Author Topic: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?  (Read 4132 times)

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Offline effimero89Topic starter

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What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« on: Aug 13, 2018, 14:48:14 PM »
I'm looking at the best route to take here. I've seen the export .maj to CADmep and spool tool. But our designers prefer to stay in Revit... Understandably.

I'm looking at either A) Getting the Victaulic tool plugin. I like the create assembly tool function. or B) Create my own.

My question, is what do you guys find the easiest?

I like the idea of creating my own but if you guys think the Victaulic is cheap and works really well I'll just get that.

Thanks for any help
CAMduct 2018/2019
Fabrication API
Revit 2017/2018/2019

Offline cyan

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #1 on: Aug 13, 2018, 20:05:54 PM »
I have not used the victaulic one, though it looked pretty good.

Having made a spool utility of my own before, and having seen your work prior, I think it's worth your while to take a shot at it. Having that control is really nice.

Offline Alina

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #2 on: Aug 13, 2018, 20:11:31 PM »
You can download trial of victaulic tool and see if you like it

Offline effimero89Topic starter

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #3 on: Aug 13, 2018, 20:57:06 PM »
You're talking about with the Revit API right?

I've been hitting some walls with it lately personally. definitely more involved than fabrication. Or different I should say.

I wouldn't even know where to start to be honest. 
CAMduct 2018/2019
Fabrication API
Revit 2017/2018/2019

Offline cyan

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #4 on: Aug 13, 2018, 23:58:13 PM »
Yeah, I'm actually more versed in the Revit API than I am Fab API. The spool tool was my first foray into C# at all. It worked. It was also.. some of the ugliest code you'll ever see. I have since rewritten it twice and have a nice one of my own.

What kind of walls are you hitting?

Couple of things:
Are you reading articles about it on The Building Coder?
I also know that there were SDK samples that involved making and tweaking assemblies (revit assemblies).

I suggest you toy with assemblies to facilitate spooling in normal Revit, by the way. Just use the normal UI to get familiar with how they work. I think the key is simply making an interface for that process because what you need is mostly there. It's just full of too many ridiculous prompts when you want it to batch, essentially.

You first will need to automate the selection (or attainment of current selection) being turned into an assembly.
Then you will need to generate assembly views that are both the views and the schedules (revit schedules are subclasses of views).
You'll eventually have to automate the formatting of both of these, which is tough at first but I learned a lot from it.

Or as Alina said, try out Victaulic's digs. But man.. there's a stupid amount of untapped potential in Revit for spooling and it's fun to finally get it wrestled down and see what that can do.

Offline effimero89Topic starter

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #5 on: Aug 14, 2018, 13:00:00 PM »
Thanks, man!

I still have a lot to learn about assemblies in general so there's that. And I haven't done much with Revit API as it is. As long as they let me put the time towards it I should be ok.

Like you said it just seems like their tool automates the process.

I may have to pick your brain later down the road with this.  ;D
CAMduct 2018/2019
Fabrication API
Revit 2017/2018/2019

Offline wwessels

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #6 on: Aug 14, 2018, 13:02:53 PM »
Yeah, I'm actually more versed in the Revit API than I am Fab API. The spool tool was my first foray into C# at all. It worked. It was also.. some of the ugliest code you'll ever see. I have since rewritten it twice and have a nice one of my own.

What kind of walls are you hitting?

Couple of things:
Are you reading articles about it on The Building Coder?
I also know that there were SDK samples that involved making and tweaking assemblies (revit assemblies).

I suggest you toy with assemblies to facilitate spooling in normal Revit, by the way. Just use the normal UI to get familiar with how they work. I think the key is simply making an interface for that process because what you need is mostly there. It's just full of too many ridiculous prompts when you want it to batch, essentially.

You first will need to automate the selection (or attainment of current selection) being turned into an assembly.
Then you will need to generate assembly views that are both the views and the schedules (revit schedules are subclasses of views).
You'll eventually have to automate the formatting of both of these, which is tough at first but I learned a lot from it.

Or as Alina said, try out Victaulic's digs. But man.. there's a stupid amount of untapped potential in Revit for spooling and it's fun to finally get it wrestled down and see what that can do.

On the subject of hitting walls in the Revit API, I am currently attempting to write some C# for revit along similar lines. As i am just getting started one of the things that i am a little unclear about is how the CUI code ties into the actual command logic? I am coming from an Autolisp background so im having some trouble translating those concepts.

Offline cyan

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #7 on: Aug 14, 2018, 15:00:08 PM »
I may have to pick your brain later down the road with this.  ;D

I did always take the time to try out the existing tools before making my own if it was going to be on the company dime. If your employer is paying you for this sort of work, they're already probably a good and forward thinking company imho and it's a good thing to do in return for them.

Not to speak out both sides of my mouth, Victaulic wasn't there when I took on this job. There was only Sysque. But I think the value in you still pushing to do it is that once you have it wrangled down, it is entirely customizable to their needs. But it helps your case if you state the pros and cons of the alternative.

When you get into the trenches with this one, feel free to message me on here. Or go connect to me on LinkedIn if I don't seem responsive.

wwessels,
So CUI is a term that I usually associate with AutoCAD, but since it stands for custom user interface (something like that), your question could be geared toward making an interface interact with Revit logic.

I only nitpick this because I've had people refer to the Revit API when they meant the Fabrication API and AutoCAD .NET tools. And if that's the case, I'd still be glad to help but would just want to clarify.

If you're talking about Revit itself and causing transactions that are within a Revit API context, but that you can invoke from something other than the super limited ribbon such as a windows form or a WPF window.. yes. I felt that pain for a long stinking time. Mostly because I wanted a dockable dialog, and because of that, the command must trigger what is called an external event and management of many of these is.. it's a long subject. But one that I found valuable by the end of it.
« Last Edit: Aug 14, 2018, 15:10:38 PM by cyan »

Offline ThatVinceYaj

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #8 on: Aug 15, 2018, 15:45:53 PM »
I'm not as intelligent as some of you guys at this, but we use Vic tools and just finished training for Sysque. We are planning to use Sysque for content only and Vic for spooling but Vic has been weird lately.

I was using fab parts and Vic tools for spooling and it worked fine. Fab parts in Revit leaves much to be desired but it can get the job done as we made the transition at the start of a project doing heating and plumbing piping.

Vic creates spools by creating assemeblies while Sysque creates spools by creating sheets and schedules per spool.

Offline wwessels

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #9 on: Aug 21, 2018, 13:39:18 PM »
cyan

Thanks for clarifying, I was talking about using the revit api to to create buttons in the Revit ribbon that perform functions in revit. More specifically i watched an AU video where kevin allen mentioned their Revit to Fabrication conversion tool and told the audience that this can be accomplished through the revit API. I then found the Autodesk.Revit.DB.Fabrication namespace in the revit api and it looks like it has a conversion method. So that led me to the idea that it could be accomplished with some filtering and sorting and then handing the "Design Objects" to the converter. Then i thought about how to get that into the ribbon and ran into the  fact that the Ribbon has methods of its own and i wasn't clear about how to mesh the command logic into the ribbon logic. Does what the plan i outlined above make some sense?
When you say external event do you mean your command logic has to call the dockable window logic in order to work?

Offline cyan

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #10 on: Aug 22, 2018, 00:00:25 AM »
When you say external event do you mean your command logic has to call the dockable window logic in order to work?

Executing from the ribbon is far simpler than the nonsense that I was going on about. It's what you do in your first foray into the Revit API.

If you've done the entirety of this lesson, let me know. Otherwise, please do. Because executing from the ribbon will be something you'll be able to do by the time you're done. Whether you understand all of how it does it, that's another story, but I can at least have a good base to build off of in helping you get started.
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/simplecontent/content/my-first-revit-plug-overview.html

In short though, executing from the ribbon will be patty cake. And there's a helper method for getting design to fab to happen as well, but I can guarantee, you will be tailoring it for awhile. It's just an ongoing process. Story of my life, all that jazz.

Offline cyan

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #11 on: Aug 22, 2018, 00:04:58 AM »
Vic creates spools by creating assemeblies while Sysque creates spools by creating sheets and schedules per spool.

This is really the difference. As a developer, I preferred working with assemblies and strong arming them to do what I wanted. Because then I had the platform in-built method doing it as desired, which meant that downstream there would be tools and support for how the user made the spool.

But Trimble gets a lot of freedom from doing it their way with templates and project schedules/views. And for a team of developers, I can see why you'd go that route.

Every contractor is different (I've worked for a lot of'em, I know), so it's best for each to decide how they want to do it based on their needs.

Offline wwessels

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Re: What do you guys do for pipe spooling?
« Reply #12 on: Aug 22, 2018, 13:27:11 PM »
Thanks, I'll do that lesson and let you know how it goes.