The H-Factor

This entry combines one little-known command (Smart Array) with a little-known feature of a more common command (AutoLine).

Inserting Heads using Smart Array

Let's say you have a large room with a suspended ceiling like this, and you want to space heads throughout that room, but do not want to calculate how many rows and colunms you will need. This is where Smart Array comes in. See below:

And you want to add heads to it, center of tile or otherwise.

1. Set up your head like usual

2. Insert that head in the center of the first tile you want a head in, like this:

PS – You should be using the Align Crosshairs with Ceiling command for situations like this!

3. Start the Smart Array command from the Sprinkler toolbar

4. Pick that first head. You will be asked if this is the location of the next head. The idea of this command is to 'steer' over to the location of the next head in both the X and Y directions. Since it is not where the next head goes, pick No

5. Make sure SNAP is on (F9) and drag your crosshairs to the right 12' and pick that point. This is the X spacing for these heads. This is still not where the next item goes, so again answer No

6. Again, drag your crosshairs up 10'' and pick that point. This is
the Y spacing for these heads. This is  where the next item
goes, so answer Yes and the spacing will be set

7. Now, pick the extreme upper right corner to show the entire space to be filled with these heads. I usually pick beyond the wall of the room itself, and without an object snap, to be sure I have enough heads. You can always erase extra ones

8. You will be given the calculated results concerning this room, and given a chance to proceed or bail

This will insert heads thusly:

You can now simply move the rightmost heads into the ceiling grid and be done with heads

Using AutoLine to Connect Heads

9. The next step is to draw the branch lines wherever you want them, and then offset them as need and connect the heads using armovers. The good news is that AutoLine does this for you, so use AutoLine to Draw Lines and Locate Lines and then fill out the dialog box and you have your system:

Next, I will review using Bayspace and AutoLine to achieve a similar result.

A customer emailed today that his Command Line was docked to the right side of the screen and he could not move it. Furthermore, it took up half the screen. The Command Line can be controlled in the menu  (CUI) file. Type in CUI and locate the Command Line as seen below. Be sure to pick your current Workspace or you won't see the changes. You could also try to swap Workspaces (ie pick a different one) and then go back to your main one using the Workspace button

The AutoCAD variable LAYOUTREGENCTL controls REGEN between, er,  Layouts. There are three settings, 0, 1 and 2. AutoCAD help explains these options the best:

Why even have a 0 (zero) option? Well, if your RAM is extremely limited, this keeps you from getting fatal errors due to the memory being overloaded. The best setting is probably 1 because 2 can really eat up the RAM fast.

Another way to set this is on the System tab of the OPTIONS dialog box:

This post was prompted by a call from a long time customer (Hi, Debbie!). I found the following on another blog and it sounded interesting enough to repeat here:

From Ellen Finkelstein's AutoCAD blog (a very excellent one, by the way)

"I want to make sure that you know about 3 really handy commands that will help you to close down a lot of open files very quickly (and safely).

Save everything

The first command is an Express tool called SAVEALL. Simply type saveall at the command line, and all your open drawings will be saved, but remain open.

Close everything

The second command is a standard AutoCAD command called CLOSEALL. Once again, simply type closeall at the command line, and all your drawings will be closed Lickety Split.

Or do both

The final command is another Express tool called QQUIT. This tool will attempt to save and close all your drawings, and then close AutoCAD down completely.

Note: If a drawing has not been saved yet, all of
these commands will prompt for a file name. If you have a blank drawing
file open that you don’t need to save – just hit ‘Cancel’, AutoCAD will still process the rest of the files."

From a customer:

"I started using the Viewbase command, which I learned from the H-Factor
blog.  I love it, it makes pump details very easy to do.  My only
question would be about certain block/details.  A lot of the time I use
Revit models from manufacturers, such as Reliable.  I will download a 3D
valve detail from them in Revit, then export it to a .dwg file.  Then I
will insert it into my detail as a block.  But when I use the Viewbase
command, those items will not show up in the parent model.  They show up
blank.  I didn’t know if you know of a work around this."

From Alan Johnston here at Hydratec:

"You can export the 3D view from Revit as
an ACIS (.SAT) format and import that into HydraCAD.  Then it comes in as
a 3dSolid and Voila…   It Works!!!!"

I ran into this one about two years ago and swore that I wrote a blog entry. Apparently not. I ran into it again today via a customer in the Bahamas (nice place, huh?).

This virus is not dangerous or vicious, but it is really annoying. It causes an error upon loading HydraCAD due to the ai_utils.lsp (an AutoCAD file) having been corrupted by the virus, resulting in a streamp error and the failure of any of our programs to load. Removing the virus is not hard, just follow the instruction on this page direct from Autodesk:

How to detect and remove the Acad.vlx virus

SHIFT can do some SHIFTy things (sorry, I had to ). I found this on Cad Addict's website:

• SHIFT while drawing a line will lock the
  perpendicular inference. It is like a temporary activation of the ORTHO
  mode. If you press SHIFT, a tooltip with similar to the macro Icon of
  digital cameras appear to show you that ORTHO mode is temporary active.
• When
  using FILLET or CHAMFER, pressing SHIFT while selecting the second
  entity will override the fillet radius or the chamfer distances with a
  value of 0. Very useful if you want to keep certain radius or chamfer
  distance but once in a while you need a sharp corner.
• When Selecting Grips of an object, holding SHIFT will allow us to select multiple grips (deeply explained here).
• When we are selecting objects, pressing SHIFT will allow us to deselect any of them.
• When
  using TRIM or EXTEND, pressing SHIFT will toggle between one command
  and the other (i.e. if you typed TRIM and press SHIFT and select the
  object, it will extend instead of trim).
• For object snap
  tracking, object points are automatically acquired. If you press SHIFT
  you will avoid acquiring points for object snap tracking.
• SHIFT
  + SPACEBAR: cycle through selection peviews If selection preview is
  turned on, you can cycle through the objects by rolling over the object
  on top to highlight it, and pressing and holding SHIFT and then pressing
  SPACEBAR continuously. When the required object is highlighted,
  left-click to select it. If selection preview is turned off, hold down
  SHIFT + SPACEBAR and click to cycle through these objects, one after the
  other, until the one you want is selected. Press ESC to turn off
  cycling.
• SHIFT + RIGHT MOUSE CLICK: Will call the Osnap contextual menu (see more here).
• SHIFT + TAB: When working with Dynamic dimensions, it cycles backward
  through all editable dimensions (TAB only will cycle forward)

Once you 'go to 3D' in HydraCAD, you get a wireframe model. This is actually a Visual Style named '2D Wireframe'. If you would like to make a more professional looking presentation, you could apply a different Visual Style. To open up the Visual Style palette, type in VISUALSTYLES or pick the Visual Style button from the HydraCAD SMaRT toolbar.

This brings up the Visual Style palette, from which you can choose a new style:

For example:

The 3D Model 'as is' (Visual Style = 2D Wireframe)

Now, try the Visual Style named Conceptual:

Or, even better, try the Visual Style named Shaded(AutoCAD 2012 or newer):

Pretty, huh? Expect even better results on a 3D Riser!

Version 51.11, and by extension, V52.01 added a new function named Bundle PDFs to the brand new Collaborate toolbar. This command will be renamed Create Submittal Pack in the next update (V51.12/V52.02), so keep an eye out for the new name.

This command will scan the drawing an pull out PDFs for many of the items used in the drawing – sprinkler heads (if defined with a viable part number using head selector), piping, fittings and so forth. Some items are not yet picked up, such as hanger,s but over time we will get more items picked up.

Bundle PDFs/Create Submittal Pack brings up a small dialog box with two buttons. The first one, Bundle PDFs, requires that you be in Model (3D) mode. If not, you will be asked to do so. You will also be asked to save your drawing. It will then search the drawing and create a subfolder under the folder where you drawing is saved, with the name xxxxx_pdfs, where xxxxx is the drawing name. In that folder, you should find a list of PDFs and some HTML files, which act as an index to some of the PDFs. If no files appear, other than the README (which may of may not apply), then it is possible that you did not define your sprinkler heads using the Head Selector, or your drive letter is wrong in the path to the PDFs (see below).

The second button will allow you to map which fittings pick up which PDFs. It will show the following tool. Take a look around and refer to the Help accessed via the Help button. If you have your HydraCAD installed on any drive other than C:, then you will need to alter the drive specification in the URL paths. A quicker way to do this might be to edit the Fitting_Mapping_Revit.dat file in the \HES\HydraCAD\Ver50\DATA\Setup folder and do a search and replace on the C: