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Derek Cutsinger/5 min read

Setting Up Branch Lines with Detail Lines in Classroom Areas: A Step-By-Step Guide

Branch Line Setup

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This tutorial walks through setting up branch lines with detail lines in classroom areas, covering essential tools and techniques for your projects.

Alright, in this video we'll be using detail lines to help us set up our typical branch lines in the classroom areas. So let's go over to Level 1 Piping Plan, and we'll be working on these classroom areas in the corridor. So the first thing I want to do is set up my detail lines, so let's type DL.

Let's go to this sprinkler, and for now we'll go to the very center of it. I have to zoom in to find it—there we go. And let's draw it to about here; it doesn't have to touch the main.

Now all we're going to do is copy the selection over to each row of sprinklers, and then we'll be moving it over after that as a group. So let's copy the selection, and let's go to the sprinkler, and this one, and this one. Okay, press Escape twice.

That looks good. Now hold down Control and select them all, and because we don't want to drop straight down from the branch lines like we mentioned earlier, click Move and go to the left 8 inches.

Now let's do the same thing for the areas down here, starting at these sprinklers. So again, let's type DL, zoom in to find the center of the sprinkler—there we are. Zoom back out; we'll go to about there.

And again, let's copy this. Okay, zoom out and make sure that looks good. All right, now hold down Control, select them all, and click Move. Go to the left again, 8 inches.

Now let's draw one typical branch line. All we need to do is get this one set up with our arm overs, and then after that, we just need to copy it all the way down. We're setting ourselves up for success by just doing one arm over correctly.

So let's go to System, Pipe, and let's change to our fire protection outlets. For these branch lines, we’ll do 1/2 inch. Okay, and let's start a little past the sprinkler aligned with the detail line, and draw all the way through it—but do not connect into the main yet. Okay, so this is where our branch line is going to be.

Now let's set up our arm overs. Let's find our section, maybe make it just a little bit bigger, and move it over here. I don't need this ceiling plan, so I will go to View and use Window Tile again (W-T).

Now let's go to our section and draw a pipe. Make sure it's 1 inch, and let's go ahead and connect into the branch line. However, very important here: because we're going to be copying, we don't want to connect these just yet, so hover over this and delete the transition piece, and even pull this piece up just a tad.

Alright, back into my piping plan view. We'll go down to the next sprinkler here and do the same thing.

Draw a pipe (1 inch), connect the transition piece, pull it up just a little bit. Okay, now we've got our arm overs and branch line ready to go. Hover over everything here, and before we do anything else, go to the Filter, and deselect our lines—which are the detail lines—and the sprinklers.

We don't need to copy those because they've already been put in place. Click OK. Now let's go to Copy, find the centerline of the pipe, and copy all the way down to where the detail lines were.

Make sure you're snapping to the center of it. So there, there—keep going. Okay, press Escape twice. Now we still don't want to connect into the mains just yet, because we're going to be copying these up to Level 2 later.

Once we have both floors copied and drawn in, then we can start connecting everything at the end. Okay, now let's do the same thing with the branch lines down here. So let's start at this piece.

If you didn't draw your main long enough, you might have to extend it a bit. Okay, System > Pipe > Fire Protection > Outlets. Let's use 1.5", and we'll go here, tilt that right there, and press Escape. Let's take our section. Okay, in our section view, click on the sprinkler, right-click, Draw Pipe (1"), remove the transition piece for now, bring this up just a tad, and let's go to the next one.

Now our branch line and arm overs are all ready to go. We're going to do the same thing here. Just hover over everything, use the Filter, and get rid of the detail lines and the sprinklers.

We just need our fittings and our pipes. Copy the selection somewhere along the branch line, and let's copy. Okay, press Escape, and zoom out just a little bit. We can get rid of our section.

We're looking pretty good. Now we still have a few more sprinklers to connect in the corridor, and in the next video, we'll start there.