Point of Connection

You should start your model by understanding where your water supply starts. Normally, a civil engineer provides location details. There is no special need for a model element to represent this point of connection (POC). You can simply begin drawing pipe at the appropriate location. However, you may want something to help identify this POC. You can display this information in your design model by either creating a water meter family or modifying an end cap family. To modify an existing family to indicate the water inlet point, do the following:

1. Open the REMP2016_Ch16_Dataset.rvt file found at this book's web page, www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevitmep2016.
2. In the Project Browser, scroll down to the Families section, expand the Pipe Fittings category, and select Cap – Generic.
3. Right-click the family and select Edit. This opens the Family Editor.
4. Click the Revit Home button and choose Save As ⇨ Family. Save this family as Fire Protection Point of Connection.rfa in your office's custom family folder.
5. Edit the newly created family by changing the family type from Pipe Fitting to Mechanical Equipment, located under Modify ⇨ Properties ⇨ Family Categories And Parameters.
6. This family may also be a convenient tool for tracking pressure and flow. To do this, select Family Types and add three new parameters: Static Pressure, Residual Pressure, and Gallons Per Minute.

   When creating these new parameters, be sure to use the piping discipline and appropriate units. Also, because you may want to either tag or schedule the data contained in these parameters, you need to use shared parameters. (Refer to Chapter 6, “Parameters,” for more information.) You can leave the end cap the way it is modeled, or you can use model lines with an ellipse to create a break line symbol that shows up in single-line piping, as shown in Figure 16.1. After drawing the model lines, select them and change the Family Element Visibility Settings options to not show the lines in fine detail (usually reserved for double-line piping). To do this, choose Properties ⇨ Graphics ⇨ Visibility/Graphic Overrides, and then in the dialog box that opens, click the Edit button. In the next dialog box, deselect the Fine check box.

   

7. Select the pipe connector; change its system classification from Fitting to Fire Protection Wet and change the flow direction to Out. Map the flow to the Gallons Per Minute parameter you created.
8. Delete any undesired existing linework.

Fire Pump Assembly

In situations where you regularly have parts of a design that are similar between projects, a good time-saving idea is to build preassembled plant areas such as pump assembly rooms. They may change slightly from one project to the next, but having a set of predefined components (a “kit of parts”) can save you time. Figure 16.2 shows a fire pump preassembled so that you would have to change out only certain components—for example, changing the pump for a smaller or larger pump, depending on what is called for by the calculated fire flow demand.

To create a preassembled fire pump, do the following:

1. Save a Revit file named Fire Pump Assembly.rvt.
2. Connect as much of the pump assembly as possible, taking into account where most of the components will likely be placed. You can use a split-case pump that comes with Revit MEP as your base fire pump. This normally gives a large enough footprint after every piece has been assembled, but always verify the size of the equipment with the manufacturer's cut sheets to keep from making a costly mistake.

   You can use an inline pump to represent a jockey pump because it matches closely in size. The inline pump is located under Imperial Library ⇨ Mechanical Components ⇨ Water Side Components ⇨ Pumps.

   It may be hard to find Revit families to represent the control panels. For these, you can create a family by using an electrical equipment family type. Another option for showing the control panel is to model it temporarily as an in-place component to help with space planning (see Figure 16.3). Later, in Chapter 19, “Creating Equipment,” you will see how in-place families can be converted to standard, RFA families because the in-place option is not recommended for multiple uses.

   

   This component would be used as a placeholder to ensure that the control panel is accounted for. Usually, the electrical engineer documents the detailed panel information separately from your fire-protection model.

3. An alternative method to creating the RVT file is to model the layout as necessary in a project. Once you have the layout the way you want it, select all the elements required and click Create Group. When prompted for a name, make sure you give it a suitable one—for example, Fire Alarm Pump Set, not Group 130.
4. Modify the group insertion point and then save the group as a library group. This group, or the project file in the previous example, can then be loaded as a model group, or linked and then bound, or even simply copied and pasted.

   Using the link method gives far more flexibility when positioning this object—as long as it is subsequently bound to allow access to the connections. Be aware that any hosted families used in this process lose their associated host.

   The copy-and-paste method gives you a warning for any hosted elements because of the lost association. Even though the individual elements' hosting association is lost, they retain their location properties correctly.

   The two preceding example methods—either creating a group of a standard layout or copying and pasting—provide the most effective way to apply common layouts across projects. Similar results may be achieved with a single complex family, but perhaps it won't provide the necessary flexibility to accommodate the project specifics.

Fire Riser Assembly

Fire risers for most small projects are assembled from the same basic parts. The ideal way to handle assemblies like this is to create them as a mechanical equipment family. This lets you place a single family quickly during schematic design. The placement of the fire riser is crucial for understanding where the fire line needs to be routed and for space planning within the building. This family can be constructed from nested valve and fitting families along with extruded solids to indicate pipes (see Figure 16.4).

To review what components make up this family:

1. Open 6 Inch Fire Riser.rfa located at this book's web page.
2. Several pipe fitting and pipe accessory families are nested into this family and make up the riser. They are as follows: Pipe Elbow.rfa, Pipe Tee.rfa, Alarm Pressure Switch.rfa, Ball Valve - 2.5-6 Inch.rfa, Check Valve - 2-12 Inch - Flanged.rfa, Double Check Valve - 2.5-10 Inch.rfa, Multi-Purpose Valve - Angle - 1.5-2.5 Inch - Threaded.rfa, and Plug Valve - 0.5-2 Inch.rfa. You can insert these from the Pipe Fitting and Pipe Accessories directory located in the Imperial library.
3. Because piping cannot be created in the Family Editor, you need to create extrusions for the piping sections and then add the fire-protection connectors to the ends of the assembly only. When adding the connectors, make sure the arrows point in the direction of the pipe to be connected and that the flow direction is set correctly.

By assembling the riser as a single family, you can coordinate the location in which it is being installed and then start planning how to route your piping. This family does not need to be parametrically flexible. The assembly will still speed your production for future projects even if it needs to be edited manually for different sizes and configurations.

Sprinkler Heads

Now that we have reviewed fire pump assemblies and how to create a standard fire riser, we can start planning for the type of fire-protection sprinkler heads needed for modeling. Revit MEP 2016 has several types of sprinkler heads from which you can choose. The different family types of sprinkler heads are, as all other families, hosted and nonhosted (level based).

Hosted sprinkler heads are normally face-based families. When using these types of families, you need to locate them on a surface. The locations depend on the installation and the type of sprinklers, which could be wall, ceiling, slab, or soffit mounted. The surfaces can be part of the linked architectural model or named reference planes defined within your fire-protection model.

Nonhosted sprinkler families must have the Offset height parameter set to locate the heads at the correct elevation as shown in Figure 16.5.

Upright sprinkler heads are normally nonhosted because they are located in spaces that do not have ceilings, such as storage rooms or mechanical closets. If you do not set the offset height, the heads will come in at a default of 0″ (0 mm), which could locate the heads on or below the floor level. This is easily fixed by clicking the button to place a sprinkler and changing the Offset setting in the Properties palette before placing the family.

Creating a Fire-Protection Wet System

When creating any type of fire-protection wet systems, you should first select all the components that are going to be associated with that system. Selecting these items may be easier if you use the Temporary Hide/Isolate command to hide the model categories that you do not want to include. Select Hide Category to do this (see Figure 16.6). You can also use the feature Selection Sets to remember the selected items for future usage. After you have selected all components that you want, simply click the Save button from the Selection panel located under the Modify | Multi-Select tab. When nothing is selected, you can find the tool under the Manage tab.

In case a system has already been started, you can add to it by selecting a component on the system. Click Piping Systems ⇨ Edit System ⇨ Add To System, and then window-select all the items you want to add to the system. If this is done correctly, you should see all the items in the System Browser under the system you created (see Figure 16.7). As of Revit MEP 2014, the sprinkler heads can also be added to the system automatically as they are connected by the pipework. This can be an easier way to create the systems because you don't have to organize the systems manually before you start drawing the pipework. However, it also means you need to act with extra caution because systems can disappear without warning if connected in the wrong way.

Filtering Fire-Protection Systems

Once your fire-protection system is created, you need to make sure the piping will filter correctly. You can use filters to separate the fire-protection pipes from all other pipes in your Revit model. This assists you with turning off all other pipes from the fire-protection views and sheets.

For controlling the linetypes and line colors of your systems, you should use piping systems, located in the Project Browser under Families. From the piping systems properties, you can assign the color, linetype, and system abbreviation for your systems. From the same dialog box, you can also disable the flow calculations for your fire systems if they are not required. This increases your Revit project performance and does not waste system resources on computing systems' flow data that may not be important to you.

The main benefit of using this method of controlling your colors and linetypes is that the settings are global and apply to all views. You still need to manage filters in order to control what systems are visible in what views. But at least when you cut a section or go to a 3D view, all of your components that are already connected to a system will be displaying the appropriate colors and linetypes, without the need to apply a view template. View filters are discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, “View Filters and View Templates.”