AutoCAD MEP

[#1]

Has anybody else experienced random duct connections breaking in MEP 2013? I've been working on duct layout for a theater for a couple days... up til today the ducts & fittings connected just fine. I went and customized the rise/drop symbols, and after regenerating the drawing every one of the duct connections (fitting to duct or, duct to duct, or fitting to fitting) had the little warning graphic and a "duct connector is not connected" error message.

the customization on the rise/drop symbols was merely changing the colors & linetypes in the existing rise/drop blocks. Don't see how that would mess up or corrupt the drawing file & connections.

[#2]

Have you tried the OBJRELUPDATE command?  Tap enter key twice to select all and update the model.

It may just need to compute thru the model (each connection and relationship) to update the screen.

Joshua

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[#3]

Yeah that was the first thing I tried to fix it. Didn't change anything.

I also tried reestablishing some of the connections - breaking ducts or deleting fittings then using the 'add duct' command to recreate them... even that didn't work consistently. Some connections would be re-established others would not. Sometimes one side of an elbow would reconnect but not the other, etc. And that was in locations where all the connections had been good previously so I know it wasn't something like ducts not lining up or anything.

[#4]

Please try this:  Copy all (CTRL +A) to the clipboard (CTRL +C), then start a new drawing from the MEP default template.  In the new drawing, paste from clipboard (CTRL +V).  I do not see how editing the rise-drop blocks would break the connections. 

Haven't seen that happen before here in support.  I have seen an elbow fitting rotated with the Core AutoCAD ROTATE command, it was rotated about it's long axis.  The twist between connectors stops the transfer of data beteen segment and fitting.  It loses it's connection and shows the triangle.  Even a 0.001 degree twist would break the connections.  For every segment and fitting to break this way, their rotation vector (Normal) would have to be slightly off or lost somehow.  That leads me to suspect the file is corrupted.  Which the copy across to a new drawing "may" resolve it.

Did you rotate the rise-drop block in the block editor?

Joshua

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[#5]

No all I changed was a couple linetypes and line colors. I wouldn't think any changes, even rotation, to the rise/drop symbols would have much effect since the r/d symbols get scaled to each individual connection anyway?

I'll try copying the objects from the file over to a new dwg and see if that works.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

Wanted to follow up and see if copying the objects to a new file helped?  Would redrawing the objects from scratch be possible?

Hope this helps,

Joshua

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[#7]

Possible? Yes... But having to do that every time the software screws up the drawing kind of negates any advantage of going to 2013.

Copying the drawing contents over to a new file seems to work occasionally. I tried it 4 different times into new drawings - it worked in 2 of them, didn't work in the other 2. Doesn't seem to be much of a pattern.