Setting up routing preferences in a project to use multiple angles with a fitting rather than only 90°.

[ben9QP8H]

Hello.

Currently, we have created a fitting that is specific to our firms profile and want to use it in our models.  However, whenever we set it as the primary elbow in the routing preferences it only trims in the model to 90°.  Any other angle and it trims, but ONLY to 90°.  We only build with 45° and 90°, which are in the lookup table for the fitting, so you would think that this shouldn't be that hard.  Our angles and segments are set to "use any angle" as well and we still can't seem to get it to work.  Any help would be really appreciated.

[hmunsell]

is there a parameter in the family for "Angle"?  sometimes that is locked to 90.

edit the family and see if there is a formula for that parameter. if the formula is just "90" delete it and the fitting should flex as needed. in the example below i have my family locked to 45deg angle. 

[ben9QP8H]

Thanks so much for the quick response.  It isn't locked per say...however, I wonder if the lock has something to do with my formula?

[hmunsell]

I'm not a formula wiz, but i don't think those should be IF/AND. i think just an imbedded IF would do. since there IF/AND it is trying to meet all those "AND" criteria, and if it cant it is defaulting to the final statement "Angle" which is set to 90.

Maybe..... ?

[ben9QP8H]

Hummmm.....I bet your right.  Let me do some checking and see.  Stand by...

[iainsavage]

@hmunsell I agree, that’s what I would say. There are a lot of possible angles not covered by the values in the formula.

[ben9QP8H]

Well...I took the "and" statement out of the angle formula and made sure that everything was reading each other properly and it is still held up at 90°.  I'm at a loss.  Compared to other fittings I have seen, this one should be relatively simply I would like to think.  If anybody has any thoughts, I'm all ears.  Thanks again.

[fabiosato]

Hello,

Can you share your family for checking?

[ben9QP8H]

I'd be happy to.  Thanks for caring to have a look.

[iainsavage]

I don't have a full answer but the bend always adopts the default value of the Angle parameter and doesn't flex for other angles.

The downloaded family had Angle set at 45 degree  default and that is the only bend angle which would form in the project. Changed the Angle in the family to 90 and reloaded and then I could only create bends of 90 degrees. Same for 22.5 degrees.

So the default value for Angle seems to be creating a fixed bend angle in the project.

Also, in your lookup table you only have values for 45 and 90 variants but in the Angle 1 formula you have several more angle options which aren't covered in the table so the "not found" values will apply in those instances.

Its not the formula which is causing this - I deleted the formula and deleted Angle 1 and the same behaviour persists.

Hope this lets you  figure it out or someone else can maybe help further.

[ben9QP8H]

I too have deleted the angel formulas all together and loaded it into an project and it persists with staying at whatever angle I last entered in Revit.

All we care or are concerned about is the 45° and 90° for spooling purposes because that actually matches what we can order (no one manufactures a 43.6° angle) and fabricate.  However, you would think that the workflow would be, add elbows to the model during the DD phase of a project, then during the SD and CD phases you go back through the model and fix all the "off" angles to match the owners original design and incorporate reality.  That is why we want to be able to use any angle.  So we can simply trim the pipe.

Maybe the problem is that I can't see the forest through the trees.  I'll re-build it with the hope that someone reads this and regulates it.  I'm still all ears.

[iainsavage]

Rather than building the fitting from scratch , I would start with a Revit fitting or manufacturer’s fitting which works, save as your own family, tweak some geometry and Identity parameters.

What you are trying to do should work, its just not flexing properly.

[fabiosato · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The connectors where not set to fittings, nor the angle parameter was associated.

Now it works.

Check your Mechanical Settings.

[ben9QP8H]

Fabio,

I noticed that too.  And fixed it.  Check it out and feel free to critique further.  Thanks for caring.  For anyone else reading this, the connectors being set to "fittings" and the "Angle" not having the "Associate Family Parameter" set to my shared "Angle" parameter was the reason it wouldn't flex.  For beginners who are curious, click on a pipe connector and look at its properties and it will all come together.  Thanks again.

bl

[ben9QP8H]

I don't know if the above fitting I attached is the correct one (cloud computing isn't all its cracked up to be) but here is a screen shot of it in use.  We obviously wont build pipe mazes like such, but it was nice to see it finally work.  Thanks again for your help Fabiosato and Hmunsell.