Creating a Vent System for Plumbing in Revit MEP: A Step-by-Step Guide

Establishing a Vent System for Plumbing in Revit MEP: Exploring Connector Elements and System Types.

Learn how to establish a vent system using Revit MEP, and discover new concepts and methods that can assist in making your design work more efficient. This article will guide you through the process of adding connector elements to your system, changing fittings, and managing system types correctly.

Key Insights

  • When working in Revit MEP, different views offer varying capabilities. If you encounter challenges in one view, such as the plan view, try switching to a section or a 3D view to achieve your desired outcome.
  • Adding connector elements to fittings, such as the plus sign in Revit MEP, can expand and enhance your system. This feature allows you to transition a bend into a T-shape or other forms by adding a connector element or changing the existing fitting.
  • Creating and managing different system types in a section view tends to yield better results. If you're splitting things up between different systems on the same pipe run, ensure you're in a section view for better control over connectors and system types.

Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.

We, in the previous video, we went ahead and finished up connecting our system. And now we kind of have just kind of one more system to really create, um, which is going to be our vent system.

Now this should be pretty simple, pretty straightforward to go ahead and create. And I'm going to show you what we're going to end up doing. Um, cause it's going to introduce some new concepts and some new things.

The one thing I will say with this though is, is these again, and this is just kind of goes for Revit MEP in general is certain things happen in certain views, certain things work a certain way in certain views. If what you're having, what you're trying to do is not necessarily working in a plan view, I would give a try in a section. I would give a try in a 3D view.

And sometimes that can go ahead and actually do what you want to do. And I'll show you what I'm talking about here, but we need to go ahead and establish our vent system. So on the toilets and the lavatories, we're going to talk about the classrooms a little bit later, but on the toilets and lavatories, what I'm going to end up doing, if you select one of these fittings, you'll notice that there are a couple of plus signs on the sides here.

Now what those plus signs actually are is because this bend can transition into like a T or something else. So I can say I want to add a connector element, or I want to change this fitting over here to be something else. So what I could end up doing is if I take this plus sign and I click plus, I can go ahead and notice it adds that in there.

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Right? So I'm going to go ahead and go all the way down this plus and do that for all these T's that are here, because this is going to allow me to go ahead and do this. So there go to my second floor, and this is pretty simple to do in 3D. So, you know, when we, when we automatically created the system or when we put the pipes in initially, it put bends in.

Now we want to expand on that system. We're adding some connector elements to this. There we go.

I'm going to go over to here. I've already done these three here, so we're good there, but make sure to click on that plus sign. So you can do this with any kind of fitting that you want to.

The urinals, we're going to do something different and we will touch on that. I'm going to go ahead just because of how they're built. I'm going to go ahead, orbit around.

We already kind of have our fittings here, but I want to delete this top portion of pipe. When we, when we modeled that vertical, we kind of gave it this pipe. The problem with that pipe is, is going to be on the sanitary system automatically.

We want to delete it because we're going to go ahead and change it. Once something is, once this pipe is kind of assigned, I can't change it if you notice. So I can't change it from like sanitary to vent or whatever.

So what you want to go ahead and do is go ahead and delete those portions of the pipe above the fitting. So there's that this one, we don't need to do the little plus sign. It's already been there for us again.

Sometimes we're going to 3D can be a little rough, but it's working pretty well. So there's that. And if you feel like you just need to select one, delete, select one, delete.

That's perfectly fine. I'm just picking more, but if you select one, delete, select one, delete one, delete one, delete one, delete. Perfect.

Now that we've deleted those and we've added the other fittings onto our toilets, we really need to do this in section. And let me show you why. If I go over to systems and I go to pipe, I'm going to check my pipe.

I want it to be two inch. Everything there is good. System type vent.

That's fine. That's what I want it to be. And make sure you pull down and choose that system type.

When I click on the connector here, it works. And then it goes up because my level, my level was set to level two here. So it goes up.

And let's just say I draw this it's let's see here. So you go to pipe. It's saying level two.

I could say level one if I wanted to. And let's say I want to do like a six foot elevation there. And then here notice how it continues that sanitary system up until this portion here.

Now I don't necessarily know why technically this should be classified as a vent, but when I come into my section view and let's go ahead and go back to our section view here. I'm going to go ahead and pull it down over here so I can see this pipe. I'm gonna do the same exact thing.

I'm going to go to systems. I'm going to go pipe. I'm going to go level one, middle elevation, six feet.

That's fine. I can make it, let's make it nine feet. And I haven't set the vent.

When I click here, come up, go over, go there. Notice, and if I go into my 3D view, it's a vent from that connection. So this is kind of just one of those weird things that Revit, I don't have an explanation for it.

Unfortunately, what I would say though, is, is that if you're going to be splitting things up between different systems on the same pipe run or same different, different system types, what you want to go ahead and do is actually make sure that you're in a section view. It tends to work better there. It has to do something with all of the connectors and everything that are in this guy here.

photo of Tyler Grant

Tyler Grant

Revit MEP Instructor


Tyler Grant is a BIM Manager a Delawie. A dedicated, goal-oriented, and experienced architect. Tyler has managed multiple design/build BIM projects from inception to construction completion, through all phases. Technology-driven and experienced educator to train and instruct users, both novice and advanced, in the workflow and processes of the modern architecture, engineering, and construction field. 

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How to Learn Revit MEP

Specialize in MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) systems within Revit for advanced design solutions.

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