Automatic Selection of Hole Size in Piping and HVAC

Description of Changes

This development adds to pipe and HVAC penetrations the ability to control hole size for standard hole types using catalogue hole size properties (AHDI, AHX and AHY), as already implemented in automatic hole creation on the Hole Management Utility form. It also adds the ability to include insulation thickness in hole size calculations.

Configuration of hole size properties in the catalogue is unchanged. This is described in the Hole Management section of the Design Common Functionality User Guide.

New Check functions have been added to Checker to test for orphaned penetration ATTA elements and to check for pipe or duct size changes made after a penetration has been created that have invalidated the hole. The hole management validation functions used on the main Hole Management form are unchanged.

Penetration creation for other disciplines is unchanged.

A minor user interface change has been made to most Hole Management forms to comply with our style guide. The OK button has been moved to the right hand side of each form next to the Cancel button.

Pipe Penetrations

The Piping Application Hole Management Definition form has been changed to add new hole size control functions. This form is accessed from Piping Application menu Utilities > Pipe Penetration > Create Penetration.

The old Penetrating Item Clearance panel has been replaced by the Hole Size Options panel. The old Clearance field has been renamed to Minimum Clearance.

A new option Default Size has been added to control how hole size is derived from the model for holes in the Class Standard Types. The Insulation toggle has been added to indicate whether insulation thickness should be included in the hole size calculation. Default Size and Insulation has no effect on user defined hole types.

Merged holes ignore the Default Size option and work as before. Default Size and Insulation is greyed out for merged holes.

Default Size Options

Pipe

Uses pipe OD + 2 * clearance as it does now. The system adds 2 * Clearance to the minimum size of the hole. Hole size will increase if necessary to be the minimum hole size. Hole size parameters are not reduced to the minimum calculated size unless the Set to Minimum button is clicked.

Catalogue hole size parameters are ignored, and the user has full control over the hole size, provided that it is bigger than the minimum hole size.

When Default Size is set to Catalogue, the system chooses how to calculate the hole size based on the local conditions at each penetration.

If the system finds a pipe component that can control the size of the hole (for example, COUP or adjacent FLAN) and that component has a hole size specified by an AHDI property, then the value of the property is used, and Clearance is ignored.

If the system does not find a pipe component that can control the size of the hole then tube size is used and Minimum Clearance is applied (pipe OD + 2 * clearance).

When the Catalogue option is used, the hole size parameters are automatically set to the calculated hole size, and the Diameter parameter is greyed out.

When Insulation is selected, insulation thickness is added to the minimum hole size calculation.

Pipe + Insulation

Adds insulation thickness if set (pipe OD + 2 * clearance + 2 * insulation thickness)

Catalogue + Insulation

Adds 2 * insulation thickness to the hole size calculated at each penetration.

HVAC Penetrations

The HVAC Application Hole Management Definition form has been changed to add new hole size control functions. This form is accessed from HVAC Application menu Utilities > HVAC Penetration > Create Penetration.

In principle, HVAC penetrations behave in the same way as described above for Pipe.

Duct

Uses HVAC component size + 2 * clearance as it does now.

The Insulation option behaves as described for Pipe.

The Catalogue option behaves in the same way as described for Pipe. When Default Size is set to Catalogue, the system chooses how to calculate the hole size based on the local conditions at each penetration.

If the system finds a HVAC component that can control the size of the hole and that component has a hole size specified by AHDI, AHX or AHY properties, then the value of the property is used, and Clearance is ignored.

If the system does not find an HVAC component that can control the size of the hole then duct size is used and Minimum Clearance is applied (pipe OD + 2 * clearance).

When the Catalogue option is used, the hole size parameters are automatically set to the calculated hole size, and the relevant hole size parameters are greyed out.

Hole Management Utility

An Insulation toggle has been added to the Create Holes panel on the Hole Management Utility form.

If Insulation is selected, then 2 * Insulation thickness (as returned by the INTHK pseudo attribute) is added to the hole size for holes created using the Auto Penetrate CE and Create Hole buttons.

Otherwise, the Auto Penetrate CE and Create Hole functions are unchanged. They use Catalogue hole size parameters where possible (with no clearance applied), and if catalogue hole size parameters are not available then pipe OD or HVAC duct size is used with clearance applied.

Hole Modification

The Default Size selection in use when a hole is created is recorded in the hole data and this information is used when a hole is modified. Since holes in existing projects do not have this data recorded then the Pipe or Duct Default Size option is selected and the Insulation option is not selected.

Hole size is determined from catalogue parameters and insulation thickness at the time that the hole is created. If these values, or the basic pipe/duct size, change after a hole is created, this will not be reflected automatically in the hole size. Two new Checker functions have been added to test for this case.

Hole Management Checker Functions

A Hole Management class has been added to the Data Checker utility. This contains three groups:

Note:
There are limitations in the hole size tests. It is advisable to check for Data Consistency errors before using these checks otherwise validation failures can be missed.

These tests compare the current hole parameters with parameters calculated using the hole penetration marker (i.e. the penetration ATTA), or if there is a penetration component, its AHDI, AHX or AHY parameters.

For example, where branch component bore has been increased (including the penetration ATTA) then the test will fail if the required hole size is greater than the current hole size.

Where a penetrating pipe or duct size has been changed, but the size of the penetrating ATTA has not been changed then a validation error will not be detected. This case should trapped using Data Consistency checks.

These tests only report cases where the current hole size is smaller than the required size. If the required hole size is smaller than the current hole size then the test is passed.