Creating a Bill Of Material

[snyper1982]

I am new to MEP and creating autocad schedules. I am pretty much wondering how I would go about Creating a bill of material that would have 5 columns, Mark(or list number of item), quantity(this should give the total quantity of the item), size(obviously should be the nominal size), length(for each individual piece of pipe, or cut length, fittings will obviously be blank here), and the Part Size Name. I am daunted by the sheer amount of options the scheduling options contain. It would be great it say there were 3 pieces of pipe with equal length they would all be included in the same mark row for example 5, and the quantity would be 3 for that row. It would also be great if I could list all the pipe first then the fittings. Any help with this would be GREATLY appreciated, as I am lost right now. Oh yeah, before I forget, Is there a way to show the data from the schedule that connects to the pipe itself. I think it is called tagging or something. Thanks in advance.

My end reslut is to create a residential plumbing, rough in(under the concrete slab) prefab kit. It will basicaly be like the building instructions you get for a computer desk or something similar. So I need to have isometric view that shows the mark numbers(I assume you can have the tags show that tpe of info). I did this at a previous company using a 3rd party add on called pipe designer 3d, MEP seems to be much more powerful, so I would be extremely surprised if it couldn't do the same thing.

[Keith.Brown]

To get you started take a look at this link.  It has 4 videos that show the basics of scheduling by an employee at Autodesk.

http://www.cadengineeredsolutions.com/autocad_mep/autocad-mep-scheduling-basics/

[VitalyF]

Hi,

Try this version of the Schedule Table, perhaps this is what you need ?!

Pipe and fitting schedule table

Regards,

Vitaly

[snyper1982]

No. That had me absolutely and completely lost.  🙂 As I said, i am completely new to schedules. The other software did all this for me, you just selected what info you wanted in the bill of material, and selected the order and such, and it made the table for you.

I got it mostly working I think. What I did was create a new Property Set Definition. In there I added 3 automatic property definitions, CutLength, and NominalConnectionDiameter. I also added a maual property definition and named it MarkNo, and made the type  auto increment-integer Default is set to 1.

I then created a new Schedule Table Style I added my 4 columns, and clicked the include quantity checkbox. Under the sorting/grouping tab, I added the CutLength property.

This is close to how I want it, but not quite. I mean this could work, but it doesn't look right. Picture is attached of what the shchedule looks like.

What I want is to have everything sorted as follows. I want all the pipe at the top. I want any equal pipe lengths to be in the same row with an updated quantity. For instance MarkNo 33 and 12. They should both be under the same MarkNo Row. After The Pipe Lengths, I want it to sort by the nominal connection Diameter. So it should be the 1-1/2" pipe first, then 2", then 3", Then the 4" pipe. Then it should sort the fittings In the same manner. I want the MarkNo to be sorted 1-... to the end, so pretty much not sorted just added to the schedule after everything else is sorted.

It should look something like the attached excel file.

I just can't seem to get it to sort the way I want. Thanks for reading, any help is greatly appreciated.

[Keith.Brown]

If you attached a dwg i can fix the schedule up the way that you want it.

[snyper1982]

Thank you so much. It should be pretty clear what property set and schedule table are mine. But just in case the psd is pipefittingobjectstest and the schedule table is new pipe and fittings schedule. Those are place holder names until I am ready to finalize everything.

Quick question since I am using the nominal connection diameter when it has a fiting with more than one connection, it lists each connection. When it has more than one, shows up as 4.00; 3.00 or 3.00;3.00;2.00. I would like that to show up as a single number when all connections are the same diameter. Like a 3" 90 should show up as 3". A 3x2 abs combo should show up as 3"x2".

I think I figured out how to do just that by adding custom properties to the fittings and pipe. I was going to add a cutom property calle Size. It would be the nominal connection size. I could make it a list type and make the data type a string value, and I could put whatever I wanted for the value. The only problem is i can't seem to add that to the schedule.

Anyways, thanks again for helping me out here.

[snyper1982]

Ok I think i figured it out. Instead of using custom data, I used the EngineeringPartID instead. It seems to be working ok.

[Keith.Brown]

Here is what I came up with.  There is not much that I can do with the MarkNo.  Because you have it set to auto incriment an integer it is going to assign a new number to each piece as it is added to the drawing.  Therefore pieces with same length will have seperate line items in the schedule.  The only way to turn this off is to remove the auto incriment on the MarkNo and incriment it manually.  When like lengths of pipe have the same mark then they should group together on the schedule and your quantity should incriment.

In general, for a schedule item to group together on a schedule, all items in the row of the schedule must be idientical.

I came up with a custom formula to create a property set that creates the size based on the nominal diameter.  This way you will not have to modify each fitting in the catalog and come up with some fancy property set formulas to get at that information.

This should at least get you on your way.

And don't forget to go back and study those videos.  They contain information that everyone that works with property sets should know like the back of their hand.

 

[Keith.Brown]

Here is the formula that I use for the NominalSize property set definition.  It takes the NominalConnectionDiameter value and breaks it down into its individual parts.  It then compares the individual parts and if they are equal then it will only display a single number.  So 4.00;4.00;4.00;4.00 will become 4.00 where as 4.00;4.00;2.00;2.00 will stay the same.  Additionally it adds a ".00" to the end of the pipe size so that the look is consistant across all items in the schedule.

ND = "[NominalConnectionDiameter]"

NDArray = split(ND, ";")

Size 	= UBound(NDArray) + 1

Select Case Size
	Case 1
		if UBound(split(NDArray(0), ".")) = 0 then
			RESULT = NDArray(0) + ".00"
		else
			RESULT = NDArray(0)
		end if
	Case 2
		If (NDArray(0) = NDArray(1)) Then
			RESULT = NDArray(0)
		Else
			RESULT = NDArray(0) + "x" + NDArray(1)
		End If
	Case 3
		If (NDArray(0) = NDArray(1)) And (NDArray(0) = NDArray(2)) Then
			RESULT = NDArray(0)
		Else
			RESULT = NDArray(0) + "x" + NDArray(1) + "x" + NDArray(2)
		End If
	Case 4
		If (NDArray(0) = NDArray(1)) And (NDArray(0) = NDArray(2)) And (NDArray(0) = NDArray(3)) Then
			RESULT = NDArray(0)
		Else
			RESULT = NDArray(0) + "x" + NDArray(1) + "x" + NDArray(2) + "x" + NDArray(3)
		End If
	Case else
		RESULT = ND
End Select

[snyper1982]

Thank you so much. How come mine keeps showing these question marks in the fittings cut length column?

[Keith.Brown]

I went into the length long property data format using the style manager and chef it from displaying a question mark to displaying nothing. I'm mobile right now so I cannot double check names. The property data format is right above property sets in the style manager.

[snyper1982]

Cool. Thanks. But I think this might be all for nothing. It seems I can't place a tag in an isometric view. Only top down.

[Keith.Brown]

I think you will find that you can actually place the tag in an isometric view, however it will only show up in a top down view.  This is because the out of the box tags or the tags that come with AutoCAD MEP are only setup to be viewed this way.  Tags are actually a special kind of multi-view block and thus they can be viewed differently from any direction.  If you just want the tag to show up in an isometric view but can still be in the Top plane then it is a very easy fix.

There are two ways to do this.  The first is to use the display manager and change the behavior for all mvblocks.  I do not like doing this as it is a change that will effect all mvblocks and not just your tag.  The 2nd way is to open up the style manager and expand Multi-View Block definitions and select the tag that you want to see in an isometric view.  (You will need to do this to all of your tags).  

1.  Note what view block is shown under the GENERAL Display Representation

2.  Select Model and then under View Blocks select add and

3. Choose the same block that was listed under the GENERAL Display Representation.

4. Then under View Directions check all of the boxes.

5. Hit OK and then exit out of the style manager and verify that you can now see your tag in an isometric view.

The reason why this works because in the Display Manager MvBlocks are setup to display as the MODEL representation when in a model view.  You could have just as easily modified the Display Representation to display as General in a model View.  But as i mentioned before i tend to shy away from doing this as it changes for all MvBlocks, even architectural ones.

[VitalyF]

Hi snyper1982,

This version of the table sorted by PartNumber

This PartNumber is created using the command - _AecbScheduleTagPartNumbering with option - ...identical parts

If this is what you need, then I will add the remaining properties

Hi Keith, could you attach an example of using 3d tag? 

We're almost there!

[snyper1982]

Thanks you guys. You are awesome.

[snyper1982]

Yes that is EXACTLY what I need!

[Keith.Brown]

Here is a video of how to get an existing tag to show up in an isometric view.  Example drawing is attached below.

[Keith.Brown]

And here is another video where i change the text orientation of the tag so that the text is facing the front when in an isometric view.  I had not done it in a while so I fumble around alot in the video but i finally get it at the end.  I would not recommend showing the tag in both a top and an isometric view as i did in the video because it is difficult to get the tag to display exactly where you want it in both views as i demonstrate in the video.  Example dwg is attached below.

P.S.  It is pretty important that you use the same basepoint for both blocks otherwise the tag will not be in the same location in each viewport.

[VitalyF]

Hi snyper1982,

This is my final version with a group of pipes and fittings by PartNumber

To group I used this formula >> 

On Error Resume Next
RESULT = "--"
Set app = GetObject (,"AutoCAD.Application")
Set sched = app.GetInterfaceObject("AecX.AecScheduleApplication.7.7")
Set baseApp = app.GetInterfaceObject("AecX.AecArchBaseApplication.7.7")
Set ActiveDoc =baseApp.ActiveDocument
Set ObjectCollection = ActiveDoc.ModelSpace

totLength = 0
n = "[MEPPartNumbering:PartIndex]"
f = "[PipeFittingObjects:ObjectType]"
q = "[QUANTITY]"

For Each Object In ObjectCollection
	Set PipeObject = Object
	If PipeObject.ObjectName = "AecbDbPipe" Then
		Set propSets 	= sched.PropertySets(PipeObject)
			For Each propSet In propSets
				For Each prop In propSet.Properties
					If prop.Name = "PartIndex" Then
						If prop.Value = n Then
							totLength = totLength + PipeObject.Length
						End If
					End if
				Next
			Next
	End If
Next
If f = "Pipe" Then RESULT = Replace( Round((totLength)/1000,2), ",", ",") End If
If f = "Pipe Fitting" Then RESULT = q End If

 You can modify it for yourself, I did not get to adapt it to inches

Maybe Keith can do better,

column Size used formula created by Keith

see video Group Pipe-Fitting By_PartNumber

Best regards,

Vitaly

[snyper1982]

Ok. I have been doing a lot of reading, and it seems what I am actualy wanting to do is called pipe spooling. I assume that goes hand in hand with creating a schedule.  I can't seem to be able to get my part numbering tags to show up in paper space. If I could I would be all set.