April 11, 2013

What's New in Revit MEP 2014: What's Your Angle? Ability to Constrain Angles in Revit MEP

Revit MEP 2014 has some great enhancements, one of the best is the new ability to constrain MEP angles. 

One of the most common questions that I receive while delivering Revit MEP training classes here at Ideate, Inc. is how to “lock” angles in Revit MEP like you can in AutoCAD MEP. New functionality has been enabled that allows for the restriction of available angles when adding or modifying pipe, duct, conduit, and cable tray. The controls have been added to Mechanical and Electrical settings. Piping may now be limited to specific angles while duct, conduit, and cable tray may be limited to specific angles or incremented angles. 

While this feature could probably be used for other reasons, we built this feature targeting the following use cases: 
  • Add pipe, duct, conduit, and cable tray layouts with the “Use specific angles” setting enabled. Add or remove angles from the list as you go. 
  • Add duct, conduit, and cable tray layouts with the “Set an angle increment” setting enabled using any appropriate angle value. 
  • Use the Duct/Pipe Sizing, Generate Layout, and Connect Into tools with restricted angles. 
  • Modify layouts by dragging elements, changing type, and reapplying type after limiting the angles that may be used.
Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2014 releases for Revit Structure, Revit Architecture, Civil 3D, AutoCAD and more: ideateinc.com/2014



Bill Johnson
Ideate Senior MEP Application Specialist

Bill has over 20 years experience in applying AEC design solutions for large commercial companies. A graduate of Pasadena Institute of Technology, he has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill has also had the opportunity to act as Lead AutoCAD Designer for multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

Get it. Know it. Use it.