MEP engineers often need to insert plenty of support elements for ducts, pipes, cable trays, etc. It would be best to distribute hangers and supports along MEP elements automatically. And we have a solution for that!
Using Smart Hangers software, which is AGACAD’s application for Revit®, you do not need to manually distribute hanging or supporting elements for line based MEP objects like duct, pipe, cable tray, or conduits. It places duct hangers along the duct automatically.
It also has integrated split functionality of any MEP line based element: pipe, duct, cable tray, or conduit. Revit extension Smart Hangers splits MEP curves into segments by predefined lengths and attaches the distributed elements to any type of the constructions as well.
Easy to use and customizable application for placing hangers and joints in Revit has a lot of users who sometimes send us their questions about Smart Hangers usage. Therefore, I have decided to collect the most common ones and provide some answers in this blog post. Let’s start:
Q: Do the hangers reference link structural files? As typically all our models are linked to our plumbing model.
A: Application for Revit Smart Hangers can find structural or architectural elements in linked files and attach your MEP elements to them. As the example: Plumbing pipes are placed in the regular model and the structural floor is linked. I place hangers on pipes and at the same moment I can define that the hanger should connect to the floor above. It will look for the floor above and attach the hanger to it.
Q: Can we add Trimble point to the family hanger for reference and set out?
A: Yes, you can add a Trimble point to a family. Our hanger families are simple Revit families so you can modify them easily.
Q: Can we get a host parameter to tag and schedule them? For example, so we can make the right reference form the suspension in a schedule.
A: If you need to see the host element name or some host parameters, we have a technology for this. You can review some of the features in our another BIM solution BIM Tree Manager. Right now, using BIM Tree Manager software, we can get such information:
Q: In the full version of Smart Hangers is the possibility of several types of suspension. Vertical hosted suspension on a sloped pipe, duct, etc.? Does this software have the opportunity to make families after a product-specific suspension?
A: Of course, vertical hosted suspension on a sloped pipe is possible. You can find this in a sample project of Smart Hangers. We are using certain parameter to rotate clamp by the same inclination as pipe or duct has.
Usually, we say that we only develop the technology for distribution of hangers. Also we have 25 hangers as bonus for our clients. But in some cases, if you need a larger library of different types of hangers, we can build, for an additional charge, some families individually for you that will perfectly work with our Smart Hangers solution.
BIM solution Smart Hangers provides you with a quick and easy way to layout supports and hangers. It also supports IFC format.
If you would like to save money for surcharge by creating hanger families yourself, there are a few tips for you that will help you create hanger that works with Smart Hangers solution. Basically you will have to define some parameters, which are described in this software’s technical documentation – please look at page No 40 and onward.
Q: Is it possible to make a hanger type parameter with x, y and z coordinates.
A: There is a possibility to calculate elevation of the element using our other tool for Revit named Sort Mark. You can read more about it here: https://agacad.com/blog/how-to-find-element-coordinates-and-elevation.
I think that is enough of Q&A for this time. Please feel free to contact us with any questions that you have concerning AGACAD BIM software, and our support team will try to answer them within 24 hours (Typical response time is within 1-3 hours during standard business hours of our team).
