Controlling pipe orientation?

[mschubert-2]

How can I control the orientation of my pipes (both spec / non-spec)? When I route a line, e.g. through a datum point array, the pipeline seems to rotate by 90 degrees at some (but not all?) bends.

This is annoying for placement of fittings and disrupts rectangular pipelines 😞

Does anyone know how to keep the pipe in one orientation or rotate it after routing?

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[jsarkar]

first you need to delete all the fittings like bends etc. for the segments which you need to change .

then you need replace the appropriate segment, in this ways you can rotate the required segments without rotating all the segments.

Regards,

Jayanta Sarkar

[mschubert-2]

But how can i rotate a single segment in a pipeline?

If i try to build the pipeline from unattatched segments the corners aren't mitered. If I route in one go it keeps rotating.

[jsarkar]

I think I misunderstood in previous post, Your rectangular pipe lines are getting roated 90deg while you r routing? is that your problem? I have not done rectangular piping yet. I think you need to case log.

[mschubert-2]

Yes, that's my problem. The Screenshot above was taken in WF4 M140, in Creo2 M040 the rectangular pipe seems to be okay.

In both builds fittings are facing in (seemingly) random directions - so it is also an issue for circular pipes. The branches below were all fitted with the same angle/orientation, but can't agree which way to face 😕

[gkoch]

So we are talking about the Twist Angle of fittings.

At least in non-spec-driven piping I believe it should be possible to change it, redefining the fittings Orientation (assuming nothing has been attached to the T-ports yet).

For spec-driven, I can't tell.

[mschubert-2]

The twist angle of fittings isn't so much the problem as the twist angle of the pipe itself.

I can re-orientate fittings or change the angle during placement, but i'd like to not do this everytime the pipeline changes direction.

So what I'm looking for is a way to control the local c-sys that piping seems to be using during routing. If (local) Z is the direction the pipeline is following, then (local) X should always face away from the upper side a given global datum plane / an axis of an global c-sys.

I think the internal mechanism for routing is the same in spec and non-spec driven piping.

[gkoch]

I am not sure, whether this helps. It's information from a developer some years ago for Wildfire 3.0 about how Pro/ENGINEER automatically places a fitting when inserting it into a pipeline:

• Fitting's ports are used for alignment
  • The port with END_TYPE parameter, in most cases it is port0
• Z axis of the fitting's port will be aligned with the segment the fitting is placed on.
• Y axis will be aligned to a vector calculated as follows, with respect to the default csys of the model:
  1. If the segment is on XZ plane of the default CSYS, then the vector would equal Y axis of the default CSYS.
  2. If the segment is parallel to Y axis of the default CSYS, then the vector would equal X axis of the default CSYS.
  3. Otherwise - a vector will be calculated towards Y axis, along a line formed by intersecting the plane that is perpendicular to the pipe segment, and the plane common to Y axis and the segment.
• The rotation angle influence the way Y axis of the fitting's port will be rotated about Z axis.
• If placing a fitting on a free port (instead of the segment) then the same algorithm is used, with replacing the vector that follows a pipe segment, with the Z axis of the selected port.