About Rigid Routes

Before creating a route or a branch, you need to select one of the options available in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > Fluid Systems > Piping and Tubing 3D Design > General > Select 3D Shape Representation for Route. to define the type of representation.

This section describes the directional point behavior.

When you start creating a route from a port, a directional point appears for you to maintain the port direction and ensure a straight portion between the port and the directional point.

If you bend the route directly after the directional point, a computed node appears.

The offset of the computed node is calculated so as to keep the straight distance between the reference point of the port and the directional point. The computed node is displayed in the Node edit table dialog box with the same bend radius as the directional point but is not editable.

The length between the port and the directional point is managed through the Directional Length table. For more information, see Directional Length.

Each time a directional point is created or modified, use the Directional Length table to retrieve the right value to apply. If only one matching value is found, this value is automatically applied to create the directional point. If several matching values are found, the Directional Length Table appears to let you choose a value to create the directional point. Make sure you have selected Maintain Straight Route from Port in Me > Preferences.

The following commands are impacted:

• Create Route from Port
• Part Placement on Segment
• Resize
• Comply with Spec
• Branch Route
• Slide a Part

You can verify the route properties using the Route Information command.

To verify the route properties, double-click the route and click Route Information that appears on the right side of the work area.

The first part of the dialog box shows the line ID information. If the pipe/tube is not linked to the line ID, then these lines do not appear.

The second part the dialog box shows the pipe/tube information, such as nominal size, end style, thickness, directional length, etc.

The third part gives information about the length and the rotation of angles. These attributes are displayed in the dialog box only when you edit the pipe/tube.

If the standard and nominal size are different, insert an additional naming: LineID and Route for pipe/tube.

When manipulating a route in some commands such as Move Node, Adjust Layout, or Segment Manipulation, verify the minimum straight length of the current segment and the two adjacent segments.

If the length of one of these segments gets smaller than the minimum straight length, the node is snaps to a position where the minimum straight length is equal to the length of the segment.

The flow refers to the direction of the fluid in the pipe/tube.

The flow value of the two ports at the ends of the pipe/tube is always IN/OUT and is not editable.

There are two default options stored in the system, one when you create a route from the action bar and another when you double-click a route in the work area to edit it.

When you create a route, keep the choice of the command for the next created routes. If you change the choice of the first point creation, this second choice is kept for the next created routes. This behavior is the same when you edit a route.

The center bend radius is for circular shape.

The center bend radius must be higher than the half diameter of the route. Center bend radius = 0 is supported and results in a sharp bend.

With an Engineering Specification Data Setup, a route reference is an object and is stored in catalogs. So during the route reference creation or modification, the editable attributes are copied from the object reference of the catalog to the current route reference, including the customer attributes. The following commands are impacted:

• Create or edit route
• Resize
• Split
• Comply with specification

You can use the level of detail (LOD) mechanism in the Piping & Tubing Design apps to improve the performance of the 3D view handling. For more information, see Visual Quality Management.

When using the LOD mechanism, replace 3D pipes/tubes by a dashed line representing their centerline.

If you are using old data, you need to upgrade them. For more information, see Upgrading or Cleaning Route Geometry.