Pipe Network

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how to make a pipe network that is dynamic in relation to a profile/alignment? I am creating a pipe line for a hydro resivour that is about 5 miles long and right now in preliminary design that pipe network is going to change location hundreds of times. It would be nice to have my pipe network reference my alignment and profile so that when I move the alignment/profile the pipe network moves with it.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[sjgoessling]

As far as I know pipe networks can't be dynamically linked to an alignment.

[Anonymous]

That i what I thought. Thanks

[redtransitconsultants · Accepted solution]

Not possible with OOTB commands / abilities. I would suppose it may be possible to write a routine with .NET that could help automate this task moving structures to the alignment or to a distance offset from the alignment.

[Joe-Bouza]

If it's in such a preliminary state of flux , maybe you would be better off just showing the profile

[Civil3DReminders_com]

It is possible to create a dynamic link between the pipes and an alignment, and I've done it in the past. it's just a pain making sure the alignment segments are in order and adjust properly to the changes in the pipes. 

[Joe-Bouza]

Hi Chris
can you offer a bit more detail on that work flow?

[redtransitconsultants]

I'd be interested in knowing how one would do this as well. If it's possible - I guess it's just not obvious. By dynamic - I think it is meant if the alignment moves, the pipes/structures move or if the pipes/structures move, the alignment also moves. Along with that, I would guess if you added a structure in the middle of a segment - the alignment would also get a PI point placed at the new structure.

Is this what you've done?

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Yeah if you have a solution to this please share it. I have tried everything to make it dynamic. 

[Civil3DReminders_com]

This isn't an out of the box solution. I had a customer ask for this to be programmed. 

The basic code base is this: http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2006/11/linking_circles_1.html Plus a crap ton of extra **** I needed to do because of Civil 3D. Mainly to prevent crashes and make sure I wasn't slowing down the drawing a ton. 

I start by collecting the pipe runs based on how close they are to an alignment. So if they are within 1 foot of the alignment (on both ends) and they are in the profile view then they belong to the alignment. I then take all of the pipes and use the end points as the location of a PI. When the user moves a structure this moves the pipes. This is where the hard part is. Because you then need to find the correct alignment segment and move each end  of the appropriate PI to the correct location. My code doesn't work in all cases because sometimes it guesses wrong and the alingment goes haywire. I guess if I did it again I'd collect all of the segments and then put them in order again, but I wan't to avoid doing that for fear of slowing civil 3D down. Also segments don't have their own identity, so it makes it harder to track. For most of  the moves though it's not hard to do. The code also looks for new pipes and structures that should join the party based on the connections to structures. That way I'm not checking every pipe in the drawing, just the ones that might belong. So if a pipe gets broken, the pipe the original pipe is already part of the party and I check if the new pipe belongs and it usually does and gets added to my party. 

A profile is also created in much the same manner except there is a calculations to for the PVIs to be at the outside (or inside) wall of the structure. Round structures are easy, the rectangular pipes are a bit harder.

Unfortunately I haven't asked to share it with the rest of the world, and I'm not sure they would want to considering their investment into it. It as after all a productivity advantage. That's not to say I couldn't program it again for another person.

[Anonymous]

Just my contribution.

When read initial post, think that Civil3DReminder is going too far away to have general solution. Think that it is necessary to define dynamic behaviour only between pipeline and ONE alignment which is going through pipeline. The problem of Civil3D is that it is not possible to draw profile without alignment. This is, according to my opinion, weak point of pipe network solution in C3D.

So if Civil3DReminder solution takes only one associated alignment, it will probably serve to initial wish. I imagine routine in which user can select the pipes (from the node to node), select the alignment and in that way make connection. After any change of pipeline, alignment can be changed and consequently the profile would be changed. Changes are - node move, node insert, node delete...

Personally I cannot help with such kind of programming.

Drazen

[redtransitconsultants]

Thanks for sharing your methodology on doing this - I was thinking you had done it out of the box.

I like your approach to handling this from the programming side - but I would have approached a little different. Typically users set reference Alignments/surfaces to their pipe network parts. Civil3D out of the box uses this for station values - so why not use this to determine what structures are associated to the alignment and go from there? Might help your processing to filter out pipes/structures.

Additionally, I've found anything I try to create dynamic with the .NET API really slows down the processing. I'm feeling like unless Autodesk rolls it out in the root code, we have limited things we can do with true dynamic functionality. I feel that a simple Update button is a better solution for add ons so that we aren't constantly trying to control the software. Maybe you have a better way than I know of...

Steve

[Anonymous]

If I well understand you, you would like to start from the point where structures already have reference to alignment. But when you initially create pipeline it is not necessary to connect to any alignment. Moreover, cannot imagine the situation that before creation of pipeline I will have exact alignment which will be the same as pipeline.

I am not the expert of C3D, but we have several types of alignments and not specific "pipeline alignment". The routine in which you draw alignment through pipe elements, define general alignment, not specific one.

We need alignment in the moment of creation profile. So, from my point of view, this should be the first step in application - to connect pipeline to existing alignment (or even to draw the new alignment through structures and pipes).

Don't know if I hit the target.

Drazen