One of the common issues MEP Engineers face is with the duct and pipe fitting angles. The “Angles” setting within the Mechanical Settings needs to be set up at the beginning of the project. However, if it has not been set up initially and you already have your ductwork and piping within your project, it’s a time-consuming task and a tedious task to QC each of the fittings. Although you can schedule the duct fittings, fitting angle is not a schedulable parameter and hence cannot be changed in the schedule.
A workaround in Revit would be to create a shared parameter with a formula that pulls the elbow angle, which can then be scheduled and modified.
However, with the help of Ideate Explorer, you can quickly query the problematic duct fittings and fix them with the desired fitting angle.
Benefits of using Ideate Explorer:
- No need to create a shared parameter
- No need to edit the fitting family
- No need to create a schedule to show elements with the wrong fitting angle
Take a look at an example involving duct fittings. however, the process is the same for pipe fittings. Video of an Ideate Explorer Query Process.
About the Author
Vasudha Dixit – MEP Application Specialist
Vasudha is an MEP Application Specialist at Ideate, Inc. based on San Francisco office. She has a Master’s degree in Energy Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she specialized in HVAC design, green buildings and energy analysis. Prior to Ideate, she interned at a few multinational companies where she performed finite element analysis for design validation of components. Vasudha provides Revit MEP training and support for various AEC firms