PIt and duct network based on Surface

[Anonymous]

Good Morning,

I am looking to start a very big project where we will be designing a simple pit and duct network over the whole site. The following bullet points lay out the work flow I will need to follow:

• Design the layout of the pit and duct system
• Import surface from another consultant
• Link the pit and duct system to that surface
• Tweek a few duct crossings by hand

Question 1:

The network will be very simple, almost all the pits will be the same and any duct runs between the pits will be at the same level. Is there anyway to apply rules to the network that will link the structures to the surface and bring all the pipe runs between them to a pre determined depth below ground level.

Question 2:

Is there anyway to quickly create long runs of the network, maybe get a CAD technician to lay it out with polylines and blocks which automatically turn into a network? (If I could be so lucky!)

Looking for feedback and discussion on this one, I have worked with the pipe network system before, but I have set every pipe invert level by hand in the past and created each pit and duct individiually.

Thank you in advance for your time!

Ross

[Joe-Bouza · Accepted solution]

1. You can create Rules the govern the cover on the pipe. I thinl you can also have a rule to govern the invert at teh structures ,

2. you can convert plines to networks, but I would suggest training your technicians to go straigh to drawing the network with the tools provided. otherwise your only creating double work

another option if you know all the inverts have the technician draw feature lines pit to pit , convert to network and your done.

me I know Im going to visit every structure at some point in the design so I dont fret the inverts.

ahh ha! It struck me all the same same levels. make a dummy surface for the cover calc and the invert will go in as placed, then reference the real surface when done

[Civil3DReminders_com]

You will also want to adjust the pipe rules to be closer to the surface slope closer to 0.01% then the stupid, incorrent, inconcievable default slope of 1%: http://www.thecadmasters.com/wordpress/index.php/2014/05/07/slope-increment-civil-3d-pipe-rules-net/

[Anonymous]

Can these rules be applied retrospectively? The issue I have is that I will not have the surface to reference until after a layout design has been created. Should I just make a fake surface to reference which will eventually be replaced with the design surface?

I have not messed around with the rules at all so do not know exactly how they work.

The only other major issue I have with designing the layout in the pipe network function of Civil 3D is that I find it is harder to adjust the design. I.E. If the pit size changes for all of the pits, they have to be swapped individually. Has anyone found away around this problem? I tried redefining the structure's size in the part builder, but it did not work and even caused me more problems down the line.

Thank you

Ross

[Joe-Bouza]

you can apply rules anytime. as far as the pit size changing; IMHO unless you are doing some hifalutin hydrodynamic analysis I would ignore the sructure size and show it as a block in plan & profile.

you can use a dummy surface or start with none. If you think you can get away without paying a visit to each structure to verify/edit design values - good luck. I don't think you can get there

[Anonymous]

Though it may be faster to use a block, we are working towards BIM and I would really like to get a fully accurate 3D model in there.

It will be many months till this will need to happen, so I might be back in here around that time when I run into some bumps!

Thank you everyone for the advice.

Ross