Pipe Elbow Throwing off strange Angles

[mzavala]

I have a strange problem here!
I'm pretty new to Revit and started to create some fitting families.
I've created a PVC Elbow fitting family, based on some cutsheets I downloaded from Spears.
It works great in the Family Editor, but once I import it it behaves strangely.
It adjusts to 90deg bends well, but when I attempt to make a 45deg bend, it rotates my pipe off by a few degrees.
I've included a screen capture with the odd angles.

Any ideas??

[Michael.c]

I have a strange problem here!
I'm pretty new to Revit and started to create some fitting families.
I've created a PVC Elbow fitting family, based on some cutsheets I downloaded from Spears.
It works great in the Family Editor, but once I import it it behaves strangely.
It adjusts to 90deg bends well, but when I attempt to make a 45deg bend, it rotates my pipe off by a few degrees.
I've included a screen capture with the odd angles.

Any ideas??

Could it be that there is a fall in the pipe level? If a 45 was connected to the end of a straight, then rotated slightly to give a gradient, then in plan, the angle would be slightly less than 45. Just a thought.

[mzavala]

No the Offset is the same.
I've attached the .rfa. Maybe I've done something wrong there.

Thanks for the help!

[rforee]

I was having an identical problem, are you using trig functions to set the angles of some of your model lines? Try using reference line pined on one end being rotated at the angle and base your model lines off of that.

[mzavala]

Tried it. Still not working.
I've even tried to have it be a "Non-Angle" Adjustable elbow, and it still does that.
I think it has something to do with the formulas I've entered, since it works fine for 90deg elbows but any other angle and it get's "off set". All they do is move the reference planes around, and the angle of the elbow.
Does anyone know how the origin point of the pipe fitting affects it's behavior?
Does it have to be in a certain location?

[mabrey]

You are correct in that the problem is related to the origin. Basically, for any given angle, the connectors axis must intersect at the origin. Refer to the following thread for a more detailed explanation.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=80183

-Jon

[msjca]

I think I'm having same problem. While drawing pipes, i want my next endpoint to be at a 45 deg anble (actually, 135 degrees reported by the realtime angle display) from the previous endpoint. It shows ahd reports 45 deg UNTIL i click my mouse button. The angle is something else. I even turn off all snaps except angle snaps (default angle snaps). That some other angle has values to the right of the decimal other than zero. For example it might be 136.32 -- recall my goal was 135.00.

I'm using default elbows. I can work aroud by drawing pipes then rotating them, They seem to let me rotate them to snapped non-decimal degrees. This is a pain and slow, I want to draw a pipe run then, adjust. I dont want to draw 2 legs, rhen rotate the askew to 135 then draw another leg, correct it, etc etc.

(my slope is 0,
Is something wrong with Autodeks default elbows? Is there an update?
Revit MEP 2009

Just want the pipes to draw the way the GUI says they are going to turn out

I figure, I must be missing a setting?

[njenkins]

Working in 2010 I am getting the same issue. If viewed in medium detail it doesn't look like the pipe connects to the center of the fitting. If viewed in fine detail it adds an angle to the one pipe. Did you ever find anything out about this? It seems like something must be screwed up with their standard elbow family.

[ltuss]

The two planes at the intersection of the Angles in the fitting have to set to origin. The easiest way to set the plane offset for the Center Spacing is the formula -
Center Radius * tan(Angle/2)