Autodesk Revit MEP

[#1]

Hi everybody,
Its nice to see cable trays added to Revit, but I cant seem to get them to work for our main use.

We do a lot of Riser or Electrical intake room details, and in the elevations/sections when looking at the back wall you would have cable trays running up the wall and accross the wall to serve the electrical meters e.t.c.

I can easily get a cable tray rising up the wall by drawing it then rotating it, but not across the wall
If i rotate it so it runs horizontally accross the face of the wall, it either gives me a error OR rotates it so it lays flat and not on the wall.

Appreciate any help.

(i have attatched a screenshot of the horizontal cable tray sitting the way revit forces it everytime i try to rotate it so the opening faces me) Edited by: wda1 on May 24, 2010 1:09 PM

[#2]

I'm want to make sure that I know what you are asking. Are you saying that you want the open end of the cable tray to be facing into the room on the horizontal segment and not having the open end on the top of the cable tray?

[#3]

Hi, thanks for replying.

Yes, i do mean i want the open side of the cable tray to face me when looking at the wall.


I did yesterday manage to get it facing me after several rotates in different directions, HOWEVER, as soon as you then change length or try to add a fitting to it to join the rising tray, it flips back facing upwards without any error.
So that didnt help me much..

[#4]

When we designed the cable tray feature, we intentionally designed it so the open end in always facing up. I'd be very interested to get more information from you on the types of applications where you would not want that to be the case. Would it be possible to send me some pictures of real installations where you have the open end facing into a room?

[#5]

I have looked though our site photos and we seem to have a lack of electric installation photos, only mechanical.
However, the main use for our horizontal facing cable / ladder tray is when rising up a intake riser and needing to offset distances along a wall before rising again.

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(im sure you're impressed by my drawing there! who needs cad! lol)

Majority of times they are used for data/cctv cables when open trays.
It is not a major issue, purely that I currently use the duct tool to draw these however the cable trays are much more graphically appealing to the client when in 3D if it is a open face installation.

[#6]

Don't have photos but it is an installation that we have used before, software should extend to cover this case.

[#7]

Cable tray should be able to be inserted into a model in any direction or orientation as it would on site. I have been to many sites where cable tray is run horizontally along a wall from a riser and also where tray is fixed to Unistrut on the underside of a slab with the tray facing the floor. This can also apply to basket and trunking.

Also Trunking does not always have lids on the top face as the lids can be on the side.

Perhaps Auotdesk could take some of the development team out onto sites to see how the elements they have created are installed in real life and also request site photographs from CSE's in other countries, to aid in understanding how we would want to design and install the elements created in a Revit model. I appreciate that Autodesk can't accommodate every combination/possiblity that happens around the world but it may help come to a more flexible solution when using these elements.

[#8]

I agree. We need the cable trays to be able to be inserted in any direction we choose. It is very common to run cable trays along walls, and also as mentioned earlier, we quite often are required to run them upside down direct on the soffit at times.

[#9]

While still new to MEP, I have sen already many vertical installations. And these are very serious installations; not done in a improvised mode. Many are mounted on a vertical Unistrut grid. 

Most of other installations have some vertical portions, so not being able to model it totally compromises the cable tray objects.

Has anyone found some workarounds?

(I also dare to find good Unistrut families; currently not offered by Unistrut.)

I cannot send any pics, but found this web clip from the Cable Tray Institute (http://www.cabletrays.com/faqs.html)

Is it common practice to use cable trays in the vertical position? Do they maintain their integrity during a 25 or 30 year life of a plant? Is the percent fill of a vertical tray the same as a horizontal cable tray?

(1) It is common practice to use cable trays in the vertical position. I have many photos of such installations. There is no problem. Cables must be fastened securely, see NEC392.8(b).

[#10]

the inability to place vertical cabletrays is more irritating since autocad mep can place them in suc a position.