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Parametric Parts

18 REPLIES 18
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Message 1 of 19
lazyacre
3899 Views, 18 Replies

Parametric Parts

A parametric MV part that is rectangular enabling any length, width and height. This part would have as many connection points as the length/width of the particular face allows, either round, rectangular or oval in shape, and of any size up to the size of the face that it is on (so with a L=500 W=800 the connection can be up to 500 long or 500dia. or two connections one round one rectangular). The connections would allow for a depth also. This would then take out the unnecessary and hugely inconvenient step of making simple parts again and again in the catalogue. I'm not too sharp with the parametrics so this is a massive issue for me. Having to draw a 300sq. box with two 200dia. 50mm deep round connections, then the whole content builder deelio with connection points etc, next you find you need a 300x500 box with box with 2 rectangular connections... off you go again, time time time. It would be nice to have the freedom to do this almost automatically - included in the package.

18 REPLIES 18
Message 2 of 19
Martin__Schmid
in reply to: lazyacre

I can certainly understand why you would want this to be easier, however, you can accomplish this currently without having to get into the catalog to define parts.

 

Instead of using the parametric part builder, you can use generic AutoCAD commands to define whatever box and connections... however many/wherever you want... make the block, then convert to mvpart, and add the connections.

 

See: http://screencast.com/t/xpVk9U313Za7

 

Like I said, I understand the desire to make this in less steps, but given the desire for flexibility... it really couldn't be much mroe flexible.



Martin Schmid
Product Line Manager
Mechanical Detailing and Electrical Design
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 3 of 19

The AHU & Grilles are still very poor. Nothing like UK stuff.

 

May I suggest picking a UK supplier and adding some basic AHU's that are realistic. i.e. a big box with 4 duct outputs evenly spaced on the ends, not with side, or top, like the current ones. Have a look at swegons AHU's.

 

Most good UK M&E designers use supply & extract grilles that have high plenum boxes with side enttry ducts, these are lined for insulation & sound. Nothing like the square top entry ones in MEP. A bit like the wee toilet grilles, but with a lot more varying sizes, see my standard sheet attached.

 

These are 2 very big things that stop my teams creating proper integrated designs.

 

Stability is another Issue, AutoCAD MEP crashes regularly, whereas Revit MEP does not. >>

 

I have been working on parametric parts and will continue to do so. But I think the above is not unreasonable for the next issue.

 

 

Cheers.

 

Brian Breslin

 

 

Message 4 of 19

PS. This is the same in Revit MEP.

 

Needs to be for both ! Smiley Wink

Message 5 of 19
lazyacre
in reply to: lazyacre

Brian,

 

I like the dwg with all the grilles on it, very handy to have a catalogue like that.  I do agree that there's a lot to be desired in terms of supplier based parts, valves, grilles, AHUs, boilers etc etc are pretty much of no use when it comes to 3D drafting in MEP.  I have found that there are suppliers out there that are now more and more tuned into 3D drafting and now allow downloadable dwgs in 3D from their web site.  In particular SpiraxSarco for piping and ancillaries and Halton for the HVAC services.  Great grille selection program with quick 3d downloads available.  One or two more steps and an MV part can be created.

 

I can in a small way see where Martin Schmid is coming from in that it is reasonably quick (in comparison to pre ABS) to make 3D intelligent Block Parts from scratch - nice video - it could me me doing exactly that - unfortunately i find this VERY time consuming, especially when you have engineers that presist in using multiple types of grilles, diffusers, AHU's that never resemble each other from one job to the next.  Take a standard Grille Catalogue and try making 50 different size grilles uggh.

 

We have spent 100's of hours (literally) thrawling through supplier catalogues making MV Parts over the years and when there's 100 grilles/diffusers on offer and your asked to draw the one thats not on the list - well i'm not sure at what temperature blood boils at but i'm sure i've left the building a little bit hot on occasion!

 

I still believe the MEP could handle such a request, but its definately time i brushed up on the parametric parts and see how capable it really is, we'll be living on the moon before i get my wish.

 

On the crashing issue, in all my years we have had the same problem from ABS to MEP and i guess we've come to expect that with high contect software packages like these.  However, after a clamity on a job not so long ago where i was seriously impeeded due to huge drawing sizes i finally got my wish and a spanking new super computer is not at my fingertips.  In comparison there has been a huge improvement in stability and drawing opening time etc. so i feel that the min. requirements for software are never of any use if the software is in constant use at the high end of the scale, in terms of 3D drafting, the only solution is to upgrade the pc, graphics card/driver etc.

 

I'm not in anyway upto scrath with Revit but i hear its coming our way (so the powers that be tell me, but many a wool has been pulled over my eyes on such matters before).

 

The Lazyacre

Message 6 of 19

Hi Brian-

 

For the crashing, do you have steps and drawing you can provide that causes reproducable crashing... and are you submitting crash reports, including your email address?  If so, would you mind emailing (or posting) me your email address so I can look at the crash report/data?  my email address is martin dot schmid at autodesk dot com

 

TIA-

MS



Martin Schmid
Product Line Manager
Mechanical Detailing and Electrical Design
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 7 of 19

Yes I submit reports all the time, And I have high spec pc, with 6gb ram, 512 graphics etc.

 

The stuff it crashes on are very random, can be from a simple thing like moving text to making a duct connection. 

 

I have a new even higher spec pc coming soon, hopefully this will solve some crashing issues.

 

I will email you the next crash, I had one earlier, but I was running burst on 100's of blocks. lol.

Message 8 of 19
brian.breslin
in reply to: lazyacre

Cheers for that.

 

Since the discussions I found thsi wee video, and the making of proper MV parts became clear, I have since updated all grilles.

 

See attached,

 

You are welcome to use them.

 

http://screencast.com/t/xpVk9U313Za7

 

BB

 

Message 9 of 19

A zip file a crash report attached.

 

I had selected lost of entities to run a burst on them, decided no, so cancelled, it hung for ages, then chucked me out, the recover file never worked. as per.

 

doh !

Message 10 of 19

Hi Brian-  it appears that the reson for the crash per the dumpdata you attached is due to a memory buffer overflow... this happens when you have been doing a *lot* or something hugely buffer intensive.  The good news is that from feedback from other users, we've addressed a number of issues that cause this in the most recent service pack... the bad news is, you still seem to be hitting it :(.  With that in mind, do you think you can provide more info/data?  I.e., recreate the problem from scratch in the .dwg (you can find the name of the file you were in in the .xml in the .zip you attached), and provide the file(s) and steps to repro the problem so our dev team can dig into it?



Martin Schmid
Product Line Manager
Mechanical Detailing and Electrical Design
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 11 of 19

Good stuff, Im actually convinced its more to do with the windows XP OS, we will soon be moving to win.7 so perhaps thiswill help.

 

Its so random I don't think I can recreate it, but the next time it crashes I will send you the drawing & the error data.

 

Thanks for looking into it.

 

Regards,

 

Brian.

Message 12 of 19

Hi Brain- I'll happily let you blame XP :).  However, if you do continue to have problems with this issue, please don't be hesitant to contact me via email directly: martin dot schmid at autodesk dot com    ....



Martin Schmid
Product Line Manager
Mechanical Detailing and Electrical Design
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 13 of 19

lol. I blame Microsoft for a lot of stuff.Smiley Happy

 

I will forward your good self teh next crash info. no problem. 

Message 14 of 19

Martin another crash.

 

This time I was only tabbing between 6 open files. Never got round to doing any work.

 

Before this I did have MEP & REVIT MEP open doing a wee 3d manhole detail, but these were closed. PC did seem to be running slowly after this though?

 

Hope this is of some use.

 

I think my windows had just had enough tbh.

 

Cheers.

BB

Message 15 of 19

Hi Brian- I think this will be helpful.  I've sent some data to the dev team to dig into.



Martin Schmid
Product Line Manager
Mechanical Detailing and Electrical Design
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 16 of 19

Glad it might help. look forward to some answers.

 

Are you off to the AU this year?

 

Cheers.

 

Brian.

Message 17 of 19

AU - I'm a definitive maybe on that front at present.



Martin Schmid
Product Line Manager
Mechanical Detailing and Electrical Design
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Autodesk, Inc.

Message 18 of 19

Finding the Families in Revit much easier to edit than AutoCAD MV parts martin.

 

MV parts could be improved greatly if you could edit them after they where created like families can be edited.

 

Just some further thoughts after recent experiences.

 

How was AU?

Message 19 of 19
Keith.Brown
in reply to: brian.breslin

If you part is parametric you can easily open it using the content builder and make changes.  If your part is block based you can open the individual blocks and make your edits there by opening up the dwg found in the part catalog.

 

Content Builder is definately not on par with the family editor.  If autodesk could improve content builder to act like the family editor I think that more people would create their own parts.

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