The H-Factor

A long time customer of ours (good guy, has poor taste in baseball teams) emailed me a drawing in which he could not explode the bulk of the building. Some research produced a solution – the block was specified to not allow exploding when it was created. This, fortunately, is easily correctable.

A LISTing of the block gives the hint as to the cause:

Notice it says Allow exploding: No

This can be changed by typing in B or BLOCK to bring up the Block Definition dialog box. Then, select the block you want to explode – in this case it is NORTH COMPLEX, as given by the LIST command, above.

Notice that the Allow exploding check box is deselected. Select that box to add the check mark and pick OK.

You will be asked to confirm the redefinition of the block. Select Redefine block.

You will now be able to EXPLODE the block at will

Possibly the coolest new feature of 2015 is the Lasso. This new selection mode lets you freehand a selection set of virtually any shape, quickly and (sometimes) easily. It can be used anytime you are selecting objects.

When presented with the familiar Select Objects: prompt, just hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor – you will be drawing a Lasso! There are three modes – Window, Crossing and Fence. Hit the Spacebar (as noted at the command line) to cycle through these three choices while lassoing. Let go of the mouse button when done with a lasso and continue selecting (or removing) objects using another lasso or other selection method.

It will take some practice to get used to the flow of a lasso, so try it out a few times to get familiar with the ins and outs of this option.

 

There are two ways of doing this. the first involves the Design Center and is, perhaps, the now preferred method:

Design Center Method

1. Open the drawings or template you want to copy from, and to
2. Switch to the 'to' drawing – the one that needs the layout tabs
3. Open Design Center (from the AutoCAD Standard toolbar, or Ctrl+2 or type ADDCENTER)

4. Click on the Open Drawings tab
5. Select the Layouts to be copied from the 'from' drawing (the one that contains the layouts)
6. Select the Layout(s) you want to copy and Right Click on them. Pick Add Layout(s)

Import From Template (or Drawing) Method

1. Right Click on any Model or Layout tab in your drawing. Pick From Template…

2. If you are going to import a Layout from a template, then just select the template and pick Open. To import from a drawing, pick the Files of Type drop down list at the bottom of the ensuing dialog and pick Drawing (*.dwg) and select the drawing you want to pull Layouts from
3. Either way, you will get a list of available Layouts from that drawing. Pick the one you want or use the usual Windows selection keys like Ctrl and Shift to select more than one

This question comes up often. The answer is, it depends. It depends on what the bid documents are specifically asking for and what the Architect/GC/Project Engineer/AHJ is asking for. Right now, there are three basic formats:

1. AutoCAD Drawing – If the concerned party is asking for an AutoCAD drawing, then they will also need the Hydratec Object Enabler (unless they have HydraCAD on their computer) in order to see certain elements of the drawing – ie the riser nipples. The enabler is available to anyone that wants it, and does not require a Hydratec subscription. The party may need our font files in order to see fractions properly. A blog post for this can be found at: Shipping HydraCAD Fonts

2. Navis File – If they want a drawing for Navis clash detection purposes, then create this drawing using the Make Solid Pipes (MSP) command. Be sure to check Show Fittings and Heads, because they probably want those. Also, choose the Solid Pipes and Open Drawing option. Send them the drawing that results. There is a video and help file to be found within this command.

3. Revit Model – Revit calls their 'drawings' models. The create one, you will need to have Revit MEP on your computer (or available through a network license). Use the Create RevitLink to System Model command to create this Revit Model. There is a video and help file to be found within this command, or a video illustrating this can be found at: RevitLink Video

 

The Slope Entire System command was added to the Piping toolbar (Define Pipe Elevation flyout) a while back, but many still do not know of its existence, or how to use it. With it, you are able to specify a slope for your mains and a (maybe different) slope for your lines and slope the whole tree system with one pick, as in a dry system, for example.

Picking this command gives a series of command line options.

Settings

This one is actually last, but may be the one you usually use first. Use it primarilly to set the Rise and Run of the slope. Type in 'S' and then type in 'M' for Main Set Slope or 'B' for Branch Set Slope and enter your desired slope. Use the Current Settings option at the first command line prompt to set what the defaults are

One Segment

This will allow you to pick one straight run of piping, starting from the end of the selected pipe

All connected pipes

This will place slope markers on all connected system piping starting from the end of the selected pipe. One slope marker will be added for each straight run of pipe. Use a Stop Marker to prevent the slope from continuing

Computer Determined Slope

This will place slope markers on a straight run of pipe (like the One Segment option). The rise/run is set to 0, which tells the computer to calculated the slope based on pipes labeled with known elevations. See related sloping blog entries: Denoting Sloping Pipe (such as in a stairwell) and Letting HydraCAD Figure the Slope of Sloping Pipe for more on this

Insert Stop Marker

This will insert a marker which will prevent the slope from continuing

Current Settings

Displays a dialog box showing the current settings

?

Opens the help file

HydraCAD V52.04/51.14 instituted a new way to locate flexible sprinkler heads and it couldn't get much easier.

1. Simply insert a 'regular' sprinkler head using any of our sprinkler insertion tools
2. Insert a flexible sprinkler on top of the regular sprinkler

That's it! The regular sprinkler head will get erased when a flexible sprinkler is put on top of it.

This allows the use of all of the sprinkler spacing tools for flex sprinklers. Center and Nearest Osnaps are helpful here. Also, don't forget that AutoLine will also change regular heads into flexible sprinklers

Need to line up your 3D model for coordination in Revit, Navis or something else? Use the Move Model command from the Collaborate toolbar:

This is a two step process. Pick Denote Basepoint.

Then, pick a window around the section to move and then locate the Match Point. This will become the new Base Point.

Now, pick Move Model from this command. The Base Point has now been moved!

If you are using Naviswork Manage to do clash detection, then we have the tool for you! HydraCAD has a tool that will put a yellow error circle at each location that a clash occurs. Use the Navisworks Toolkit button on the Collaborate toolbar (below)

Then, export your piping to Navis and run a clash check. Then, switch to the Report tab and write a report to Text format, with at least Clach Point and Item Path checked.

Write this report to the C:\HES\Temp folder and name it HCAD_CLASH_DATA.TXT. Leave Navis open and then pick the Import Clashes Into Drawing option in the Navis Toolkit referenced above. Error bubbles will appear at the conflict locations. Hover over one of the errors to get information about that error:

Note: There is a Help document in the toolkit to refer to. There is also a Video for this process! You may need to download the full video from our support site, however.

HydraCAD Version 52.2/51.12 added a new command to the Piping toolbar – Size Pipe by Schedule. This command will apply a sizing schedule to the line or main picked, along with all the lines or mains attached to it.

– Icon for Size Pipe by Schedule

This command s easy to use. Put your model into 3D mode, then pick this command.

Set your options and pick Continue. The Pipe Schedule screen will then come up. Set your sizing choices there as well. Then, select the pipeto be sized. Any pipes connected to that pipe will also be sized.

Armovers will be sized properly of they are drawn in the new armover layer (SPRKDAT4)