tried to add pipe to a drawing that was started in 06 we would only be able to use "placeholder pipe". One of my colleagues "accidentally" changed all of my pipe in one of my drawings to all one layer. I thought it was funny, although it was many many hours down the drain. I thought that since the drawing was a loss, I would try some experiments. I went to 07 and opened our pipe template. I set up additional styles and system definitions to match what I had started with the 06 drawing. Then I copied and pasted all of the pipe from the 06 drawing to the 07 drawing, and when I did that, it remembered the system definitions and placed everything on the correct layers and adopted the correct colors. I was pleasantly surprised. My glee continued when I found that when the pipe changed to the new layer and definition it "upgraded" the pipe to 07. Now I am able to modify the pipe as I would have with it throwing in the correct fittings etc. as it would have in 06. No more placeholder pipe for me! Still though, I haven't quite figured out the DWV so no updates there. If anyone out there should read this and have more suggestions, I would love to hear them.