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Setting Level Elevations without Project Navigator

3 REPLIES 3
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Message 1 of 4
5ifthgen
2490 Views, 3 Replies

Setting Level Elevations without Project Navigator

Hi, Guys.

 

I have a really simple, yet pressing problem that I need fixed.

 

I am working on a project that has 4 levels. Some of the models came from the engineering department, and since they are using project navigator, they are able to set the elevation of each floor so that we can draw our items at true height to finished floor, and it will compensate - say - a 18'-0" level height.

 

When I XREF this drawing into another drawing on a different floor, it will come in at the correct height. Same with Navisworks.

 

MY problem is I cannot use project navigator because it will not mesh well when we hand this design-build project back top engineering after install.

 

I am using AutoCAD MEP 2012 - I want to be able to tell a drawing what it's finished floor height (level elevation) is, and draw some conduit or cable tray at 8'-0" rather than 8'-0" + 18'-0" to compensate for the level elevation.

 

I tried using the 'Elevation: +000.000" tool in the lower right corner of my drawing screen (screenshot attached), but I'm not sure how that works because when I type in a numeric value of that floor and save it, it doesn't do anything or change anything and it resets to 0.0000 once I open it again anyway..

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

To sum this up in a sentence, I want to be able to set my level elevations for each drawing within AutoCAD MEP without using Project Navigator.

 

I don't want to just set the XREF to the level height in each drawing, and I don't want to jimmy-rig by manually compensating.

 

 


Thank you much, I appreciate it!

3 REPLIES 3
Message 2 of 4
Keith.Brown
in reply to: 5ifthgen


MY problem is I cannot use project navigator because it will not mesh well when we hand this design-build project back top engineering after install.



Can you explain this sentence?  I guess I don't understand why you cannot use the project navigation system.  Autocad uses the .xml files in the same folder as the constructs to set the levels of the project.  Technically you could use the project navigation system to create and model your files and then just send them the dwg's and forego sending the rest of the files.

 

At a previous company that I worked for the engineering department and the detailers used the same project setup to create their models.  The engineering files were just in a seperate folder then the detailing drawings.  Both constructs would assign each file to a level in project navigator.  The detailers would drag and drop the engineering files into their drawings and the engineers had access to the shop drawings at all times.  The setup seemed to work well with no issues.

Message 3 of 4
5ifthgen
in reply to: Keith.Brown

There are logistics that would simply get very confusing why we cannot use project navigator here on site.

 

To sum it up quickly, it is because they will not allow us to access their particular drive, and we can only VPN into it anyway - it would be too slow. We also are working with other people who are not using project navigator and will ultimately need to hand the drawings back to the eingeering team for complete ownership - so we basically decided to stay out of project navigator, and send them the drawings, so that they can just update their constructs at hand-off.

 

With that being said, is there any way for me to set elevatiosn within my drawings without using project navigator? I can't imagine that it would be such a detailed technique that it would only be a function available in PN...

 

Ebven without PN running, the previously attached screnshot shows the 'Elevation' toolbar at the bottom right of the screen? I can't seem to get that working, though.

 

If you don't completely understand my question, please see the copied verbiage that I sent a tech supprot rep below:

 

Thank you so much for your reply - if you can get this figured out for me, I would owe you big time!

 

FWD:

 

Thank you for this attempted solution, but it is not what I need. I made a mistake when saying “cable tray”, as that was simply a hypothetical example.

 

What I am now forced to do, is create a new drawing for every single file in my project, XREF said drawing into this new file, and insert it at the correct Z axis (based on which floor it is on) to be sure that when this drawing is referenced into a different drawing or a Navisworks model, that it shows up at the correct elevation – per floor.

 

For future help and reference, here are my floor heights (and the total elevation):

 

Level 1: 0’-0” (+0.000)

Level 2: 18’-0” (+18’-0”)

Level 3: 16’-4” (+34’-4”)

Level 4: 16’-4” (+50’-8”)

Roof: 16’-4” (+67’-0”)

 

I want to draw a {hypothetical} pipe in level 3, for instance, at the true height (10’-0” bottom of pipe to FinFloor of Level3), but set the drawing itself to be +34’-4” so that even though I am drawing the pipe to be 10’-0;” to the floor of level 3, if I were to reference this drawing into another subcontractor’s model – it would show up at the proper elevation. I would then be able to hover over the pipe and it would read “10’-0” B.O.P” rather than “44’-4” B.O.P”.

 

Does this make sense?

Message 4 of 4
Keith.Brown
in reply to: 5ifthgen

Ok....I understand the logistics.  My next question would be why don't you just create a new project in project navigator where you can set up the elevations.  When you share the files, you just share the dwgs and not the xml's.

 

It is the project navigation system that allows you to drag and drop a drawing without setting the elevation via the xref dialog.  If you don't use the project navigator you loose this ability.  Finding a way to set an elevation outside of PN will do nothing for you as it is PN that allows this to happen.

 

All of that being said.  I guess I will ask again.  Why don't you go ahead and use the project navigator anyway?  You don't have to share the project with anyone, just the files.  Navisworks has the ability to elevate your files to the correct elevation.  You don't have to raise all of the objects in the drawing to the correct elevation.  Just use file transform once inside the file set. 

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