Making Duct Fitting Families Insulation/Liner Friendly

[mhillis]

Hello Everyone,

I'm trying to make some duct fitting families more friendly, if possible, towards insulation and liner.  In particular fittings that change elevation.  It appears theres quite a bit of issue with insulation/liner on any fitting that meets this criteria.  Even within the default AutoDesk library for Revit MEP, see attached - Rectangular Transition Pants - DTL - Standard fitting, when you adjust the "Set Top" variable to adjust the elevation, the insulation doesn't adjust accordingly.

Is there something to be done within the families to make these work better?  If not, how exactly do people handle this situation in a productivity setting?

Thanks!

[nathan.chapman]

mhillis-

This is an issue in 2016 not sure about older releases.  Revit 2017 fixed this issue.  There is really nothing to fix this as insulation is not managed in the family anymore.  It needs to be fixed by Autodesk.  I would submit a support ticket to address it.

Nate

[mhillis]

Nathan,

Thanks for replying! I hadn't tested it in 2017 yet, I did submit a ticket on the relative matter a while ago. I'm using 2014 MEP by the way, but I was wondering if there was something I could do in 2014/2015 to at least alleviate the issue a little bit.

It seems a little odd that Insulation/Liner wouldn't work on 2016 and before on ANY item that changes elevation.  So I was thinking surely there must be a way around it.

[nathan.chapman]

I cant think of any way around this.  Now to say there isn't one, maybe there is.  Will have to see if someone posts a solution for you.

Nate

[martinTstewart_Adsk]

You stated that: [With] particular fittings that change elevation… there’s quite a bit of issue with insulation/liner on any fitting that meets this criteria.

That is the perfect beginning of a Revit Ideas recommendation. I suggest you post your Revit improvement suggestion there regarding “Making Duct Fitting Families Insulation/Liner Friendly”.

I’d vote for it!  In fact, if you post a link to it here, everyone on this thread can get to it easier and check it out.

[Anonymous]

Did you try to make insulation inside family through parameters and then control visibility of insulation with Yes/No parameter?

I am doing that for more complicated Tees where Revit simply doesn't know how to properly define insulation.

Best regards, Branimir

[mhillis]

Brane,

Thank you for your reply.  This seems like an excellent route to take, however; I do have a question.

Have you found a way to make something work with the Add Insulation/Add Ribbon buttons on the Ribbon?  Or did you basically just create two Parameters in your families and control them individually outside of using the Ribbon buttons?

I'd really like to use the Ribbon routines for Adding Insulation/Adding Liner if possible, that way I can keep everything consistent.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Unfortunatelly not. More complicated families (especially tees that go up/down) are problematic inside Revit (based on my experience).

For all of those tees I create custom parameter "Insulation thickness" which basically follow contour of fitting and is controlled by Yes/No parameter.

Hope this helps!

Best regards, Branimir.