How is the best way to work with Demo and New....Same construct?

[Serenity777]

How do i control the connectivity....if in the same...they are right on top of each other...separate constructs better? Or just use freeze/thaw.....

[Keith.Brown]

I am not really sure what you are trying to do or are asking for.  Could you elaborate a bit?

[Serenity777]

Well when I started my position my bosses were doing just about everything with their drawings in the same construct...demo equipment, new, and existing,....so if they are demo-ing out a Water heater and putting a nother one in they would put them in the same construct as everything else(minus the architecturals) and then just freeze and thaw demo equipment and systems which may be drawn in the exact same spot as the new work....would it be best to have separatefiles for demo, new and existing or just new?....I guess drawing organization is something I am not as familiar with since i was trained on autocad 2006 I am trying to get used to the way things are done properly.... Also I am trying to find more info on using classifications....are they mostly important for scheduling?

Thank you for any advice you may give...

[kwizats_haderack]

Hi,

for me, the best way is to use the integrated project manager.

You can put your conception in the folder "conception" and your "demo" in the folder "elements".

When you need to see the demo in the conception, you just have to right clic on the demo file and choice "superpose xref" and repeat this as many time as you need.

It's very easy to use and very easy to manage.

[Keith.Brown]

You can definately use classifications to solve this problem.  Display representations have the ability to filter objects based on their classification.  You can set up three different classifications for equipment, New, Demo, and Existing.  Then you can copy any of the existing Display Representations three times.  Then start the display manager, expand the display representations and select either the model or plan view representation.  Then select the Display Options tab on the right and scroll down until you reach your classification.  Select the classification that you wish to see in the current display representation and unselect all others.

I make extensive use of this when creating a ceiling grid layout for air terminals.  I just have a display representation that filters everything out except MvPart Type: Air Terminal.  This will filter out all mep objects except the air terminals.  Then in my paper space view I just set the display representation to the Ceiling Grid view.  I place this in my template and have it available in all drawings that I work on.

[Serenity777]

Great thats pretty much exactly what I was needing. I created a few different displays that reference the demo new and existing. My only thing now is that the engineer originally drew both new and demo in the same construct as everything else minus the architecturals so now there are new and demo pipes on top of each other causing some things to not show up right in mechanical display or MEP design...is there away to fix that so the displays show up separately instead of showing hidden lines for the demo and the new on top of each other..or is it back to the they need to be in separate files thing. 

I just got my autocad mep 2013 book and havent had a chance to read into it much but i hope that may help...also if you add more displays or say i have a lot of door styles is that going to bog down the autocad ....i guess does it make the file a lot bigger or does it really matter...

[Serenity777]

By Conception do you mean Construct? and by project manager do you mean Navigator? So when drawing piping and ductwork you only have demo in an elements construct Overlayed in?

[Keith.Brown]

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@Serenity777 wrote:

Great thats pretty much exactly what I was needing. I created a few different displays that reference the demo new and existing. My only thing now is that the engineer originally drew both new and demo in the same construct as everything else minus the architecturals so now there are new and demo pipes on top of each other causing some things to not show up right in mechanical display or MEP design...is there away to fix that so the displays show up separately instead of showing hidden lines for the demo and the new on top of each other..or is it back to the they need to be in separate files thing. 

I just got my autocad mep 2013 book and havent had a chance to read into it much but i hope that may help...also if you add more displays or say i have a lot of door styles is that going to bog down the autocad ....i guess does it make the file a lot bigger or does it really matter...

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Why would you use the original MEP Design when you just created three copies to display either new, demo or existing?  You can create variations of those three also if you want to see New and Existing together for instance. 

[Serenity777]

Well because the original engineer drew all demo, new and existing in the same file so the mep design shows all three..i only made the other 2 displays to filter out the demo and new as needed....but again...if they are on the same elevation the lines are conflicting with each other even though one may be in the turned off classification and one is not...it shows as though they are both visible with hidden lines even though the classification is not showing due to the display setting

Is there a way to attach classifications to layers so for example i put something in a demo layer it will automatically classify it to "demo" ?

Your help is much appreciated thank you

[Keith.Brown]

Unfortunately you cannot place objects on a layer and have them classify automatically.  You can however isolate a layer and select all objects and manually classify them all at once.

If you update your drawing the lines will redraw correctly.  To do this just type OBJRELUPDATE at the command line and select all objects.  This will redraw the objects without the broken lines and hatching.