{"id":2151,"date":"2015-01-21T18:14:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T22:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/?p=2151"},"modified":"2021-01-13T07:10:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T11:40:37","slug":"how-to-create-the-water-supply-network-of-a-building-in-plumber-by-importing-information-from-an-autocad-drawing-file","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/how-to-create-the-water-supply-network-of-a-building-in-plumber-by-importing-information-from-an-autocad-drawing-file\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create the Water Supply Network of a Building in PLUMBER by Importing Information from an AUTOCAD Drawing File"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the new features in the version 2.0 of PLUMBER is the ability to read a drawing file in AUTOCAD\u2019S DXF format and, from its graphic entities, such as lines, circles, and texts, identified by the user through drawing layers, to generate the objects needed for PLUMBER to perform the design and analysis of the water supply network in the building.<\/p>\n<p>In this tutorial, we\u2019ll present the procedure and conditions to perform the importing process from drawing files.<\/p>\n<h2>What is the DXF format?<\/h2>\n<p>DXF format (<em>Drawing Exchange Format<\/em>) \u201cis a CAD data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs.\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/AutoCAD_DXF%20\">Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>In simple terms, most of the software oriented to computer aided design (CAD) have the option to export their drawing files into this format, so as to ensure that they can be shared across similar applications. <strong>So all you need is to be sure (if AUTOCAD\u00ae is not the drawing software you use to generate your water supply network drawings) that the one you currently use has this option available, in order to benefit from this new feature in PLUMBER.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What is the Idea Behind Importing a Drawing file into PLUMBER?<\/h2>\n<p>The purpose of this option is based on the fact that most of the water supply systems designs in buildings (if not all) start with the definition, in a floor (architectonical) plan usually supplied in digital format, of the layout of pipes necessary for supplying the plumbing fixtures in the building.<\/p>\n<p>That is why we have argued that, with only some modifications to the drawing file on which you will make your water distribution plan layout, the network topology can be \u201cunderstood\u201d by PLUMBER. Here are some of the advantages from using this option:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list_check\">\n<li><strong>Reduced time to create the water distribution network,<\/strong> as it is no longer necessary to manual create each of the components within the software. Even applying the conditions mentioned later, it is possible that the same import process creates the sanitary fixtures and assigns them to their respective nodes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Virtually eliminating any error in data input<\/strong> from the base drawing layout to the water network to be designed with PLUMBER. The best example of this is that, when using this option, it is not necessary to read from the floor plan lengths that later will be manually introduced into the pipe data dialog, because the import process will automatically determine the value and will allocate them to the respective property, without intervention from the user.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Possibility of Creating Plan and Isometric drawings of the water network.<\/strong> Performing the importing from a drawing file containing the coordinates of which are the nodes and pipes vertices in the PLUMBER calculation model, will be possible from the same program to create plan and isometric views with text annotations containing resulting data from the design. So, this not only saves time in the project\u2019s drawings creation, but transcription errors are also reduced between software outcomes and the text to be presented on the final drawings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#e5c971;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFE38B;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">\nRegarding the last point, it is important that the user is aware that, in the new version, <strong>nodes and vertices that make up a pipe now have new properties: the respective X and Y coordinates, which will have 0 value for those water networks not created using the importing option.<\/strong> In this case, of course, the user may manually enter values \u200b\u200bfor the generation of the plan and isometrics views. It may take a little longer but eventually will be justified, considering how tedious it can be to generate isometric views, especially.<br \/>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h2>What conditions must drawing files fulfill to be imported by PLUMBER?<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cPreparation\u201d of the drawing file to be imported by PLUMBER <strong>starts by defining two drawing layers (inside your preferred drawing software) for each water distribution system<\/strong>. That is, if the water supply network to model includes, besides the piping for cold water, the required for conveying hot water, you need to create or define a maximum of four layers.<\/p>\n<p>So when you create a new water distribution in PLUMBER and <strong><em>select the DXF option on Import Panel of the Project tab<\/em><\/strong>, the following dialog will be shown:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3843\" title=\"importing-plumbing-network-from-an-autocad-dxf-drawing-file-dialog\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/01_importing-plumbing-network-from-an-autocad-dxf-drawing-file-dialog.jpg\" alt=\"importing-plumbing-network-from-an-autocad-dxf-drawing-file-dialog\" width=\"592\" height=\"528\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In this you must specify the following information:<\/p>\n<h4>1. DXF format file from which the drawing components of the plumbing system will be imported<\/h4>\n<p><strong><em>Pressing the button with the folder icon,<\/em><\/strong> the open file dialog will be shown in order to select the drawing file\u2019s location on your computer. If the file reading is correct, the path and drawing file\u2019s name will appear next to the aforementioned button.<\/p>\n<h4>2. Name of the drawing layers in which you have separated the cold water piping components.<\/h4>\n<p>Specifically, you&#8217;ll need to create or to group:<\/p>\n<h5>On \u201cNodes and Texts\u201d Layer:<\/h5>\n<p><strong>The Circle entities that identifies the location of cold water system nodes<\/strong> (union of more than two pipes and\/or where Sanitary Fixtures will be supplied with water). Also, in this layer, <strong>you must include single line text drawing entities, with names or labels for each node.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3844\" title=\"importing-nodes-to-the-water-plumbing-project\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/02_importing-nodes-to-the-water-plumbing-project.png\" alt=\"importing-nodes-to-the-water-plumbing-project\" width=\"725\" height=\"411\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In this case, you just should keep in mind the following conditions:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list_check\">\n<li><strong>The node\u2019s name text must be an AUTOCAD single line text<\/strong> <strong>type<\/strong> entity (\u201cText\u201d command) and not a multiple lines one (\u201cMText&#8221; command).<\/li>\n<li><strong>PLUMBER will assign the single line text contents (node\u00b4s name) to the closest detected Node to the text\u00b4s insertion point in the drawing<\/strong>. So be sure, especially on those points where the nodes are very close, that this condition is satisfied.<\/li>\n<li><strong>To identify nodes serving sanitary fixtures, you can use an abbreviation of three letters at the beginning of the single line text contents,<\/strong> so that the software will recognize it and assign it to the respective node, thus avoiding you the further editing of each node for this purpose. In the table below you&#8217;ll find the abbreviations:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"abreviaturas\"><\/a><\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" width=\"283\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\"><strong>Sanitary Fixture<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"125\"><strong>Initial 3 letters in Nodes Name<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Bathtub<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Bth<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Laundry tray<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Ltr<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Bidet<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Bid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Shower<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Shw<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Kitchen sink<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Ksn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Drinking fountain<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Dfn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Dishwasher<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Dws<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Lavatory<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Lav<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Service sink<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Ssn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Washing machine<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Wmc<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Garden hose<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Ghs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Urinal (Valve)<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Uri<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">WC Tank<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Wct<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">WC Valve<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Wcv<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Bathroom (Tank WC)<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Btk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Bathroom (Valve WC)<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Bvl<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Heater<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Htr<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"159\">Plumbing Riser<\/td>\n<td width=\"125\">Ris<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#167dc1;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#3097DB;border-color:#fcffff;color:#FFFFFF;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">\n<p>These abbreviations or codes can be entered in uppercase, lowercase, or mixed, i.e. <strong>it is valid to use any combination such as: Bth3, bth3 or BtH3 to specify a Bathtub, for example.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h5>On the \u201cCold Water Pipes\u201d Layer:<\/h5>\n<p><strong>Line or polyline type entities<\/strong> w<strong>ill be grouped, representing the pipes in the cold water distribution system.<\/strong> Note that if the pipe\u2019s horizontal alignment changes, you must use a polyline from the pipe\u00b4s start node to end node in order for the importing process to convert it as a single pipe and also, automatically, include the required 45\u00b0 or 90\u00b0 elbows (depending on the deflection angle) to the list of fittings.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3845\" title=\"Importing-Pipes-to-the-plumbing-project\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/03_Importing-Pipes-to-the-plumbing-project.png\" alt=\"Importing-Pipes-to-the-plumbing-project\" width=\"545\" height=\"487\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#e5c971;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFE38B;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">\n<p>You should take special care with not including, within the imported pipes layer, those lines representing the supplying pipe from node to the Sanitary Fixture (red line on the above image) since the calculation and design with PLUMBER considers this pipe to be included within the definition of the sanitary fixture, as detailed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/how-to-perform-the-water-supply-system-design-in-buildings-with-plumber\/#tubabas\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To avoid mistakenly importing and converting lines like those to pipelines in PLUMBER, which are usually of very short length compared to other pipes, has been included at the bottom of the import dialog (highlighted with No. 4 on the first figure in this article) the <strong><em>Do not import lines with length less than<\/em><\/strong> field, which, by default, will bring a value of 0.15 drawing units, assuming that each drawing unit is equivalent to 1 m long length.<br \/>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>3. Name of the layers in which you have grouped the hot water piping components.<\/h4>\n<p>If the plumbing system includes hot water piping, you must meet the same conditions relating to the cold water system case, but with some additional considerations:<\/p>\n<p><strong>You must not specify labels (single line text) for nodes on hot water system<\/strong>, that have sanitary fixtures associated:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3846\" title=\"importing-Hot-Water-Nodes-into-PLUMBER\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/04_importing-Hot-Water-Nodes-into-PLUMBER.png\" alt=\"importing-Hot-Water-Nodes-into-PLUMBER\" width=\"706\" height=\"421\" \/><\/p>\n<p>With regard to the above figure, you&#8217;ll see that only a name or text for Lav6 Sanitary Fixture (Lavatory 6) has been specified, although there are two nodes: one for cold water, in green color, and one for hot water, in white color. In the importing process, <strong>PLUMBER will determine, from the cold water system node\u2019s location, what is the nearest circle, in the respective hot water text and nodes layer, and store the information for posterior calculation and design<\/strong>, without specifying an additional node for that purpose.<\/p>\n<p>It is possible to set, through the <strong>Maximum Distance with cold water Nodes<\/strong> field in the import dialog, what value PLUMBER will use to define which are the hot water system nodes (circles) closest to a given cold water node:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3847\" title=\"Maximum-allowable.distance-between-nodes\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/05_Maximum-allowable.distance-between-nodes.png\" alt=\"Maximum-allowable.distance-between-nodes\" width=\"722\" height=\"385\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#167dc1;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#3097DB;border-color:#fcffff;color:#FFFFFF;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">\n<p>Thus, the only nodes in the hot water distribution system that should have an associated text with a label or name, will be those in which tee fittings will be necessary, i.e. where more than two pipes converge.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Fulfilling these simple conditions, you will see that the importing process and automatic water supply network creation is very simple, allowing you dedicate yourself to the analysis of results. When the import is done, a message will be presented reporting how many items have been imported into each system, if the case:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3848\" title=\"importing-results\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/06_importing-results.jpg\" alt=\"importing-results\" width=\"441\" height=\"210\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Reviewing the imported network<\/h2>\n<p>With the new option to display the Water Supply Network Plan drawing inside PLUMBER, <strong>you can (must) verify the similarity between the drawn network (the one you\u2019ve created in the drawing file) and those that PLUMBER \u201chas recognized\u201d through importing.<\/strong> So, go to the <strong><em>Results tab and click on Plan button inside the Plan and Isometrics Panel<\/em><\/strong>, to take a look at the water supply network annotated plan:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3849\" title=\"Visualizing-the-imported-network-inside-PLUMBER\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/07_Visualizing-the-imported-network-inside-PLUMBER.jpg\" alt=\"Visualizing-the-imported-network-inside-PLUMBER\" width=\"650\" height=\"588\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The DXF drawing file used in this example can be downloaded by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Network-Import.zip\">clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the new features in the version 2.0 of PLUMBER is the ability to read a drawing file in AUTOCAD\u2019S DXF format and, from its graphic entities, such as lines, circles, and texts, identified by the user through drawing layers, to generate the objects needed for PLUMBER to perform the design and analysis of the water supply network in the building.<\/p>\n<p>In this tutorial, we\u2019ll present the procedure and conditions to perform the importing process from drawing files.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[117,116],"class_list":["post-2151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plumber-en","tag-autocad-dxf-drawing","tag-water-supply-networks","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2151"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8126,"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151\/revisions\/8126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hidrasoftware.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}