Compound Cells in Bentley Building Mechanical

I'm using Bentley Building Mechanical XM and I'm curious if there is the ability to change the way cells that come from Bentley Building Mechanical look when extracted, similar to the way compound cells work in Triforma.

A couple examples of what I'm talking about are:

1) Manual balancing dampers look great in the model. They look realistic and that is great. Unfortunately, when we extact them, all that we see is the small arm sticking out of the duct. It is difficult to see at smaller scales and I'm concerned the contractor will miss them. I end up placing our standard 2D symbol (basically a big "L" that goes through the duct) over top of them so that they will show up. Can the manual dampers be given a 2D symbol to replace them when extracted?

2)Diffusers/Grilles also look great in the model. However, our architects would like a standard box the size of the outside of the grille with a slash (for return air) and an "x" (for supply air) to attach to their reflected ceiling plan. It does make it much clearer which are return and which are exhaust. Can the grilles be given a different symbol to represent them when extracted?

 Thanks for any help you can provide!

 Rob

 

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  • Hi Rob,

    The cells are assigned using parts.

    1. Open the Dataset Explorer. Set the Parts View to Cut Patterns. 
    2. Right click on the desired part and select properties. The cell assigned as the symbol is in the top right corner.  Note the name.
    3. There is some logic in the creation code to group similar symbols together for use in a single part. For example, if the component I was placing was a round duct with Duct/Return-Existing as the Family/Part, the cell picked would be DS059R. An oval duct would use DS059FO.  Open HVACDuctSymbols.cel and scroll to the correct cell.
    4. Open the cell for editing and make the changes you want.  The cell is scaled to the end's dimensions.

    After that, any component that uses that part will use the cell in the drawing symbol. To pull updated cells into existing components, you'll need to use the rebuild command ("bmech rebuild").  Back up the model, then run the keyin.  It will recreate the component graphics using the updated cell.

     

    Hope that helps,

    Robert


    This is a test

  • Thanks for the replies guys. Hopefully, I'll be getting back into this today. I'll try out these ideas!

    Rob Cowan

    CH2M Hill

  • Okay, these replies definitely helped. I'm guessing that the cell library is not found. I attached a picture of what the Dataset Explorer looks like. The Pattern Cell is greyed out with no cell listed. I don't see a way to path to the cell library. Is this path defined in the configuration? Thanks again!

    Rob

    Rob Cowan

    CH2M Hill

  • Check the variable HVAC_DUCTSYMBOLSLIB, defined in hvac.cfg. By default it uses

    HVAC_DUCTSYMBOLSLIB : $(HVAC_SYSTEMSTANDARDS)/cells

    to get to the delivered cell libraries.



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