Steel construction automation

[Anonymous]

I want to automate the time consuming tasks that we do in our company with Autocad.

We are designing steel structures with fittings to connect the steels together, which is basically a scaffolding construction (see image attached). This steel structure is just the base for the structures we design, which are entertainment and amusement parks, which means we are confined to using Autocad because all of our thousands of blocks are also in Autocad and we don't have the resources right now to change program.

We currently insert each steel length and each fitting block manually and I want to find a way of making this more automated, i.e. some sort of recognition of where the ends of steels meet, should result in a particular fitting being inserted into that position.

Does anyone have any idea of how this could be achieved? We would also be interested in working with a company or individual who could create a solution for us to this problem, as it would save us a lot of time and money!

Thanks

[dbroad]

Such things should be achievable, with LISP or other languages within AutoCAD.  I believe there is a classified advertising forum that you might look in.  Registered Autodesk developers might be a good place to start. 

[john.uhden]

Very interesting.  Is your work done in 3D?  Do you extrude the pipe members?  Are the fitting blocks in 3D as well?  Are they always 90s?

[Anonymous]

Hi. Yes we work with 3D blocks of each fitting. We also have a block
library of many lengths of pipe, which are just extruded cylinders.

The majority of the fittings are to fix pipes at 90 degree angles, 1 way, 2
way, 3 way and 4 way. It is these simple connections that I hope to be able
to automate somehow!

[john.uhden]

That's cool.  I would be interested in that assignment.

Seems odd to me to have a library of pipe lengths.  Why not just extrude each to the desired length?

Then again maybe you have a warehouse of premade pipes.  Are the connections threaded?

[rapidcad]

I'll toss an idea your way. I have done something similar using dynamic blocks. I set the insertion point as the start end and use a polar move on the other end (which is assigned to moving the entire block). You can add a linear stretch to the pipe and stretch each length as far as you need (maybe use the increment method and set min and max lengths as well). I use a dynamic block property setting program I cobbled together out of other's functions to stretch the lengths to match variables I am running in the background and I have written programs that respect those variables and place blocks one after another from one pickpoint to another to make exact lengths rounded to allowable sums of the components.

Whew! It takes time to come up with all of this stuff but I just want you to know that it can be done at least one way (and likely several others as well).

John will know what to do - he's been at this a lonnng time and has helped me out several times!

HTH

[pendean]

Ever consider just moving up to a variant of AutoCAD that does "Steel" at it's core? http://www.autodesk.com/products/advance-steel/overview

Take it out for a test-spin and see if it meets your needs with smart-er objects (you might be able to convert your library of blocks to these elements).

[scot-65]

I too was also thinking of Dynamic Blocks.
Another way:
Since the image shows different colors which represent
the different lengths, perhaps suggest employing a
lookup/visibility for each defined length?
The fittings will be a little more complicated
due to the final orientation of the fitting...

???

[lmoultonX6YLM]

Was this ever completed / solution found ?