Fired up over Hydrants

Hydrants are a feature people have been wanting since pressure pipes were added to Civil 3D, but have you ever tried to place one in your drawing? Where are the darn hydrants? There is a Hydrant category under the PVC parts list, but you have to manipulate the settings, like all the great functions in C3D, in order to find it. Here’s how we “put out the fire”, and added the Hydrant to our parts list.

Start with setting your ‘Pressure Network Catalog’ to PVC. To do this, from the Home tab, click the drop down next to ‘Create Design’. The tool on the lower left of this pull down will allow you to change what parts catalog you are using. Select PVC.

 

Return to the Home tab and click on ‘Pipe Network’, select ‘Pressure Network Creation Tools’. When the ‘Create Pressure Pipe Network’ dialog box pops up, under ‘Parts List’, select the drop down next to ‘Edit Current Selection’, and select ‘Create New’.

This prompts the ‘Pressure Network Parts List’ – “New Part List” function to appear.  Name your parts list. If you have ample time you can opt to choose your materials, select what pipes, fittings, and appurtenances you want to use. If not, just simply give the new list a name allowing you to move on to actually locating the elusive Hydrant… 

Right click on your newly created parts list and click on ‘Add type.’  At the bottom of the list is the Hydrant – click on the plus sign to expand the Hydrant category and select the Hydrant by clicking the box to the left. Click ok to save.

Click on the box next to ‘Hydrant_MJ’.

  

Don’t stop here – you still have to select the size of Hydrant. We weren’t joking when we called it elusive.  Expand your “New Parts List” and right click on Hydrant_MJ. Select ‘Add size’ and select the  ‘Add all sizes’ option, as shown below.

To add a hydrant to your design, draw your pipe network, select the hydrant on the dropdown for appurtenances, and click on ‘Add Appurtenance’. You can now click on your pipe network and add in a hydrant where you need one.

With that, you can now add fire hydrants to your drawing! Check out the video below to see all of the steps described, and others available at ADSK Solutions. For further training and questions, please email info@ADSKsolutions.com.

-Tyler McMillin, E.I.T.