Component Movement in Tube & Pipe

[petestrycharske]

All,

Good morning!  I had a client ask me recently why components don't move when placed or moved into the Tube & Pipe.  After some testing, I've come across two main scenarios.

1. Placing Fittings in 2021 and 2022 Pipe Runs, results in the components being "grounded" in place.  Is there a way to control that behavior?

2. Placing a fitting at the top level assembly and then dragging the component into the Tube & Pipe assembly seems to break the ability for the component to freely move and I cannot drag them into the Pipe Runs subassembly.  Can others verify this behavior?

I've knocked out a relatively short video that demonstrates this behavior.  Please take a look at it and let me know if you know of any settings to control this behavior.  Please also let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks in advance for any thoughts and have a most blessed day!

Peace,

Pete

[CGBenner]

@petestrycharske 

I think I'd like to hear from @johnsonshiue on this one, but my thought is that neither of these are preferred workflow scenarios with routed systems.  The first example, isn't technically illegal, it just isn't the normal workflow.  Generally a pipe run or route will be attached to something at a higher level in the assembly, like a piece of equipment.  But, that said, I believe it is grounded on purpose so that any route created from it will not move.  Not being on the developer side of things,... I'm speculating.  🙂

The second is stranger, but (again, guessing), I think it is because of the unique nature of a pipe run that you cannot drag and drop things into them.  As an expiriment, try this.  In a pipe run, copy and paste a fitting which was placed with the normal tools.... then try todelete the pasted copy.  It shouldn't work.  You normally have to demote the pasted fitting to a dummy sub-assembly above the pipe run, and then delete that.  So... my thought is that there is some mechanism in place to prevent fittings being added in routed systems using anything other than the T&P tools.

So,... I'd really love Johnson or River Cai (don't know his screen name to tag him) to come in and tell me how wrong I am.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Pete and Chris,

The behaviors look wrong to me. The demote workflow does feel a bit sticky on 2022 and 2021. If the origin folder is expanded, it seems to work better. Regarding the first instance being grounded, this seems to be a legacy behavior. However, the second one should not be grounded.

It looks like we have multiple issues here. I need to work with the project team to understand it better.

Many thanks!

[gcoombridge]

The grounded status has always been the case i believe. The confusion is that it doesn't display a grounded symbol in the browser. They can be ungrounded in the usual way and i occasionally connect valve trains just by constraining the in the run and piping between them (for things like steam traps that are quite linear).

One of the challenges with tube and pipe workflow is building a route that starts on nothing and ends on nothing (this comes up in building skids occasionally) 

[Yijiang.Cai]

In order to have the better performance on T&P, we disallow to move the fittings under T&P component by accident. When you still pursue the movement, you could use the free move to do it. 

When demoting and promoting the fitting, I suppose the fitting is demoted to T&P component, which should be disallow to be moved. When promote it back to top level, we should allow to move again if the ground constraint is not added manually.

Anyway I am communicating with project team for more details here.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Pete,

These behaviors are a manifest of a general deficiency in T&P. Promote/Demote is not properly supported in T&P. To avoid confusing behaviors, it is better not to use Promote/Demote within or across T&P components.

Many thanks!

[petestrycharske]

@gcoombridge you probably have already developed a method for this, but I've found work points to be useful for controlling route points.  Just throwing that out there in case you hadn't already considered that.  Hope all is well and have a most blessed day!

Peace,

Pete

[petestrycharske]

@Yijiang.Cai would this also apply to previously connected fittings that had their connections removed?  I've received that feedback from customers where they removed the connections, but the fitting could not be dragged to a new position.  However, the Free Move command works as you suggest. 

I'm happy to report back to the customer that stuff generally doesn't move by dragging anymore to lower the chances of accidentally moving components.  Please let me know if I'm understanding that correctly and that'll work for me.  

Thanks for all the help all and have a most blessed day!

Peace,

Pete

[gcoombridge]

Thanks Pete, I use that approach also. It's good but has some restrictions like the axis of the route being set by the sketch or plane of the workpoint