A Couple of Pointers on Pipes

Have you ever needed to modify, or add part sizes to a structure in AutoCAD Civil 3D? Well, in this post I am going to cover how to modify and/or add part sizes in the parts catalog. The first thing I will tell you is that I am no expert in creating parts via the Part Builder in Civil 3D, but I have learned how to modify some of the parameters for existing parts to get the sizes that I need.

So, let's say, for instance, that you need a rectangular junction structure that measures 4' x 5' outside box dimensions and is traffic bearing (8" min wall thickness). How would we go about adding that part size to the current parts catalog? The first thing that we need to do is open up Part Builder. (Note: all of the Screen Captures in this post are from AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010.) The screen cap below shows where to find Part Builder on the Ribbon.

So we open Part Builder and on the Getting Started Dialog box we select what type of part we want to modify. In this case, I am choosing the rectangular structure with circular frame. Then we click on Modify Part Sizes as shown below.

After clicking on Modify Part Sizes Part Builder opens to show the parametric model of the structure and a list of the parameters used to define the structure.

On the right hand side of the Part Builder screen we see an image of the part. The part may or may not be drawn to any particular scale in this area. It really doesn't matter as we are going to assign the values for the parameters that we want anyway. On the left hand side we see a tree that contains listings of the parameters used to create the part along with definitions for geometry and constraints.

If you expand the Size Parameters node in the tree, you will see a list of the different parameters that make up the dimensions of the structure. Notice in the list that there are parameters for the Inside Width (SIW) and the Inside Length (SIL). These are the two parameters that we want to change for our new structure. We may also have to associate the two dimensions with the Wall Thickness (WTh). We can add or modify the appropriate parameters by right-clicking on Size Parameters and selecting edit values from the pop-up menu. This will open up the Edit Part Sizes dialog box.

Now remember, our intent here is to add a part size that will correspond to the desired dimensions of the structure we are calling for in our design, a 4'x5' box with 8 inch walls. We need to look at the available part sizes in the list to see if we need to add a size or modify an existing one. In this case click in the cell for SIW, then click on the Edit Sizes button (2nd from left at the top of the dialog box). This brings up another dialog box with all of the sizes that have been input for this parameter. Notice that there is not a 40 inch measurement, so we will have to add that one. Click the add button and a new field is created at the bottom of the list. Type in the value, in our case 40.0000. The unit of inches is the default here.

Next move over to the SIL column and repeat the above steps to add a par size of 52.0000 inches. Then check the WTh column and make sure that there is a 8" Wall thickness in the list. Next we need to look at how we are able to add a part with the dimensions that we just created to our parts list. We need to make sure that the wall thickness can be assigned to the new structure from the list of wall thicknesses that are in the list.

Click on the drop down in the middle of the top row of buttons in the dialog box. Then select Parameter Configuration from the list. The Data Storage row should be set to list for the three parameters that we have looked at above. Once this is done, click OK to close the dialog box and then click on the disk icon in the upper left hand corner of the Part Builder. This saves he new part parameters. Now we can close part builder. After closing Part Builder, we need to type "partcatalogregen" on the command line to update our part catalog with the new parameters. Now we edit our parts list and select the appropriate part sizes from the lists for SIW, SIL and WTh.

Another little tidbit that some users have seemed to forgotten. When showing a crossing pipe in a profile view, create a style with crossing pipe in the title and switch on the crossing components on the Profile tab in the view directions box on the display tab. This will cause the pipe to show a a section in the profile view.