Hydraulic Pipe for 'Tube & Pipe'

[AgeAnt]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to Inventor and very new to 'Tube & Pipe'

We would like to use hydraulic pipe fittings mainly 38mm & 42mm pipe OD.

When I run 'Tube & Pipe' there isn't a style available that's suitable, i.e. the right OD and plain ended.

What's the easiest way to add a 'Hydraulic Pipe' style?

I've tried following Help but failed from confusion! 

Please can someone start me off in the right direction - thanks

Adrian

[cbenner]

I guess the first big thing is, do you have the fitting libraries that you need for these pipe styles, as well as the tube itself?  All of the fittings you will be using need to be in your Content Center library, so that they can be assigned to a pipe style.

Pipe styles need to be created (this is not easy to learn from the help files), in an assembly file named piping runs.iam.  This was installed with your Inventor, in the Design Data folder.  Since each install is slightly different, it would be very difficult to tell you exactly where on your hard drive that is, so you may have to do a search for it.  This assembly file serves as the template for every new tube or pipe run you will create, so all styles should be created here.

Have you gotten to this screen yet?

AutoCAD 2013; AuoCAD Electrical 2013; IV 2013 Professional: Tube and Pipe, Frame Generator, Content Center; Vault Professional 2013: Client, ECO

My Blog, pretty weak I know, but I'm just getting started. 😄
http://cbennertipstricks.blogspot.com/

[AgeAnt]

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

I've downloaded just 2 elbows for the time being,  38mm & 42mm, from Parkers and added these to a read/write content centre titled 'ADL Custom Content Centre'

I found the piping runs.iam and have the screen as per your screen shot.

Please advise next step.

Cheers

Adrian 

[cbenner]

Ok, bear in mind, I work with rigid pipe specs, not tube... so these are new to me.  But the next step I would take would be to copy an exisitng style, I thin there is ONE loaded with Inventor.  Probably just to give you a starting point.

Right click on the style in the menu and select Edit or Copy.  Copy will let you create a new style from that one.  You can name it whatever you want, and even give it a "category" name, so you can group your styles as you build your libraries.  If you copy, you then need to find the new style and right click to select Edit on that one.  Once you click Edit, you can make changes to whatever needs to be changed in the style.  Size, fittings, colors... don't forget to look at the Rules tab for Bend Radius, min-max length etc.  Once you've changed whatever you need to, click save and your style should be set to go.  What I do for multiple sizes, is get the first one right, then copy it for as many sizes as I need, then just edit each one to clean it up. 

You can also export either an individual style, or an entire category.  That saves it out as a .xml file.  Later you can use these (do an import) as a template to create either a new style or another new category.

If you need to create a new tube part (pipe) to use with these styles... I'd have to do a little digging on that one, I've only ever created rigid pipe conduits for the Content Center.

[AgeAnt]

Hi,

What you said all makes sense and I tried it out by aurthoring and publishing a pipe and a fitting.

I got to the point where I selected a new 'Tube & Pipe' style entered the pipe and fitting, didn't forget to fill in the 'Rules' and clicked save.

Everthing seemed OK; no complaints or negative messages etc.

However when I click to exit the style screen a massage appears asking if I want to save the edits. I select 'Yes' and then 'Close' only for the message to appear. So obviously the new style is not being saved for some reason. 

I tried moving 'piping runs.iam' to my own disk area in case of a permissions problem and set 'Use Style Library = Read-Write' but no luck.

I suspect I'm not authoring or publishing correctly so I'll try again being more careful using an existing pipe and fitting as a template.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

Adrian

[AgeAnt]

Hi,

Still no Joy!

I can see the principle but can't get anything to work, possibly because there's too many variables, parameters & settings.

The basic problem I have is selecting both a tube and a fitting that match.

I can start a new style and select my tube that I authored but I can't 'see' my 90 deg elbow to select it. Conversely I can select my 90 deg elbow that I authored but I can't see a suitable pipe to select.

There's obviously some preselection of the tube or fitting list going on which indicates that I don't have a tube style to match a fitting style. If this is true how do I match the styles so that I can select them as a new style?

Cheers

Adrian

[AgeAnt]

Hi,

I found that whenever I author a pipe and select it as part of a 'Tube & Pipe' style, no matter what fitting I select I cannot save the style. I assume then that I not authoring the pipe correctly.

I therefore approached it from a different direction.

I've imated the hydraulic elbow, authored it as a threaded or socket welded or quick connection, then published them.

If I try to use these elbows in 'Tube & Pipe' Style, in 'Rigid Pipe & Fittings' the only pipe I can select is always and only 'ASME B36.10M Pipe'.

I have tried using a different existing pipes, using imates to add another pipe size corresponding to my elbow (OD=42) but these never show as a choice.

I've even tried adding a 42mm OD version of an existing pipe but I just can't get the two to match.

I notice in a previous post that there's some serious concerns about the quality of the help. 

Judging by the lack of responses to this post no one else has been able to fathom it out. Has anybody else been able to use Tube & Pipe styles successfully?

If instructions or guidance on how to use it are not comprehensive enough then there's not point having it. What I can' work out is what parameter(s) matches the pipe to the fitting, there doesn't seem to be any consisten logic.

I have wasted so much time on this I could have easily modelled it pipe by pipe, fitting by fitting.

Adrian

[cbenner]

Sorry I haven't been back to look at this, I have a stack of elkectrical drawings I'm trying to get out today... and I HATE electrical schematics with a passion.

Is there anyt way you can post your elbow and pipe parts here?  I'd like to see how you published them, maybe I can figure out what's not right with the combination.

[AgeAnt]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your help.

I have attached the pipe and two elbows. The first elbow 'EO_Union_elbow_W42ZLCF' was downloaded from Parker and is unchanged. As this was constructed from 'revolves' it only had radius dimensions, i.e. no OD. I therefore modified it to a fixed size component with 42mm OD nuts for the purpose of ensuring both the elbow and the pipe had exactly the same OD=42mm.

Both elbow and pipe were configured with 'jointed' joins.

The software allows you to match these two up but you can't save them.

I'd be really grateful of any help.

Cheers

Adrian

[cbenner]

OK,... looks like the pipe part may be the issue.  Pipe conduits have certain necessary information that has to be on the ipart that they are created from.  First thing I noticed is that your pipe is not an ipart.  I'm giving you a link to the 2013 help page that tells you exactly how to prepare a pipe conduit part for authoring and publishing.  2014 is exactly the same. Your fittings appear to be just fine, once you get the conduit squared away you should be good.

btw... this nearly gave me an anuerism 4 years ago when I was first trying to figure it out.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Inventor/enu/2013/Help/1310-Autodesk1310/3029-Tube_and3029/3159-Tube_an...

here is a screen shot... wiki help is slow as molasses this morning:

Not sure how much work you've done with iparts, but I can help there too if you need it.  Give this a whirl and see how it goes.  Piping does take a lot of setup if you want to make your own styles.  We needed to make one where the pipe conduit was flanged on either end... that was a hoot to set up.

[AgeAnt]

Hi,

Thanks for looking at this so quickly. This looks as though it could be the answer! I'll give it a blast.

I'm trying to avoid an anuerism as well; I was just about to give up!

Cheers

Adrian

[cbenner]

Hang in there Adrian... we'll get you there.