Creating a 2D vertical diagram (schematic) of a sanitary waste network

[dyp4f]

Hello,

How do you create a 2D vertical diagram (schematic) of a sanitary waste installation ?

(see the picture below to see what I am talking about)

I mean, after you have normally modelled a sanitary waste installation in a 3D model in Revit, at some point you will have to create (and also print in a sheet) a vertical diagram of the complete installation.

I understand that a schematic like this, should probably be some kind of a detail view.

How do you work in Revit to practically accomplish that ? Do you create this 2D diagram manually ?

Do you just omit that, and don’t include it in the study documentation ?

I am asking this because it’s a lot of manual drafting work, even for a small to medium size building.

Kind regards.

[tim.ingle · Accepted solution]

Hello @dyp4f ,

To accomplish what you are looking for, there are technically a few ways within Revit to achieve this result:

1. After completing modeling of waste system (or during), create a 3D view which only displays your waste piping system. This 3D view can then be rotated to become a vertical schematic for printing. Once an orientation has been selected, the 3D view can be locked and then annotated per project requirements. The issue with this method being that as soon as the project building has curves, angles, or overlapping elements, not all elements (plumbing fixtures, piping, etc) will be clear in this view.
2. Same as above, but instead of rotating the 3D view, keep the orientation of the schematic angled to display more complicated 3D geometry. This would make the view not a traditional vertical riser schematic, but it would eliminate the need to model all 3D content AND then annotate a 2D view.
3. As you stated, you can create a Drafting View to create a vertical waste schematic using either Detail Items / Components, and/or Detail Lines to annotate your waste system. This method (with out of the box tools) does not allow for easy updates to your system, as now you have to modify items in more than one location between the modeled content, and your annotation content.
4. This method is a little out there, but it is possible. You can create a Design Option specific to modeling your waste schematic, and use Piping, Pipe Fittings, and Plumbing fixture families to model your "2D schematic". Then, creating a section or elevation to model your 2D schematic. This method would allow you to tag elements and create a library of content that can be used specifically for these views. However, this method is again limited the same way as item 3 that I mentioned where your content is still not connected and any change across the system has to be modified in two or more locations.
5. There are always CAD schematics as well, but I will not go into detail on this method.
6. There is a product for Revit called RushForth Tools (here is the link: https://www.rushforthprojects.com/). With this paid for suite of tools, there is a tool available called "Parameter Linker". Using this tool, you can create your 3D content as usual, then when you start creating your Drafting View for the vertical waste schematic, you would need a library of Detail Item families to use in your schematic view. Each Detail Item would need a set list of Shared Parameters that can be referenced in your project. Once you have placed all Detail Item components for your schematic, activate the Parameter Linker tool. This will allow you to select modeled content from Revit (plumbing fixtures, pipes, etc) and then connect the parameters you need to reference from the modeled content to the Detail Item families that you placed in the 2D Drafting View. The setup only has to be done once or whenever new content is added, and with the connection of Parameter Linker, you are able to review changes from the model or the schematic, and push those changes to either set of elements. There is also a feature to enact automatic changes for elements that are connected using Parameter Linker, but I believe this has to be activated every time you open the model.

The biggest issue that we have run into is trying to connect our content between model and riser/schematic so that we don't have to duplicate as much work to eliminate mistakes and design / drafting time. The items above are just the items that we have looked into or have used in the past.

[dyp4f]

Thank you for your useful input.