Hi all. I was wondering if anyone had an idea on how I would be able to create a fitting or joint in SUE, where a square conduit connects with a cirkel conduit. Both are placed by center, but I can't get my head around how I would create the cell for the node, in order to make a fluent transition between the two.
Jan: It may not be possible to do what you want without a lot of extra work. Using the information in like which Sanders supplied you could make a node feature definition which would accommodate a specific transition from a box shape of known dimensions and a circle shape of known dimensions. BUT, this node would not work for any other combinations of conduit dimensions and it would not react well to differences in pipe alignment.
For example, you could make a node which looks marvelous when connecting a 4x4 box to 3ft circle when the inverts of the two conduits are aligned.
But it would not adapt to a 3x3 box connecting to the same circle. Nor would it adapt well when the invert elevations are not aligned.
This is because that SUDA does not yet have the ability to parametrically adjust node dimensions as a function of pipe connectivity. This has long been planned but so far not reality.
You would basically have to create a different feature definition for every combination of conduits.
What I usually do is to prepare a more generic node which serves the purposes of alerting everyone that a device exists at the location but does not attempt to make fluid transitions like you (and all of us) desire. For example, the water valve node below allows provides for storing the properties of the real device and can be used in conflict detection. But, as you can see, it looks sort of OK for the smaller 10" water line connection, but looks pretty silly for the large pipe connection. And neither connection includes the flanges which actually exist in such a connection.
Robert Garrett Senior Consultant
www.envisioncad.com
Its nice to get a real reply instead of being send to a tutorial site teaching me how to create a custom cells.
I just can’t get my head around why “fittings” are created by magic when pulling utilities by graphic between two conduits, of the same shape. But this fitting is not something I can insert if I would like to have different elevations along a conduit. I know it’s maybe not something that would be useful for water utilities, but my optic fiber ducts kind of needs it.
Creating a “fitting” option, where we could create a cell that would allow me to combine two different shapes and pipe sizes would make my day. But as long as SUE insist on connecting to the invert elevation no matter what placement rule you give the conduit (center, soffit or bottom) I’m SOOL.
Im using SUE for this project , but the amount of crashes and bugs are forcing me to look at alternative software for my 3D conduit modelling. It’s a shame though, since it shows so much potential.
Maybe my PC is just set up wrongly, or ProjectWise is making the software crash.
Answer Verified By: Jan Holdorff Nielsen
The "fittings" which are generated with extract graphics are an illusion of sorts. These are hard coded extrusions which are generated as a nicety but are not real fittings in any professional sense. You can actually generate these at will by changing setting feature definition to "Generic xxx" or none. EXCEPT: They sometimes fail.
Here's what happens under the hood. When SUDA sees a missing feature definition on a node, it generates a generic, which is hard coded. A generic drainage sort of, kind of looks like a catch basin, a generic sanitary, sort of looks like a manhole. And for pressure pipes and cables, they sort of look like a fitting. When the two adjacent conduits are same shape, these fittings look pretty nice but if the shapes are different, or if the angle between the two segments is severe, or if 3 conduits meet at the same place (and a variety of other situations) then you get a ball shaped node.
In the future, it is expected that the parametric drivers will be added. Then we could design a single node with properly modeled fittings and the size of the flanges and such would have a variable included which drives the final size of the model. Look at feature modeling in OpenRoads Designer and you can get a flavor of what is coming, we hope.
As for crashes, you will want make sure you have the latest version, 8.11.09.878. In particular, version 845 was notoriously unstable. I have also heard reports that files started in 845 are permanently problematic.
If you need help getting a workable SUE/SUDA workspace and workflows which are minimally problematic, we can help with that.