Proper Placement of Duct & Pipe Connectors in Revit

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Have you ever tried to use a piece of Mechanical or Plumbing Equipment and received a message that the segment was being drawn from the wrong side? This is usually caused by the connector being placed incorrectly.

When making a family, Revit has several Connector types that can be added for extra functionality. Connector options include Pipe, Duct, Electrical, Conduit and Cable Tray. Several of these connectors are directional by nature (Duct, Pipe, Conduit & Cable Tray). If they are placed incorrectly, the connecting elements may not be able to connect properly. For this tutorial, I’m only going to focus on placement options for Duct and Pipe connectors. These are the most common connectors I see placed incorrectly in a family. However, the same principles apply to Conduit and Cable Tray connectors, too.

The placement of connectors is similar for Duct and Pipe. When placing a Connector there are 2 options, Face and Work Plane. These options effect how the connector preforms.

The Face option will place a connector in the center of the face selected. The connector can be Rotated, but not Moved or Copied. The connector will always be in the center of the face. Selecting the connector in an elevation will display temporary dimensions, but an error will display if they are edited.

I will use this method in conjunction with an extruded edge to place the connector on. This extrusion can be constrained by reference planes and parameters. These same parameters can be applied to the Height and Width of the connector itself, so they size together. The extrusion can then be moved, and the connector will follow.

The Work Plane option provides some extra flexibility. There are 3 options when selecting Work Plane. Each one of these options has it’s uses and shortfalls.

Name – Places the connector on a named Work Plane. Pick a Plane – allows the user to pick a face of an object to specify the Work Plane. Pick a Line and use the Plane it was sketched in – allows the user to pick a line to specify the Work Plane.

Name-based placement works when using Reference planes to constrain the family. Once the reference planes are named, that Reference Plane will show in the dropdown list. Select the Named Reference Plane from the list and the connector will be placed on that reference plan, intersecting the Center plane

Once placed the connector can be moved along that face as needed. Temporary dimensions can be made Permanent, and parameters can be applied as needed

Now for the catch… for the connector to be placed in the correct orientation to receive a Pipe or Duct, the reference planes must be placed the correct direction.

• Placing the Reference Planes in a Clockwise direction orients the plane to place the connector in the outward facing direction.

• Placing the Reference Planes Counterclockwise will result in the Connectors placing Inward.

Unfortunately, when a connector is placed by the Name option, the connectors front/back flip arrows don’t function. If a connector is placed on a reference plane and the connector is going the wrong direction it can be fixed though. An easy fix is to select that reference plane and pull the end grip across, and past, the other side. This will “flip” the reference plane direction, and the connector.  

Pick a Plane works similar to the Face option. The advantage is, once placed the connector can be moved similarly to the Name option.

• Select a face on an object
  • Use the Tab key to cycle between faces if needed
• The connector will place in the bottom right hand corner of the face
• Select the Move command to move the connector anywhere on the face.

• Similar to the Face placement option, temporary dimension can be made permanent and parameters can be applied. This will allow the connector location be adjustable.

Pick a Line and use the Plane it was sketched option allows Revit to create a work plane based on the line selected. The Pick a Line option works with Model lines, Symbolic lines and Reference Lines. This option does not work on modeled elements. The catch is you usually don’t know what plan the line your selecting was drawn in.

With these options you can have more confidence when placing connectors in your MEP families. Hopefully, I have shown you some things you may not have known, Or at least provided a refresher of stuff you may have forgotten.