Would you like to have the radius of auto-placed elbows be relative to the diameter of the duct or pipe?

It is a simple process to set the auto-fitting options for pipes and round/rectangular ducts.

For Piping:

1. Select Elbow in the Plumbing components placement task list to start to place an elbow.
2. Clear out the CatalogName field if it isn't empty.  (If you have an active catalog then you can only place items from that catalog)
3. In the DataGroup Instance Data dialog, right-click on the word "AutoSize"
4. Choose one of these options:
   1. Radius:  This will draw all the auto-fitting elbows at the current fixed radius regardless of the pipe diameter.  (never a good choice when placing plumbing)
   2. RadToDiam:  This will set the radius of each auto-fitting elbow based on the a fixed R/D ratio and the diameter of the duct.
5. Set the R/D Ratio to what you want.  (1.0 for short radius elbows; 1.5 for standard or long radius/ sweep elbows)
6. Right-click again on the word "AutoSize" and choose "Set as Default AutoFitting Option"
7. You are ready to start placing pipe!

 

For Round Duct:

1. Select Elbow in the round placement task list to start to place an elbow.
2. Clear out the CatalogName field if it isn't empty.  (If you have an active catalog then you can only place items from that catalog)
3. In the DataGroup Instance Data dialog, right-click on the word "AutoSize"
4. Choose one of these options:
   1. Radius:  This will draw all the auto-fitting elbows at the current fixed radius regardless of the duct diameter.  (not always a great choice)
   2. RadToDiam:  This will set the radius of each auto-fitting elbow based on the a fixed R/D ratio and the diameter of the duct.  
5. Set the R/D Ratio to what you want.  (.5, .75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 are common choices in the US)
6. Right-click again on the word "AutoSize" and choose "Set as Default AutoFitting Option"
7. You are ready to start routing round ductwork!

For Radius Elbows in Rectangular Ductwork:

1. Select Elbow in the round placement task list to start to place an elbow.
2. Clear out the CatalogName field if it isn't empty.  (If you have an active catalog then you can only place items from that catalog)
3. In the DataGroup Instance Data dialog, right-click on the word "AutoSize"
4. Choose AutoSize Options to open the AutoSize options dialog.
5. In the pick list choose an option:
   1. inradius:  This will draw all the inside radius of the auto-fitting elbows at the current fixed radius in field R1.  The outside radius will be R1 + W1 or R1 + D1 depending on the direction of the elbow.
   2. r/d = <value>:  This will set the centerline radius of each autofitting elbow equal to Depth1 (D1) x <value>.  
6. Right-click again on the word "AutoSize" and choose "Set as Default AutoFitting Option"
7. You are ready to start routing rectangular ductwork!

Tip: To set your default elbow in rectangular ductwork to a mitered elbow, see: Setting Default Auto Fittings Options

This article applies to both v8 XM and v8i versions of Bentley Mechanical Systems