Creating Multiple Conduit Connectors on a Panel Surface

Part 3 of a 3 Part Series:  Revit MEP 2011 Conduit to Panel Connections

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

You will find that once you move the default surface connector centered on a surface to any other location on the same surface as shown in Part 2 of this series and then follow one of the two options for connecting conduit to a panel as described in Part 1 of this series (see the links at the bottom of this post), that a new surface connector automatically appears in the default, center of surface location, ready for you to connect to.  The software will keep producing additional surface connectors at the surface center provided the position is available - that it is not occupied by a surface connector.  See the example below.

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

Moving Conduit Connected to a Panel with a Surface Connector in Revit MEP 2011

Part 2 of a 3 Part Series:  Revit MEP 2011 Conduit to Panel Connections

Once a conduit is connected to a surface connector in Revit MEP 2011, the surface connector and therefore the end of the conduit attached to the surface connector cannot move. Following are options for editing the position of your conduit surface connectors and conduit that is to be attached to your panels.

Editing the Position of Conduit that is Surface Connected to a Panel

1.  Disconnect the conduit from the surface connector.

Click to select the segment of conduit that connects to a surface connector that needs to be moved.  You have two options for disconnecting the conduit from the surface connector.

• Option A: Delete the selected conduit segment.

• Option B: Click on the selected conduit segment’s conduit connector that is attached to the surface connector and drag the conduit connector back some distance away from the surface connector.

2.  Get back into the Surface Connection mode.  You also have two options for re-entering the Surface Connection mode. 

• Option A:  Click the Conduit tool on the ribbon's Home tab, verify that the correct conduit type is displayed in the Type Selector.  Highlight the surface of a panel where the surface connector that you wish to move is located and click to select  the surface.  See the previous post at http://tinyurl.com/yyfouxo for a more detailed description of this process.

• Option B:  Click to select the panel that needs a relocated surface connector. The connectors are displayed. Right-click the connector that needs to be moved and select Draw Conduit from Face.

3. Move the surface connector to its new position either by dragging or using the temporary dimensions.

4. Click Finish Connection on the ribbon. A new piece of conduit will be attached to your edited surface connector.

5. Draw a conduit segment to replace your deleted conduit segment, or draw a short stub of conduit and then edit your existing conduit segments to connect to the new stub and thereby the panel.

TIP!  Do not cancel out before completing a new segment of conduit no matter which option you chose above, or you will find that you have to start all over again.  You will have to re-enter the Surface Connection mode and if you moved the surface connector away from the centroid of the surface you will have to move it once again to the new location you require.


Links to Related Posts

This post is Part 2 of a 3 Part Series Entitled:  Revit MEP 2011 Conduit to Panel Connections

• Part 1 of the Series: Connecting Conduit to a Surface in Revit MEP 2011: http://tinyurl.com/yyfouxo

• Part 3 of the Series:  Creating Multiple Conduit Connectors on a Panel Surface  http://tinyurl.com/2a9g36z

Connecting Conduit to a Surface in Revit MEP 2011

Part 1 of a 3 Part Series:  Revit MEP 2011 Conduit to Panel Connections

A much anticipated new feature of Revit MEP 2011 is the ability to create conduit and attach it anywhere on the surface of a panel. However, connecting to a panel isn’t quite as simple as showing up at the face of a panel dragging the end of a piece of conduit and connecting. By default, each face of the out-of-the box panels have just one surface connector located at the centroid of the surface as shown circled in green in the image below.

To Connect Conduit to a Surface Connector on a Panel

1.  On the Ribbon’s Home tab click > Electrical panel > Conduit.

2.  From the Type Selector, select the conduit type that you wish to use.

3.  Use the Options Bar, to specify the diameter you require.

It seems from my limited experience with the new software that it is easiest to connect to the panel and draw conduit out from the panel rather than draw conduit into the panel.

We can successfully draw conduit from a panel surface connector in plan, section, or elevation or 3D views. Being in a section view or 3D view seems to work well if connecting to the side of a panel, a plan voew works well when connecting to the top of a panel.  I received an error message when attempting to draw conduit out from the top of a panel in a 3D view. 

I'd recommend tiling multiple windows of different types of views of the area surrounding the panel(s) you are going to connect conduit to so you can clearly see what is happening.

4.  Move your cursor over the surface of the panel you wish to connect to and left-click when the correct surface highlights.

Revit MEP 2011 automatically places you in Surface Connection mode where you can complete the connection centered on the surface as is, move the position of the connector on the surface by dragging the connector or enter temporary dimension values to specify a surface connector location.

Check out how the Surface Connection mode creates an orthographic view of the surface you selected to add conduit to.  Below is a screen capture of my what displays in the Surface Connection mode after I begin the Conduit tool and select the right side of a panel as the surface I would like to connect to.

5.  When satisfied with the position of the Surface Connector, click Finish Connector on the ribbon.  You will exit the Surface Connection mode and will have the starting point of a segment of conduit attached to the surface connector on your panel.

Links to Related Posts
This post is Part 1 of a 3 Part Series Entitled: Revit MEP 2011 Conduit to Panel Connections

• Part 2:  Moving Conduit Connected to a Surface Panel in Revit MEP 2011: http://tinyurl.com/y6tlcz8 

• Part 3:  Creating Multiple Conduit Connectors on a Panel Surface:  http://tinyurl.com/2a9g36z  

Who Knew? Adding Oval Duct, Cable Trays and Conduit to a Revit MEP 2010 Project Upgraded to Revit MEP 2011

There are some good tips and very useful information you will want to know regarding new features that will save you time and frustration in the Feature Limitations and Notes section of the Readme.chm file that gets installed with your Revit MEP 2011.  I did not find the information duplicated in a search of the User Assistance accessed from within Revit MEP 2011.

If you do not have the opportunity to view the file immediately upon completion of installation, you may find it at the default installation location at: C:\Autodesk\Autodesk_Revit_MEP-B_2011_English_Win_32-64bit\RevitSetup\Revit MEP or do a search for the file. 

The tip for adding oval ducts, cable trays, and conduit to a Revit MEP 2010 project updated to Revit MEP 2011?  Simply use the Transfer Project Standards tool found on the Manage tab of the ribbon to copy new objects types from a Revit MEP 2011 template into a project that originated in Revit MEP 2010.

I discovered that Martin Schmid of Autodesk has created a great post on the subject of using the Transfer Project Standards tool to add oval duct functionality to a Revit MEP project upgraded to Revit MEP 2011 on the Inside the System blog.  Follow this link to read Martin's post:  http://tinyurl.com/yyl53o8.