Pipe and the Display Manager

[tzframpton]

Posted this at the Swamp too, hopefully something comes up.

 

I'm having a bit of an issue trying to dig through the Display Manager to get the proper visual outcome for my Plan View mechanical piping. I simply started a QNEW drawing template defaulted from ACAD MEP. Using the MEP Design Display Configuration, any pipe that is 10" and larger shows up double line. When pipe is crossing over other pipe, it shows the hidden lines like you would expect, gives proper visual look of flanges, valves, etcetera. But in this Display Configuration any pipe 8" and smaller it shows single line, it has a symbolic "X" for flanges, etcetera. The only way to get everything to have a proper visual look of any size pipe, MvPart, or connection fitting is to change the Display Configuration to MEP Basic 2-line. In doing this, I lose the hidden line feature, so it looks very wireframe and can get messy in certain drawing situations.

 

I have been digging and trying countless combinations in the Display Manager and I cannot figure out for the life of me what setting I need to adjust so that I can get (1) all sizes to show double line, (2) all MvParts and connection fittings to show properly, and (3) still have the hidden line feature functioning properly to provide accurate plan view visual information for the drawing. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. :wink:

 

PS: Using AutoCAD MEP 2011.

[tzframpton]

Nevermind, found it. I hate when I answer my own questions.... Just for reference, here's the resolved issue.

 

Style Manager > Piping Objects > Pipe System Definitions > [pick the style of choice] > Single Line Graphics tab. From there is a checkbox that allows you to enable or disable single line displays, including adjustments to the sizes wanted.

[ReMark]

I just love these self-answering questions. Less strain-on-the-brain!

 

The StykMaN just needed another cup of coffee to get his brain cells functioning.

 

How's it going there Styk? How's the new job? Happy New Year dude!

 

Thanks for sharing the solution with us.

[tzframpton]

Haha, yeah, tell me about it.

 

The StykMan is doing great Mark, thanks for asking. New job is going really good although it's weird because I'm back on hourly. I spend a lot of time in the field and on-site with my company issued laptop, so it's just weird actually being able to get overtime once again. And believe me, work is plentiful right now so the money has been a huge blessing.

 

You know that I have spend a large part of my design career doing HVAC. Well I'm still doing that but with my new job I'm now venturing into the Mechanical Piping side of the business which is super fun. Right now I'm working on a large 12" chilled water system for a data center that is a double redundancy chilling system. I've almost got the all complete and I might upload the DWF file and screen shots in the Showcase forum when done.

 

Hope all is going well with you my friend.

[ReMark]

That's good to hear Tanner. I'm really happy for you and the changes/challenges your new job has brought you.

 

We use chilled water at the chemical plant but utilize smaller, pre-package units so our piping sizes don't go above 4" in diameter. On the other hand we use 12"-16" diameter piping for our cooling water supply/return system.

 

What are you using for piping material? Our large diameter pipes are fiberglass. Once we drop down to 4" or below we switch over to galvanized.

 

Yes, things are better now. I finally got bumped back up to a five day week back in October. Went 21 months on a short work-week which really sucked in any number of ways. I put the extra time off to good use renovating the second floor of our house. No time for that now but that's OK. I need the $$$ to pay for the renovations!

 

Good hearing from you too my friend. Don't be a stranger. We need your expertise man. Don't keep it all to yourself; your head might explode! We don't want anything bad happening to you.

 

Keep it real dude. Peace out.

[khobart]

Thanks to this post I got away from the single line issue that has been troubling me.

 

Now how do I get rid of the cardboard tube spiral look on my pipe? Any tips?

 

Also, I have my visual style set to hidden but as you can see it's not showing that way.

Lower Floor Pipe Layout1 (1).pdf

[tzframpton]

There is a hatch applied to the Pipe Style. Go to Style Manager, locate the Pipe and remove it.

[khobart]

Thanks, got that to work.

 

Any suggestions on why its not showing as hidden?

[OldRed]

I found this thread on a search. I'm an experienced Detailer but a new CAD Admin and on a very steep learning curve. I was trying to set up some routing preferences for waste yesterday and my display switched to single line for all sizes, even on the stock preferences. I followed the above advice but do not see the single line checkbox. I'm using MEP 2011. Any help will be appreciated!

[tzframpton]

Sounds like you might have changed the Display Representation altogether. Look at the Bottom Right of the Drawing window. To the right of the Scale, and the left of the Cut Plane setting is the Display Representation selector. I bet you set it to Schematic or 1-Line. Change it back to MEP Design or any one of the other 2-line displays and it should fix the problem.

[OldRed]

Thanks, I checked that and tried different settings. I found the Piping system definitions had quite a lot more by way of display properties (including the Single Line checkboxes) but all the plumbing systems had just General, nothing else. It started out fine yesterday as a fresh install but after trying to set up some new routing preferences etc got it all messed up. I just uninstalled and will install fresh again.

[OldRed]

I'd checked that too, thinking I had done something I uninstalled and reinstalled. Now I see the Piping System Definitions have a much different display properties setup, including the Single Line tab, than the Plumbing System Definitions, which are all just "General". That's out of the box. I tried to add a new Plumbing System Def but could not get the options the Piping Systems have.. Not real sure where to go right now.

[tzframpton]

How about this... can you share the file? Also, tell me what your "end results" need to be and I can get you to that point rather than trying to track down what's not working for you.

 

Just to clear the air, you have two different management systems.... Display Manager and Style Manager. Within each of these are a long rabbit hole of cascading sets of tools.

 

Piping Systems is just that: Systems, such as DCW, SAN, etc... Style Manager controls the objects and Display Manager controls the visibility of the objects. Or... something to that nature. It can get really confusing really quick and I no longer work with AutoCAD MEP so I'm trying to go from memory.

[OldRed]

Hmm hope I don't double post.

Thanks for the offer but as soon as they got my licensing sorted out the problem disappeared. Must have been an unlicensed limitation? Now I can start new routing preferences and adding catalogs, I'll ceretainly have more questions. Thanks again!

[Bryan316]

I'm using MEP for generating all the utility piping in assembly plants. We're trying to get pipes in the plan view to show as 1-line schematic styles. We're still having troubles with the piping reducers. They don't follow the annotation scale the same way all other elbows and tees and valves do. The schematic symbol of the reducer is always about 8 times larger. Sometimes as much as 50 times larger. Have you guys ran into this problem?