AutoCAD MEP 2012

User's Guide

March 2011

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Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.

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Third Party Software Program CreditsSpatial, ACIS, and SAT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Spatial Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.ACIS 19892002 Spatial Corp.Adobe Flash Player, Copyright 1996-2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved, Protected by U.S. Patent 6,879,327; PatentsPending in the United States and other countries. Adobe and Flash are either trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and/orother countries.International CorrectSpell Spelling Correction System 1995 by Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, N.V. All rights reserved. Portions relatedto InstallShield are Copyright 1996 2009 Acresso Software Inc. and/or InstallShield Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.PANTONE Colors displayed in the software application or in the user documentation may not match PANTONE-identified standards. Consultcurrent PANTONE Color Publications for accurate color.PANTONE and other Pantone trademarks are the property of Pantone LLC. Pantone LLC 2010Pantone is the copyright owner of color data and/or software which are licensed to Autodesk, Inc., to distribute for use only in combinationwith certain Autodesk software products. PANTONE Color Data and/or Software shall not be copied onto another disk or into memory unlessas part of the execution of this Autodesk software product.Portions Copyright 1991-1996 Arthur D. Applegate. All rights reserved.Portions of this software are based on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.RAL DESIGN RAL, Sankt Augustin, 2002RAL CLASSIC RAL, Sankt Augustin, 2002Representation of the RAL Colors is done with the approval of RAL Deutsches Institut fr Gtesicherung und Kennzeichnung e.V. (RAL GermanInstitute for Quality Assurance and Certification, re. Assoc.), D-53757 Sankt Augustin.Typefaces from the Bitstream typeface library copyright 1992.Typefaces from Payne Loving Trust 1992, 1996. All rights reserved.Printed manual and help produced with Idiom WorldServer.WindowBlinds: DirectSkin OCX Stardock

AnswerWorks 4.0; 1997-2003 WexTech Systems, Inc. Portions of this software Vantage-Knexys. All rights reserved.The Director General of the Geographic Survey Institute has issued the approval for the coordinates exchange numbered TKY2JGD for JapanGeodetic Datum 2000, also known as technical information No H1-N0.2 of the Geographic Survey Institute, to be installed and used withinthis software product (Approval No.: 646 issued by GSI, April 8, 2002).Portions of this computer program are copyright 1995-1999 LizardTech, Inc. All rights reserved. MrSID is protected by U.S. Patent No.5,710,835. Foreign Patents Pending.Portions of this computer program are Copyright; 2000 Earth Resource Mapping, Inc.OSTN97 Crown Copyright 1997. All rights reserved.OSTN02 Crown copyright 2002. All rights reserved.OSGM02 Crown copyright 2002, Ordnance Survey Ireland, 2002.FME Objects Engine 2005 SAFE Software. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Chapter 1 New Features in This Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1New Duct Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Basic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Advanced Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7New Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Modify Duct Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Basic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Advanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Using the Duct Transition Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Specifying the Units for HVAC Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Configuring Duct Layout Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

General Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Configuring Duct System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Configuring Duct Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Configuring Duct System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Creating a Duct System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Specifying a Calculation Method for Duct Sizing . . . . . . 26

Configuring the Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . 28Duct System Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

1-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Graphical 1-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Placeholder Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

v

Duct Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Manually Specifying Parts During Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Choosing a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Overriding a Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Choosing from Multiple Parts Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 2 Moving from AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . 39AutoCAD to AutoCAD MEP Task Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Creating Building Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

AutoCAD MEP Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Insertion Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Layer Keying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Modifying Building Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Automating Design Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Domain-Specific Ribbons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Auto Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Interference Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Connectivity Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Working With Sizing and Calculation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Sizing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Electrical Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Plumbing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Solution Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Creating Accurate Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Section Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Tagging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Labeling and Annotation Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Layout Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Project Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Leveraging AutoCAD Knowledge in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . 58Working with AutoCAD Commands in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . 58

ALIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59ARRAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60BREAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60CHAMFER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61COPY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61ERASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61EXPLODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62EXTEND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62FILLET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63JOIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

vi | Contents

LENGTHEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64MATCHPROP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65MIRROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65MOVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65OFFSET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66PURGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66ROTATE and ROTATE3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67SCALE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67STRETCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68TRIM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Help Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 3 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71About AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

AutoCAD MEP Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Intelligent Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Location of Part Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Analysis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Project Management Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Contacting Autodesk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Discussion Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Updating AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77The AutoCAD MEP 2012 Drawing Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Workspace Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Default Workspaces in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Creating Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Switching Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Workspace Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Workspace Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Displaying the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Using the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Locating Commands in the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Static Ribbon Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Contextual Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Accessing the Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Using the Application Menu to Locate Commands . . . . . 101Displaying Recently Opened Documents in the

Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Displaying Currently Open Documents in the Application

Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Changing the Number of Recent Files and Actions in the

Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Contents | vii

Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Context Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Showing and Hiding Commands on the Drawing StatusBar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Showing and Hiding the Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . 110Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Application Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Showing and Hiding Commands on the Application StatusBar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Project Navigator Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Finding Information in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

InfoCenter Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116Communication Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

F1 Context Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Command Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Controlling the Display of Command Tooltips . . . . . . . 118Dialog and Palette Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Object Rollover Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Property Palette Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Thumbnail (Preview) Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Solution Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Object Grip Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Working in Model Space and Paper Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Customizing the Display of MEP Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Using Custom Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Chapter 4 Drawing Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Drawing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

About Layout Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Initialization Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Specifying Part Catalogs and Style-Based ContentLocations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Layout Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133Defining System Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136Configuring Tooltip Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137AutoCAD MEP Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Equipment in BuildingSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

About Electrical Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141About Pipe Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142About Mechanical Equipment (HVAC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

viii | Contents

About Plumbing Equipment and Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144Working with Catalog-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

How Catalog Parts are Stored and Referenced . . . . . . . . . . . 147How Catalog Parts Are Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149Part Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149Default Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Importing a Building Component into AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . 153Working with Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

How Style-Based Content is Stored and Referenced . . . . . . . . 156Orthographic and Isometric Views of Style-Based Content . . . . 157

Working with Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Opening the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Changing the Active Group in the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . 160Modifying the Appearance of the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . 161

Docking the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Hiding the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Adjusting the Transparency of the Tool Palette Set . . . . . 162Modifying the Appearance of Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Working with the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Opening the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Modifying Object Properties Using the Properties Palette . . . . 166Modifying Display Properties Using the Properties Palette . . . . 166Modifying the Appearance of the Properties Palette . . . . . . . 166

Docking the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Hiding the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167Adjusting the Transparency of the Properties Palette . . . . 167

Working with Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168About System Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170Creating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Specifying the Design Rules of a System . . . . . . . . . . 173Specifying the Rise/Drop Style of a System . . . . . . . . . 175Specifying the Display Properties of a System . . . . . . . . 176Attaching Notes and Files to a System . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Copying Systems Between Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Purging Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Designing Parallel Routing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Selecting a Display Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Essentials of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Object Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Selecting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187Filtering Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Justification of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190Matching Part Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193Matching Style and Display Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199Working with Connected Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Viewing Connection Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Contents | ix

Modifying Connected Objects Along a Run . . . . . . . . . 206Working with Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Attaching Objects with a Curve Anchor . . . . . . . . . . 210Attaching Objects with a System Anchor . . . . . . . . . . 212Attaching Objects with a Reference Anchor . . . . . . . . . 212Rotating Objects Attached with Curve Anchors . . . . . . 213Releasing Anchored Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214Part Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Using the Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216Customizing the Compass Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Designing with Dynamic Input and Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219Dynamic Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220Grip Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221Grip Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221Trigger Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222Grip Editing Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Drafting with Flow Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224Regenerating an AutoCAD MEP Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226Viewing Part Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Basic Part Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226System Assignments for Parts and Connectors . . . . . . . . . . 228Part Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228Part Property Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230Part Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Chapter 5 Working with Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Working with Drawing Management Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Establishing Project Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235AutoCAD MEP Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Layer Standards Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Layer Key Styles and Layer Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Layer Standards Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Layer Properties Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Specifying a Layer Standard and a Layer Key Style . . . . . . . . 240Accessing Layer Key Styles and Layer Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

AutoCAD MEP Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Display System Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Display Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244Display Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Display Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Hierarchy of Display Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250Managing Display Settings During Project Setup . . . . . . 251Configuring Display Settings During Design . . . . . . . . 254

Display of Objects Based on Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256Workflow for Displaying Objects Based on Elevation . . . . 259

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Enabling the Elevation-Based Display Components . . . . 260Specifying the Cut Plane and Display Range for a Display

Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261Configuring Elevation-Based Display Components . . . . . 263Modifying Elevation-Based Display Components on the

Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264Overriding the Cut Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Display of Crossing Objects in 2-Line Plan Views . . . . . . . . . 267Configuring the Display of a Gap Between Crossing

Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267Modifying Hidden Lines for Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Display of Center Lines on Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269Display of a Hatching Pattern to Identify a Duct System . . . . . 271Display of Objects by Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272Adding Custom Graphics as a Display Component . . . . . . . 272Troubleshooting Object Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

AutoCAD MEP Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274Default Drawing Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274Creating a Custom Template from a Template or Drawing . . . . 276Creating a Custom Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Working with Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278Attaching or Overlaying Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279Reloading Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280Clipping Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281Changing the Display Configurations of Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . 282

Chapter 6 Drawing HVAC Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285HVAC System Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285Mechanical System Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285Duct System Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286Workflow for Using Spaces for Load Analysis . . . . . . . . 288Workflow for Calculating Duct Sizes to Optimize Duct

System Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289HVAC System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Duct System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291Drawing Ductwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Flexible Duct Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293Auto Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294Multi-Floor Duct Systems in Referenced Drawings . . . . . 294Takeoffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Duct Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297Duct Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Add Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297Grips for Modifying a Duct Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Duct Elevation Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Contents | xi

Duct Sizing Methods and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308Duct Sizing Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308Duct Sizing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311Duct Size Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312Instant Duct Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Duct System Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3131-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314Graphical 1-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3152-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . . . . . . . 316Placeholder Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Duct Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317Configuring Duct System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Configuring Duct Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318Configuring Duct System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Creating a Duct System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320Specifying a Calculation Method for Duct Sizing . . . . . . 321

Configuring the Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . 322Creating a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Duct Properties Palette (Add Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Basic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Advanced Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328New Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Adding HVAC Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332Placing a Duct MvPart in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . 332Adding Parts In-Line to Ducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333Configuring Mechanical Parts for Analysis . . . . . . . . . 333

Adding Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334Configuring Duct Layout Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . 334Drawing a Duct Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Adding Duct Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345Manually Specifying Parts During Layout . . . . . . . . . . 346Drawing a Vertical Duct Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350Using the Duct Transition Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350Drawing 1-Line Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Configuring Justification for Duct Insertion . . . . . . . . 354Calculating Duct Sizes for a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . 354Adding a Duct Fitting Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357Drawing Flexible Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359Adding a Parallel Duct Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360Offsetting Duct from Existing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . 361Drawing Sloped Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362Using the Elevation Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362Connecting Ducts Through Referenced Drawings . . . . . 363Adding Insulation or Lining on a Duct or Duct

Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

xii | Contents

Adding a Takeoff to a Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Converting a Line to Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367Converting a Polyline, Line, Arc, or Spline to Flexible

Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367Adding Turning Vanes to Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368Creating a Custom Duct Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370Adding a Label or Flow Arrow to a Duct . . . . . . . . . . 372Adding a Hatching Pattern to Identify a Duct System . . . 374

Modifying a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375Duct Properties Palette (Modify Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Basic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375Advanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Modifying Components Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381Moving Duct Components Using Location Grips . . . . . . 381Modifying the Elevation of HVAC Parts and Ducts . . . . . 382Lengthening a Duct Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383Rotating Duct Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Modifying HVAC Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Modifying HVAC MvPart Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Modifying HVAC Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386Changing a Part to Match Another Part . . . . . . . . . . . 387Modifying Flow Annotation Information for Air

Terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388Modifying the Flow Value Assigned to a Part . . . . . . . . 388Modifying the System Assigned to a Part

Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389Modifying Duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Modifying the Size or Shape of a Duct . . . . . . . . . . . 390Modifying the System Assigned to a Duct . . . . . . . . . . 391Modifying the Duct or Fitting Location . . . . . . . . . . . 391Breaking or Merging Duct Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . 393Modifying the Size or Subtype of a Duct Fitting . . . . . . 394Modifying the Takeoff Position of a Duct Fitting . . . . . . 395Modifying the Layout of a Flexible Duct . . . . . . . . . . 396Moving an Off-Center Takeoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396Modifying a Custom Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397Modifying Turning Vanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398Changing Insulation or Lining on a Duct or Fitting . . . . 398Modify Duct Transition - Offset Fittings . . . . . . . . . . 399

Checking Connectivity in a Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399Modifying a Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Using Spaces for Load Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403Specifying Space Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Configuring Space Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404Viewing Classification Definitions for Occupant Densities

and Air Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Contents | xiii

Configuring Zone Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406Adding Spaces to a Floor Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Recommendations for Floor Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407Modeling Openings on Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408Modeling Surface Types on Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Adding Engineering Data to Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409Attaching Property Sets to Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412Attaching Spaces to Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413Exporting Zones for Load Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414Reviewing Spaces and Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415Importing Load Analysis Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416Using Space and Zone Calculated Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Calculating Duct Sizes to Optimize Duct System Designs . . . . . . . . 419Specifying ASHRAE Fitting Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419Considerations Prior to Exporting Duct System Data . . . . . . 421Exporting Duct System Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422Importing Optimized System Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422Resizing a System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Chapter 7 Drawing Piping Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425Pipe Systems Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Workflow for Designing a Pipe System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425Pipe Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427Auto Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Routing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430Guidelines for Constrained Layout Solutions . . . . . . . . 432

Sloped Piping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433Pipe System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436Pipe System Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

1-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438Graphical 1-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4392-Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . . . . . . . 440Placeholder Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Pipe Parts Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441Pipe Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Add Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445Grips for Modifying a Pipe Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Pipe Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458Pipe Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458Connector Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459Connection Types for Pipe and Pipe Fittings . . . . . . . . 460Male-Female Fittings and Joint Direction . . . . . . . . . . 462Pipe Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Pipe Length and Cut Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465Pipe Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

xiv | Contents

Pipe Elevation Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468Configuring Pipe System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Configuring Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470Creating or Copying a Routing Preference . . . . . . . . . 470Configuring Properties for a Routing Preference . . . . . . 471Configuring Size Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471Deleting a Routing Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Configuring System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473Creating a System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473Configuring System Definitions for 1-Line, 2-Line, or

Single Line Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474Configuring Graphics for Single Line Pipe Display . . . . . . . . 476Configuring the Straight Centerline Display of Elbows . . . . . . 477

Creating a Piping System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477Pipe Properties Palette (Add Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Basic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479Advanced Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Adding Pipe Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486Placing a Pipe MvPart in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486Adding Parts In-Line to Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Adding Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487Adding Pipe from the Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488Configuring Basic Pipe Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489Configuring Pipe Layout Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . 490Configuring Justification for Pipe Insertion . . . . . . . . . 497Specifying Cut Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497Drawing a Pipe Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498Adding Pipe Using Add Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504Manually Specifying Parts During Layout . . . . . . . . . . 506Using Routing Solutions to Connect Objects . . . . . . . . 509Adding a Pipe Fitting Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511Creating a Custom Pipe Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513Drawing Sloped Piping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514Drawing a Flexible Pipe Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516Adding a Parallel Pipe Run Using Offsets . . . . . . . . . . 518Offsetting Pipe from Existing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . 519Locking Pipe Elevation During Drawing . . . . . . . . . . 521Adding a Takeoff to a Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521Adding Insulation to Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523Adding Labels or Flow Arrows to Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . 524Converting a Polyline to Flexible Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Modifying a Piping System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525Pipe Properties Palette (Modify Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Basic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526Advanced Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Modifying Pipe Components Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Contents | xv

Moving Pipe Components Using Location Grips . . . . . . 529Modifying the Elevation of Pipe Components . . . . . . . 530Rotating Pipe Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532Modifying the Length of a Pipe Segment . . . . . . . . . . 532

Modifying Pipe Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533Modifying the Location or Elevation of an MvPart . . . . 534Modifying Piping Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535Matching an MvPart of One Type to Another . . . . . . . 536Modifying the K-Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536Modifying the System for an MvPart Connector . . . . . . 537

Modifying Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537Modifying the Routing Preference and Nominal Size . . . . 537Modifying the Pipe or Fitting Location . . . . . . . . . . . 538Breaking or Merging Pipe Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539Locking the Size of a Pipe or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Modifying the System Assigned to a Pipe . . . . . . . . . . 541Modifying a Pipe Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542Modifying the Layout of a Flexible Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . 542Modifying Insulation on a Pipe or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . 543Checking Connectivity in a Pipe System . . . . . . . . . . 543Modifying a Label or Flow Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Chapter 8 Drawing Radiant Heating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547Radiant Heating Systems Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547Creating Radiator Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548Using a Calculation Program to Add Radiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Adding Radiators Using Calculated Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551Rules About Updating Existing Radiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553Exporting Drawing Information for Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Designing Radiant Heating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555Adding a Radiator MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555Modifying a Radiator MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

Radiator Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559Adding a Radiator Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559Modifying a Radiator Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560Moving a Radiator Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560Connecting MvParts Using Alignment Grips . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Creating Pipe Runs for Radiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562Adding Parallel Pipes to a Radiant Heating System . . . . . . . . 564Correcting a Parallel Pipe Routing Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . 567Connecting Multiple Radiators to Parallel Pipes . . . . . . . . . 568Correcting a Radiator Connection Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Chapter 9 Drawing Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571Electrical Systems Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

xvi | Contents

Design Workflows for Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571Define System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571Design the Electrical System Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575System Types of Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

Components of an Electrical System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580Electrical and Wire Ways Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581Cable Trays and Conduits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Enhancements for Laying out Conduit Runs . . . . . . . . . . . 584Conduit Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584Conduit Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586

Control the Appearance and Behavior of Electrical SystemDesigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Creating Electrical System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592Creating Load Category Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594Configuring Electrical Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Specifying Voltage Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596Configuring Circuiting Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597Specifying an Electrical Project Database File . . . . . . . . 599

Device Style Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599Specifying Design Rules for Device Styles . . . . . . . . . . 599Configuring Connectors for Device Styles . . . . . . . . . 600Specifying Classifications for Device Styles . . . . . . . . . 603

Configuring Styles for Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605Specifying Design Rules for Panel Styles . . . . . . . . . . 606Configuring Connectors for Panel Styles . . . . . . . . . . 607

Configuring Styles for Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607Defining Design Specifications for Wire Styles . . . . . . . 608Specifying Annotation for Wire Styles . . . . . . . . . . . 609

Configuring Layout Preferences for Cable Tray or Conduit . . . . 612Specifying Alignment for Cable Tray Insertion . . . . . . . 613Specifying the Slope for Cable Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614Breaking Cable Tray at Even Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . 614Specifying Annotation for Cable Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . 615Specifying Default Parts for Cable Tray . . . . . . . . . . . 616Configuring Connections for Cable Tray . . . . . . . . . . 617Configuring Layout Preferences for Conduit . . . . . . . . 618

Working with Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620Using an Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620

How the Electrical Project Database Works . . . . . . . . . 621Creating an Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . . 622

Contents | xvii

Linking to the Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . 623Reloading the Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . . . . 624Unlinking From the Electrical Project Database . . . . . . . 626

Using Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626Creating Circuits Using the Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . 627Configuring a Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629Viewing Details in the Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . 630Linking Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631Managing Circuits in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634

Creating Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634Adding Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Configuring the Electrical Connectors of a Device . . . . . 641Example: Aligning a Device to Floor Plan Geometry . . . . 646Example: Adding Devices at a Specific Distance

Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647Example: Adding a Specific Number of Devices . . . . . . . 650Example: Inserting a Device into a Wire . . . . . . . . . . 653

Adding Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654Example: Aligning a Panel to Floor Plan Geometry . . . . . 662

Copying Devices and Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663Example: Copying a Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666Example: Copying a Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667

Adding Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669Drawing or Generating Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669Drawing a Home Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677Creating a Wire from a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678

Adding Electrical Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678Adding Cable Trays and Conduits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680

Drawing a Cable Tray or Conduit Run . . . . . . . . . . . 682Adding Conduit or Cable Tray Using Grips . . . . . . . . . 687Adding a Cable Tray or Conduit Branch . . . . . . . . . . 689Drawing a Parallel Conduit Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690Adding Cable Tray or Conduit Fittings Manually . . . . . . 696

Checking Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697Calculating Wire Sizes Using the Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . 698Viewing Circuit Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699Checking Circuit Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699Generating a Circuit Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700Showing Circuited Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701Showing Connected Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702Viewing Power Totals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702

Modifying Electrical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703Modifying Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703

Moving Circuits to Manage Demand Load . . . . . . . . . 704Modifying Circuit Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704Deleting Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

xviii | Contents

Modifying Devices and Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706Moving a Device or Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706Modifying Device Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710Modifying Panel Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

Modifying Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720Modifying Wire Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721Modifying Wire Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722Moving Tick Marks on Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724Flipping Tick Marks on Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Modifying Electrical Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726Modifying Cable Trays and Conduits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727

Modifying the Layout of a Cable Tray or ConduitRun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727

Changing the System of a Cable Tray or ConduitRun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728

Changing the Elevation of a Cable Tray or ConduitRun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

Modifying the Size of a Cable Tray or Conduit Run . . . . 730Modifying the Length of Cable Tray or Conduit

Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731Breaking and Merging Cable Tray or Conduit

Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735Modifying a Cable Tray or Conduit Fitting . . . . . . . . . 737Rotating Cable Tray or Conduit Fittings . . . . . . . . . . 738

Annotating Electrical System Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741Adding Labels to Wire, Conduit, and Cable Tray . . . . . . . . . 741About Panel Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Annotating and Scheduling Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . 745Generating Panel Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746Updating Panel Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751Exporting a Panel Schedule to Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . 751Creating Panel Schedule Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Chapter 10 Drawing Plumbing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755Plumbing Design Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755Plumbing Systems Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Plumbing Runs and Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757Plumbing System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758Plumbing Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

Movement of a Plumbing Line Segment . . . . . . . . . . 760Movement of an MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

Plumbing Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763Grips for Adding to a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . 763Grips for Modifying a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Rise/Run Angles and Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

Contents | xix

Fixture Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772

Plumbing Line Sizing Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772Customizing Plumbing Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Creating Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775Creating Catalog-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Configuring Plumbing System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775Creating a Plumbing System Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775Specifying the Default Fittings for a Plumbing System

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776Configuring Fixture Unit Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

Applying a Default Fixture Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778Creating a Fixture Unit Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779Importing a Fixture Unit Table into a Drawing . . . . . . . 779

Specifying Plumbing Line Sizing Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779Configuring Styles for Plumbing Lines and Fittings . . . . . . . 780

Specifying Annotation for a Plumbing Line Style . . . . . . 780Specifying Standard Sizes for a Plumbing Line Style . . . . 782Specifying Type and Subtype for a Plumbing Fitting

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782Connectors for a Plumbing Fitting Style . . . . . . . . . . 783

Specifying Plumbing Preferences for Labels and FlowArrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Creating Plumbing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786Adding Plumbing Equipment and Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . 786Adding Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788

Drawing a Plumbing Run from Equipment orFixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788

Drawing a Plumbing Run Using Add Grips . . . . . . . . . 789Drawing a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791Creating a Plumbing Run from a Polyline . . . . . . . . . 792

Connecting Plumbing Lines at Different Elevations . . . . . . . 792Overriding the Default Plumbing Fittings for an Individual

Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793Adding Plumbing Fittings Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795Adding an Expansion Loop to a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . 796

Modifying Plumbing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797Modifying Plumbing Equipment and Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . 797Calculating the Slope of a Plumbing Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799Modifying Plumbing Lines and Fittings Using Grips . . . . . . . 801

Moving Plumbing Lines and Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . 801Modifying the Length of Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . 802Rotating Plumbing Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Modifying Plumbing Lines and Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804Modifying the System Assigned to a Plumbing Line or

Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

xx | Contents

Reversing the Flow of a Plumbing Run . . . . . . . . . . . 805Modifying the Elevation of a Plumbing Line or

Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805Modifying the Location Coordinates of a Plumbing Line

or Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806Modifying the Nominal Size of a Plumbing Line

Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807Modifying the Style of a Plumbing Line or Fitting . . . . . 807

Calculating the Sizes of Supply Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808Sizing Supply Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808Reviewing the Sizing Results for Supply Plumbing Lines . . . . . 810

Calculations for the Longest Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811Calculations at Selected Component . . . . . . . . . . . . 813

How the Software Performs Calculations to Size PlumbingLines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817

Calculating the Sizes of Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . 818Overview of Sizing Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . 818

Sanitary Branch Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819Sanitary Offset Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820Sanitary Stack Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Sizing Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821Sizing Sanitary Plumbing Lines for Multiple Floors . . . . . . . . 822Reviewing the Sizing Results for Sanitary Plumbing Lines . . . . 825

Chapter 11 Drawing Schematic Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829About Schematic Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830

Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832Drawing in Orthographic Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833Drawing in Isometric Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834

Customizing Schematic Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835Configuring Schematic Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

Creating Schematic System Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835Configuring Styles for Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836

Defining Designations for Schematic Line Styles . . . . . . 837Specifying Annotation for Schematic Line Styles . . . . . . 838

Creating a Schematic Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840Adding Schematic Lines in Orthographic Mode . . . . . . . . . 841Adding Schematic Symbols in Orthographic Mode . . . . . . . . 843Adding Schematic Lines in Isometric Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 846Adding Schematic Symbols in Isometric Mode . . . . . . . . . . 849Adding Schematic Lines Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854Creating a Schematic Line from an AutoCAD Line, Arc, or

Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854Modifying a Schematic Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855

Associative Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855

Contents | xxi

Modifying the Properties of a Schematic Line . . . . . . . . . . . 855Modifying the Properties of a Schematic Symbol . . . . . . . . . 856Moving Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858Moving Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861Modifying the Length of Schematic Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862Rotating Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864

Rotating Orthographic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864Rotating Isometric Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Resizing Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867Resizing by Scale Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867Resizing by Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868Resizing Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869

Chapter 12 Creating Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871Construction Document Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871Creating Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872

Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872Scaling Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873Label Curve Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890Adding Annotation Symbols from DesignCenter . . . . . . 891

Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893Adding a Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893Modifying Property Set Data for a Part . . . . . . . . . . . 895

Using Part Number Tags and Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896Working with Part Number Tags and Schedules . . . . . . 897

Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900Adding a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900Linking a Schedule to an External Drawing . . . . . . . . . 901Creating an Electrical Panel Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . 902Updating a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902Exporting a Schedule to a Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . 903

Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 903Creating a General View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904Creating a Detail View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905Creating a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906Creating an Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910Updating a Section or Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . 914

Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915Creating a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915Creating a Cover Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917Ordering Sheets in the Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917Publishing a Sheet Set to DWF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 918

Adding Elevation Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 918Checking Your Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919

Showing Solution Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920

xxii | Contents

Showing Connected Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 922Showing Connected Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923Finding Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Running Interference Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 924Viewing and Resolving Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . 926Tagging Interferences or Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 928Exiting Interference Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 930

Excluding a Material from 2D Section Shrinkwrap . . . . . . . . 930Collecting Project Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932

Defining Property Set Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933Defining Property Set Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934Using Classifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935Copying a Schedule Table Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935

Purging AutoCAD MEP Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936Sharing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936

Displaying Custom Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937Object Enablers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937Proxy Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937Export to AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938

Posting and Plotting Your Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939

Comparing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939Using Industry Foundation Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 940Select a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946

Chapter 13 Customizing Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949Workflow for Creating Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949

Creating a Style-Based Content Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 950Creating the Blocks for a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951Creating a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 952

Editing Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954Configuring Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954

Specifying the Design Rules of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954Defining the Views of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 956

Defining Style Views for Devices, Panels, and PlumbingFittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957

Defining Style Views for Schematic Symbols . . . . . . . . 961Configuring the Connectors of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 964Configuring the Display Properties of a Style . . . . . . . . . . . 966Attaching Notes and Files to a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968Copying Styles Between Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969Rise/Drop Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969

Defining Rise/Drop Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972Connector Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977

Categorizing Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977Creating Categories in AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978

Contents | xxiii

Customizing Device Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979Converting Blocks and Parts to Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979Converting Device Styles to Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983Converting Blocks to Device Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985

Creating Device Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 988Modifying Device Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . 991

Customizing Schematic Symbol Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998Converting Schematic Symbol Styles to Blocks . . . . . . . . . . 998Converting Blocks to Schematic Symbol Styles . . . . . . . . . 1001

Creating Symbol Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003Modifying Symbol Conversion Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . 1007

Chapter 14 Customizing Catalog-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015Understanding Parametric and Block-Based Parts . . . . . . . . . . . 1015Approaches to Creating Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1018Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022

Tips for Using Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023Allowing for Automatic Layer Mapping of Part Sizes for Content

Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023Starting Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1024

Working with Parametric Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1028Building Parametric Fittings Using Content Builder . . . . . . . 1028

Best Practices for Creating a Parametric Fitting . . . . . . 1028Recommendations for Creating Parametric Fittings

Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029Rules for Connector Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1032Parametric Part Creation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 1033Workflow for Creating a Parametric Fitting with Content

Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065Creating a Parametric Fitting with Content Builder . . . . 1067

Building Parametric Parts Using the Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . 1095Building Parametric MvParts with Content Builder . . . . . . . 1098

Workflow for Creating a Parametric MvPart with ContentBuilder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1098

Starting Content Builder for Creating a ParametricMvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100

Specifying the Part Configuration of a ParametricMvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101

Modeling a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103Adding Connectors to a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . 1132Adding Dimensions to a Parametric MvPart . . . . . . . . 1139Generating a Preview Image of a Parametric MvPart . . . 1151Defining the Part Insertion Behaviors of a Parametric

MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1152Validating, Saving, and Previewing a Parametric

MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1153

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Creating a Schematic Symbol of a Parametric MvPart . . . 1155Modifying Parametric Parts Using Content Builder . . . . . . . 1164

Starting Content Builder for Modifying a ParametricPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1165

Modifying a Parametric Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1165Working with Block-Based Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167

Converting MvBlocks to Block-Based Parts . . . . . . . . . . . 1167Best Practices for Creating a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . 1170Block-Based Part Creation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170

3D Model Block for a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . 1170Schematic Symbol of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . 1172Behavior of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173View Blocks of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176Preview Image of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . 1178Connectors of a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1179Property Set Information for a Block-Based Part . . . . . . 1181

Workflow for Creating a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182Creating Block-Based Parts Using Content Builder . . . . . . . 1184

Creating a 3D Model and Schematic Symbol for aBlock-Based MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1184

Starting Content Builder for Creating a Block-BasedMvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1188

Defining the Part Behavior of a Block-Based MvPart . . . 1189Assigning Part Size Names and Views of a Block-Based

MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191Generating a Preview Image of a Block-Based MvPart . . . 1192Adding Connectors to a Block-Based MvPart . . . . . . . 1193Adding Property Set Information to a Block-Based

MvPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1196Modifying Block-Based Parts Using Content Builder . . . . . . 1199

Starting Content Builder for Modifying a Block-BasedPart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1199

Modifying a Block-Based Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1200Working with Custom Parameter Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202

Saving Custom Parameters in Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202Adding Groups of Saved Custom Parameters to Parts . . . . . . 1204

Testing Parts Created with Content Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205Testing the Display Representations of a Part . . . . . . . . . . 1205Testing the Connectors of a Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1206Testing the View Block Orientations of a Part . . . . . . . . . . 1206

Chapter 15 Customizing Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1209About Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210Opening Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1211Opening a Part Catalog in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212Customizing Catalogs in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212

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Working with Part Data in the Tree View . . . . . . . . . . . . 1213Working with Part Data in the Table View . . . . . . . . . . . . 1214Creating Parts in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1216Adding Part Sizes in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1216Adding Custom Data to Parts in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . 1218Creating Part Catalogs in Catalog Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219Working with Part Data in Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1221

Validating and Regenerating Part Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1222Validating the Parts in a Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1222Regenerating a Part Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1223Migrating Part Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225Redefining the Catalog Parts in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . 1226

Chapter 16 Customizing AutoCAD MEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229Creating Drawing Environment Configurations for Users . . . . . . . 1229Styles and Support Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1230Customizing Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232

Creating a Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232Creating a Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233Customizing a Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234

Specifying Different Tool Palettes for the Tool PaletteSet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235

Renaming the Tool Palette Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235Customizing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1236

Creating Tools for Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237Creating Tools from Routing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239Creating Tools from AEC Content in DesignCenter . . . . . . . 1240Creating Command Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1241Creating Property-Based Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1242Changing Tool Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1243Changing Tool Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1245Deleting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246

Chapter 17 Working with the U.K Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247Using Other Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247Working with Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1248

Configuring Hanger Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1248Adding Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250Modifying Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1252

Rotating Cable Trays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1253

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1255Glossary Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1255

xxvi | Contents

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1283

Contents | xxvii

xxviii

New Features in ThisRelease

NOTE AutoCAD MEP 2012 is built on AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architecture. See theHelp for those products to learn more about their new features and enhancements.

New Duct Propert