MEP Modeler

[Steve Jepson]

I would be good to have threaded end connections and mechanical couplings ( Victaulic ) as will as slip fittings for pipe in the MEP Modeler.

I use insulation on the fittings to distinguish them from weld fittings.

I am using the MEP modeler for making Pipe Railing Systems too.

[Anonymous]

Isn't this more of a wishlist item? If you put it there I'll vote "essential".

I would also add that as it stands the MEP modeler does not accurately model any pipe type commonly in the US. At least not without a lot of extra bother and even then it's not great.

For example all slip fit pipe such as copper, PVC, etc has flanges on the fittings only. For some reason AC-MEP applies the same flanges to everything, which is unlike any any piping system I have ever used.

Well almost. I model my cast iron no-hub with little 1/8" x 1/4" flanges to approximate the actual pipe and fittings pretty well but as you say the lack of Victaulic or any other couplings leaves them rather lacking. Particularly for clash detection and constructibility review in tight spaces (which is where it is obviously most needed).

For pressure water pipe I just give up and use "welded" as that makes it easier to use and distinct from the others. Besides the flanges on copper pipe are pretty insignificant. In fact I don't even bother with the OD size since if you're getting that close to copper pipes you've got bigger problems for coordination.

What I do for threaded pipes (since I don't generally have a lot of and it's usually just a single system) is I place them with flanges all around to match the fittings then I "Find & Select" all the pipes of type "GAS" (or whatever) and zero out their flanges.

Actually a much bigger problem I have is that the flange diameter is specified separately from the pipe diameter. I don't understand how anybody thought this was a good idea. Flange THICKNESS additional to the ID is what matters. It should be possible to set this once (a reasonable average value will be fine for most purposes) and then only have to change one parameter to change the pipe size. This is particularly annoying when changing sizes in the middle of routing as you can make the pipe diameters get smaller and proper transitions are inserted, BUT you can't even change the flange diameter as you go. You have to go back and reset all the <censored!!!> values for each <censored!!!> element type, with two settings for TEEs and WYEs!

To be honest I find modeling plumbing in ArchiCAD to be quite frustrating. But, I have to admit that's only compared to what I imagine it could (fairly easily?) be. Then I'll do some gravity pipe in Revit and be missing my ArchiCAD MEP very much.

By the way, for anyone thinking of using Revit MEP for gravity pipe, I highly recommend this accessory.

[Csaba Kezer]

Dear Talkers,

Thank you for your comments.
- The ability to set more connection types would be quite useful in several situations. This request is already recorded in our wishlist.
- The suggestion to replace the Flange Diameter parameter with a Flange thickness parameter is also a valuable thought. I do agree, that this change would create a more user friendly environment and that is why I added this to the wishlist.

Best regards,