CHAPTER 4

4 Multi Discipline Framework Support

This chapter explains how to create a Multi Discipline Framework Support to include PIPES, HVAC and
CABLE CONTAINMENT.

4.1 Framework Support Hierarchy

The hierarchy for a framework type support (image right) is

shown in the diagram below, the red boxed elements are the
Design Databases in the support hierarchy, the green boxes
are the structural templates and elements of the hierarchy and
the blue boxes are the support components and ancillaries.

In principle, each framework support (SUPPO) owns a

structure (STRU) and at least one component (SUPC) which
in turn owns an ancillary (ANCI).

4.2 Supports Auto-naming

The Supports AutoNaming facility is a project wide facility enabling multiple users to create supports in
sequential order. The default file DES-SUPP-NAMES is selected by default on entry to the application. The
user may select different default files to use.

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 The Supports module does not allow the use of a full stop within the name. This is because subsequent
members are named by Supports as <Support Name>. Integer.

To modify or query the default file being used select Autoname from the Settings
group on the SUPPORTS tab to display the Supports AutoNaming File form.

The user can select a new default file if required or reset the index being used.

The format of the name in created by the use of:

Prefix: The prefix to be used in the support

name eg.PS.

Index: The sequential index.

Suffix: The suffix to be used in the support

name.

Index Width: The width of the index value, this

will add preceding zero’s (00000) if
the generated number width is less
than the index width.

Min Index: The minimum index number that

the naming file will use.

Max Index: The maximum index number that

the naming file will use.

The prefix and suffix may be a text string or PML

expression enabling the use of attributes etc to be
used in the support name.

 The configuration of Supports AutoNaming is covered in the TM-1865 AVEVA Everything3D 2.1
Supports Administration training guide.

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4.3 View setup for Framework Creation

This training example uses the Multi Discipline Support Standard XFT09. The Training Project provided
contains a group to assist in the setting up of the 3D View.

As the following image shows, add the GPSET Area02-Supports to the 3D view.

From the Model Explorer, navigate to

AREA02_WS_AXIS_WS.3 and click Create button
from the Clip group on the VIEW tab.

This creates a clipping box around the selected

framework and enables the Clip and Modify toggles.

To adjust the dimensions, double click on the clip box

in the 3D view to activate grips and axis.

As shown, pull the grip arrow in the E direction to

extend the Xlength.

Enter value 2000mm in the canvas and press

<Enter>.

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Pull the grip arrow in the W direction.

Enter value 4000mm in the canvas and press

<Enter>.

Disable the Modify toggle to remove the yellow box and see the
clipped area.

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4.4 Creating a Multi Discipline Framework Support – A Worked Example

Set the support creation zone to ZONE-SUPPORTS-AREA02-WORKSHOP as explained earlier.

Make sure that the Pipe Clearance is set to 50mm (according to exercise 2).

To create a Multi Discipline Framework Support, from the SUPPORTS tab, select the Framework icon,
located in the Create group to display the Frameworks gallery.

The gallery displays thumbnails of all the framework types available within the project and places them into
categories of Cable Tray Frameworks, HVAC Frameworks, Multi Discipline Frameworks and Guide
Frameworks. For the purpose of this training exercise the XFT09 Multi Discipline Framework will be selected.

The Prompt message on the top centre of the canvas

will prompt the user to Identify tube of datum pipe
or support.

Select the pipe 02100-B-40 close to where the framework

support is required.

This will display the Ancillary Selection form.

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4.5 Ancillary Selection

The Ancillary Selection form allows the user to select an individual ancillary from the selection available
in the project.

The Ancillary Selection form displays the available and unavailable ancillaries related to the selected
pipe’s specification. The selection may include Bore, Material, Insulation, Temperature and Elevation.

The specifications of the selected pipe Bore, Material, Insulation, Temperature and Elevation are
displayed at the bottom of the form.

To assist in selection the user can use the List by Type

drop down menu. Selecting each option will filter the list
accordingly.

The Ancillary Selection form also allows the user to filter

the elements via an input into the text field at the top of
the Standard or Description columns

In this case Pipe Shoe will return all

items with “Pipe Shoe” in the
descriptive text of the item.

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Select the XAT001 – Pipe shoe for N.B. 3/4” to 20” ancillary.

The simple sketch of the support in the Preview window helps to make the right selection.

A plot file of the selected support, showing the

location of all of the dimensions can also be
browsed by clicking the View Standard…
button.

After the selection is made, click the OK button.

The support will be created and positioned

downstream of the previous piping component
to the position selected in the model and the
Support Editor form is displayed.

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4.6 Support Editor Form

The Support Editor form is used to set all the items on the
framework.

The buttons and options, which appear for each support type,
are dependent on its usage and orientation. Consequently not
all buttons and options appear on every Support Editor form
or can be used in every orientation. Any buttons that are not
required by the particular standard will be deactivated, i.e.
greyed out.

 A full description of all the Supports Editor form

functions can be found in Appendix B of this guide.

4.6.1 Naming the Support

The name field at the top of the Support Editor form is automatically populated with the next available
sequence name. For the purposes of this training exercise, rename the support to A-FT09-1 by typing this
into the Name field.

4.6.2 Positioning the Support

The support can be positioned by using the Position Through

button in the Common section of the Support Editor form

Click on the Position Through button as shown.

On the Positioning Control form, select Element and Snap.

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The Position Through control form is shown on the Support Editor form.

From this form, the positioning can be fine adjusted by

either Align With or by Move by Distance options.

Select the steelwork directly above where the support is

to be positioned.

Here the support is being positioned from the p-line of the neutral axis (NA) of the vertical support leg (V1)
and aligned with the GENSEC 1 of FRMWORK /AREA02_WS_AXIS_WS.3 of the supporting steelwork.
This can be modified by selecting the Change button and reselecting the position of the element to be
aligned.

The Position Through can also be overridden by adding a distance into the Move by Distance field.

Select Close to close the Position Through Form

4.6.3 Adding other elements to the support

The framework can support more Pipes, HVAC and/or Cable Tray elements by adding them as required. This
is done by selecting the Support additional pipe, HVAC or cable tray button from the Common section of
the Support Editor form.

Any item added will be automatically aligned to the initially created ancillary (Datum).

To add a second pipe to the support, select the

Support additional pipe, HVAC or cable tray
button.

A prompt message ‘Identify element you wish to

support’ is displayed.

Identify the pipe 02100-B-41.

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From the displayed Ancillary Selection form, select XAT003 – Clamp on pipe shoe for N.B.3/4” to 20 and
click the OK button.

The second ancillary will be created and named

(ANCI) A-FT09-1.2 under (SUPC) A-FT09-1/B2
owned by (SUPPO) A-FT09-1.

To add a Cable Tray to the support, select the

Support additional pipe, HVAC or cable tray
button again and this time identify the Cable Tray
CTRAY-WORKSHOP/B1.

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From the Ancillary Selection form, select XCA01 – Rack Rest, and click the OK button.

The Cable Tray support ancillary will be

represented by a temporary lollipop.

To add a HVAC ductwork to the framework, select

the Support additional pipe, HVAC or cable tray
button and identify the HVAC
SUPPLY_WORKSHOP-001.

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From the Ancillary Selection form, select HVAC-Rest and click the OK button.

The HVAC support ancillary will be represented

by a temporary lollipop.

 The HVAC and Rack (Cable Tray) supports are temporarily represented by the ‘lollipop’ symbol, because
the fixings to the support steelwork are regarded as supplied by the HVAC and/or the Cable Tray
contractor. When the support creation is completed the ‘lollipop’ symbol/s will disappear. These lollipop
symbols do not have any clash properties.

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4.6.4 Dimension Control

The support can be adjusted by using the Dimension

Control section of the Support Editor form.

At the top of the section are a number of tabs which are

related to the main support and its members. The first one
relates to the framework being created (XFT09).

Here aspects of the support frame can be adjusted by

entering specific dimensions into the text fields of each leg
height, leg position relative to the support ancillary and
distance between vertical legs.

4.6.5 Building the Framework

Build by Cursor and Build by Clearance are two methods of building a support framework and creating
the connection hierarchy.

4.6.5.1 Build by Cursor

Select Build by Cursor from the Supports Editor form.

1. Select the steelwork section above and

perpendicular to the created framework. (As
indicated)

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2. Identify the steelwork section running

parallel and to the north of the section
selected in section 1.

The framework connections will now be built and the

dimensions on the form will be calculated and their
values updated on the framework creation form.

4.6.5.2 Build by Clearance

The Clearance option allows the user to identify a single element and the Supports module will calculate the
clearance required and build the framework.

Select Build by Clearance from the Supports Editor form

The prompt “Identify element to support from” will

appear.

Identify the angled steelwork above and parallel to the

created framework. (As shown)

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The Support module will now generate the

support connections and calculate the
dimensions of the support utilising the
identified element.

 The clearance values between the

vertical support GENSECs and the pipes
being supported are obtained from the
Pipe Clearance field in the Supports
Application Defaults form.

When building the framework by Cursor or Clearance,

some dimensions on the Dimension control section are
disabled and cannot be changed due to a connection
being made and the Modify Connection, Force
connection to P-line and Delete connections buttons
become active on the Support Editor form.

No physical joint is placed on the connection at this point.

This is done later through the modify connections form.

As there is no need to the write access to other databases,

ENDATUs are created under the support framework in the
hierarchy, Secondary nodes are no longer created underneath
the connecting steel.

The ENDATU element has a FIXING member.

The FIXING element contains key information about the

steelwork that the support framework is connecting to and
holds information about where the physical joint is positioned
and can hold a SPREF if a physical joint exists.

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4.6.6 Add the Cross Bar

If elements have been added to the support are on a different

level to the datum component, the Create Crossbar button
can be used to create extra steelwork.

Click the Create Crossbar button

In this case select the ‘lollipop’ on the HVAC and Cable Tray
and press the Esc key to finish.

As shown below, a crossbar is created to support additional

elements added to the framework A-FT09-1.

4.6.7 Modifying Ancillaries

The second and subsequent tabs on the form

allow the user to modify the ancillary and its
components, An additional tab is created for
every ancillary used on the created framework.

As with the framework tab, the modifiable

elements have editable fields adjacent to them.

In this example the ancillary XAT003 can be

modified by the user in 3 ways, The clamp
rotation, the shoe height and the shoe length can
be adjusted (only within the tolerances set within
the supports catalogue).

 Other ancillaries may have differing editable

attributes.

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Select XAT003 tab as identified in the previous

image and set the Support Height to 75 and the
Angular Offset 30.

4.6.8 Adding a Packing Piece

A packing piece can be added to make up the difference in elevation from the bottom of the component to
the steelwork, if the selected component cannot be modified in height.

To create a packer; click the Create Packer button in the Create group on the Support
Editor form. The prompt ‘Identify the Support Ancillary (ANCI) to Add Packing
Piece to’ appears.

Select the clamped shoe (shown in

the view to the right).

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The packing piece will be built as

shown.

4.6.9 Steelwork Template Selection

The framework steel template can be modified from the Set Steelwork Template form.

This form is displayed by clicking the Set

Steelwork Template button in the Common
group on the Support Editor form.

For this exercise select the second option of

80x80x10 Angle, Internally Welded and click
the OK button.

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4.6.10 Modify Connections

To put a physical joint onto the connection, the connection needs to be modified. This button is disabled until
building by cursor or clearance has taken place and established the connection hierarchy.

After the framework has been positioned correctly click

the Modify Connection button in the Support Editor
form. The user will be presented with the Joint
Specification form where the required joints and settings
can be selected.

From the Joint List section, select Apply to All

Joints.

From the Sub-Type drop-down menu, select Clamp

Plates.

The list of available selected type will be displayed.

Select /E3D/Bent_Clamp_Plate_Joint

Click the Apply button.

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The connection also can be modified for each joint

separately.

From the Joint List section on the top of the form,

select Joint 2.

Select
/E3D/BeamFlanges_Twin_Clamp_Plate_Joint

Click the Apply and Dismiss buttons.

Joint 2 is now shown with a different connection.

4.7 Finishing the Support Creation

After finishing the support design, click on the Apply button, this will run the Support Health Check Utility
automatically. If the Support Health Checker detects a problem with the Support the Support Health
Check Utility form will be displayed and the Support Editor form remains open. If there are no errors or
warning the form will not be displayed.

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4.8 Health Check Utility

The support Health Check Utility runs

automatically every time a support is completed
and checks for the following:

 Maximum steelwork sizes.

 Valid references to bedplates, guides, etc.

 Maximum packing distances.

 Whether all the pipes are supported on the

steelwork.

 Check the min/max dimensions of

ancillaries are not exceeded.

There are two levels of checks that are performed:

 Error

 Warnings

If any errors are detected the Support is considered to be incomplete and the Support Editor Form cannot
be closed. Therefore the user is forced to return to the Support Editor form to rectify the reported errors
before being allowed to exit the creation form.

Any warnings that compromise the Health check of the support should be rectified in order for the support
to be considered as complete. However the user has the option in this case to exit the support creation form
and return at a later date to modify the support.

4.8.1 Errors

• Checks to see if the maximum packing distance has been exceeded, as per the maximum packing
distance value on the Application Default form.

• Checks to see if any of the support attachments are NOT positioned along the length of the
associated cross bar.

• Checks to see if any of the dimensions values associated with the support ancillaries i.e. shoes, do
not exceed the values defined in the Catalogue.

• Checks to see if any reference used within the MDS application, i.e. Bedplate reference no longer
exists.

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4.8.2 Warnings

Maximum length of steelwork is not to be

exceeded. In the design template database
each GENSEC member has an allowable
maximum length, which should not be
exceeded.

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Exercise 3 – Stand Alone Framework Supports

1. Create Support FT09 as shown previously in the worked example.

2. Add the Group Set Area02-Workshop to the screen and create the following standards using
pipe 02200-B-42, it will be necessary to un-clip the view by clicking the Clip button from the
Clip group on the VIEW tab and removing some of the Workshop Cladding.

XFT03 – L Bracket XFT07 – Post XFT13 – Braced Bracket

 Ancillary type BT01 is used to create above Frameworks.

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