Switching focus from pipe networks, this article delves into pressure networks and their components. It instructs on the selection, addition, and modification of pressure network catalogs and parts lists in Civil 3D, offering practical steps to enhance your understanding of this Autodesk software.
Key Insights
- The article explains that like pipe networks, pressure networks also have parts catalogs and parts lists, which can be accessed and customized through the create design dropdown in the home tab of the ribbon bar on Civil 3D.
- It elaborates on how to set a new pressure network catalog location, how to pick a catalog database file, and how to choose which piece of a pressure network catalog to work with, depending on the type of network.
- The content further details how to add and modify parts lists for pressure networks, including adding materials, sizes, types, and appurtenances, and how to remove any unnecessary components.
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So, now that we're done talking about pipe networks, let's go ahead and move on to pressure networks. So, a lot of the stuff that we learned in pipe networks is related to pressure networks.
So, like we talked about at the beginning of the last lesson, with pipe networks having parts catalogs and parts lists, we have the same thing with pressure networks. So, if we go up into our create design dropdown here in the home tab of the ribbon bar, what you're going to notice on the left-hand side is that, like we had on the right-hand side for set pipe network catalog, we have an option for set pressure network catalog. So, if you select this button here, then you're going to get a window just like we had for the pipe network catalog.
Instead, we're getting a set pressure network catalog window where we have a catalog folder location. Different manufacturers will have parts catalogs that you can get. Different municipalities may even have them as well.
For our purposes here, we're going to go ahead and use the ones that are provided by Civil 3D in the install. So, just so you know, you can set a new pressure network catalog location. So, if I select that folder, I now have the option to pick a different location in my computer where I may have a pressure network set to.
I'm going to go ahead and hit cancel because I don't want to change my catalog folder. And then, once you've selected your catalog folder, then you have a catalog database file that shows up, and you can pick which piece of a pressure network catalog you want to work with. In our case here, we have flanged, HDPE, mechanical, push-on, PVC, and steel.
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So, depending on the type of network you're dealing with, then you will choose a different pressure network catalog that you're going to work with. For now, I'm going to leave it as push-on because I'm not going to end up actually creating a new pressure network parts list. So, I'm going to go ahead and hit cancel.
So, from here, we can go ahead and navigate over to our settings tab of our tool space. And then, we're going to be dealing with the same thing that we dealt with on the pipe networks is with the pressure networks. We're going to go ahead and expand out pressure networks, and then we have the option of parts lists.
So, from here, we have two parts lists that are currently created, standard, and water. If we go ahead and right-click and select new, Civil 3D is going to look to the catalog that we have currently selected, which was the push-on catalog. So, from here, we have the information tab with the name of the parts list.
Then, we have the pipes that are available to us. So, same thing as before with our pipe networks is you can go ahead and right-click here, click add material. You get an option for the type of material.
These are not as robust as pipe networks because with each individual parts catalog, you're really dealing with generally one type of material. And so, in the current one that we have, we only have ductile iron available. So, I can go ahead and check ductile iron, click okay.
And then, from here, I can expand it out. I now have a directory for all my ductile iron pipes. So, I then have to go ahead and go again, right-click, add size.
And then, inside of my adding of my size, I have a nominal diameter, inner diameter, outer diameter, wall thickness, cut lengths, allowable deflections, minimum flex radius. And so, I can change these and modify them as I need, or I can go ahead and check add all sizes and click okay. So, now that I've checked add all sizes, I can go ahead and look at all the different sizes that are available to me.
So, I have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, all the way up to 36. So, moving on from here, I can go to my fittings. So, I can go to right-click, add type.
And now, I have the options for cross, elbows, and tees. So, these are all valuable pieces to add into a parts list. So, I'm going to go ahead and click okay, just so that we can see what they look like.
So, you have ductile iron crosses, iron elbows, iron tees. And I can go ahead and right-click and choose add size to any of these. So, I'm doing a ductile iron tee.
So, I have nominal diameter, allowable deflection. I can choose to add all sizes and click okay. And then from here, I have all of these different sizes available.
So, I have tees going from 4s to 4s, 8s to 6s, 8s to 4s. So, you get a large amount of variability if you go ahead and select all. Now, you may not need all of them.
So, if you want to, you can go ahead and select any that you don't need, right-click and delete. Or if you have a fitting that you don't need, you can go ahead and right-click and delete. So, moving on from there, we have appurtenances.
I can go ahead and click on here, right-click, add a type. I have gate valves that are available to me as this parts catalog that we've checked. So, I can go ahead and add these in.
I can go ahead and expand out. I can go ahead and select any of these options and then right-click add size, and then I can choose the value of the nominal diameter. Or I can, again, choose to add all sizes and click okay.
So, now I've added all sizes for all of these different gate valves at 200 psi. I have 6, 8, 10, and 12. And then I can go ahead and say apply if I wanted to keep this.
I do have the summary tab that gives me statistics and information, but there's not much here that I can edit. As you can see, these are all grayed out. So, I'm going to go ahead and hit cancel because I'm going to end up working with this water parts list.
So, now that we have talked about these topics, we're going to go ahead and meet in the next video and we're going to start building a pressure network.