Individual Pipe Colours

[Anonymous]

Hi There,

I have a process plant model and I would like to change the colour of indivual pipes, valves etc but not all of them to the same colour.

As the process flows, the purpose of a paricular pipe and associated pipe filttings, valves etc changes so I might have red in one part of the plant and that then would change to say green at a particular point.  This is how we paint it on site and would like to show that on the REVIT model.

I can only find where I can modify the colour of pipes of a particual type.

Is this possible please?

Thanks  

[L.Maas]

You can use or add a parameter to your pipes, fittings and accessories. You can then create a filter and colour your pipes based on the value of this parameter.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that and that looks exactly what I need but could you please tell me exactly how to do that.

thanks

[L.Maas]

Attached a project in Revit 2015.

-Added a project parameter (PIPE COLOUR) to pipes, pipe accessories and pipe fittings

-Filled the parameter for pipes which to give another colour.

-Created fFilter for default pipe.

-Created filter for pipe which I want to give other color used certain parameter value to filter on.

-Added filters to required view

-Assigned colours to the filters

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that Louis,

I'm kind of getting there but got stuck.

Please see my notes attached.  I create notes like this from the advice you have given me in the past so that I don't forget.

I see that you have green and red pipes and when I select the red one, the Parameter comes up under properties, RED and NOT IMPORTANT.  If I type in Green it goes Green and then Green and Red become an options.  OK so far.

If I select the green pipe only NOT IMPORTANT comes up but I can type Red there and the pipe turns red and then Green and then both become options.

Still OK but when I went into the filters I couldn't find how you made the red and green options so how did you do that and also how do I get other colour options?  I need like 5, Red, Brown, Green, Blue & Yellow, to show up in the Parameter box.

I can kind of see where you assigned colours to the filters but I don't see how all of these can become available in the Parameter box.

I notice that you have selected consistent Colours and not Realistic.  If I select realistic, the plan losses it's realist look which I really like but the colours also disappear.  Can I get colour in Realistic?

Thanks

Paul

[L.Maas]

Ok. I have two filters DOMESTIC COLD WATER and OTHER COLOR PIPE.

What the DOMESTIC COLD WATER filter does it looks for pipes that belong to the system classification Domestic Cold Water.

In my view I used this filter in the visibility/graphics overrides (on the filter tab). When Pipes are falling in this category I make them green (with the settings in under projection/surface).

What the OTHER COLOR PIPE filter does it looks for pipes, pipe acessories, pipe fittings and pipe insulations that have the parameter PIPECOLOUR set to RED. IT only looks for the text RED. If the parameter PIPE COLOUR does not have the text RED (e.g APPLE) the filter does not apply.

If you look at the pipes you will notice that ALL the pipes belong to the system classification Domestic Cold Water. Some pipes have a the PIPE COLOUR set to RED. Others have a adifferent value. You could ask why are not all the pipes green, they all belong to the Domestic Cold Water system classification? The filter DOMESTIC COLD WATER for them is true. Still some of the pipes are not Green...why?. This is because some pipes are also true for OTHER COLOR PIPE (the parameter PIPE COLOUR is RED). The reason they become red is because the OTHER COLOR PIPE filter is above (higher) than the DOMESTIC COLD WATER filter. This OTHER COLOR PIPE filter has higher precedence and thus applies

So at the moment the only important entry for PIPE COLOUR is RED. Because that is what we are filtering on. If I change the filter to look for PEAR and change the parameter PIPE COLOUR for some of the pipes also to PEAR it still would work and the pipes will become red.

So to see pipes in other colours you would have to duplicate the filter OTHER COLOUR PIPE (and give them distinctive names) several times. For each duplicate filter you have to decide om what word it is going to filter. You add the filter to the view and set the line and patterns to colours you like (i.e. Brown, Green, Blue & Yellow).

The colours indeed do dissapear in realistic view. This is because in Realistic Revit show not the colours but the material. This will get bit more complicated. I will see if I have time tomorrow to help you with that. 

[fabiosato]

Hello,

Depending on which version are you running (from 2014 to 2016) this app may be a simpler way to achieve your goal.

https://apps.autodesk.com/RVT/pt/Detail/Index?id=5056644120649615847&appLang=en&os=Win32_64

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that Louis and I will try and find some time this week to practice that.

Shame about the realist view though.

What do you think about Fabiosato's idea of using the Colour Splasher?

Cheers

Paul 

[L.Maas · Accepted solution]

Ok, had some time for the issue with the realistic view. In that case you can take the following approach. For your pipes you use certain segments (e.g steel). In the MEP settings you can duplicate these segments and then use a different material for each of them. For example I created segements coloured green, red and yellow. 

For your pipe types you select the type you normally use and duplicate them for the different colours.

Then you change the routing preferneces and select the different pipe segments. You also need the modify your pipe fittings to include a material parameter. You also select the right colour fittings in your routing preferences.

In your project you draw your pipes. If you need different colour pipe, you select pipe type with different colour.

From screenshot above you see can that this will work in shaded as in realistic views.

Above process will take some time to set up if you use lots of different fittings and pipe segments in your projects. But once done you can make it part of your project template and reuse it every time.

Attached the example file in Revit 2015

With regards to apps. I tend to use OOTB Revit. I normally only use apps that speed up work. If the apps does something that can not be done with normal Revit I am hesistant to use it. Then you have to be confident about support. Too often seen that software is not updated for the next version or delayed so much that upgrading to next version has to be halted. But check it out and see if it works for you.

[fabiosato]

I agree with Louis,

We use some apps because we are always one or two versions behind, because we depend on the architecture project.

If you are using recent versions, or upgrading few months after release try to use OOTB features.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to not get back to you sooner.  I picked up a nasty case of cryptolocker and still trying to solve it.  Not all my files were infected but enough to give me a real headache.  The locker has been removed but so many files locked with little possibility of getting them back.

Anyway thanks for your help guys and I think I will go with Louis's approach, that is when I get to "own" my machine again!

cheers

Paul