Mechanical Focused Intro of MEPPP Demo with Blake Guither

The new MEP Productivity Pack (MEPPP) has a ton of new features to support MEP design and documentation. Blake Guither, mechanical engineer at Gausman and Moore, gives us an overview of this new package from the mechanical point of view in the YouTube video linked below. Our updated electrical overview video is forthcoming.

There is so much introductory material, this is a one hour presentation! This is in addition to all the short, bite-sized videos, I mentioned last week by CTC's Shawn Zirbes; MEPPP Intro Videos.

Just a few highlights highlights:

Revit System Browser - Electrical Example

Autodesk Revit has a feature that many outside of the MEP discipline are aware of, called the System Browser. It can be turned on from the View tab, via the User Interface drop-down as shown below.

From this palette-type interface we can see what is connected, what is not, plus various loads and totals. Thus, it is an important place to review often to make sure you have a properly developed system - whether that be mechanical, electrical or piping (MEP).

As I mentioned in yesterday's post,

Total Facility Electrical Load Estimate in Revit

Overall Building Load:

In Autodesk Revit, if everything is setup and connected correctly - electrically, the utility transformer will list the entire electrical load for a building (or project). However, presenting this information in a proper tabular (i.e. schedule) view is not straightforward.

Challenge: Transformer’s cannot generate a panel schedule… which is a limitation of the family’s sub classification “Part Type”.

Is there a way to have only the larger of the AC or HEAT loads to show up on the load estimate schedule?

Autodesk Climate Server

The Location setting provides localized weather and utility rates data which is vital in creating a legitimate energy simulation. There are two steps involved in accurately specifying location; Project Address and Weather Station.

Project Address specifies the project location on earth within Revit. This can be a city, a specific postal address or Lat/Long values. If the project site does not have an address, enter the City name and then drag the Project Location Pin (red) to the desired location on the map. You can zoom and pan in this map view as well as make the dialog larger.

Once the geographic location has been specified...

Lighting in Renderings plus Another Free ArchVision Webinar

The other day I was comparing notes with Scott Brown, from The Beck Group and a Top 10 Speaker at BILT-NA 2017, about a lighting problem we both experienced in recent rendering efforts. This is one of those things where I knew the answer, but had forgotten. Once I found the answer, I was like "I knew that!".

Problem:
A continuous light source, as shown in the image below, does not emit light properly when rendered, as evident in the second image. Often, this is not noticed unless you have a light near a wall or ceiling were the hot spot is clearly not correct.

Solution:

Revit 2018 Circuit Path Bug

Revit 2018 has a new feature for the electrical discipline, which allows the designer to develop a custom circuit path. This is done between the Panel and the Farthest Device. Previously, Revit would would only use the X,Y,Z of the connector at each end and a fixed offset from the level (this is still the default).

The circuit length is used to calculate voltage drop. Calculating voltage drop in Revit is still not always possible due to the way it automatically assigns wire size. I wrote about that here: Revit Idea: Change how wire is auto-sized or allow override for engineering judgement.

Turns out there is a bug in how Revit calculates circuit length...

MEPPP Intro Videos

A few weeks ago I announced the new Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Productivity Pack (MEPPP) available by CTC Express Tools, which my firm helped create. This product is a labor of love between two engineering firms and CTC; and also a refinement of the Electrical Productivity Pack we created on our own nearly 6 years ago and is being used by electrical engineers and contractors across the USA.

Additionally...