Mechanical piping benefits greatly from systems in Revit MEP 2012. Graphics, annotations, flow, and pressure loss can all be handled with a small amount of setup in your project template. Pipe systems also allow filters to apply to all components in the system, including the fittings. As discussed earlier in this chapter, Revit MEP 2012 provides enhancements in
how systems behave. Also, the enhanced System Browser acts as a graphical pointer to the designer with regard to how objects are connected in systems; it also has a huge benefit on how the actual systems perform.
The first of these benefits is the ability to predefine the system in which pipes (and ducts) are created, allowing layouts to be designed without the need to set up systems in the first place.
This allows the designer to create Hot Water (HW) and Cold Water (CW) pipe runs with graphical filters already in place to display the different systems being created.
Second, this allows for different systems to be interconnected. In previous versions of Revit MEP, it was necessary to employ a variety of workarounds in order to have, for example, a sanitary pipe system connected to a vent pipe system. Now, in Revit MEP 2012, all designers have to do is specify the system type they want to create. Figure 9.16 displays Sanitary and Vent pipe
systems with the system Sanitary 2 selected.
As the design progresses, systems may need to be merged with these new ″systemless″systems. All the user has to do is connect the two systems together. Figure 9.17 shows that, after the two sanitary systems are joined, they effectively become one system with no further interaction
required.
