Problem

The Series Pipe Merging feature in Skelebrator is not working for pipes that have a zero diameter.

Problem ID#: 51469

Solution

The following steps should help with the issue. It involves creating a selection set of protected elements that Skelebrator will not merge.

1) Create a Query to locate only the zero inch diameter pipes.

2) Select these in the drawing, then right-click and choose Create Selection Set.

3) With the selection set still highlighted in the drawing pane, go to View > Network Navigator.

4) Choose the ">" button, then go to Network Trace > Find Adjacent Nodes. This will highlight the nodes adjacent to the zero diameter pipes as well as the
pipes.

5) Right-click in the drawing pane and select "Add to Selection Set".

6) Make sure the selection set is still highlighted, and return to the Network Navigator and choose Network Trace > Find Adjacent Links. This will highlight the pipes next to the zero diameter pipes.

7) Again, right-click in the drawing pane and select "Add to Selection Set". Now all zero diameter pipes, as well as the adjacent pipes and nodes will be highlighted in the drawing pane.

8) Next, go do Edit > Invert Selection. Now, everything else in the model will be selected instead.

9) Once more, right-click in the drawing pane. This time, choose "Create Selection Set". These will be the items you will protect in Skelebrator.

10) Open Skelebratator and highlight the Default Skelebrator Group. Go to the Protected Elements tab and choose the "Select from Drawing" icon in the upper right. This will open a Select bar.

11) Choose the Query icon and choose the selection set created of the protected elements (the last selection set created above).

12) Now create a new Series Pipe Merging Skelebrator run. Don't worry about adding anything in the Conditions tab. In the Settings tab, uncheck the "Use Equivalent Pipes?" selection.

13) Compute Skelebrator.

When this was done on a sample model, it appeared to merged the zero diameter pipes with the adjacent pipes. Be careful and review the diameters in the pipe properties, to make certain that the diameters are correct. If you have series of pipes with different diameters (for instance, 8 inch connected to 0 inch connected to 10 inch), the program may not choose the diameter you want or expect it to choose.

See Also

Pipes not merging when using Skelebrator with series pipe merging