Tool to create centerlines piperuns

Not that I'm aware of. I'd be using it if I knew it was there.

Okay, i just thought i would ask as i could not find anything after looking for a while. But i realy think thats a pitty as i see alot of potensial for such a tool. i guess the only realistic option would be to get a programer to create me such a tool.

Unknown said:

...always get these cad models coming from different cad softwares...

Can you provide a couple of small DGN files, from different sources, that illustrate the sort of pipe runs you want to analyse?

Unknown said:

helgeh

...always get these cad models coming from different cad softwares...

Can you provide a couple of small DGN files, from different sources, that illustrate the sort of pipe runs you want to analyse?

Yes, but need a day or two to find the time to do that. The most problematic ones are those who translates in to mesh objects. Idealy i would need to recreate them as solids ( for my use ), and to do that i could use the centerlines (smartlines) and just extrude them with the correct diameters.

Unknown said:

The most problematic ones are those who translates in to mesh objects...

You've just raised the complexity of the task by an order of magnitude!

Unknown said:

helgeh

The most problematic ones are those who translates in to mesh objects...

You've just raised the complexity of the task by an order of magnitude!

Ha ha, that might be correct. I thought i would metion the worst exsample i could think of. It should be said that the "pipes" always comes in as single primitives/parts. So its not one big mesh but one bend becomes one mesh object etc.

Since you are using Descartes, you could try the following:

1) Drop mesh elements to shapes using the "Drop Element" tool.
2) Select the shapes.
3) Use the "Extract Points from Curve" tool to extract points from the shapes with following settings:
-Location(s) Input By = Node Points
-Compute Following Attributes = Points
4) Use data cleanup utility to delete duplicate points at each vertex.
5) Use the "Export Coordinates" tool to create a text file containing the point's coordinates.
6) convert the text file to POD.
7) Use Descartes' "Fit Cylinder" tool to extract the centerline of your pipes.

HTH,
Pascal

Since you are using Descartes, you could try the following:

1) Drop mesh elements to shapes using the "Drop Element" tool.
2) Select the shapes.
3) Use the "Extract Points from Curve" tool to extract points from the shapes with following settings:
-Location(s) Input By = Node Points
-Compute Following Attributes = Points
4) Use data cleanup utility to delete duplicate points at each vertex.
5) Use the "Export Coordinates" tool to create a text file containing the point's coordinates.
6) convert the text file to POD.
7) Use Descartes' "Fit Cylinder" tool to extract the centerline of your pipes.

HTH,
Pascal

Hi Pascal,

Thank you very much for the tip. I think I was able to follow the steps, but do have some problems extracting the centerlines (7). First of all I have not used Descartes much so I might be using some wrong settings on the "fit cylinder" tool as I was not able to extract much from the few points in the POD file. I see i have only outer diameter end points in the POD i created, is that enough points to be able to extract the centerlines? ( or solids with bends ) Are there any other settings that can create points everywhere on the surface maybe?

I might have attached the file i was trying to extract if you want to have a look ( if i have done this correctly)

99-stair-01.dgn

And here is the txt file

1440.prikkerfratrapp.txt

I looked at your data, unfortunately, there is not enough points for the tool to find the cylinders.

Pascal

Hi Pascal.
Okay. Does that mean its not possible to extract anything from this dgn file, or do i need to change some setting to extract more points. What is the requirements for the pipe extraction tool to work, would i need some points also between the 2 ends of a single cylinder, or just higher density of points at the 2 ends?

Unknown said:

Does that mean its not possible to extract anything from this dgn file

All I can find in your file are shapes.  Each pipe, for example, is made up of multiple unconnected shapes that form a facsimile of a pipe.

Unknown said:

What is the requirements for the pipe extraction tool to work

I can't see any points.  Perhaps Descartes can see more than I with plain old MicroStation.

Unknown said:

Would i need some points also between the 2 ends of a single cylinder?

The problem is that they are not cylinders: just a collection of shapes that look like a cylinder.