Seek and Ye May Still Not Find

...may not find "Contentment"...

In the continuing disappointment that is Seek, please stop making it so easy to pick on you. This is the tale of a lowly pipe fitting, a vent cap. It was encouraging when I typed the criteria "Vent Cap" and it returned one result and it matched!

I downloaded the bugger right quick. Loaded it into the project and was met with "nope you can't use this fitting Steve" messages whichever way I tried to use it. I took a closer look at the family. Oh, it's looking for a lookup table file called SV-159.csv. Funny, Seek didn't offer me that (note above image again).

The fitting is from Charlotte so I wandered over to their site and found their original version.

I downloaded the zip file that contains these files.

I put the .csv file in the Lookup Table folder, still no joy. Turns out that there is an error in the family, how the revolve is defined. While editing the family, when I try flexing the diameter I get this error message.

When I look more closely at the revolve the axis and the sketch is just slightly past the Center (Right/Left) Reference Plane.

Move it over every so slightly and test, it works. Really subtle. So a novice Revit MEP user's experience with this family? It was a pain in the butt to track down for me...and I've got a few years experience under my belt. If this was a 1:100 experience I wouldn't even bother to mention it. It isn't. :(

Revit MEP - Sanitary Pipe and Sizing

Note to self - Next time I'm trying to figure out why the Pipe Sizing routine doesn't activate for a Sanitary Pipe System... remember that it isn't available for that kind of system.

From the Help Documentation, Using the Pipe Sizing Dialog:

Note: The Pipe Sizing dialog cannot be used to size Sanitary system piping.

Personally I think that this note should be on the previous page, called Pipe Sizing.

While I'm at it, just to help me remember this bit too, regarding the branch sizing constraint options in the Pipe Sizing dialog (via Using the Pipe Sizing Dialog help page too):

• Calculated Size Only - The size of the selected pipe segment(s) is determined by the selected sizing method and is not otherwise constrained.
• Match Connector Size - The size of the selected pipe segment(s) in the branch is determined by the size of the connector used between the branch and the main, up until the first junction in the network. (emphasis mine)
• Larger of Connector and Calculated - The size of the selected pipe segment(s) is determined by larger of two (emphasis mine) determinants. If the connector size is smaller than the size calculated by the sizing method, then the calculated size will be used. If the connector size is larger than the size calculated by the sizing method, then the connector size will be used. For example, select this option to avoid supplying a plumbing fixture with a pipe segment that is smaller than the size of the connector on the fixture.