Don't have photos but it is an installation that we have used before, software should extend to cover this case.
Cable tray should be able to be inserted into a model in any direction or orientation as it would on site. I have been to many sites where cable tray is run horizontally along a wall from a riser and also where tray is fixed to Unistrut on the underside of a slab with the tray facing the floor. This can also apply to basket and trunking.
Also Trunking does not always have lids on the top face as the lids can be on the side.
Perhaps Auotdesk could take some of the development team out onto sites to see how the elements they have created are installed in real life and also request site photographs from CSE's in other countries, to aid in understanding how we would want to design and install the elements created in a Revit model. I appreciate that Autodesk can't accommodate every combination/possiblity that happens around the world but it may help come to a more flexible solution when using these elements.
I agree. We need the cable trays to be able to be inserted in any direction we choose. It is very common to run cable trays along walls, and also as mentioned earlier, we quite often are required to run them upside down direct on the soffit at times.
While still new to MEP, I have sen already many vertical installations. And these are very serious installations; not done in a improvised mode. Many are mounted on a vertical Unistrut grid.
Most of other installations have some vertical portions, so not being able to model it totally compromises the cable tray objects.
Has anyone found some workarounds?
(I also dare to find good Unistrut families; currently not offered by Unistrut.)
I cannot send any pics, but found this web clip from the Cable Tray Institute (http://www.cabletrays.com/faqs.html)
Is it common practice to use cable trays in the vertical position? Do they maintain their integrity during a 25 or 30 year life of a plant? Is the percent fill of a vertical tray the same as a horizontal cable tray?
(1) It is common practice to use cable trays in the vertical position. I have many photos of such installations. There is no problem. Cables must be fastened securely, see NEC392.8(b).
the inability to place vertical cabletrays is more irritating since autocad mep can place them in suc a position.
Would still love to see this appear in Revit in the future, keep getting requests from engineers and clients to show these on drawings.
I'm now using the Revit MEP 2013 and these vertical cable tray are still unavailable. The porpose of these tray is to win space in narrow carridors. Is autodesk trying to implement this function?
Here's another example
Why didn't Autodesk talk to an electrical engineer when they thought about designing the "cable tray feature" then, I hope, that the ELECTRICAL ENGINEER would have told them that cable tray can be and is installed in all orientations.
Autodesk, what's your action regarding with this matter? It's already been years and still we cannot see any improvement. The version now is already 2014 but still the same problem.
Kindly help us resolve this matter.
Thanks
It's only been 4 years, give them a chance!!!!!
This is an Electrical problem, so they don't care about it as there is no E in MEP.
Cheers
Can anybody provide any advice on when or if this issue is to be resolved as per the post I am replying to.
I too need to route a large number of cable trays in the vertical position going up risers and must move along in the horizontal direction, but as stated by other users revit will always flip the tray when you modify its length etc.
This is a vital feature when routing tray work.
I've also ran into this ridiculous problem today. What is frustrating is the lack of comment from AutoDesk on the matter. “We designed it that way”, so coding effort was put in to restrict the way we can install cable tray? Someone has put in a concerting effort to limit the way we do things? Why this makes no sense to me.
On a side note, dado trunking… just because it isn’t used in the US very often does not mean that the rest of the world doesn’t use it. I’m sick of bodging dado trunking. Also ring circuits, a fundamental part of UK electrical wiring is missing. Autodesk should change the name to MAEP (Mechanical, American Electrical and Pipework).
If BIM is going to silence the naysayers (which there are plenty of) it’d be great if we could get some proper UK support.
When i first posed this in 2010 I was certain that I was simply doing something wrong, after finding out it was how the software is designed i am supprised that it hasnt been changed in any of the new versions.
It is getting a bit boring using ductwork as cable trays in residential risers as we can do what we want with ductwork, however it kind of kills the BIM aspect of our models and makes them just 3D models.
To be fair however, this is one of the few complaints i have about the product! (compared to the many problems we have with AutoCAD), but then we are not yet fully using Revit for all its BIM capabilities, and electrical is the area we draw least of in Revit.
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