NOTICE!

ParaPIPE draws pipe and fittings using size parameters in an external data file named PIPEFIT.DAT.

Although every effort has been made within PIPEFIT.DAT to faithfully tabulate the dimensions of pipe and fittings contained in the American Pipe Manual, ParaCADD shall not be responsible for the correctness and accuracy of the data contained in PIPEFIT.DAT. If you discover errors or omissions in PIPEFIT.DAT please kindly bring them to our attention. ParaPIPE is provided AS-IS and without warranty of any kind. Unlicensed use of ParaPIPE is expressly forbidden. Use of ParaPIPE is confirmation of your agreement to the following:

1. Any use of ParaPIPE is exclusively at your own risk; and,
2. No warranty of any kind is made to you or anyone regarding ParaPIPE or its suitability for any purpose; and,
3. You are responsible for your designs. ParaPIPE and its makers are not responsible in any way for your designs whether or not ParaPIPE is used to create your designs either in whole or in part.
4. You have either purchased a license to use ParaPIPE or less than 30 days have passed since your receipt of a trial copy of ParaPIPE.
5. You will not use ParaPIPE beyond one period of thirty consecutive days after your first use without having a valid license to use it.
6. The laws of the State of North Carolina, USA, shall have jurisdiction over all legal matters arising from your use of ParaPIPE or this notice.

Licensed users may edit PIPEFIT.DAT. To aid such users in managing their data the Excel spreadsheet named PIPEFIT.XLS is provided on the licensed product CD.

All ParaPIPE pipe and fitting drawing is started from this dialog. The image in the top right corner is dynamically updated to show what will be drawn based upon your parameters.

Image colors shown are not representative of color settings except for those of pipe and reducers representations. Representative images used for fittings are static slides in green, representative images of pipe and reducers used are dynamically drawn based upon color and connection settings.

ParaPIPE Opening dialog

Parameters are set using the buttons and pulldowns in this dialog.

One of the pipe or fitting buttons must be selected initially before any drawing can be done by ParaPIPE.

It is always the user's responsibility to determine if any particular pipe or fitting size, material, and connection type is actually available and appropriate.

The type of connection for all fittings is set from the "Type" menus found on this main dialog and all of the fitting options dialogs (except for reducers and pipe).

Reducers and Pipe both allow setting a separate connection type for each end which are independent of the setting for all other fittings. These settings must be made from the Pipe and Reducers options dialogs.

The material for all fittings is set from the "Material" menu found on this main dialog. The material setting is only used within "Data Tag" objects created in conjunction with the drawing of pipe and fittings.

Data tags are only created when the "Draw creates: Data Tag" toggle is checked in the Drawing and Display Options dialog.

User settings made from this dialog control color, linetype, and base layers used in drawing pipe and fittings.

Status selection determines the single last character of the CLG Base Layer which divides pipe and fittings into four (4) groups; "existing to remain", "existing to be demolished", "future", and "new work".

See the Drawing and Display Options dialog for display control by status.

Each of the color and linetype swatches can be double-clicked to set them.

ParaPIPE uses CLG Doctor, a ParaCADD product, to manage the specification of the base layer used. All other parts of layer names used is controlled by ParaPIPE.

A full version of CLG Doctor is included with ParaPIPE licenses.

When CLG Doctor is called from within ParaPIPE only Major and Minor CLG group specifications can be made.

CLG Doctor may be run in its full version when ParaPIPE is loaded. Type CLG at the command prompt to start the full version of CLG Doctor.

All entities drawn by ParaPIPE have color and linetype "bylayer". To accomplish this the layer names must contain a color code.

The designations (IDs) shown are single characters used in the construction of the layer names. The ID is always the seventh (7th) character of ParaPIPE layer names. Any single ID can only be assigned a single color from the choices availble in the row(s) that ID is on.

Users may also set any color for any ParaPIPE layer using AutoCAD's layer tools.

The same layer name, differing only in its linetype designation, is able to become 9 different linetype-specific layers. All entities drawn by ParaPIPE have color and linetype "bylayer". To accomplish this the layer names must contain a linetype code.

The designations shown are single characters used in the construction of the layer names used. This designation is always the second (2nd) character of ParaPIPE layer names.

As you can see, there are a limited number of characters to specify linetypes with. We arbitrarily settled on these 9 standard AutoCAD linetypes..

Users may specify any linetype whether included in these 9 or not for any ParaPIPE layer using AutoCAD's layer tools. That is what drawing "bylayer" is all about.

Several display tools and drawing options are available in this dialog.

"Display Scale" allows the user to automatically filter ParaPIPE's layers to display only the appropriate representation of each size in the piping design for a selected scale. If the double-line wall separation would be less than 1/8" plotted at the selected scale then the single-line representation is shown. Otherwise, the double-line representation is shown.

"Draw creates:" tells ParaPIPE what to include when drawing pipe and fittings. For example, when creating a detail that will always be plotted at just one scale there may be no need for both single-line and double-line representations, or hiding solids, or tag data. Check only the features needed; however, it is always easier to turn off unnecessary feature layers than it is to recreate those features later. When in doubt instruct ParaPIPE to create ALL features.

The "View Tags" button toggles the ATTDISP system variable between "Normal" and "On". Tags, where the user has elected to create them, are invisible attributes within the blocks "ATTFIT" and "ATTPIPE". It may be necessary to regen to see them after ATTDISP is set to "On".

"Display Group" provides layer on/off filtering based on the status the user selects in the CLG Layer Settings dialog

Hiding objects are used in conjunction with the current elevation and hidden line removal. If some pipe and fittings are drawn using a higher elevation than others and hiding objects were created with them then hidden line removal will cause all piping and other linework drawn crossing them at a lower elevation to be hidden at plot time. Hidden line removal for floating viewports is a viewport property. Use the mview command to set it. Hidden line removal in paper space is a plot dialog setting. The DRAWORDER command may also be used to affect the appearance of any objects either above or below others.

Users may preserve their settings for a project or within a project for different types or presentations of piping and easily restore those settings from external settings files.

If external settings files are stored within the drawing folder, the list generated includes them automatically.

When the user restores an external setting file from locations outside of the drawing folder it is added to the list for easy recall at any time during the current session.

Select the parameters for fitting placement.

Insert mode places the fitting at the centerline intersection point.
Continue mode snaps to previously placed fittings (if any) and "continues" the fitting placement from that point. The rotation of the snapped to fitting is sensed, the snap angle is made perpendicular to the fitting face, and, with the help of the ortho lock, the next fitting is placed neatly mated with the prior fitting. A small white cross is shown at the placement origin for the selected mode. Alternate placement orientations, if any, are shown as gray phantom lines.

Each pipe or fitting has its own specific parameter options for placement.

Once the parameters have been set pick the OK button to return to the ParaPIPE main dialog to draw the part. The dialog image is dynamically updated in both the fitting options dialog and the main ParaPIPE dialog.

The Draw button initiates drawing the fitting shown in the image.

Each pipe or fitting has its own specific parameter options for placement.

Select the parameters for fitting placement.

Insert mode places the fitting at the centerline intersection point.
Continue mode snaps to previously placed fittings (if any) and "continues" the fitting placement from that point. The rotation of the snapped to fitting is sensed, the snap angle is made perpendicular to the fitting face, and, with the help of the ortho lock, the next fitting is placed neatly mated with the prior fitting.

Once the parameters have been set pick the OK button to return to the ParaPIPE main dialog to draw the part. The dialog image is dynamically updated in both the fitting options dialog and the main ParaPIPE dialog.

The Draw button initiates drawing the fitting shown in the image.

Select the parameters for fitting placement.

Insert mode places the fitting at the centerline intersection point.
Continue mode snaps to previously placed fittings (if any) and "continues" the fitting placement from that point. The rotation of the snapped to fitting is sensed, the snap angle is made perpendicular to the fitting face, and, with the help of the ortho lock, the next fitting is placed neatly mated with the prior fitting.

Once the parameters have been set pick the OK button to return to the ParaPIPE main dialog to draw the part. The dialog image is dynamically updated in both the fitting options dialog and the main ParaPIPE dialog.

The Draw button initiates drawing the fitting shown in the image.

Select the parameters for fitting placement.

Insert mode places the fitting at the centerline intersection point.
Continue mode snaps to previously placed fittings (if any) and "continues" the fitting placement from that point. The rotation of the snapped to fitting is sensed, the snap angle is made perpendicular to the fitting face, and, with the help of the ortho lock, the next fitting is placed neatly mated with the prior fitting.

Once the parameters have been set pick the OK button to return to the ParaPIPE main dialog to draw the part. The dialog image is dynamically updated in both the fitting options dialog and the main ParaPIPE dialog.

The Draw button initiates drawing the pipe shown in the image.

Each pipe or fitting has its own specific parameter options for placement.

Insert mode places the fitting at the centerline intersection point.
Continue mode snaps to previously placed fittings (if any) and "continues" the fitting placement from that point. The rotation of the snapped to fitting is sensed, the snap angle is made perpendicular to the fitting face, and, with the help of the ortho lock, the next fitting is placed neatly mated with the prior fitting. A small white cross is shown at the placement origin for the selected mode. Alternate placement orientations, if any, are shown as gray phantom lines.

Once the parameters have been set pick the OK button to return to the ParaPIPE main dialog to draw the part. The dialog image is dynamically updated in both the fitting options dialog and the main ParaPIPE dialog.

The Draw button initiates drawing the fitting shown in the image.

Each pipe or fitting has its own specific parameter options for placement.

Select the parameters for valve placement.

Insert mode places the valve at the centerline intersection point.
Continue mode snaps to previously placed fittings (if any) and "continues" the valve placement from that point. The rotation of the snapped to fitting is sensed, the snap angle is made perpendicular to the fitting face, and, with the help of the ortho lock, the valve is placed neatly mated with the prior fitting.

Once the parameters have been set pick the OK button to return to the ParaPIPE main dialog to draw the part. The dialog image is dynamically updated in both the valve options dialog and the main ParaPIPE dialog.

The Draw button initiates drawing the valve shown in the image.

Select the parameters for fitting placement.

Insert mode places the fitting at the centerline intersection point.
Continue mode snaps to previously placed fittings (if any) and "continues" the fitting placement from that point. The rotation of the snapped to fitting is sensed, the snap angle is made perpendicular to the fitting face, and, with the help of the ortho lock, the next fitting is placed neatly mated with the prior fitting.

Once the parameters have been set pick the OK button to return to the ParaPIPE main dialog to draw the part. The dialog image is dynamically updated in both the fitting options dialog and the main ParaPIPE dialog.

The Draw button initiates drawing the fitting shown in the image.

Each pipe or fitting has its own specific parameter options for placement.