Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to take a moment and wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Don't drink too much eggnog and watch out for those crazy reindeer!! :)

MvPart: How to Add Connectors in Content Builder

So on we continue my "discovery" of MvParts. I had someone ask me how to add connectors to an existing MvPart. So I did a little right click nosing around and here's what I found. (It really is true...right click is your friend)

MvPart: How to Add Connectors in Content Builder:
This is based off of a pre-set up MvPart.
Open up a blank drawing and go to modelspace.
Click on CAD Manager/Content Editing/Content Builder.
Surf to the location of the MvPart that you want to modify.
Select it and then click on the "Modify Part Size" icon on the far right side.
(It's about the 5th button down)
When you get the new pop-up window click on the "Connectors" tab at the top.
Click on the top level name to select it.
Right click and choose "Add duct connector" (or any other connector type desired).
A new pop-up will appear called "Part Family Connector Properties".
Fill in a name, change the flow direction (bi-directional/in/out), and the shape (oval/rectangle/round) if necessary.
Click "ok" once you have entered/verified all the information.
This will now add that new connector to all the sub items in that drawing.
You will have to manually edit the connector locations in each of the drawings individually.
Right click on the connector you created that is under the specific block that you need to edit.
Click on "Edit Placement".
You will now be inside of that drawing and have a new palette show up call the "MvPartBuilder-Connector Editor".
If you know the actual point locations you can drop them in at the bottom of this new palette under the "Connector Geometry" section, under the "Position" subsection.
OR I believe you can click on the ellipse "..." button and physically select the locations.
Once you are done with that hit "OK" on the "MvPartBuilder-Connector Editor".
This will take you back to the MvPart Builder pop-up.
If you need to edit other connectors you can do so by clicking on them and going through the same process.
Click "Ok" and this will exit you out completely from the Content Builder.
I would suggest that you save and regen your catalog.
Also I suggest you and the others whom you want to see your changes close completely out of ABS and then open ABS back up.

MvPart: Editing Connectors

Here is something I am currently exploring: MvParts. (As you've probably noticed since this is the second post in a row concerning them). I am still in the learning process, so this is what I have found thus far. This is based off of having connectors already set up in an existing MvPart.

MvPart: Editing Connectors:
Open up a blank drawing and go to modelspace.
Click on CAD Manager/Content Editing/Content Builder.
Surf to the location of the MvPart that you want to modify.
Select it and then click on the "Modify Part Size" icon on the far right side.
(It's about the 5th button down)
When you get the new pop-up window click on the "Connectors" tab at the top.
Right click on the "Connector 1" (or whichever connector you want to edit) that is under the specific block that you need to edit.
Click on "Edit Placement".
You will now be inside of that drawing and have a new palette show up call the "MvPartBuilder-Connector Editor".
If you know the actual point locations you can drop them in at the bottom of this new palette under the "Connector Geometry" section, under the "Position" subsection.
OR I believe you can click on the ellipse "..." button and physically select the locations.
Once you're done with that hit "OK" on the "MvPartBuilder-Connector Editor".
This will take you back to the MvPart Builder pop-up.
If you need to edit other connectors you can do so by clicking on them and going through the same process.
Click "Ok" and this will exit you out completely from the Content Builder.
You may have to save and regen your catalog; and you may have to close completely out of ABS (and the others whom you want to see your changes) and then open ABS back up.

MvPart: How to Change the Top View Representation

I am currently learning how to manipulate the OOTB MvParts to show how our company requires diffusers to appear on our drawings. I have written this up using a diffuser as an example. You will have to modify the paths shown to get to where you are storing your MvParts.

MvPart: How to Change the Top View Representation:
This is to copy an existing MvPart and modify the "Top" view of it.
In this example I will step through modifying a diffuser.
Open a completely blank drawing based off of your template.
Go to modelspace.
Go to CAD Manager/Content Editing/Catalog Editor.
On the pop-up go to File/Open/ X:\enu\Aecb Catalogs\MvParts US Imperial\Mechanical\Mechanical MvParts US Imperial.apc (at the very end of the list) and double click on this to open it.
Go to the desired section; in this case: Air terminals/Diffusers
Select a diffuser, right click on it, and click on "copy".
Click on the Diffuser subcategory, right click, select "paste".
Now you have a copy of the original diffuser.
Right click on the new copy, select "rename" and rename the item.
Put your company initials in the name to designate that it is a company modified part now.
On the right hand side click on "Description" and change the information there to match the new name you gave it.
Go to File/Save, to save the drawing.
Close out of the pop-up window.
Now double click on the Catalog icon (magenta colored book looking icon) at the bottom of the screen located next to the padlock icon.
This is to regenerate the catalog to include the new part you have added to the catalog.
At the command prompt it will ask for input, type "m" for MvPart as the catalog you want it to regenerate.
You will see a progress bar for the regeneration process.
Click "ok" on the pop-up warning. (if it shows up after regeneration)
Do not go through the Content Builder to make the top view changes.
Go to File/Open/ X:\enu\Aecb Catalogs\MvParts US Imperial\Mechanical\Air terminals\Diffusers
Open up the new .dwg you had created with your company name in it.
Type "be" on the command prompt to open the block editor.
Scroll down to the desired view. In this case you are looking for the TOP view drawing.
There will probably be multiple blocks with "TOP" in the name.
You will probably want to modify all of these so you have the correct symbology on all of the different sized diffusers.
Eventually you may want to change the blocks with "SYMBOL" in them as well since these are the blocks used for symbolic representations for 1-line and other drafting.
Edit the block(s) as desired to reflect what you want to see in your drawings.
Save the block(s).
Save the file containing the block(s).
Use the Mechanical Equipment icon on the Duct palette to access the diffuser you just changed.
(Or whatever other icon you use to access MvParts)
Set the "Part" tab as active.
Surf down to: All Installed MvParts US Imperial/Mechanical/Air Terminals/Diffusers/ and choose the part that you added/modified (should have your company name in it).
Drop the part into your drawing and verify that it looks like and acts like you need it to.

AutoStacking Fractions

I was talking with a colleague of mine and he suggested I post this on my blog...so here ya go Josh! :)

Ever tried to get the pop up for AutoStacking of fractions back and couldn't find it? Once you hit the "don't ever show this again", it can be difficult to find. It's also not that easy to find in the Help menu. So I have typed this handy little nugget up.

Auto-Stacking Fractions:
Initially when you first begin to type fractions in ABS2007 OOTB you will get a pop-up message asking if you want to utilize "stacked" fractions and how you would like them to output.

Start your mtext.
Type in "3/4" for example.
Immediately a pop-up will appear called: "AutoStack Properties".
If you click on "Enable Auto Stacking" you will then need to choose how you want them to look by selecting either "convert it to a diagonal fraction" or "convert it to a horizontal fraction".
IF you check the box at the bottom "Don't show this dialog again; always use these settings" and then click "OK" to exit the pop-up you will NEVER see this option again.

This is fine up until you need to change how your fractions are representing.
In order to get this pop-up back you may need to do the following:
Let's say you Unchecked "enable autostacking".
Drop in a piece of mtext and type in "3/4".
Go into the text to edit it, highlight the "3/4", right click, and choose "stack".
While still in the editing text mode highlight the "3/4" again, right click, and choose "stack properties".
The "stack properties" pop-up will appear.
Click on the "autostack" button.
The "Autostack properties" pop-up will appear again.
You can adjust it as desired.
Click "ok", and then click "ok" on the "stack properties" pop-up to exit out of this command.

NOTE: this will not update the text that you had highlighted, it just set it for any future text you will be entering.

If you had "enable autostacking" checked:
Drop in a piece of mtext and type in "3/4".
Go into the text to edit it, highlight the "3/4", right click, and choose "stack properties".
The "stack properties" pop-up will appear.
Click on the "autostack" button.
The "Autostack properties" pop-up will appear again.
You can adjust it as desired.
Click "ok", and then click "ok" on the "stack properties" pop-up to exit out of this command.

NOTE: this will not update the text that you had highlighted, it just set it for any future text you will be entering.

NOTE: If you are just wanting to temporarily flip between the stacked and unstacked fractions:
Drop in a piece of mtext and type in "3/4".
Go into the text to edit it and highlight the "3/4"
On the "text formatting" bar that shows up when editing text, click on the a/b "stack" button, it is next to the color button.

Layer Translator

Good afternoon! Have you ever had layer names change on you in the middle of a project? Would you like to be able to get your old layer names "translated" across to the new names? Here's a little "how to" I've worked up on utilizing the Layer Translator in ABS 2007. Enjoy!

Layer Translation:
Open the drawing you want to change the layer names/properties of.

NOTE: this will permanently remove all past layers, you may want to save a back-up copy of your drawing before doing any layer translation!

CAUTION: if you exit out of layer translator before saving, all of your mapping is lost.

Type in "laytrans" (you can also go to this by clicking on the icon, or going to CAD standards drop down and then picking layer translator)
A new window will pop up.
The left-hand side is a column called "translate from" and it should show all the layers that are in the drawing you have open and current.
The right hand side is a column called "translate to" and it should be blank.
You need to load the layers you want to translate to, OR you can load a past saved mapping (a ".dws" file)
When you hit the load button you will get a browser.
At the bottom of that browser you can change what types of files you are looking for.
If you want to translate layers to match another drawing make sure this is set to look for a ".dwg"
If you want to load a past mapping make sure this is set to look for a ".dws"
Once you have that set select your file (.dwg or .dws) and hit Open (or double click on the file name).

If you chose to load a drawing (.dwg file):
Now all the layers that are currently contained in the drawing that you selected will be loaded in the right hand column.
Select one (or multiple layers at once) layer to map to ONE layer in the right hand column.
You can map several layers in the "translate from" column to ONE layer in the "translate to" column.
After you have at least one layer in the left column and one layer in the right column selected hit the "Map" button that is in between the two columns.
You will notice that the layer from the left-hand column has now disappeared from the left-hand column.
It now appears under "layer translation mappings" and shows what layer you have mapped it to.
NOTE: you can map several layers from the left column to one layer in the right hand column.
After you have mapped all the layers you need to hit the "SAVE" button at the bottom of this window.
(If you forget to hit save it will prompt and ask if you want to save)
After you save your mapping, hit the "translate" button at the bottom.
You should now be looking at your newly mapped layers.

If you chose to load a past mapping (.dws file):
NOTE: you can load more than one .dws file at a time.
All the layers that file already had mapped out are now shown under "layer translation mappings".
If you have layers that were not mapped in the file they will still be shown in the "translate from" left-hand Column at the top of the window.

To finish mapping the remaining layers:
Select one (or multiple layers at once) layer to map to ONE layer in the right hand column.
You can map several layers in the "translate from" column to ONE layer in the "translate to" layer.
After you have at least one layer in the left column and one layer in the right column selected hit the "Map" button that is in between the two columns.
You will notice that the layer from the left-hand column has now disappeared from the left-hand column.
It now appears under "layer translation mappings" and shows what layer you have mapped it to.
NOTE: you can map several layers from the left column to one layer in the right hand column.
After you have mapped all the layers you need to hit the "SAVE" button at the bottom of this window.
(If you forget to hit save it will prompt afnd ask if you want to save)
NOTE: it will only save the couple of layers that you had to map by hand, it will NOT combine the .dws file that you used to map the first time with it. Also if you load more than one .dws file it will not save them together.
NOTE: if you opened a saved .dws file and changed something like the layer color for it to map to, it will allow you to resave the .dws file.
After you save your mapping, hit the "translate" button at the bottom.
You should now be looking at your newly mapped layers.

Placing HVAC Piping Tees

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have had some issues attempting to get a pipe tee to insert so that it comes off of the top or bottom of the main pipe. That is 3/4 of the connections for pipes that I deal with currently. I thought I would post on my blog the solution that I discovered and also the solution that one of my friends at Avatech shared with me.

My solution:
Draw a main piece of pipe. Go to the pipe fitting button on the palette to add a pipe fitting. Find the tee that will match your system. Be sure to input the connection type and the nominal diameter that you want for your fitting. Then click on your main pipe run where you want to drop in the pipe fitting. Next type "p" for plane so you can rotate the fitting in the z direction. For my stuff I use 270 degrees to get the fitting to point up. Once your fitting is in there you can click on the "+" sign on the fitting to add piping in.

Avatech's solution:
"Go ahead and place a piece of pipe. Then, when you want to come up/down with a tee instead of coming out directly with one, start the pipe tool, let your abs snap recognize where you want to connect to off the existing run, click the pipe, then go back up to your Add Pipe dialog that has probably auto-hidden and change the elevation you want to go up or down to. This will automatically insert a tee facing in the up or the down direction for you depending on the elevation specified."

I think both will work great and depending upon the situation or what you are more comfortable with they will both be applicable.