[Tube&pipe] Auto rotate fitting depending on route?

[christian_skare]

Hi,

Is it possible to make my route decide the rotation of fittings?

See picture below.

If the vertical red line increase in length, I want my L-fitting to rotate accordingly.

Thanks 🙂

[CGBenner]

@christian_skare 

I assume you are referring to the elbow with the angle dimension on it?

If the route is fully constrained and you change the dimension of the vertical leg, yes, the fitting should rotate as the angle of the route changes.  It is hard to see exactly what is happening from the angle you posted.  Is this not the result you are getting?

[christian_skare]

I guess I've added the elbow wrong? Tried everything I could think of, but can't get this done correctly.

The elbow (named "Adjustable fitting with swivel" in my model tree) is not constrained, but placed as a hydraulic part with the connections.

(I know this below isnt exactly the same problem I asked about initially, but its based on the same issue that the elbow doesn't rotate).

Here I've created the first segment manually, and would like to auto route to the elbow.

It technically does what I tell it to do, but I would like it to rotate and only add 1 segment + 45° bend.

It's doing this weird route because of segment/radius rules for the tube, but just a few degree of rotation would reduce it to 2 segments.

[CGBenner]

@christian_skare 

Thanks for the added details.  In these new images, I can see what you are trying to do.  Since you connected the elbow directly to another fitting, which is then connected directly to your equipment (tank?), the angle of the elbow will drive the route instead of the route driving the angle.

Are you using a rigid piping style with fittings?  Or is this tubing with bends?

[christian_skare]

Yes, this is between the oil tank and oil pump.

It is an elbow connected to a fitting, both as within the Pipe Run sub-assembly.

I didn't constrain the elbow to any angle, but it has the Pinned icon (as if its grounded or fully constrained). How can I make the elbow-angle dependant on the pipe instead of vice versa?

Its tubing with bends. Values are gathered from our pipe guy.

[CGBenner]

@christian_skare 

To make the elbow respond to the route angle, it would need to be a "populated" elbow automatically placed on a bend in the route.  Unfortunately, for your placement, that would require that there be a short segment between the elbow and the fitting on the tank.  The direct connection there cannot be done in the routing environment... kind of a shortcoming of the way the software works. 

If you are using rigid piping with fittings (not bent tube), my suggestion would be to place the elbow manually in a normal position (perpendicular to X, Y, or Z), then Edit Fitting Orientation, and move it to a 45-degree rotation toward your route.  Then you should be able to route between the elbow and whatever the connection is on the other end.  This assumes that your Style has a 45-degree elbow defined.  If it does, it would automatically populate that at the bend.

[ChristianAndersenIsmyname]

Thanks for your detailed answer, and I assume this is the only solution if I want to do it within Tube and Pipe environment.

I guess it’s easier for my case to create this pipe as a normal part with adaptive sketches, and then constrain the elbow to the pipe. That way I should get the result I want, and can edit the pipe length and adaptive sketch would rotate my elbow.

edit: Apparently I’m logged into my old account on my phone, but it’s still me 😄

[CGBenner]

@ChristianAndersenIsmyname @christian_skare 

I'm seeing double! 😂

If you want to do this in Tube & Pipe, my last two suggestions are most likely what you need to do.  Keep in mind I have not seen your assembly... but I have been in the same situation many times, and those two suggestions are the solutions I used.  Good luck in whichever way you decide to go.  🙂

[A.Acheson]

I'm a bit late to the party but there is one other manual method which is to set the route angle and then using orientation on the elbow and point snap to the route. This should set the rotation angle of the elbow to the route. Unfortuantely not automatic but a little easier than doing it freestyle.

[christian_skare]

Could you elaborate on this please?

Might give this a try.

Thanks 🙂

[A.Acheson]

Ok so I tested what I wrote and it doesn't need the point snap to be pressed. In fact I am not sure what point snap is doing any more (I don't use it that often). 

What does work is the following select the center of the rotation arrow at point 1 and then rotate manually until you hit the work point of the route at point 2. The elbow is then aligned with the route.  

[christian_skare]

Do you place the elbow after you've created the route?

If yes; How do you know the length of the pipe, does it auto adjust in length to fit the elbow?

If no; How do you rotate the elbow after? I can't find this option, as it seems to be fixed (with pinned icon if I hover the mouse over the part).

Thanks for the answer 🙂

[CGBenner]

@christian_skare 

Is there any way that you could share your assembly or a similar assembly that has the same kind of route in it?  Then maybe Alan and I could try some things on your issue and see what we can develop.  If so, use Pack and Go and attach the zipped file here.

[christian_skare]

Never attached a file on this forum, but hopefully I did it correctly.

Should be a zipped folder with a very simplified model to illustrate the same thing.

[CGBenner · Accepted solution]

@christian_skare 

Thanks for the files!  I created a very crude video showing one possible way to make this work.  It has been almost three years since I used T&P professionally, and man.... I think I need practice!  🤣

In the video, I deleted the route just far enough to see if I could get the fitting lined up.  I deleted the fitting itself from its connection on the tank and placed a new one, using Connect Fitting and Rotation Snap to line it up to the route.  You can see my result was not perfect, but it did line up the fitting.  I think if you use this method you should be able to redefine your route sketch in order to make it a lot cleaner than my video (I saw a few extra route nodes that were not needed).  So... good luck!

[christian_skare]

Thank you so much Chris. Great video 🙂

This looks way easier than my work-around. Altough its not as easy as I think it can become (in some future update).

I need to play around with this a bit, but it looks like the best solution that we can get.