An Overview of Tubing Customization

Before you start creating your custom tubing catalogs, you should become familiar with the following rules and conventions that apply to the customization of Tubing.

• Tubing components and path
• Covering a Tubing Path
• Lines Catalogs
• Parts Catalogs

Tubing components and path

In order to create a pipe, you have to create the pipe path (or network) by drawing a chain of segments that may cross. Then you cover the path with Tubing parts that the program finds in the catalog of Tubing components and that it sizes according to the Nominal Pipe Size (NPS) or Diameter Nominal (DN) dimension that you require. Here is an example of pipe path:

The following is the definition of some of the terms used in Tubing:

A thinkparts library of samples of these components is provided with the software. The library is initialized the first time you start one of the Tubing commands. You are also enabled to create you own catalogs of custom parts and add custom parts to the existing catalogs.

Covering a Tubing Path

The process of covering a Tubing Path requires the following to be available:

• Catalogs of lines. Sample catalogs of lines are provided to you. It is your responsibility to maintain the catalog of lines that describe your customized tubing catalogs.
• Catalogs of Tubing parts with all parts required to cover a Tubing path (Tubes, Elbows, Tees, etc.) according to NPS or DN standards.
• Values of the catalogs of Tubing parts according to the required nominal value. The Nominal Pipe Size (NPS) or Diameter Nominal (DN) values follow international specifications. See an example with some common values in the following image:
  
  

When you assign the nominal diameter to the Tubing required to cover a path, and the program finds all components that fit the requirements, the Tubing path can be covered:

Lines Catalogs

A Line Catalog is an ordered list of components that can be assembled to form the tubing line. One or more Line Catalogs may be defined according to the type of fluid to be transported, the fluid temperature and the fluid pressure.

For example, a galvanized iron service line (for water, compressed air, etc.), could be composed of:

• 1/4" through 3" threaded tubes
• Fittings (cast iron):
  • 45° and 30° elbows
  • Tees and reducing tees
  • Couplings and reducing couplings
  • Nipples
  • Plugs and caps
• Other parts:
  • Butterfly valves
  • Gate valves
  • Globe valves
  • Horizontal and vertical valves
  • Pressure gauge

Sample Line catalogs are installed by the program the first time you use one of the Tubing commands, and you are enabled to manage them with the thinkparts Catalog Manager command:

In order to create your own Line catalogs, you can edit a copy (see Copy Catalog) of an existing one, paying attention to not remove or add columns.

Each row in the Line catalog follows the rules in the table below. The Edit Values command enables you to edit the catalog.

Parts Catalogs

Any parametric think3 3D model can be used as master model for a Tubing parts catalog, provided that:

• The master model represents one of the elements listed in the A.ID table of the Lines catalog
• Each Tube and Coupling master model contains the variable TD_LENGTH that drives the tube length and Symbolic References that identify the part origin, input, output and, if needed, the reduced output:
  
• Each Elbow master model contains a variable that drives the angular aperture of the part and Symbolic References of type point that identify the part origin, input and output. Note that the origin is actually the network node:
  
• Each Tee, Y and Cross model contains Symbolic References of type point that identify the part origin, input, outputs and, if needed, the reduced diameter secondary output:
  

When the above criteria are met, the program is able to position the elements of the line correctly, by connecting the outputs to the inputs of the following parts and propagating the diameter reduction along the path:

While building the Parts catalog, you should take care in defining the following parameters for the use with Tubing:

• Representations command:
  
  • Take note of the representation class name, as you will need to enter it when defining the Lines catalog
  • Set the representation type attribute to LOCAL_REFERENCE, required by the Tubing application
• Add to each part catalog a mandatory variable that will contain the NPS or DN values applicable to the part.
• Use the Edit Values to enter the values of the part variables corresponding to the applicable NPS or DN values.

If you require ThinkDesign to insert automatically the Line axis in the layout, add to your customized parts a profile made of curves of type Reference to represent the part axis. Create the User Defined Property TD_CENTERLINE of type Integer and assign it to the profile with value=1. When you later add to the layout a view of the Tubing line, the program will display the axes, provided that the Profile references options is checked.

Related topics ...

• An Overview of Tubing
• Creating Customized Tubing Catalog