automating autocad

[koolbreeze]

hi everyone! this is a great forum. hope to learn tons!

question: i draw riser diagrams for condo fancoils and heat pumps. i am sizing risers. this is very tedious. is there a way to enter all pipe sizes into a database/spreadsheet and run some sort of script in autocad to plot all the data into specific locations in the cad dwg?

hope to hear back!

thanks!

 

[borgunit]

I guess the short answer is yes. The long answer is how you get there. Do you know any programming or scripting?

http://mechcad-insider.blogspot.com/

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"

 

[koolbreeze]

hi, i have a great deal of experience in creating excel spreadsheets with macros and cell if/then loops. my experience is in simplifiying tedious repetitive work and streamlining processes. do you know of a website that can teach me how to do this stuff?

i know of a particular hydronic heating equipment manufacturer that integrates access database with autocad thereby automating the shop drawing generation process.

hope you can help!

happy friday!

 

[Urci]

You can paste a speadsheet in the cad drawing as an ole object

 

[Occupant]

Hi,
It is relatively easy to generate script files in Excel and export them to Autocad via the clipboard. It depends on what your requirements are. For instance I do this for cam profiles, but I am satisfied with points, lines, plines and splines. Need more info.

 

[koolbreeze]

Everyone, thanks for your interest

the example i give below requires the following given conventional info:

GPM PIPE SIZE
1.0 - 3.3 3/4"
3.4 - 7.0 1"
7.1 - 14.0 1-1/4"

now, here's a typical situation:

I am specifying three 4-pipe fancoil sizes for an 11 floor condo:

TAG GPM (HEATING & COOLING)
FC-1 1.5
FC-2 2.0
FC-3 2.5

Chilled and heating water is distributed at the 3rd floor and feeds the fan coils up to the 10th floor before returning to the 11th floor penthouse where the water returns to the boiler/chiller room.

Let's say (for simplicity) we have 3 risers. Riser 1 has all FC-1, riser 2 has FC-2 and riser 3 has FC-3. A hypothetical algorithm would take the user input of 1.5 GPM for FC-1 and multiply by 8 floors to obtain a total flow of 12 GPM for riser 1. Similarly, the algorithm would find 16 and 20 GPM for risers 2 and 3, respectively.

Now on my riser diagram, for each riser I show 5 pipes: HS, HR, COND, CHS, and CHR. I tag each pipe on riser 1 for the 3rd FL with the following pipe sizes. GPM is listed below for your info only. It is not to be shown on the dwg. COND is a standard size for such a building (I think it's 2"):

PIPE SIZE (in.) GPM
HS 1-1/4 12.0
HR 3/4 1.5
CHS 1-1/4 12.0
CHR 3/4 1.5


On the 4th floor:

PIPE SIZE (in.) GPM
HS 1-1/4 10.5
HR 3/4 3.0
CHS 1-1/4 10.5
CHR 3/4 3.0

etc...same for risers 2 and 3.

basically I am taking a tiny bit of specified information and running through addition/subtraction calculations (using the given conventional pipe sizing info) and plotting the values returned onto the AutoCAD dwg in specific locations. COND is ignored because we just provide a 2" riser for all floors for such a building.

Hope this is enough info. If you need to know more, please let me know!