Having Fun with Flanged Duct

Been working a bit with contractors that need a more accurate representation of duct. One client is needing flanged duct system, so I ran a little experiment. I created a union from scratch (since the one that came with the program didn't really represent a true union - no union is solid, it's a void).  I created a simple solid rectangular form with a void in the middle. Next I added reference planes for the height, width and thickness of the the connection. After these were defined and dimension parameter labels added, I added a flange dimension parameter. All of these were instance based.

So here's what it looks like in the family:

So, in a plan view, you get this - the union breaks the duct, and places the flanged fitting in place of the split, provided the duct type specifies this fitting:

And since the fitting has a void in it, the end of duct or section through duct shows the rise drop style correctly:

Thinking beyond just a union, you should be able to add the same solid and void geometry to a copy of the plain end fittings the program has included, to create a better representation of the duct - which shoudl substantially help when it comes to coordination and interference issues in tight spaces.

Next - parametric duct and pipe hangers....

Thanks - David B.