AutoCad MEP 2013 - Hangers / Supports

[dmurov]

Has a new hanger / support system been incorporated into v2013?

The current (UK) hanger system has several negatives:

• When modifying pipe (adding fittings/branches, size changes...), hangers uncontrollably relocate along a pipe.
• Rods only have option for length, in lieu of a set height (setting a specific elevation...e.g. 15'-0" for the bottom of a deck).  Also, no ability to extend accurately to a sloping deck.
• Sloping pipe:  Hanger rods aren't vertical when placed on sloping pipe.  Locations are imprecise for field install.
• Scheduling / material takeoffs are wrong, due to inability to set rods to proper height.

[Keith.Brown]

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@dmurov wrote:

Has a new hanger / support system been incorporated into v2013?

The current (UK) hanger system has several negatives:

• When modifying pipe (adding fittings/branches, size changes...), hangers uncontrollably relocate along a pipe.
• Rods only have option for length, in lieu of a set height (setting a specific elevation...e.g. 15'-0" for the bottom of a deck).  Also, no ability to extend accurately to a sloping deck.
• Sloping pipe:  Hanger rods aren't vertical when placed on sloping pipe.  Locations are imprecise for field install.
• Scheduling / material takeoffs are wrong, due to inability to set rods to proper height.

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To answer your question, No, i do not believe so.

1.  To keep your hangers from moving when modifying pipe, just lock the layer that the hangers reside on.  This will keep them from moving.

2.  Rods definately have the ability to extend to a sloping deck.  You just need to know the elevation of the deck where the rod will connect.  You already know the elevation of the bottom of pipe and now you know the elevation of the bottom of the deck.  Subtract the bottom of pipe from the bottom of the deck and you will get the length of your rods.  Modify the length in the property palette and you are good to go.

3.  Yes the hangers do slope when connected to a sloping object.  If you have your hangers set to display in a plan view when in a top down view, the rods do not show up as sloped.  I mark my locations using this view.  For my procedures, i do not need an elevation assigned to this location as the installer knows its the bottom of the deck.  He just needs to know a x and y location.

4.  see the answer to number 2.  Is it a pain in the butt to set the length....yes.....but it is possible to do.  So yes they can be scheduled with a correct length.  Dont forget to add your rod overrun to the rod length and the amount that you will be inserting into the deck.  Total rod length = length + overrun + insertion depth,

Bottom line,  the hangers can definately be improved but you can do everything that you need to do with them.  It is just not as easy as it could be.

[dmurov]

Thank you for the informative reply.

It definitely is a pain to maintain the hanger location and make accurate takeoffs, especially for prefab.  One of our objectives is a clash free model...which means we are adjusting piping and also hangers for coordination.  If we change an elevation of pipe, then we must also adjust the support height of the hanger rod.  This can be a very tedious task that adds time and increases errors when making takeoffs for prefab.  The current hanger system is just not time efficient to adjust 1000s of hangers (accurately).

We've tried locking the hanger layer, without success.  Locking the layer appears to keep the hangers in place, and appears to work, but when MEP regen (objrelupdate) is applied after hangers are unlocked, the hangers will still relocate.  I attempted this procedure on a project by marking all of the hanger locations with a circle (to verify they moved).

Another "negative" on this tool is upsidedown hangers.  Many extra clicks are used to rotate hangers to a positive Z.  The hangers insert based on the rotation of the pipe, which varies depending on how it was drawn.