Tube & Pipe - Self draining - Custom angles

[Jef_E]

Hello there,

I'm currently learning about the Tube & Pipe function in Inventor. And now i'm trying to get a self draining piperun. Only I can't select a custom angle elbow in the style editor.

So I did some searching and found this page:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2014/...

Quote:

The style can use elbows and tees with custom angles that were previously created
and published to the Content Center.

How can i create a custom angle so it's recognized? I tried using the 45° angle, added a custom column with the angle size, and mapped this to the corresponding parameter. But I can't select this part from the content center...

What am I missing? How do I get a custom angle elbow?

[salariua · Accepted solution]

You run against yourself. The angle needs to be anything BUT 45 or 90 which has a special field in the style dialog.

This is a 45 deg elbow that I just modified for this purpose. If the elbow you're doing is based on a standard one in CC then it’s easier than you think to create a custom angle type. Let me know if that's the case and I will show you how to do it.

[salariua]

To be more exact is the angle you have between your connections when you Author the Tube and Pipe Fitting so in your case you might need to Replace Family Template on your CC family.

[cbenner]

Probably the best demonstration of this I've seen, Adrian.

Does tube & pipe automatically adjust the angle of the elbow based on the route, or do you determine the angle of the route based on the elbow?  This is something we've never tried, but may need to in the future.

[salariua]

I haven’t done any self-draining lines either but here’s what I found:

You need to select the self-draining style and then start a new route. If you haven’t defined the gravity direction you will be prompted to do so in the main TP assembly.

                If you don’t specify an elbow in the style, the calculator becomes active and you can calculate the angle of the slope; but you still need to browse and choose an elbow (forced entry for this style) and the calculated angle will become the filter in the browser for component dialog window.

                In the iPart you don’t need to add a parameter in the table, the angle is hardcoded and whatever angle you have when you author it will be locked in.

                You can’t have different angles in the iPart table and all components will need to have same angle. If you specify different angles, the angle of the active member in the moment you author the fitting will become the angle for all family.

                If you look in CC for “ASME BPE Automatic Tube Weld 92 Deg Elbow” or “ASME BPE Automatic Tube Weld 88 Deg Elbow” you will actually see that the angle is not defined and controlled in the family table.

                When inside a RUN assembly if you specify a self-draining line in the style and start a new Route it filters the available styles for that Route to self-draining and the others become inactive.

On same principle an existing regular route cannot be changed to a self-draining route by changing the style even if it is empty, no points, or lines drawn.

The tube and pipe will automatically adjust the angle of the route but will use 45 and 90 deg elbows as much possible.

In the horizontal route I am doing it uses a 90 deg while in the vertical it uses the custom angle elbow.

HOWEVER you still need to constrain the route and if you watch the video you’ll see I am using parallel constraint against the route center planes.

I am sorry this seems to be in a random order but I am writing this as I go along with my tests.

[cbenner]

That seems to line up with what I saw a few years ago when I began looking into this.  I think another enhancement they need it to include a variable angle elbow that adjusts to the angle of the line slope.  That way you can adjust your self draininhg line slope on the fly based on design conditions.  Otherwise you would ned to have an elbow for every conceivable angle.

[salariua]

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@cbenner wrote:

you would ned to have an elbow for every conceivable angle.

---

I was just taking with Stephen Barron @Anonymous (think you mixed your accounts up) and he has just confirmed all this. He's got a huge list of styles just because Inventor will use one angle per family but I feel it's because of how the authoring works.

It's not a dynamic fully updating workflow.

For example you can't tell half the components to have 2 connections butt welded and the rest to have 3 connections flanged ! This will mess things up a lot and so all the info is hardcoded, like our angle here.

[Jef_E]

Well, this turned out to be a good discussion topic. I think i've got it now 🙂

I also thought "custom angle" was having a variable angle, but it makes sense to me now.

Thanks for the help! and the nice instruction vids.

I'm going to create some more angles in my content center now! 😉

[grobbarg]

Realise this is an old thread guys, and thanks for the video demos, it's the closest to what I'm looking for. However I'm wondering how we can replace 90 degree butt welded elbows with custom ones - for example with a constant 2.5 degree fall, maintaining all lines parallel to the vertical workplanes we would need something like 89.89 degree elbows at each corner (e.g. in a square spiral) to keep everything square. Any thoughts appreciated. Cheers.

[salariua]

hi @grobbarg

either create the 2.5 elbows to cc and create the style to use in TP

or

create and author your custom elbow, 

not necessarily to publish it to content center, but keep it on a local directory, library, etc.

create a tubing with bends which allows any bend angle or pipe with fittings and keep entering custom angle on the right click menu

when finished, populate the route and then start dropping your elbow where the bends are. it will replace the bend with your custom elbow 

--------

I might investigate the drive route if I was you to create the spiral from 2d intersection curves in 3d curve and then bring that in TP.

[grobbarg]

Thanks for the quick reply! I did try publishing a custom elbow to CC, but the TP styles editor could not find the 90 degree (in our case 89.89 degree elbow), perhaps I didn't persevere long enough, and the family table might not have been exactly as it should be.... I seem to recall some 'quirks' when I first started with T&P some years ago that some entries in the family table columns had to be 'exactly' right before TP styles editor could find components, it's been a while since I've used it though!

I think the replace custom bend with elbow could be a good shout I'll try this also, thanks very much.

[salariua]

hi @grobbarg

had a video done for you but it takes a while to process ..

it is ready , check this out.

[grobbarg]

Sorry, got sidetracked for several months! and now that I'm revisiting the same issues I noticed your post. Thanks a lot for the video. The 3D sketch derived route is certainly one way to go, In fact my my colleague had done a similar job using 3D sketch but used frame generator point to point insert for the piping and aligned the custom (90.1 or 89.9 Deg) bends to the piping, did the job but I'd like to use T&P, even better if we could use the free draining aspect, however to sell the T&P method to my bosses, they're reluctant due to the perceived learning curve and constant pressure to rush projects out!

Thank you....