Plant 3D Pipe Inline Asset osnap system variable

[Slawomir_]

impossible to snap

How it should work: This variable turns on/off pipe support osnaps. Similar to DGNOSNAP. When On - each snap point works as usual. You can snap for pipe inline asset like for any other object. When off - only Endpoint & Midpoint snap point is available as it is now in Plant 3D.

Why it is important: Currently snap points (excluding Endpoint & Midpoint) are hardcoded deactivated. That means measuring distance, moving to/from certain point is very limited. For example: moving pipe from flange to keep accurate, minimum distance from pipe wall to flange is really hard. It's user unfriendly. But when implemented piping design would be back on track.

Example: Measure perpendicular distance from weld neck flange to pipe wall. Impossible... See picture below for details.

impossible to measure

[Slawomir_]

Similar Idea: Plant 3D Pipe Support osnap system variable

[Slawomir_]

By the way: make similar system variable to turn on osnap's for all other kind of objects which have them hard-coded deactivated please.

Or one system variable to rule them all : )

[Anonymous]

I apologize Slawomir, I did not see this discussion before I posted mine. Our terminology was different.

[Slawomir_]

Plant 3D Snapping - next discussion covering same topic.

Definitely osnaps for pipe inline asset & pipe supports should be turned on.

@Anonymous there's no need to apologize : )

[Garrett.Brothers]

Hartmut comments on this in message 7 of this link (2021), message 2 of this link (2020), message 10 of this link (2018) (which I'm sure Slawomir_ is familiar with 🙂 ), and message 3 of this link (2018) (which Slawomir_ linked to, above).  Altogether, he says development intentionally disabled this functionality.

I found dgorsman's comment in message 8 of the last link above to be the most helpful:

"The thing is, you aren't dealing with a block any more. Once converted it's now a Plant3D object, and how the object is defined will determine which snaps are available. I suspect that they were deliberately turned off for specific reasons to do with other parts of the program. If that is indeed the case then adding more snap points would need to be done during the conversion process."

My guess is it's a little like importing an STL into Inventor (it imports as a mesh, not a solid).  As a custom part, the former block's geometry is still "there," but it's different, and different in a way that prevents the software from performing some functions.  I'm just reiterating what dgorsman and others have said, but I don't think we're getting a better answer.

[quan_hm]

Hi,

This may not exactly what you expect but this app can turn on some snap points (middle, center, endpoint) of pipe inline asset:

4.png

https://apps.autodesk.com/PLNT3D/en/Detail/Index?id=8156861903810086405&appLang=en&os=Win64

[jmartensBGRRW]

Why is voting for this feature even necessary? Unreal that this was missed.

[Dennis.Meehan]

How is there a 3rd party program getting sold to make snaps available for Autocad components that should have them already...?

[mkarthick]

IS THIS OPTION IS AVAILABLE IN PLANT 3D 2027 VERSION? IF YES HOW TO USE IT