Showing posts with label mep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mep. Show all posts
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Indicating Double Home Runs Correctly in Revit MEP
Indicating Double Home Runs Correctly in Revit MEP
Revit MEP will allow you to indicate double home runs when circuiting electrical fixtures. This can be done by simply dragging a home run arrow from one electrical circuit to a fixture that is on a different circuit. The result will show a double arrow head on the home run and the circuit tag will call out both circuits.
| Two Single Home Runs |
| Double Home Run |
The one thing that has always bugged me about this is that Revit would also still show the home run arrow head tying the two circuits together. Every time I taught this, I was asked how do you get rid of the arrow head tying the two circuits together? Up until today, I did not think you could. I have now found a way and it is very simple.
All you have to do is to duplicate the plan using the Duplicate with Detailing.
As soon as the plan is duplicated the arrow head goes away.
| Double Home Run Without Extra Arrow Head |
The only downside is that the duplicated plan must remain in the project. If the plan goes away then the arrow head comes back. Weird, but it solves the mystery of how to turn off the unwanted arrow head.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
HVAC Load Calculation Extension For AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP
HVAC Load Calculation Extension For AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP

The HVAC Load Calculation Extension by Autodesk, Inc. is a commercial and industrial HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) load calculation software package whose calculations are based upon the ASHRAE 2005 Fundamentals radiant time series (RTS) method. The purpose of this software is to provide you with total cooling and heating loads for a building so that you may properly specify the correct size HVAC equipment (whether it is a packaged rooftop unit or a boiler). This program is geared specifically toward the HVAC engineer, architect, design/build mechanical contractor, and building maintenance supervisor.
The HVAC Load Calculation Extension is available to customers of AutoCAD MEP 2009 and AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite 2009 on Autodesk Subscription and is subject to Autodesk Subscription terms and conditions.
The Extension supports sustainable design by allowing engineers to properly size HVAC equipment without oversizing. Conventional wisdom dictates that it is better to have too much cooling than not enough. Without the ability or tools to accurately calculate heating and cooling loads, oversizing equipment is a common practice. However, oversized equipment wastes a tremendous amount of energy throughout its lifetime. In a BIM-supported workflow, analysis capabilities and calculation tools (such as this Extension) enables designers and engineers to more thoroughly investigate design alternatives and optimize their emerging design for energy efficiency and sustainability.
The HVAC Load Calculation Extension uses formulas from the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Handbook of Fundamentals. This publication compiles the fundamentals of the HVAC, such as methods for calculating peak cooling and heating loads for buildings.
The Extension produces a number of reports including: a summary load breakdown by individual room; a detailed load breakdown by individual load components such as roofs, walls, people, and lighting; and a psychrometric report that includes the properties of the entering and exiting air. Some of these reports include graphs for better visualization of the load breakdowns. Users also have the ability to export custom reports to Microsoft Word or Excel applications.
The Extension is able to import building information from AutoCAD MEP or Revit MEP using the gbXML file format. This means that all pertinent information about the building can be transferred to the Extension so that very little manual data entry is needed. Once the cooling and heating load calculations are performed, the results can be exported back to AutoCAD MEP or Revit MEP for proper duct and pipe sizing.
The HVAC Load Calculation Extension includes the following basic features:
- Inputs for HVAC system characteristics such as supply cooling and heating temperatures, ventilation rates, fan characteristics, cooling and heating setpoints, duct sizing, and safety factors
- Inputs for HVAC area (room) characteristics such as wall, window, roof, door, skylight, and partition areas. In addition, there are inputs for # of people, electrical appliances, infiltration, lighting, miscellaneous, exhaust, and plenum loads
- Weather data from over 800 cities throughout the world
- A complete u-value database for common wall, roof, window, floor, and door types
- A complete appliance list for determining internal electrical equipment load contributions
- Many reports including summary, detailed, psychrometric, wall/window breakdown, 24-hour load breakdown, and graphical reports
- A feature that allows the user to export all inputs and outputs to custom Microsoft Word and Excel documents
- Equipment selection
- Support for both English (IP) and Metric (SI) units
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