Tube and Pipe - Getting Started

[pcramer]

Hey I am new to the tubing and pipe software. I have created a large assembly of piping with valves and pumps, but when I tried to update it later everything kept getting messed up. I am looking for some good tips and good practices for when I use this. and I have a couple questions.

1. When I place a pump in the assembly I can not constrain it in all three directions. I want the canterline to be fixed on an axis. How do I accomplish this?

2. How do I fix my pipe on a fixed axis?

3. How do I make it so that I will be easy to go in on a later date and update/replace a part and have the whole thing auto update?

Any help, or tips that you have picked up, you can give would be great. Thank you.

[cbenner]

Welcome to the group!

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@pcramer wrote:

Hey I am new to the tubing and pipe software. I have created a large assembly of piping with valves and pumps, but when I tried to update it later everything kept getting messed up. I am looking for some good tips and good practices for when I use this. and I have a couple questions.

1. When I place a pump in the assembly I can not constrain it in all three directions. I want the canterline to be fixed on an axis. How do I accomplish this?

--- I always build my piping skids on several levels.  The frame is done as it's own assembly, the bottom level of my skid assy.  Next I build an equipment assy, which includes the frame assy and all of my pumps, tanks HX etc.  Next I create the tope level assy which includes this equipment assy... and on this I start my piping runs.  That way at the equipment level I can constrain the pump any way I choose, for example to axis of the tank suction nozzle.  At the piping level I can begin a run from any of those nozzles.

---- Tip.  Whan you first create the top level piping assy (tube & pipe runs.iam, this gets created by default when you first fire up piping), Constrain that assy to the top level... origin plane to origin plane.  Then for each new Pipe Run you create, constrain them to the tube & pipe runs.iam... origin plane to origin plane.  This will prevent you from being able to accidentally grab abd drag a pipe run... this will save you headaches!

2. How do I fix my pipe on a fixed axis?

---  I'm not exactly sure hwta you mean by this, but could it have to do with the starting points of your runs?  Similar to what I mentioned above, like using the nozzle of a tank or pump as the start point of a run?  Maybe post a screen shot of what you need?

3. How do I make it so that I will be easy to go in on a later date and update/replace a part and have the whole thing auto update?

--- Some tips here.  First is the one I gave above, try that... trust me.  Next thing is (sorry Autodesk) avoid autoroutes like they are the plague!  They do not update well, since they make assumptions about your design intent.  When you are routing, you will get them sometimes.  Immediately right click and select convert to sketch.

Next, your pipe routes are 3D sketches, make certain they are always fully constrained.  If possible and useful, include geometry from your frame or other equipment which is not likely to move, and constrain your routes to that.  With a combination of geometric and dimensional constraints... keeping in mind how you would like the run to behave later, you can lock down a pipe route in a way that will allow for changes later on.  One thing I always try to do is keep one segment of the route, while geometrically constrained.... undimensioned.  This will allow for growth or shrinkage of the route if you add or remove fittings or valves etc later... without moving the route itself.

Last but not least... things are gonna fall apart, sometimes horrifically.  Maybe half of the grey hairs on my head have come from piping design.  It's not just Inventor either, I used Pro E piping for 3 years, and it was even worse.  Just put it in your head that sometimes the best thing for everyone is to tear out a route that is so far gone it's making your face turn red... and start over.  LOL... sorry, but sometimes... stuff happens.

Any help, or tips that you have picked up, you can give would be great. Thank you.

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That's all I can think of right now, but feel free to bring on more questions.  I don't have all of the answers, and usually there is more than one right way to do things... but I'll share what I know.  Good luck.

[cbenner]

Some examples of what we do here:

[pcramer]

That is extremely helpful, thank you.

It seems that that works well if you are building your skid first and you know where all of the mechanical parts are going to be placed. What if you are designing the piping first and The position of the mechanical parts are notset in stone? Is designing that way bad practice?

[cbenner]

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@pcramer wrote:

That is extremely helpful, thank you.

It seems that that works well if you are building your skid first and you know where all of the mechanical parts are going to be placed. What if you are designing the piping first and The position of the mechanical parts are notset in stone? Is designing that way bad practice?

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I can only say that from my experience, and the equipment we build, yes... that's not good practice.  I prefer to nail down the equipment, run the pipe as flexibly as possible... and then move things around later as needed.  As you get better at route constraints, you'll find that your entire assembly is more flexible.  For example, I can move my pump around on the skid, and the pipe run and associated routes will adjust accordingly.  If they fail, it's usually because I did not have enough flexibility in the routes.

Your workflow may need to be different... but I think flexibility is the key... without saccrificing being fully constrained.  Does that make any sense?  😄

[pcramer]

So then you are "attaching" the pipe at both the beginning and the end. Everytime I try to do this it generates the auto route which I do not want. I understand what you mean by making it flexible, I just dont know how to get around the auto route.

[cbenner]

When you get the auto route, right click on it in the model browser, and select the option "convert to sketch:.  Then you can mess around with the dimensions and constraints as needed.

As far as connacting to each end... yes, definitely.  Usually I will manually place (using the "connect" option) a gasket and flange on either end of the run.  unless, of course, the run terminates in space... such as a customer tie point.  Then I begin routing from the flange to whatever the terminating point is.

[pcramer]

Thank you, this has helped out a lot. If its ok with you I will post more quesions I have on this thread (I will probably have a lot more).

[cbenner]

Glad I could help, fire away on questions.  I would recommend though, for specific questions, start a new thread.  That way, in the future, people might be able to search and ind answers if they have the same question..... assuming of course I or one of my cohorts can answer them for you!  😄