Automate pipe modelling

[BillturnerBIM]

Hi! 

My company is modelling Conduits/pipes. We follow as built data we get from site. 

Its a very time consuming job do follow all the lines and to make sure you follow the correct line. 

So my question is if there is anyway to automate this. You choose the line you want the conduits to follow and then the conduits get modelled by themself. This would be really helpful. 

I was thinking maybe you can do this in dynamo or similar. 

All ideas are welcome!

[hmunsell]

if you can get a laser scan or point cloud of the existing conditions, there are several programs out there that will identify the pipe/conduit and place them. we have used them in the past and they are fairly reliable. there is always clean up that need to be done, but it will get you 75-80% there.  of course, it is only as accurate as the scan/point cloud you're using 😊.  

[iainsavage]

"We follow as built data we get from site"

What format is that in?

CAD?

Hand drawn?

[craigjonnson]

There are some methods, but it all depends on how you are receiving your information. 

"Following the lines"... Is this CAD linework. I know its possible to extract the x,y,z and have Revit draw pipework following those coordinates.

If you can provide more information, im sure you will get more help.

[BillturnerBIM]

@iainsavage @hmunsell @craigjonnson Im new to this forum but i hope this is the right way to reply. First of all thanks for your answers.

Im not totaly sure how the methods work but something like this. They use some tool(stick) to mark a point in the pipe and then there is some kind of camera or scanner who scans that and then they connect the dots in some program (its not a poitncloud). So we load in dwg files in to revit and then follow the lines from the scanning.

See attached photo from revit(black lines as built data and orange is the pipes/conduits

Let me know if you need more info. Thanks in advance

[iainsavage]

It should be possible to generate pipes from lines using Dynamo and there a few web pages which deal with that and there are I'm sure YouTube videos (caveat: I've not tried any of the methods myself).

I've linked a couple of pages below.

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360018278317--Revit-Tip-Using-Dynamo-to-create-...

https://giobel.github.io/scripts/mod_pipesFromLines/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI81pDrGqXA&pp=ygUXZHluYW1vIHBpcGVzIGZyb20gbGluZXM%3D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a36-Ez5CSv4&pp=ygUXZHluYW1vIHBpcGVzIGZyb20gbGluZXM%3D

There are also some (paid) apps which do this.