Pipe Accessory Family Creation Best Practrices?

[Matt__W]

Is there a best practice or how-to guide to create pipe accessory families? I've used nested annotation families for our 2D representation (to mask the pipe) but often it doesn't work correctly and we end up with piping that extends into the nested symbol. I've been playing around with trying to make our families the "Autodesk" way and use model lines and let the view scale control the size of the model line symbol but I'm struggling with the extents of the model lines and getting a symbol that works for ALL view scales. I can get the symbol to work for 1/8 scale but when I change the scale I typically end up with a visible gap between the pipe and accessory. Is there a doc that explains how to properly use model lines in pipe accessory families to drive the 2D symbol size?

[jdiala]

Here is a sample video if you want to go with model lines, same concept with annotations.
Basically, the start of your lines on both ends of your pipe accessory will be the pipe connectors
within your family.

[Matt__W]

I get all of that, but I need to show some sort of 3D geometry to claim space. That's where I'm struggling. Let's take a double check valve for example. Those things can be many FEET long, but I only want to show a small symbol (not necessarily a symbol that spans the length of the valve) and I end up with gaps between the edge of the symbol and the end of the actual 3D geometry. I *could* draw a line from the end of the 2D symbol to the end of the 3D geometry to fill the gap, but that seems like a bit of a work-around. I don't recall seeing anything like that in any of the OOTB valves.

[Matt__W]

The other thing I'm running into is that Revit assumes I want ALL of my symbols to be 1/8" on a sheet. Not the case. I need some to be larger than others and toggling off the USE ANNOTATION SCALE toggle is not an option because then the symbols won't dynamically update in 1/4 scale part plans. However, I see that's the case even with the OOTB content. I.E. that Revit Double Check Valve - 2.5-10 Inch family.

[mikewp90]

The best strategy I have is to simply create a 'pipe accessory' sub family that you can nest into your pipe accessory model family. This way the model lines can all be constrained to their own reference lines and parameters can be mapped to your parent family (model) and work with your annotation scale. 

Things that must be in order to work:

• Model lines for your symbols have to be the same category. (i.e. pipe accesory model lines, pipe fitting model lines) in order to work with the projects annotation sizing.
• The  length of the symbol needs to be mapped to the length between the connectors in order for the size of your symbol to work. 

The key benefit to nesting in symbol families is that you can create a template symbol family for both pipe accesories and pipe fittings and easily reload/swap symbols when required.

An old post but i often see it as a problem even still to this day. 

[HVAC-Novice]

Best practice to me is to not use any annotation symbols. I just have the valve (or whatever) look like it looks and tag it. Doesn't have to be a complicated model, but the overall dimensions should be correct. If your double check valve is many feet long, it should be that long. 

This may not help you at all, or will resolve all your problems. To ME, annotation symbols are an AutoCAD legacy. 

I also would show the pipes (and insulation) in the correct size so you can coordinate and have clearance. Looks like you only have lines. 

If your valves require specific clearance, you can add a clearance area. 

[mikewp90]

Correct, annotation symbols do not behave well in families that require symbolgy based on length of elements since we cannot map dimensions to the symbol length.