Connecting Plumbing Systems in BIM 321: Tying Fixtures Together

Welcome back to the CAD Teacher VDCI video course content for the BIM 321 course. In the previous videos, we went ahead and routed our domestic water piping system. Now we want to go ahead and start tying all of our systems together so that we can actually put this stuff in here.

So the first thing that I want to go ahead and do is I'm going to start by creating my tap-offs for the different sinks. The thing is, though, that I can see both sinks right now. Let's go ahead and make it so we can only see the sinks in the restroom up here.

So I'm going to grab my section view here and I'm going to drag it so it's cutting in and I'm only seeing one set of sinks. Let me go ahead and pull this back just a little bit. And the easiest way to do this is not to run the plumbing pipe directly to the actual unit itself, it's to actually create the different water connections off of the units first and then come back and then connect it into the system.

So the first thing I'm going to go ahead and do is I'm going to go ahead and select this sink here. And we're going to use these connectors that we have, and as you can see, I have this half-inch here. I'm going to go ahead and pull that down and there we go.

Select here, half-inch in, there we go. Those are going to be the hot and cold water. We have to go down first for the pipe to actually draw, we can't just go straight up.

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We're going to go here and do the same exact thing. Select here, pick down, there we go. I'm going to go ahead and do that for the toilets also.

So here, this one has to actually go up here. This one, go up. This one here will also go up.

Let's go ahead down to our plan view and take a look at how that all looks. So I'm going to go to my floor plan 2 for my plumbing and there we are. I'm going to go ahead, as you can see it's representing this just basically right now.

I'm going to go ahead and change my detail level to fine so I can see the actual pipes. Beautiful, awesome. What I want to go ahead and do is I want to bring this in an efficient fashion.

Right now I know that I only need to take my hot water to about here. So I have room for these guys here and these guys here. I know that my cold water has to run all the way down to catch everything, to supply water to all of these guys.

So I can select this now and actually what I need to go ahead and do is I'm going to rotate my section so that I can see, because I want to tie these guys in so I want to make sure that I'm tying them in correctly. So I'm going to go ahead and select my section and if you have it kind of in a weird spot, you may have to zoom in and I'm going to rotate. I'm just going to drag the direction I want to rotate and go 90 degrees.

There we are. The one thing I will say that I highly recommend is that you make this almost like a sliver cut so you're really restricting what you can see. So all I've done is I've really just adjusted the actual itself, the actual guy itself.

It seems like these toilets are a little bit too far into the building. I'm going to go ahead and back them out just a little bit. I'm not going to worry about the copy monitor.

Don't worry about the little warnings. What I'm going to go ahead and do is I'm going to go ahead and take a look at how this is all looking right now.

I'm going to bring my section back. I'm going to go ahead and close my overhead view because I no longer need it. I'm going to go WT so I can see everything.

I don't need my first floor plumbing either so let's go ahead and close that too. I'm going to go WT and here we are. Okay, so it seems like some of the toilets are still a little bit off but that's fine.

I'm going to go ahead and bring this guy over and what I can actually do is I can align it with the center point of this pipe so AL for align, pick here, pick here, and it aligns. There we go. I'm going to go ahead and go down here, AL, pick here, pick here, pick here.

There we go. What I can do is I can take that and I can go straight up and there it is and that's going to tap it in and create my connection. Come back to here.

I'm going to go up and pick. Let's go ahead and create our taps off of these guys here. Pick there, tap in.

I'm just going to go ahead and tap it out, here, in, tap it out, here, in, tap it out, and then here. You kind of have to zoom in on this one a little bit. The urinals are a little bit different and this is going to be easier to do from my section view so I'm going to go ahead and do that one there.

Again, it's kind of a game of cat-and-mouse with this program. So here I'm going to just create the T and connect those. Now that toilet is tied in.

I'm going to move my section to here, create my T. There we go. Bring it back. I'm going to come here and let's look at this.

So I'm going to go ahead, grab this pipe, draw a pipe and draw a piece straight up. I'm going to go ahead and align it here to here. I'm going to go ahead and draw a pipe over here.

Take it. I'm going to take this guy, drag it up and connect and then we're going to use a new command that we haven't used before. This one will be called align or, excuse me, extend.

If I go to the modify tab, because these are directly in line with one another, I'm going to go ahead, go to my extend, trim, extend single element. I'm going to pick on this edge here, pick on this edge here and it creates the connection for us. We're supplying water to all these different fixtures.

The main reason what we're seeing here is, just realize this, is that we're seeing both the Architect's and ours. Do you notice how if I click on this, it selects everything? That's because that is part of the Architect's file. We're only seeing the Architect's actual fixtures there.

That's why we're seeing double units. I'm going to go ahead and adjust this just a little bit. I'm going to bring this guy down so we don't have so much pipe there and there we go.

What we can also do here is, is I can also go ahead and bring this guy down. So it's not running quite as tall, in case we need something up higher. We're also saving the client money by not using as much pipe.

I want to go ahead and take a look at the sinks. So there we go. And as you can see, we haven't put in the taps for the sink yet, that's fine.

I'm going to go ahead, grab this guy, right click, draw pipe, bring it out, bring it up. I can get back in here, right click, draw pipe. I'm going to go ahead and bring it.

I don't want to click here because it's going to connect those two together. So I'm going to bring it out and drag it up. There we go.

I can go ahead and align here, boom, with that. And then I'm going to go ahead and align here and here. So the hot water and the cold water go to the two different pipes.

I'm going to go here. I'm going to take this all the way up. I can take this, go all the way to this pipe, towards this nearest.

And that is that. We've connected that sink in. Let's go ahead and connect the next sink.

Here and here. I'm going to go ahead and grab my hot water, draw pipe, boom, boom. And that was my actual cold water.

I grabbed that one first. Draw pipe, boom, boom. Let's go ahead and align these.

AL for align. Pick here and here. Pick here and here.

Again, sometimes it's a little bit hard. If you need to wait for that pipe reference to show up, feel free to. Drag this all the way up to there.

And then I'm just going to pull this guy down to there. And we've connected those two sinks into the actual system. Awesome.

Now, I want to go ahead. I'm going to rotate my view. My section view here so I can see the back of these sinks.

So I'm going to rotate it 90 degrees. I'm going to slide it back just a little bit. Because I'm kind of in the wall.

And I'm also going to make it a little bit larger so I can see the entire sink. There we go. I'm going to go ahead.

Grab this. Create my taps down just like we did previously. Just by clicking on the connectors.

And there we are. Let's go ahead and rotate our view back. Now we can actually tie it into the system.

So, 90 degrees. And again, now I'm kind of seeing a little bit too much. I don't really need to see my pipes in the background.

It's kind of confusing. So I'm just going to select this back. So there's that.

Now, as you can see. The pipe connections are reversed. So, what we're going to end up doing is.

I'm going to grab my hot water here. Draw pipe, bring it over, bring it up. My cold water. Draw pipe.

Bring it over, bring it up. So as you can see.

We have a little bit of an issue here. Where our fittings are most likely not going to fit. But let's try it out.

I'm going to go AL for align. I'm going to align it with this one because I know these are aligned on the center. Tab.

Until I get that single pipe. Drag it up. And as you can see.

We do not have enough room for the fittings. We're going to have to do something a little bit different here. I'm going to hit cancel.

One of the biggest things that we're going to have to do is. I'm going to actually go ahead. And actually remove.

Let's go ahead and make this a wireframe actually. I'm not sure why this wasn't a wireframe. We can see the entire pipe.

I'm going to remove this. And I'm going to bring this pipe off. At a 45 degree angle.

Then I'm going to go ahead and draw pipe. And if you noticed. That when I drew this pipe in.

I did a right-click. Draw pipe. When I drew this pipe in.

I brought it in. So that it actually is going vertical and nearest. So what it's going to do.

It's automatically going to tap into the center line of that pipe. Which would be perfect for us. Pick there.

And there we are. I'm going to go ahead. Grab this here.

Delete it. I'm going to go ahead and take this over. At a 45.

Right click. Draw pipe. Tie it in.

There we are. I know I'm going to have to do the same thing with these guys here. By angling them over.

Because I'm not going to have enough room for the fittings. So I can select this. And what's happening is,

Typically we've been able to select. Right click and draw pipe. But what's happening is,

We have two grips stacked on top of one another. So the first one that it's gripping. Is the one that's actually connected to the sink already.

So all I'm going to do is. I'm going to hit TAB. Right click.

Draw pipe. And that's going to start it from the second one. I'm going to go out at my angle of 45.

Come up. And there it is. I'll come over here.

Again same thing. Hover over this. I'm going to hit TAB.

Right click. Draw pipe. 135.

Make sure I'm not going to hit anything. There we go. Pick.

Draw. And there we are. Perfect.

Our second-floor bathroom is nearly complete. I'm going to go ahead and stop this video here. We'll come back.

We'll do the drinking fountains. With the supply water to them. And we'll be good to go.

See you soon.