Learn how to create a new parts list for pipe networks in Civil 3D, including how to add part families and sizes, and how to adjust different properties of these parts. This article also explains the importance of a pipe network catalog and how it populates the list of options available to add to your parts list.
Key Insights
- The parts list in Civil 3D is crucial to creating a pipe network. It allows users to organize pipe types, sizes, and other properties for their network designs.
- Civil 3D's pipe network catalog is integral to the parts list. It determines what pieces and parts can be added to the parts list, and this catalog populates the list of options available for inclusion.
- Each part in the parts list can be customized based on various properties, such as the material, wall thickness, curve radius, and more. It's crucial to note that the properties available for adjustment may vary based on the specific part and its type.
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Now that we've talked about our Pipe Network catalogs, we're going to go ahead and talk about the other portion of creating a Pipe Network, which is our Parts Lists. To do that, we're going to go ahead and navigate to our Toolspace window.
We're going to click on the Settings tab, and then inside of the Settings tab, we're going to go ahead and navigate to Pipe Network. We're going to expand this out, and then we're going to expand out Parts Lists. So inside of the current drawing that we have, we already have three Parts Lists.
We have Sanitary Sewer, Standard, and Storm Sewer. We're going to go ahead and look at these, but first we're going to create a new Parts List. We're not going to save the Parts List, but we're going to go and see what an empty Parts List window looks like.
So I'm going to go ahead and select Parts List. I'm going to right-click, and I'm going to click Create Parts List. So from here, what Civil 3D is doing is it is looking to our Pipe Network catalog to determine what pieces and parts we can add to this Parts List.
So inside the Information tab, we have the name of the Parts List, and the reason why we're not creating a new one is because we currently have two that would function well inside of our drawing. We already have a Sanitary Sewer. We already have a Storm Sewer.
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I don't see a need for our design to create a new Parts List. So I'm not going to bother changing the name or the description. We're going to go ahead and look at the Pipes tab.
So inside the Pipes tab, this is where all of the pipes that we are going to have inside of our Parts Lists are going to be organized. So inside of this new Parts List right here, this is the title of this information here. We're going to go ahead and right-click here.
I can go ahead and Add Part Family, and what Civil 3D is going to do is bring up all of the pipes that are inside of my Pipe Network catalog that I can add into this Parts List. That’s why the Pipe Network catalog is important—because whatever is inside of that catalog will populate inside of this list here that I can then add to my Parts List. From here, I can click on any of these options and see the differences.
The differences in these are not shape-related—they're all circular pipes. So our little image over here, our preview, is not going to change.
The differences here lie in the different types of materials that we're dealing with. Then we can move to a different-shaped pipe. Civil 3D shows us what that shape looks like, and then we can move on to another shape.
If you want to add any of these pipes to your Parts List, all you have to do is click any of the boxes. So I'm going to go ahead and add a PVC pipe to this and an HDPE pipe to this, and then I'm going to go ahead and click OK. Now inside of my Pipes list, I can expand this out, and you can see that I have PVC pipes and HDPE pipes, but these are just folders for holding specific parts.
From here, I then have to right-click on the specific material that I want to create a piece for, and I have to select Add Part Size. Once I select Add Part Size, the Part Size Creator window comes up, and inside of here, we have the options on the different thicknesses or sizes of the pipes that we're going to be creating. In here, our units are in millimeters, and we have Wall Thickness and Inner Pipe Diameter, and then other options for properties like Materials, Curve Radii, Coefficients, Hazen-Williams Coefficients, and Darcy-Weisbach Factors.
These are factors that get used in add-ons to Civil 3D where we calculate flow rates. That’s not something we cover in this class, so just know that it’s here, but we will not be touching it in this course. So I'm going to go ahead and click Cancel, and then we have the options for our HDPE pipes.
I can right-click, select Add Part Size, and then I can go ahead and select and change any of these values. One important thing to note is that I can check the box for Add All Sizes, and when I click OK, Civil 3D will create a list of all the possible sizes of pipes that are available in that Parts List. I'm going to go ahead and click Cancel so we don’t save this, and I'm going to go ahead and start looking at our Storm Sewer Parts List.
I'm going to right-click and select Edit, and inside of here, you're going to see all the different pipes that are associated with the Parts List that this Pipe Network catalog had inside of it. If I go ahead and look in here in Storm Sewer, I right-click and select Add Part Family, I still have additional options.
I have PVC pipe, HDPE pipe, ductile iron pipe, and corrugated metal pipe. I could add these in, but for now, I'm okay with having my concrete pipes because that’s the type of pipe we’re going to use in our design. Moving on from here, we have Structures.
This list of structures is very complete. There are not many structural parts left to add into this list. If I go ahead and select Storm Sewer, right-click, Add Part Family, you're going to see a couple of parts left, but not many.
If one of these happened to be something you needed in your design, you could check it and click OK to bring it into this list and then add the parts to it. From here, we're going to go ahead and use maybe two of these structures. If we wanted to, we could right-click and select Delete to remove the unnecessary parts from our list.
But for our purposes here, I'm going to leave it as is. The same thing applies for Structures as it did for Pipes. If you want to add a new structure, all you have to do is right-click, Add Part Size.
You have the option to click Add All Sizes, and you'll walk through the different properties of these parts—Wall Thicknesses, Floor Thicknesses, Frame Diameters, Frame Heights, Slab Thicknesses, Inner Structure Length, and Inner Structure Width. And then below that, we have optional properties—Materials, Frames, Grates, and Covers. We can drop down and choose new ones.
In this case, these parts do not have any additional options. If I go here, it's just Standard or it's just Reinforced Concrete. But some other parts will have multiple choices for Materials, Frames, Grates, and Covers.
You can choose those as you create your Parts Lists. So I'm going to go ahead and click Cancel. I'm going to go ahead and click Cancel again.
And because I didn't change anything in this drawing, I'm not going to save my drawing, but I will meet you in the next video.
