Pipe Network - Laterals Question

[Anonymous]

Hello forum,

A good portion of my work requires me to set up sewer networks with the Pipe Network tool. What I have always done is layout my sewer main with the Pipe network tool and then laying out my laterals as regular poly lines. Some utility companies in Utah require elevation labels  on every wye, cleanout, bend and home connection for laterals. This ends up eating a bunch of my time up. 

The reason I end up having to create my laterals with poly lines is because when I add a null structure to my sewer main it breaks the main at that structure. For example, if I have a 200LF 8" Sewer Main and I have two manholes and one connection the main would not read 200LF between the manholes but instead it would read two 100LF mains. 

Is there a way that I can add a Wye Structure or null structure that would allow me to place a lateral connection into the main without disrupting the continuity of the sewer main?

Thanks,

Sam

[Jeff_M · Accepted solution]

This is precisely why the Sincpac has the Sewer Laterals tool which links the Laterals network pipes to the Main network pipes. Here's a short video of what it does:

[Kevin.Spear]

Can't "LIKE" this post enough.

[Anonymous]

I work for a smaller company and the first thing I look at is the price-tag of the supplemental program. Is this the only option that you know of to solve this problem? 

I'll try out the demo of the project to see if this is cost-effective enough for us to use this add-on program or not, but is there a way that AutoCAD can do this without the need of another program?

Thanks,

Sam

[Jeff_M]

@Anonymous, no, there is not a good way to handle this in plain C3D.
While you are checking out the trial, also look at the PipeElevationEditor. Just these 2 tools will pay for the add-on in no time. Then there are the 150+ other tools that may help your work flows as well.

[Kevin.Spear]

I was about to say… What’s your billable rate * (time saved)? If you have to label that many lateral inverts, the cost is covered in time saved using this single tool on one or two jobs.

[Anonymous]

Ok, thank you very much. I'll check out the trial and see if its worth it :).

Regards,

Sam