From the course: Revit: MEP Families (2016)

Creating a pipe accessory - Revit Tutorial

From the course: Revit: MEP Families (2016)

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Creating a pipe accessory

- Let's make a pipe accessory. So, what we're going to do is make a ball valve, again. I know there's hundreds of them out there but this is how you make a pipe accessory. I'm going to go up to Families, New. Of course, I'm going to use my generic model. First thing I'm going to do is click on Family Category and Parameters. I'm going to scroll down to Pipe Accessory. Now down here, Part Type... Click the drop down and we are a Valve and we are Breaking Into. So click Valve, Break Into. Use Diameter for the Round Connector Diameter, of course. Click OK. Now I'm going to right-click on this reference plane and I'm going to Create Similar. On my Draw Panel I'm going to click on my Pick Lines button, I'm going to offset that 3". Here to here. I'm going to offset 1" up and down and I'm going to hit Escape. Okay, let's do an Aligned Dimension and we're going to equally constrain them. Now we are going to select here to here. Click a point off of it. Click your 6" dimension. Let's add a parameter, let's call it length. It's going to be an Instance Parameter. We're going to click OK. I'm going to hit Escape. Now we're going to dimension equally, straight up. I'm going to click on EQ. And we're going to dimension the width. This 2" dimension is going to get a label. We're going to call this Pipe Size. And that will definitely be an Instance Parameter. Now we're going to click OK. The deal is, the pipe is going to break at the furthest reference plane that's out. So when we bring this into a Pipe Family it's going to break here. It's going to break here. So, what I want to do is, let's Create a Revolve. So, I'm going to go to Create. Then I want to click on the Revolve button, right here, Solid Revolve. I'm going to go to Create, Reference Plane. I want to make a couple more. On my Draw Panel, I'm going to use my Pick Lines button. For an Offset, I'm going to with 3/8" up. And I'm going to go 1/4" to the right. A little flange is what it's going to be. I'm going to dimension this from Strong to Weak. I'm just going to lock it. I'm going to dimension this, Strong to Weak. I'm going to lock it up here. Let's Offset 1/4" back here, so I'm going to Create, Reference Plane, Pick Lines, 1/4" in dimension, Strong to Weak. I'm going to put it down here, I guess. Zoom Out and I'm going to lock it. Now what I'm going to do is, I'm going to start modeling stuff. So, I'm going to go to my Pick Lines button. Make sure Lock is set. So, I'm going to go bing, bing, bing, bing. I'm going to go to here, I'm going to go to here. Now, I'm going to come in here, I'm going to type TR for Trim. I'm going to trim my flange out. I'm going to trim that out. Now I'm going to trim this out. I need another one here. I've got to put it back and I'm going to get an error, but that's okay because we know lines are overlapping, right? Close out of here. Type TR for Trim. She's good. I'm going to click on Pick Lines again and I'm going to select this center, here. I'm going to trim out the outside. Got it. Now, I'm going to go to my Create Tab. I'm going to click on Reference Plane. On my Draw Panel, I'm going to click on my Pick Lines button. I'm going to offset 3/4" to the right and then to the left. Hit Escape. I'm going to dimension these from here to here. Running out of room to put them. I'm going to put one right here. Zoom out and lock it. I'm going to go from here to here. I'm going to go way down, then I'm going to lock it. Hit Escape. I'm going to put an arch right here. So, I'm going to go to Modify Create Revolve. Now I'm going to click Arch Start and Radius. Click a point here. Click a point here. I'm going to type in 3.5". I'm going to type SL for Split. Make sure Delete Inner Segment is checked on. Click a point here. Click a point here. Now, I'm going to have to dimension this. So, I'm going to click on Radial Dimension. Now, I'm going to Select it. I'm going to add a parameter, I'll call it Bulb. Instance for sure. Click OK. Now, let's go to our Family Types and Bulb wants to be Pipe Size +1.5" How does that sound? Click Apply. Click OK. Now, let's click on Axis Line. Click on Pick Lines. It's going to be this horizontal line, here. That's a mess, let's click Finish Edit Mode and she's all cleaned up. Okay, let's make another reference plane. This is going to be for our handle. So, I'm going to Select this. I'm going to right-click. I'm going to Create Similar. On my Draw Panel, I'm going to use my Pick Lines button. I'm going to offset 2". I'm going to go from here out. Now, I'm going to dimension that, Align Dimension. Select my dimension. Add a parameter. Call that Handle Depth. Instance Parameter, click OK. I'm going to create a Sweep now. I'm going to go to Create, Sweep and I'm going to Sketch Path. I'm going to go from here to here. I'm going to hit Escape. Click Finish Edit Mode. Go to a 3D view. I'm going to click on Select Profile. I'm going to Edit my profile. I'm going to click on Circle, Radius. Let's see what 1/4" looks like. I like it. I'm going to click Finish. Edit Mode. Finish, again. Now what I'm going to do is, I'm going to click on Join Geometry. I'm going to select my body. I'm going to select my stem. There it is. Kind of cool. Okay, let's go to our Rough Level. What I want to do is go up looking at it. So, we're going to our Front Elevation. Type ZA for Zoom All. I'm just going to draw a handle. So I'm going to go to Create Extrusion. Now, on my Work Plane panel I'm going to click Set Work Plane. Pick a plane, that's going to be the face of that stem. I'm going to draw a line. I'm going to go out 1.5". Draw another one, 1.5". I'm going to put an arch on the end of it. I'm going to put an arch on the back of it. My Extrusion End, we'll make it 1/4". Apply. Click Finish. Go to a 3D view. It's looking valve-like already. One more thing, go to Create. Go to Pipe Connector. I need to Tab onto this face. Select it. System Classification, I'm going to scroll down until we get to Global. Now I'm going to scroll down to Diameter. It's going to be Pipe Size, I'm going to hit OK. So it doesn't have to be the entire size of the face that it's on. Let's spin around to the back. Add another one, Create. Pipe Connector. I'm going to Tab onto the face of this. I'm going to Select it. I'm going to scroll down to System Classification. Global. I'm going to scroll down to Diameter. I'm going to Associate that Family Parameter with Pipe Size and I'm going to hit OK. Now, one more thing, I need to Select all of the 3D extrusions and I need to click on Visibility Graphic Overrides. I need to click on Edit, right here. Now for our Detail Level, I don't want to see it in Coarse or Medium, I only want to see it in a Fine Detail level. So let's click OK. Let's Save it. I'm going to scroll to where I'm keeping my exercise files. I'm going to go to Options and then 1. Click OK, click Save. Now let's test it really quick. I'm going to go to New, Project. I'm going to use my Mechanical Template. I'm going to click OK. Now, we'll need to change our Detail Level to Fine. I'm just going to go to Systems. I'm going to draw a pipe. Click a point here. Now I'm going to select this pipe. Now I'm going to put it on 2". But what I need to do, if I hit Control, Tab I go back to here. We have to do another thing to it. If we go to Family Types, we need to click on New. I'm going to call this 2". I'm going to hit OK. Let's click on New again. Type in 1". Click OK. Now our Pipe Size for this needs to be 1". Click on New. Let's go 3". OK And our Pipe Size is 3". You get the picture. Click Apply. I'm going to make 2" be the current one because I know that's what we just drew in. Click Apply again. Click OK. Now I'm going to load this into the project. I'm going to come up to here. I'm going to pick it. Hit Escape. It's going to cut itself into my pipe. So, that's how you make a ball valve, but we need to see what it's going to look like when our Detail Level is set for Coarse.

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