Discover how to enhance your plumbing work in Revit by utilizing working sections, a tool not typically included in a set of drawings but crucial in drawing piping efficiently. Learn how to create sections, run piping vertically, adjust viewing details, and place bends in a pipe to avoid architectural wall clashes.
Key Insights
- The article explains how working sections in Revit can significantly improve the efficiency of drawing piping in plumbing work. A working section is not usually part of the drawings set but serves to aid in the drawing process.
- The creation and manipulation of sections are integral parts of this process. By creating a section, running it vertically, and adjusting it into the ceiling space, users can effectively manage the footprint of the building in their design.
- The article also provides insights on adjusting viewing details for a more accurate representation and avoiding clashes with architectural walls. It details how to place bends in a pipe and adjust the pipe width, offering a practical tutorial on managing the interaction between plumbing and architectural features.
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One of the biggest things when you're doing plumbing work in Revit is going to be using a working section. Working sections are sections that really don't go on a set of drawings, but they are to aid us in the ability to draw our piping efficiently.
And usually, tiling those views across the screen is very helpful. So I'm going to create a section saying, hey, this guy's coming into here and we're going to run it vertically. And we can run it vertically to go ahead and get it into the ceiling space.
Now that it's entered the footprint of the building. So I'm going to go here to Section. I'm going to create a section and then flip it.
I'm going to go to that view. And you can see there, I'm going to go ahead, hit WT to tile the windows. So this is again, I'm hitting WT, or you could go to View.
You can go to Tile Views here, but you can see WT. I like to use that WT. I don't need my 3D view right now.
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So I'm going to just close it and hit WT again. And there we go. So I want to go ahead and create my vertical portion coming into the building.
So you see I have my three foot six. I'm going to right-click on that, drag, and I'm going to draw pipe.
It's going to continue that one. I'm going to come straight up and then hit Escape. Perfect.
So you can see a couple of things have happened here. We had our pipe that we originally drew underground. When I turned this up and put in this fitting, which is a welded generic standard bend, we go ahead—
We have a vertical portion of pipe, and we may need to adjust this because it’s coming out pretty far into the building.
So I can go ahead and grab this and slide it closer to the wall. The problem that I’m having here though is I don’t see the full width of the pipe, right? And again, that’s because my detail level right now is set to coarse. I’m going to go ahead and set it to fine.
And I'm going to see the full width of that pipe. And there we go. So I can go ahead and take that up.
I’m going to maybe take it to, you know, nine foot six. I can change this value to say nine feet, six inches. Then I’m going to go ahead, drag this again, draw pipe, drag over.
And there we go. I really like to use the functionality of these grips on the ends of the pipe as compared to just going to Systems and selecting Pipe. I could do that and just click on that connector and do kind of the same thing, but it seems a little faster just to hover on that connector, right-click, Draw Pipe, drag over and place, and then hit Escape to finish.
And there we go. So I am seeing that portion of the pipe high up in my plan view, which is nice. You can see I have this representational symbol.
This is telling me if the pipe is bending up or bending down. I’m also going to switch—on my working views, I do like to see the full pipe width so that I can make sure it’s not clashing with any of the architectural walls.
So I’m also going to set this view to fine. And there we go. You may notice that it still seems like it’s pretty far off the wall in this instance, but that’s because we’re not seeing this concrete stem wall below.
Realistically, we’d have to come in through this concrete stem wall. And then if we wanted to support this on the wall, we may put a bend in here. To put a bend in pipe is actually pretty easy.
This is a workflow that I’ve put together—and many other people have obviously used the same workflow. I’m not saying it’s specific to me—but a lot of times I find it easier just to split this pipe at specific locations and then move one portion and angle it over.
So what I’m going to do is go to Modify. I’m going to go to the Split tool. So Split—I’m going to pick two portions.
I’m not too worried about it. Then I’m going to delete those elements that created that split. So I could just select those three.
When you do the split, it also puts a union or coupling at that location because it’s technically two pipe segments coming together. So what I’m going to do is pick here. I’m just going to pick these three, or I could drag a window over them and delete.
I’m going to grab this portion of the pipe. I’m going to slide it over to be close to the wall. Then here, I’m going to grab this, Draw Pipe,
And let’s say I want this to bend, say, a 45 degree—pick the point, and then I can trim these last two together. Now, in this instance, this angle worked out just fine. There was enough space between these two in this plane that I was able to get this portion in at 45 degrees.
In some instances, you may need to go with a lesser degree to be able to get it. You could grab this entire transition now, and move it up or down if needed.
If we wanted to have just that transition come up through the floor and then bend 45 degrees over to reach the wall—or, let’s say, we needed some spacing to make sure we have a vertical standpipe coming up through the floor enough, and then it comes over—there we go. Great. I’m going to go ahead and save my file, and we’ve drawn our first pipe.
We'll see you in the next video.