From the course: AutoCAD Plant 3D Essential Training: User

Start points and break points

From the course: AutoCAD Plant 3D Essential Training: User

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Start points and break points

- [Instructor] The finding start points and break points inside your piping model allows you to have much greater control over the output of your drawings. For example, if the algorithm that creates the iso splits your line into three drawings, sheet one, two, and three, you want to be sure that every time the iso's generated, that it's broken up into the same sheets. With an arbitrary routine creating these iso's, it might change from time to time or rearrange the components into different sheets. So we're going to take a look at how to set this up so that we have greater control over which components are broken out into which sheet. So let's start by opening our drawing model so we're looking under Plant 3D drawings, chapter 10, I'm going to open our 10_model. And we're going to be looking for line 100 so I'm just going to isolate line 100 we're going to use this as our test iso. So I'm just going to click and I'm going to right click add to selection, connected line number, right click, and I'm going to use my part hiding isolation to isolate selected parts. So this is what we're going to run the isometric on so just to start with I'm going to come out to iso's, we're going to run a quick iso and I'm going to just click on this line, I'm going to right click, by line number and I'm going to choose line 100, we're going to go to our advanced tab and we're going to reduce the number of iso's we have and increase the congestion so we're going to go more and we're going to say okay and we're going to create the iso's. Okay so our iso's are ready so let's click on the link and take a look to see what the system generated for us just arbitrarily. So I'm going to click on drawing number one. Now this is kind of a classic example. When you look at this drawing you'll see that the components that it's chosen to put onto that drawing, they don't really make sense I mean typically when you're running an iso it doesn't really matter because we do have connections on here, we have continued to and froms. But it kind of makes more sense if you have an iso that starts at the beginning and it follows the flow from one end of the pipe to the other. We've just picked an arbitrary loop in the middle here. Going to head and look at the second one too, just to see. And you can see that we have the open end of the pipe, so we have one of the very first vertical run into the first pump which was 1001C. And let's look again. And this connection is into pump 1001B and the last one is 1001A. What I would kind of think I'd like to do is I would like to have this be on sheet one so that we can follow this line right from the first pump all the way through to the end where it comes out of our structure so essentially we want to make this the start and we want to make this the end. Either way would make sense to have this to start or this to start but starting with this loop in the middle's kind of a little difficult to follow. So what we're going to do, I'm going to do it two ways here. I'm going to come up to our isometrics, and you'll see here we have in our iso annotations we have a start point, I'm going to click the start point, and I'm going to add this into the beginning of the run here and I'm just going to place it right on the node of the flange here. So you can see when you look at that, there's the exclamation point, that's how we know that's where our start point is. Now I'm not going to change anything else, I'm just going to come back up again and run another quick iso. And I'm going to choose this by line number, 100, exactly the same process as we followed before, the congestion is higher, and we're going to create. What I would expect to see now is when the iso's are generated that this is the start point and they continue on following the flow in this direction. So our iso's are generated, let's go ahead to look and see if they're a little bit different this time. So I'm going to look at line 1001 and indeed we started at 1001A. So that's what we want to see we want to be able to have that control. And there's the loop coming around here so this is a little better this makes a little more sense and again it doesn't really matter as far as creating iso's they can be anywhere but it's just a little easier for you to know what's going to be, where the start and the end point is. So that worked out a little better for us. So I'm going to come back to our model again, I'm going to change the start point. I'm just going to delete the one that we placed and this time I'm going to put the start point at the end here. And I'm going to just run this again. My line number, 100, advanced, increase congestion, and let's make sure that when we start this time we expect to see this as the start point on sheet one. So now that our iso's are ready, let's take a look. And let's check our first drawing and exactly as expected, we have our start point at the other end. We also have a similar feature for the break point so I'm just going to quickly show you how the break points work, similar manner. We're going to go back to our model, if we have a specific way we want to break up our model, like for example, we don't necessarily want to see this loop just as a loop. I'm going to come in and add a break point. And I'm going to have this break point, I'm going to change my view here first to either wire frame or x-ray. And I'm going to look at this front on here. Now I'm going to add a break point to this point on the flange. So when I create my iso I expect to see this iso and expect it to stop here. And I'm going to come and add another break point and this first T here. Just going to place it on the node of that T. And then I'm going to add another one on the node of this T. And let's see how this works. I'm going to take the start point off first too and I'm going to pop that start point right at the beginning, so this is me going to have a look to see if I can control the output on this drawing. So again what I'm expecting to see is the iso start here, stop here at the globe valve, continue along and stop here at the T and the next iso will be the globe valve back into this one here and the last one will be all the way over to the third pump. So I'm just going to run that iso real quick. Go by line number, we're going to select 100, our advanced, up the congestion, and let's go. So now that our iso's are ready, let's click. And take a look to see, now you notice we're down into three drawings now so by able to control that again let's see if we got the desired results. And you can see that's worked out quite perfectly, our line starts at pump 1001A, it continues up and we designated four break points at the T, so we have the first T on the vertical run, and we've asked it to break right before the globe valve. So although the globe valve is represented, it's considered existing so it's not our building materials, we continue on drawing number two so let's look at drawing two. And there you see our globe valve from the break point continues along into our second pump B and then up over to our next T which is where we broke it again, and we expect our last drawing just to be the last vertical run pump and then off. So by doing that we're getting to control how the iso's split up, what side we consider the start and the end of the run, and how we break that up into various components and designate which components go on each sheet. Now there are additional ways to do this but this is the easiest one just using the break points. It's always advisable to use start points and break points in your model if you need to be sure that the iso's generated each time using the same sequence of components on each sheet and make sure that you always have the same components on the same sheets. Again, remember you're working with an algorithm that may not always work the same way so you have to be sure that if it's important it's added to the model to make sure that you have that extra control.

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