by Ashley Rice
Depending on the stage of the design, you may be conscious of the systems orientation in the z value and not just the x / y value. For example, you could have done a quick floor plan design to determine the theoretical pipe sizing depending on load and only be conscious of the x / y axis. However, in reality, your layout will have vertical-riser sections giving you accurate lengths of pipework for estimating correctly and this will need to be considered for a more detailed design in an accurate routing layout and for the final deliverable if exporting 3D to Revit MEP.
Example floor plan design (not conscious of clashes or accurate routing in the z dimension)
As you can see, we have a theoretical pipe sizing layout without already mentioned vertical sections, that would need to be added to include offsets, crossovers and rising sections in void spaces.
Scenario 1 – (Creating offsets and crossovers initially when routing the layout)
As you can see on the screen shot below, we use the floating pipe control box to change the set height of the pipe when routing either the flow or return. In this example I am offsetting the return over the flow pipe by 50mm.
Remember to drop or raise the section back to the correct height so that it can connect into the index run when you double click to connect.
Scenario 2 – (Creating offset and crossovers after the theoretical design has been done)
We can also break a section of pipe and change the set height even after the system has been routed and calculated.
Again, you’ll use the pipe control box by choosing to insert either a flow or return depending on the section you want to beak into. Then simply follow the steps in scenario 1 and offset the set height of the section.