3D Pipe Block

[raj banerjee]

ive used mep a lot, but its only good if the preloaded pipes in the catalogue match the actual pipes being installed such as flange offsets, design etc.
Again the pipes used in mep can be stretced at either end too

[ReMark]

If you had 100 pipes to place in your drawing would you rather stretch each one or do the math upon input?

[StykFacE]

ive used mep a lot, but its only good if the preloaded pipes in the catalogue match the actual pipes being installed such as flange offsets, design etc.
Again the pipes used in mep can be stretced at either end too

AutoCAD MEP is still the way to go, since you can create your own catalogs that fit your needs dimensionally.

[ReMark]

raj: Do you have a budget that will cover the cost of some new software?

[raj banerjee]

its more of a case of just dropping the block in and resizing to suit by using snaps as opposed to calulations etc. Just trying to make the actual drafting of a pipe run as efficiant and consistant as poss

[ReMark]

Can you afford, at this time, to buy AutoCAD MEP to make your a little bit easier? Yes or No?

It's like pulling teeth around here today.

A low cost alternate to buying AutoCAD MEP and it does pipes and connections in both 2D and 3D.

http://www.asvic.com.au/products/MEC...utoCAD-16.html

[nestly]

its more of a case of just dropping the block in and resizing to suit by using snaps as opposed to calulations etc. Just trying to make the actual drafting of a pipe run as efficiant and consistant as poss

As I said previously, it's not possible to "stretch" 3D a solid object with a Dynamic Stretch property in regular AutoCAD. The closest you can get is to put an extruded section of "pipe" in a block, then insert it exploded, then grip edit it's length as shown in the 1st animation posted above.

[JD Mather]

Just trying to make the actual drafting of a pipe run as efficiant and consistant as poss

For whatever it is worth - you might take a look at this
http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content...torial%208.pdf

maybe a library of Regions that you could sweep to any path might be an efficient technique.