Rolling a 45 bend in Autocad MEP 2013

G'day Everyone,

I'm trying to roll a 45 degree circular elbow to pick up a 45 degree takeoff from a main vertical duct so as to save on using an extra bend and cannot work out how to do this. I have noticed when you select an elbow in your drawing there are grips which you can select to rotate it. I've tried clicking these then selecting the centreline, an edge, etc but cannot seem to line up the two objects. This is probably a simple thing to achieve however I cannot seem to get my head around it, any help would be greatly appreciated. The image below shows both plan view and front view, apologies for the different hatching, this seems to have come in as the default and being a newbie I'm not sure yet where to change it.

Many thanks in advance.

Have a great day!

 

ROLL ELBOW.dwg

Use Rotate3d

If you are familiar with "Rotate3d" its easier that messing about with grips

I also suggest change your visual style to "conceptual" or "realistic" to help you see better

Sometimes, you can get AutoCAD MEP to work for you with the Automatic Routing tools. Once you learn how they "think" then rolling offsets can be a breeze. For example:

 

Two 6" carbon steel pipes with weld fittings, offset and different elevations. Pick one pipe, right-click the + grip and select the "Add Selected" tool:

 

Cycle through the auto routing possibilities until you get to a rolling offset that you like:

 

Accept the layout, and you can see the rolling offset worked beautifully:

 

Now granted, some scenarios don't go this smoothly, especially coming right off a tap/tee or takeoff. So sometimes you "reverse engineer" the pipe.... don't start at the takeoff, and fiddle with the fitting. Instead, get the rolling offset you need, then go back and connect to the main pipe to create your takeoff/tee. With AutoCAD MEP you have to get creative at times, and I'm serious as a heart attack when I say this from years of experience, ha.

 

my experience is if it's an old/existing dwg it can be quite painful to get it to cooperate with MEP (no styles exist for *anything*) which makes me create a new dwg to create things to drop in.... lie/cheat and steal... is what I say

 

but hey, after yesterdays meeting, we're going to Plant3D now..... bu BY!

Thanks for your replies guys, I will have a play with the 3drotate command, StykFacE you were spot on when you said the Automatic routing sometimes had issues with take offs, tees, etc. I had a go at using the Auto routing and cycled through the selections however it kept on wanting to add in bends to make the connection. Will try the reverse engineering and see what happens. Autocad MEP sure does some strange things!

Please note, that I have MEP 2011 and MEP 2012 at home, but I couldn't see the objects in your file so I assumed you are using AutoCAD MEP 2013, but saved it down to the 2010 file format since it didn't give me an error when I opened it. So I just took a best guess at offering advice and not necessarily your exact problem. If I could see what you're trying to do (screenshot maybe?) then I can better assist.

 

Also, I wouldn't try the 3DROTATE command with AEC Objects, especially pipe fittings. Best thing to do is realign the UCS and View directly in line with the end of the fitting you want to rotate, then use the Diamond Grip to rotate the fitting. This is yet another "reverse engineer" method for AutoCAD MEP.

 

my experience is if it's an old/existing dwg it can be quite painful to get it to cooperate with MEP (no styles exist for *anything*) which makes me create a new dwg to create things to drop in.... lie/cheat and steal... is what I say

Yeah, I always start out with a template no matter what. I've had an evolving template for going on six years now and it's almost where I like it. Buuuuuut, I'm usually in Revit MEP now so it doesn't even matter haha.

but hey, after yesterdays meeting, we're going to Plant3D now..... bu BY!

Good for you! Now we can have a Plant3D guy on this forum. We'll have to get with David to add the sub-forum... that is, if you still plan on sticking around.

 

Keeps us posted on how the program works out for you.

it goes something like this.....P&ID (for instr & elec), Inventor for "content" (I guess), Plant3D for piping, Revit Structural & Architecture.... curious how it all gets along..

 

to be con't.