Tube and pipe styles overview

A tube and pipe style is a named group of settings that describe tube and pipe characteristics for automatic route creation and editing, and when populating routes and runs. Tube and pipe styles conform to standards that are commonly used in tube and pipe design. For example, conduit parts in a pipe run often have certain requirements for segment length and diameter, and are composed of fittings of a specific material and classification.

The Tube & Pipe Styles editor stores the style definitions. Use it to maintain these styles. You can view, add, modify, and delete styles from the editor as needed. Multiple style definitions can also be imported into and exported from the editor using an .xml format file. Modify any of the default styles or use them as a base to create new custom styles. You can also create new custom styles from a blank style.

In addition to standard conduit parts and fittings in the Content Center Library, you can define tube and pipe styles using published parts.

Note: To add new materials for defining tube and pipe styles and populating routes and runs, you must enable the Use Styles Library option for the project so that you have Read/Write permission to the Inventor Styles Library.

When are tube and pipe styles defined?

Although new tube and pipe styles can be defined at any time, we recommend that you set up styles in a tube and pipe assembly before creating routes, placing fittings, or populating routes and runs. Once tube and pipe styles are set, you can change the active style as you design. You can also change styles for existing routes and runs.

What actions can be performed with the Tube and Pipe Styles editor?

The Tube & Pipe Styles editor contains a toolbar, the name of the active style, a browser for viewing and browsing existing styles, and tabs for viewing and changing style settings. The browser contains the available style types, existing categories, and defined styles. With these tools you can:

• View and change the active style.
• Add new style definitions, including new categories.
• Modify, copy, delete, and rename existing style definitions.
• Import and export multiple style definitions.
• Explore the definitions in the list.
• View the basic settings for a selected style.
• Browse for fittings to include in the style, and view the status of each component.

What happens when the minimum length is violated?

If the minimum length setting for the style is violated during a drag, the segment or segments in violation display in red. A tooltip also displays the segment length and the message <Min Pipe Length> in red text.

How are styles shared?

Use the Import and Export commands from the Tube & Pipe Styles dialog box to import and export files. If there are any conflicts with the styles to import, the error is shown in the Import Tube & Pipe Styles dialog box. Use this dialog box to preview the data and resolve any issues that exist. To make custom tube and pipe styles available in all new tube and pipe assemblies, you can import them into the master tube and pipe runs assembly template.