Plant(3D)ing Civil 3D Pressure Network Parts

TODD NOCHOMSON: Welcome, and thank you for attending this session. This class is titled Plant 3Ding Civil 3D Pressure Network Parts. My name is Todd Nochomson. I'm the CAD manager for Chen Moore and Associates. I have over 30 years of civil design experience combined with over 20 years as a CAD manager.

Also joining us today is Creg Dieziger. Creg has similar experience as me and has previously taught classes at several Autodesk University conferences. And Charlie Ogden is with Autodesk and a product manager for Civil 3D Pressure Networks, among others.

CHARLIE OGDEN: And you've probably seen this slide before. The purpose of this slide is in case, we're making any forward-looking statements about features of functionality that are not yet in the product, which we don't intend to, we plan to show existing functionality. But in case, we do, the purpose of this slide is for you to remember not to make any purchasing decisions based on any of that future-looking functionality.

TODD NOCHOMSON: So why build pressure network parts? Adequate libraries help users create better designs more efficiently. That allows them to stay focused on their design task and not spend additional time creating non-standard content.

Also, accurate part shapes are represented properly in the drawings' plan and profile views, which results in better looking deliverables. The model displays accurate part sizes for designing tight spaces that provide true distances when dimensioned. That allows it to be shown how it fits in detail.

Part property data stores other useful values that can be used in labels. This content can be displayed through your composed styles within Civil 3D. Each unique part can be assigned a pay item and itemized in quantity takeoff report for cost estimating. Additional custom content in your library allows for specifying the right real world parts in more detailed estimates. And parts can be displayed showing their realistic rendered visual material in 3D graphic presentations.

Our learning objectives are to learn how to build pressure network parts lists using custom catalog content, learn how to transfer existing pressure network parts from AutoCAD Plant 3D into Autodesk Civil 3D, learn how to add, modify, pressure network catalog parameter parts; and learn how to create entire libraries or add just a single part to a pressure network catalog. We're going to demonstrate all of this using multiple products included in the AEC collection from Autodesk. We'll take you through examples as we create a new part at each step. We'll start with the Autodesk App Store, then use methods with Plant 3D tool sets that lead us into the infrastructure parts editor.

All the content generated to that point will include robust families with components ranging in size that result in multiple parts that can be added to a Civil 3D pressure network catalog. Then we'll show how to generate a single custom shaped part created in Civil 3D and open our newly created custom catalog in the Content Catalog Editor, where we'll import a few more parts, modify property data, and finalize this database to use in Civil 3D pressure network models. And Creg's going to get us started with the Autodesk App Store.

CREG DIEZIGER: Thanks, Todd. The Autodesk App Store, the App Store is a website provided by Autodesk that makes it easy to find plug-ins, applications, content, and learning materials to enhance many Autodesk design products, including Civil 3D and Plant 3D. You can access the App Store through an icon on the featured app ribbon within Civil 3D or Plant 3D, or by clicking or using the URL provided below on this slide.

The App Store provides several additional Autodesk authored content packs not included within the installation of Plant 3D, as shown on this slide. To find these additional packs, search for Autodesk in the Publisher tab, and then further filter by selecting Plant 3D in the filter section. Additional content packs not authored by Autodesk can be found in the App tab by selecting AutoCAD Plant 3D from the search dropdown, and then filtering by catalog and specs. You may even be able to find more content using your own search terms, filters, and through other providers' websites. Once downloaded, the content packs can be stored and installed in Plant 3D content folder for use, then can be accessed through the plant 3D spec editor or imported using the Infrastructure Parts Editor.

Using the Autodesk Catalog Builder for AutoCAD Plant 3D, we're going to build a three-segment, 45-degree elbow. The AutoCAD or the Autodesk Catalog Builder is installed with Plant 3D and accessed from the Plant 3D spec editor. It's an application where you can create parts content from scratch. You can build new or rebuild existing Plant 3D catalogs. You can create content packs to share, like the ones previously shown in the Autodesk App Store.

To access the Catalog Builder, either from the Windows Start menu on your desktop, find the shortcut spec editor for AutoCAD Plant 3D, and click to start the Spec Editor. Close the splash screen pop-ups, if there are any. In the Spec Editor, go to the Tools dropdown menu, and click Launch Catalog Builder.

From the Catalog Builder for AutoCAD Plant 3D dialog box, under Catalog Templates, select Create New. From the Create Catalog Template dialog box, select the ellipses to browse to locations to save your new template, then name the file and select OK to create it. For this example, name the file HDPE Parts.

From the Autodesk Catalog Builder for AutoCAD Plant 3D ribbon, select Settings on the advanced panel. This is an optional step, but it's a time saver that allows you to set some defaults for your new parts. From the Settings dialog, check to apply default values to newly created parts, families. Select Imperial for the units and fittings for the category.

Use the Plant 3D shape for graphic. This is a parametric shape, as you will see in future steps. Select sizes from 6 inch to 24 inch.

For the end type, select PL for plain end. By selecting the end type, it will filter to only show the Plant 3D shapes with plain ends. You can fill in a lot of the other values, but they may not come across during the conversion to Civil 3D. So it is up to you if you want to or not.

Next, select the Advanced button. Under the Advanced default settings, you can change many other settings, like the end type, pressure class, schedule, and wall thickness. However, these settings in most cases do not come across with the conversion of Civil 3D. Under the Custom Size and OD defaults, we can select the sizes we want as part of our list and the corresponding outside diameters. Go ahead and click OK and OK to close the settings dialog box once you have the part sizes selected that you want.

On the left-hand side of the Catalog Builder are the types of parts you can build. Of these parts, not all of them will convert to Civil 3D at this time, maybe in the future. Let's select Fittings and then right click on the elbow and select New. Verify the end type is PL and that the size are 6 inch to 24 inch, then select Use Custom Size List so that it uses the default list and settings we just set in the advanced settings. Set the short description to 3-inch segment, 45-degree elbow, abbreviating it as in the format that you're used to seeing it.

Under the Graphics, select the part mitered bend PE for this example. This part does not exist in Civil 3D out of the box. From the ribbon, select Export to Excel. Note the location name of the Excel file you export.

Now, browse and open the Excel file you just exported. In an effort to speed things up, I have opened an Excel file that has the values in it to copy and paste into the exported file. These values were found on the manufacturer cut sheet for this fitting.

Use the image that is exported with the Excel file, which can be found under the dim image folder in the same location of the exported file. This will help to match up dimensions in the spreadsheet and you'll see that it lines up with the manufacture cut sheet.

Fill in the values. The ones that are needed are the ones in red. Verify that the outside diameter is correct and the short description. Then save and close the spreadsheet.

From the Catalog Builder ribbon, select Build Catalog. Select the Edit Excel File and Open. Note the warning. Building catalog is possible, but warning should be addressed before attempting to Add Component to pipe specs. These warnings do not pertain to Civil 3D, but Plant 3D.

Note you can save to a content pack, add to existing, or save a new catalog. Select Save As New from the ribbon. This will save it as a new catalog. Save it in the Plant 3D content folder. You can now close the Catalog Builder to move to the next method.

We're going to use the Spec Editor for AutoCAD Plant 3D to build a three-segment, 90-degree elbow this time, which also is not included with Civil 3D out of the box. The Spec Editor is used to add parts from one or more Plant 3D catalogs to create a spec sheet, which is a list of selected catalog components to use for your project. You can also create, duplicate, delete, and edit components, and then save it back to the catalog.

From the Spec Editor file pulldown menu at the top, choose New, Create Spec. Select the path of where you want to save the new spec file. For this example, we'll name the new spec AU Class.

Adding a description is optional, but can be helpful. Select the Load Catalog dropdown. You can select a catalog from this list or browse to the custom catalogs. Select Browse and select the new Plant 3D catalog we just created. Select Open, then Create to get back to the Spec Editor and the new spec sheet.

In the bottom area of the Spec Editor, it shows the available parts in the selected catalog. Select the three-segmented, 45-degree elbow we just created. Then select Add to Spec. This adds it to the top area of the Spec Editor. This area is the actual spec sheet.

Keep in mind, you can add parts for multiple catalogs to the spec sheet. To create the next component, select the Catalog Editor tab and in the upper right-hand corner, and then select Create New Component to start the creation of the next fitting. Note that this dialogue and process is very similar to the Catalog Builder.

Make sure the component is set to fittings with a plain end type, units are set to imperial, and size range of 6 inch to 24 inch. Give a short description of elbow 90, three segment. Select the Plant 3D parametric graphic and the same part as before, the mitered bend PE, the difference being this time it will be a 90-degree bend. Then select Create to create the new component.

We will change the general property values later using the Excel spreadsheet. Select the Size tab. Select and remove the sizes you do not wish to create here. Then select the Export to Excel at the top. This works like the Catalog Builder and it allows you to edit the Excel file component's values when exporting it, when we can either export just the filter components that we see at the bottom or an entire catalog.

Browse and save the Excel file to a location you can remember. For this example, we'll call the file AU class, and click OK. Next, go ahead and open the Excel file to be edited.

The editing will be done like what was done before in the Catalog Builder example. You will also notice that some of the values needed are filled in this time, but are incorrect and will need to be updated. You will need to unprotect the Excel spreadsheet for editing.

As before, I've already gathered the dimensions needed from the manufacturer cut sheet to save time. The required dimensions are all the parametric part dimensions, which can be found on the preview image, the nominal diameter, outside diameter, short description, long description, and long description size, which are also shown here in red. And I'm just going to copy and paste to overwrite them.

Verify that the short description is correct. The long description size needs to be unique to each size, but the long description family can match the short description or carry a little more information. After updating all the values, save and close the spreadsheet.

From the Spec Editor, click on the Import from Excel button at the top. Browse and select the Excel file with the updated values. This is going to present us with a dialogue to resolve the Excel update.

In the dialog box, as you expand the catalog parts, you'll notice some things are highlighted in yellow. Anything highlighted in yellow has been modified. At this point, you have an option to either accept a single change or select all changes. Let's select all changes and accept them, and then click OK.

Notice, it does not show you the results of the change right away. Once you select the Property Editor, you will see the updates. Once you close the Property Editor, the updates will show in the Catalog Editor.

Next, save the updates by clicking Save to Catalog to update the Plant 3D catalog. Select the Spec Editor tab and add the new 90-degree bend we just created to the spec sheet by selecting it from the catalog at the bottom of the Spec Editor and clicking Add to Spec. Save the spec and move on to the next step, which Todd will lead us through.

TODD NOCHOMSON: Thank you, Creg. The Infrastructure Parts Editor. This is used to customize piping part families and components and then publish them to catalogs that are compatible with Autodesk Civil 3D.

The Infrastructure Parts Editor is a separate installation. It can be downloaded from your Autodesk Manage account and find it listed under Civil 3D or InfraWorks products within their extensions. We're going to use this product to create a ductile iron eccentric reducer that follows the top of the part, not the bottom, and this is not included out of the box in the push on ductile catalog.

Once installed, to access the Infrastructure Parts Editor, you'll have a desktop icon you can open. Or under the Home Create Design tab inside Civil 3D, you can open it through that menu. Once open, on the left there are several options for accessing libraries.

You can open My Parts Library, which takes you to provided content that installed with the product. Under Piping, there are several catalogs to choose from that you can start with, edit, copy, or use as is. You can open an existing Infrastructure Parts Editor file, create a new blank catalog, and then put new parts in it. In this case, we're going to import from Plant 3D and we're going to select the PSPX file, which is the sheet file that Creg created in the previous step.

Upon opening it, there will be a hyperlink to the folder that it was saved in. This should be your Documents folder by default. Mine is in OneDrive, which could pose an issue with publishing, so I'm going to move this outside that folder and place it into a folder that I created for the class. And what this did is it took the PSPX file and converted it to a file that infrastructure parts editor can read.

I'm going to make note of where I saved that and now open by file. We'll go to that location and drill down to what it created, which is a file called AUclass.ACcat. And it just opened and converted this, if you look at the top of the screen, to an ICBT file. And the two parts that were created in Plant 3D are listed.

We do need to append a couple of required pieces of information to get into a Civil 3D compatible catalog. One is the material, this is HDPE elbow, and the value of the angle is the other required entry. So the first one was 45, the second one here is a 90-degree elbow. Now that we have those in, we can move on to the next step.

Notice on the left, the options. The screen looks very similar to Plant 3D. There's consistency here. We're going to create a new reducer, so we right click on Reducer and choose a primary end type. You'll notice a lot of similarities to the previous steps that we followed in Plant 3D.

This one is a ductile iron. It's going to use a mechanical joint female end type. And we're going to give it a unique name. I recommend leaving the sizes with the default that is set here. We will adjust these in editing a little bit later.

Clicking Next takes us to the Shapes tab. And once again, notice the similarities with Plant 3D. We're going to pick a part called Reducer Eccentric with two MJ end types. If we hover over this, we'll see a diagram with the dimensions and descriptions of what those dimensions go to. This will be useful when we match it with the actual manufacturer's cut sheet.

Clicking Next takes us into Detailed Properties. Once again, it's required for Civil 3D to have the material. This fitting does not have an angle, but we do have eccentricity selected. Optional is the compatible standard value. If you fill that in, that will carry into the Civil 3D database. And if you're doing creating parts that have different size ends, you can choose to select all ports have the same properties or not.

Size Range tab gives you an option to add or remove additional predetermined sizes. Once again, I would leave the sizes alone here and make those edits on the Part Editing tab here. You can physically enter values for the parts that you see in the table right through the screen here, or similar to Plant 3D, at the bottom is an option to export to Excel. There's a lot more flexibility using Excel, and once again, notice the consistency between the products on creating the parts.

This Excel file exported to a subfolder called External Edit, so we're going to go ahead and open this up. And similar to the previous examples, we have another spreadsheet with the values pre-entered to speed things along for this class. But you'll be manually looking up the values with your manufacturer and entering them in.

In this case, this is the diagram, which is in a subfolder Dim Images, and I have a screenshot of the manufacturer's catalog here for this part. In this case, there are dimensions for the ends as well as the fitting itself. So for the ends, I have a plain end that matches with my D1 and D2, and there's also a value of B that is for the distance that the pipe connects into the part.

I've also got a screenshot. In this case, we're going to use a 12 by 8 in example later, but we need the L dimension for the width of this reducer. So that is where I'm getting the numbers that we see highlighted on the example at the top. For speed, we're going to copy these and paste these in, just like we did in the previous steps.

The first set of columns through L are all for the part dimensions, but each part is also going to have required values for the connection end type. In this case, nominal diameter, matching pipe outer diameter, and engagement length, which was that B dimension that that manufacturer had, are going to need to be entered. For speed, we're going to copy and paste them.

These are listed as S1, which is the first opening. But this part has two openings, so there's also an S2 of the same values. If you were adding a T or a cross, you would have three or four of these values to fill in.

And finally, similar to the Plant 3D process, the part needs to have a unique name. So through the Infrastructure Parts Editor's Excel spreadsheet, that's called the Part Size Local Name. You could type whatever you would like to see displayed here.

In this case, I have those pre-entered and I'm going to use-- this name will populate your catalog database and this is what will be shown in Civil 3D when you add it to the parts list. So we'll go ahead and move to the bottom of the list here and remove all the remaining rows for sizes that we didn't need. And now we can save and close the spreadsheet.

And notice the Import from Excel button is selectable now. We'll choose that. And you should see all of your values repopulated inside this tab.

If everything looks good, you're ready to move on to the next tab, which is Size Validation, and that will show you a row for each size that you've created on the left. And on the right is a size view that should show you what the model is going to look like. If the model does not show up there at all, then there's likely an issue with some values that you'll need to reevaluate and go through the process again.

When you're finished, click Done. Probably a good idea to save all the work that we just created. And we're ready to publish this out to a complete SQLite catalog database. So we're going to click on Publish from the menu at the top and publish all three of these parts. The first two were created in Plant 3D and the reducer was created here in the Infrastructure Parts Editor.

This has no errors, warnings, generally should be fine. We'll click the button to publish to Civil 3D. We'll choose our version and note the location. If you are publishing a catalog with the same name of an existing catalog in Civil 3D, it will append and update it with your new parts, which is a really nice feature. If the catalog is brand new, it will create it from scratch.

We'll click OK. We only have a few parts here, so this should only take a couple of seconds. And hopefully when you run through this, it'll result in a succeeded message, as this did. We'll click OK.

Another option for publishing is to right click on a part family and choosing Publish Civil 3D. And this will create individual dot content files-- notice, that's mentioned in the dialog box-- so that you can either back up these parts or individually import them instead of pushing them out through the entire database. And once again, it'll tell you if the publish process was successful.

So if we look in File Explorer here under the Exports folder, we'll see we've just created 55. We had 55 rows in our Excel spreadsheet. We have 55 dot content files. And using the first method of publishing, it has created those initial parts in a single SQLite database.

And we're ready to move on to the next step, which is inside of AutoCAD Civil 3D, we're going to use the Part Publishing Wizard. The Part Publishing Wizard also creates a dot content file using a special command called Publish Part Content within Civil 3D. It's a single part, not a part family, like everything that we've done up until this point.

That dot content file can then be imported into your SQLite Civil 3D catalog. The Part Publishing Wizard requires that you have a drawing with a single 3D solid object, a centerline entity, and an Autodesk connection point that was created using another special command called Autodesk Connection Point.

Once again, I'd like to emphasize that these models are created from a single 3D solid object. You can't have multiple 3D solids. If you need to join them, you could use the AutoCAD Union command. And the drawing needs to be created in either inches or millimeter units.

Some manufacturers may also provide 3D models of their catalog parts, which is really nice, if you can find them. They may not come in AutoCAD DWG format, and there's a list on this slide of a few of the common 3D modeling formats that you might receive them in. There are others. These are fairly common ones.

In this next example, we're going to create a 8-inch HDPE mechanical joint adapter using an STP file, which is the last bullet on the list of a STEP file that was provided from a manufacturer. To do this, we're going to open Civil 3D. I have a blank drawing. I'm going to use the Units command and just verify that I'm working in architectural inches here.

Next, I'm going to use the AutoCAD Import command and select the 3D solid file that I have, which is in this case an STP file. You'll see a processing background job dialog box. Depending upon how large the file is, it could take a little while. In this case, it's not very big and immediately it's converted, and I can click on the hyperlink below. And zoom extends and we'll see the part that it just imported.

When I select it, this does happen to be a block, so I cannot create my dot content file from it. I do need to explode and verify that it exploded to a single 3D solid, which it did. Now I'm ready to add the other components.

So I'm going to use the Autodesk Connection Point. I need to create a connection point at each side. In this case, I'm going to choose Insert. I'll start with the left side. I'm using a 3D Snap to select the location of connection. And then it wants the direction that the pipe will be coming out of this part, so I'm going to use 3D Center and pick two other center points in that direction.

And we'll do the same thing, enter the Autodesk Connection Point command Insert method and choose the right side of this part. You can twist this if it helps you to see this part better in a different view.

Next, we need to create the center line object. I'm just going to use a line because this part is a straight from one end to the other, simple centerline. And now we have everything needed in order for us to create the dot content file. So we'll use the Publish Part Content command and it'll walk us through what it needs. Select the Solid for Publishing. We'll pick the 3D solid.

Next, select the centerline entity. In this case, we drew a line. That could have been a polyline or an arc, whatever you needed.

Verify the units. We're in architectural inches. And choose the type of part. We just created a coupling. That's what an MJ adapter is that connects two different types of materials.

And note the folder that you save it in. And in this case, I'm going to put it in a folder for this class. And for the name of it, and for parity and housecleaning here, I'm going to go back and reference the original file name and keep these together.

So I'm just going to copy the file that I imported to the clipboard and paste that in. I can delete the old IPP extension there. And I've now created the content file. As you can see here, I have the original file that we imported and the dot content file that we just created.

Moving on to the next step brings everything that we've created up until this point into a database that we can further edit and build on using the Content Catalog Editor. This installs with Civil 3D, and it allows you to create new blank catalogs with nothing in it and import one by one. You can open up existing catalogs just to view them. You can also modify and import new parts into those catalogs. Once again, this is a SQLite database file.

With this, we're going to open and work with everything we've created so far, but we're also going to add a new part with the Catalog Editor, in this case, an 8-inch HDPE pipe. To access the Content Catalog Editor, I'm going to go to the Windows Start menu, Apps, and then find Civil 3D. And it will be listed under Civil 3D, and click on Content Catalog Editor.

Once opened, we're going to open up the SQLite database that we created in class. And notice on the left, the items that were added are populated, the elbow and the reducer. At this point, if we want to bring in a batch of dot content files, we can go up to the Tools menu and choose Batch Import and bring in several content files and add it to this catalog.

In this case, I'm going to import just the one dot content file that we created in the previous step. So under the Catalog File tab, I'm going to select the dot content file for the MJ adapter that we just created. We'll go ahead and open that.

Click Next. There's only one industry type available, so we'll leave that set to Water. We're going to tell it that this is a coupling and we're going to enter a family name. You can add this to an existing family if you're adding this to an existing catalog that has families defined. Notice the image passed through here.

In the Model Properties tab, everything with an asterisk is required. Once again, we need to indicate the material. So this is an HDPE part. Description is required, and this description is what is going to show up in your parts list and get passed along to the description of your model part in Civil 3D. So you're going to likely want the description to show as desired for your model.

You can fill out all this other information. It's optional, but note that you can use all that optional information in labels if it's filled in. On the final tab here is the properties for connection points. In this case, we'll use push on. Note that we've used several end types along this process.

This part is 8 inch. The nominal diameter is the description, so that's 8 inch. But for the outer diameter, I'm going to refer to the actual manufacturer part.

In this case, this is what the MJ adapter looks like. And for 8 inch, our outside diameter is 9.05. So I'm going to enter that value for the outer diameter. Notice the asterisks means that it's required here.

All the other columns are optional. You may find the deflection value good to fill in. There will be a glyph in the program when your designers are using these parts that help them know acceptable deflection. The general part properties are shown at the top and you can continue to fill and edit those. And at the bottom are the properties specifically for the connection points.

We're going to go ahead and create another part using import parts. In this case, without dot content, notice the only thing we can create is a pipe. So that's what we're going to do. For industry type, once again, water is our only option.

The part type, in this case, pipe is the only option. It's the only thing you can create without importing an external file. I'm going to add this to a part family name called pipe. Click Next.

Because we're creating this from scratch, everything has to be filled out that has an asterisk manually. For the outer diameter, once again, I'm going to refer to the manufacturer. And when we look at their list, it also has a 9.05 dimension. And I'm going to make note of the minimum wall, which is 0.823, because there's a value for that here as well. So we'll enter 9.05 and the 0.823.

The ID type, we'll go ahead and set that to Standard. Material, once again, is going to be HDPE for this particular part. And the description, once again, you're going to want to enter a value as desired how you're going to want to see and read it in Civil 3D.

Once again, all of these options are optional. And I'm going to fill out nominal diameter just because we know it's an 8-inch size and it's easy to enter.

For the joint end type ID, we're going to use Other for this one. You could choose whichever you would like. And once again, the columns with an asterisk are required, 8 for nominal diameter. At this point, we know the outer diameter for that is 9.05 for this part.

And once again, if you choose to, you can enter deflection or use the engagement length or any other thing that might be applicable. And now we see the pipe that we created and we can continue to edit the properties at the top. I entered 9 instead of 8, which it should have been, so I'll fix that there.

And under Connection Points at the bottom, we can enter those properties as well. I'm going to go ahead and carry the wall thickness to those connection points. Again, it's optional. It's additional information.

So at this point, we've created five parts using five different methods along the way. The Plant 3D parts that we imported came in with a predetermined format, which is not how I'd like to see it in Civil 3D. So I'm going to change at least the size part for the example that we're going to show next. If this was a permanent catalog, I would be changing all of these to exactly how I'm going to want it permanently stored in my catalog.

And we'll just take a look at the other items, make sure everything looks good. We have a bunch of parts. We're not going to use them all, but we have a bunch of parts. We'll go ahead and save our SQLite catalog. And Charlie will conclude the demonstration and show you how we're going to use all this new custom content. Charlie?

CHARLIE OGDEN: Yeah. So now we're going to bring this all together in civil 3D. We're going to start with a parts list. This is where we bring the parts we need into Civil 3D from the catalogs.

And you're probably familiar with the existing out-of-the-box catalogs. There's a number of those. We'll use one of these catalogs as well. But we're going to combine it with the parts and the new catalog that we created in the class.

So in the demo here, what we're going to do is start off with the 12-inch ductile iron pipe and then transition to an 8-inch HDPE pipe. And to make that transition, we're going to transition to size and then material. So we're going to use some of these new parts we created. They're not in the out of the box catalogs, so that's why we're going to mix the catalogs here.

We will use 12-inch and an 8-inch ductile iron pipe that's in the out of the box push on catalog. But then to change the size, we're going to use the new eccentric reducer that we created, as well as that adapter and some new elbows. So we'll go ahead and jump into Civil 3D.

And here we're using Civil 3D 2024, and we're going to create a new drawing just from the out of the box imperial NCS template. And this template has a parts list in it already, so we'll use that. First, let's just change the drawing scale. We're just going to draw a small simple example, so we're going to make it 10 inch just so our labels are a little bit larger.

And then let's go find that parts list on Settings and expand Pressure Network. And then we're going to edit the Water Parts list. And on the Information tab here, you'll see this is already using the push on catalog, but we want to load a new catalog. So this was added a couple releases ago. We're going to add the new AU Class catalog that we've created and then use parts from that.

So on the Pressure Pipes tab, we have some ductile iron ones, but we want to add our HDPE. So make sure you change the catalog to the AU Class catalog. Choose the pipe material and then add your sizes.

Now, there's only one size in here. Of course, typically you probably have a number of sizes. We're just going to add the size we need. And then you see the name coming in formatted nicely.

Now, on the existing parts that are in here, we actually want a new pipe size. So we're going to add an 8-inch pipe. And again, this is just coming from the out of the box ductile iron, so these names are a little different. So we're just going to reformat this so it matches the format for our HDPE pipe.

And same with the 12-inch, we're going to use that. It's already in here, but we just want to reformat the name. So we have 8- and 12-inch ductile iron pipe. Now we can go add our fittings.

So again, add these types and make sure you switch to the new catalog. And then we see our new three types of parts that we created. So we'll add our reducer elbow and the adapters in the coupling collection.

And again, just to add our new sizes, so for our eccentric reducer we're changing from a 12-inch to an 8-inch. So we're just picking that one part size. You could add all sizes, but we just need the one. And again, this is an eccentric one. That's not out of the box, so that's why we've created it here.

And then add some elbows. We're just going to add 8-inch elbows. You could add all sizes and then get a whole long list. We're just going to start with the 90 and then we'll also add a 45. So again, both just for the 8-inch pipe size. And now we have our 45, so a couple elbows formatted, as Todd just showed, kind of changing the name there.

And then lastly, our adapter. There's only one size in here for our 8-inch, so we're just going to add that. If we had appurtenances, we could add those same way. We don't, so we'll just close that parts list. And now we'll go and use that, and just a simple example of doing that transition here.

So we're going to go to Prospector Pressure Networks tab and add a new pressure pipe network by path. We'll just give this a name and make sure we're using the parts list we edited and we're starting with the 12-inch ductile iron pipe. Say OK, and then come in here, and just going to start by drawing a 12-inch ductile iron pipe section.

And we want to next transition to an 8-inch, so what we want to do is add our reducer. And again, this is an eccentric reducer that we don't have out of the box. So we're going to add this to our pipe. See, we're looking down on it. It is eccentric vertically.

And then continue with our 8-inch ductile iron and just switching the pipe type. And now to switch to HDPE, we want to go and grab our adapter and add that at the end of our pipe. Now, looking closely at this adapter, it came in backwards. So we can flip that, rotate it. You could do that, too, with the reducers if they came in the wrong way.

But now we'll continue this time with our 8-inch HDPE pipe and then just continue drawing a little bit and draw in some elbows. So we get our 45- and our 90-degree elbow that we created or added earlier. And so now we have a mix of parts from the out-of-the-box ductile iron push on catalog as well as the new parts we created in the class.

And just moving some of these labels out of the way so you can see, 12-inch pipe transitioning through and vertically eccentric reducer to an 8-inch ductile iron, and then an adapter to transition to the 8-inch HDPE. And if we look at this in 3D here, you'll be able to see those elbows on the right and then the adapter we created right here, and then the eccentric reducer.

And again, we do have a reducer in Pick a Still catalog, but it's upside down from this. So there's a vertically eccentric one. So of course, we created these parts because we don't have them out of the box, but combined them with some out-of-the-box parts to create a full example of a network. So with that, I'll turn it back to Todd.

TODD NOCHOMSON: I'd like to thank Creg and Charlie, and we'd like to thank you for your interest in this topic and viewing our session. That concludes this class.