The previous two parts of this three part series discussed attaching conduit with surface connectors to panels and changing the conduit location on a panel surface. Links to the first first two parts of this series are available at the bottom of this post.
This post discusses the options available for locating multiple conduit connections on a single surface of Revit MEP 2011 electrical panels and other equipment.
New Connector Options
Two new types of connectors are available in the Revit MEP 2011 Family Editor; a conduit connector and a cable tray connector.
When you select either of the new connector tools you will find that the Option Bar offers the opportunity to add either a Surface Connector or an Individual Connector. With the two connector types you can choose whether to provide the users of your customized equipment families the flexibility of repositioning and adding connectors on-the-fly while modeling or customized equipment with predetermined conduit connection locations that cannot be changed without entering the Family Editor. Each type of connector has its benefits and trade-offs, as described below.
Surface Connectors
All of the out-of-the box electrical equipment families that I have opened have had surface connectors on the appropriate sides for conduit or cable tray. Surface connectors offer us the flexibility to create multiple connectors in multiple locations on a surface on-the-fly while we are modeling. However, moving and positioning each additional connector needed requires additional time while modeling and relies on the knowledge and accuracy of the user.
In the screen capture below an electrical panel is displayed in the Family Editor. The surface connectors are easily identified by their rectangular shape as typical elecrical connectors are circular. Each surface connector is located at the center of a surface.
How to Define Multiple Surface Connectors on a Surface
Individual Conduit Connectors
If you have specific pieces of equipment that have conduit connections at known, fixed positions you might consider predefining their locations in the Family Editor so that you can then quickly connect to them while modeling; similar to connecting pipes to fixtures.
When using Individual Connectors you are trading up-front time spent adding and positioning the fixed connections in the Family Editor and the flexibility of moving your conduit on the surfaces of your equipment for faster, simpler connection times when modeling.
With individual conduit connectors we can predefine the radius of the connector. However, we can change the size of the conduit attached to either the surface or individual connectors in Properties as shown below.
To connect to an individual connection, select the panel (or other equipment) and right-click on the connector you wish to use, just as you would to connect ducts or pipes, and choose Draw Conduit as shown below.
A Couple of Last Comments on Conduit Connectors
It is great that Autodesk has provided two different types of conduit connectors. Each has their advantages and disadvantages to consider when creating and customing Revit MEP 2011 content. Following are two last bits of information I can pass on regarding connecting conduit to equipment.
When a conduit segment attached to a surface connector is deleted, the surface connector is deleted as well as shown below in the area circled in green on the top, left side of the panel. The only exception is at the center of a surface where the connector is automatically replaced as noted above. Individual unnconnected conduit connectors as described above are of course, always available.
I did not find any documentation that specifically stated we could or could not draw conduit off of a surface connector in a 3D view. However, my experience has been that I could draw conduit out of connectors on the vertical faces of equipment while in a 3D view. However, when trying to draw conduit from a connection on a horizontal face, such as the top surface of a panel I received an auto-route error as shown below.
Links to Related Posts
This post is Part 3 of a 3 Part Series Entitled: Revit MEP 2011 Conduit to Panel Connections
- Part 1: Connecting Conduit to a Surface in Revit MEP 2011: http://tinyurl.com/yyfouxo
- Part 2: Moving Conduit Connected to a Surface Panel in Revit MEP 2011: http://tinyurl.com/y6tlcz8
