Sloping piping

The data structure for piping includes two new concepts for better handling of slopes or falls:

• An adaptive or "wobbly" P-point that can accommodate a specified range of angles – this is achieved by introducing a tolerance attribute OFFTOL on all types of P-point (in Paragon). A PDIR pseudo-attribute defines the actual direction, which must be within the tolerance of the nominal direction

• A Slope element or SLOELE, in a Slope table or SLOTAB, that can be referenced by the SLOREF of a SPEC, PIPE or BRANCH to specify default, minimum and maximum slope

The introduction of these new concepts has no effect on existing Cats & Specs or models. The new features are used in Quick Pipe Routing and also for sloping existing orthogonal piping. The Paragon GUI has been extended to cover Slope Tables.

The pipe creation form has an additional option for selecting from a list of slopes and the modify pipe form has the same option for setting branch values. The older pipe and branch modification forms have also been changed to include new options for slopes. Note: If the SLOREF attribute is set at pipe level, it is automatically inherited by new branches.

The Model editor has been extensively revised to handle elbows (as well as bends) and the new P-point options, as well as adding slope options to the menus. A new form can assist in applying a slope to an existing pipe, including all the branches within it. To display it, navigate to an existing pipe and select Modify>Pipe Slope...

For full details, please refer to the Piping User Guide.