In this video I would like to walk you through creating a mechanical system.
Once I am done with duct preferences, I can start placing equipment. In this case, I'll
place a 250 mm Series Fan-powered VAV box. After choosing the VAV box, I can use the
earlier, preset elevation for VAV box to specify the elevation for its placement. As I place
the VAV box into the drawing, I can use the compass to orientate it.
Similarly, I can place an air terminal to complete my equipment layout. In this case
I'll choose a "600 X 600 mm Square Plaque Face Ceiling Diffuser - 250 Mm Neck". AutoCAD
MEP, being a better, faster AutoCAD for MEP engineers, allows me to also assign engineering
data to the MEP objects. Here I can specify "125 l/s" for the air terminal.
Later, I can use the engineering data to perform calculations such as duct sizing, or even
generate automatic labels to complete my construction documents.
Now that the equipment is placed, I can begin to layout the duct work. Let's use the "Add
Duct" "+" plus grip on the VAV Box to start my duct layout. When I click on the grip,
it automatically inherits the connection properties for the shape and size of the duct.
AutoCAD MEP provides the ability to calculate the size of the duct while I draft, based
on the air flow to be supplied by the duct. In this case I'll select all "Air Terminals"
to calculate the size of the main duct.
Similarly, I can quickly calculate duct size, and then draw downstream duct segments. The
process is the same: select the air terminals, calculate the load, and the duct is sized.
While connecting equipment to ducts, or connecting one duct segment to another, AutoCAD MEP prompts
me and provides possible routing solutions to choose from. I can scroll through solutions,
and accept the one which best suits the design.
Finally, I will connect the last air terminal using the "Add Duct" "+" plus grip on the
elbow fitting, which not only starts a new duct segment, but also converts the "elbow
fitting" to "Tee fitting", allowing me to focus on the design, rather than the tools.
To have a closer look into my mechanical design I'll orient the drawing to the "SE view".
I can also change the visual style to "conceptual" to have a better visualization and understanding
of the design.
