Introduction to Running Conduit in Revit MEP: A Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome back to the CAD Teacher VDCI video course content for the BIM 321 course Introduction to Revit MEP. In this video, I want to go ahead and start talking about conduit. Conduit is very similar to piping for plumbing; it's kind of the same idea. We will run it the same way, but there are also some things specific to it. It does not automatically have a slope value, so if we need to bend conduit or anything like that, we have to do something similar to how we did our duct, where we have to slice it, rotate it, and all these other different kinds of things.

But I want to go ahead and just start off pretty basic, and I want to go ahead and we are going to go and run things to the first floor here. I'm looking at my plan here, but we want to go ahead and start looking at our reflected ceiling plan, so I'm going to go ahead and go to my lighting ceiling plan here, and I'm going to go ahead and double-click on my Level 1. So please go ahead, please be in your ceiling plan for Level 1. I want to go ahead and actually take a look at this, and I'm going to close my hidden windows, and I want to look and see how much space we have in this corridor. It's one of those things we want to kind of coordinate as we go.

So I'm going to go here, I'm going to double-click, and there we are. So as you can see, we have a couple of different areas we could run. Our best area is probably going to be just right down here, right in the middle. So I'm going to go ahead and actually go back and do WT for window tile, and I'm going to place just some straight runs of conduit first.

So because I'm going to place my main runs in, then I’ll tie it back here and tie it wherever else I need to. So for the conduit, I'm going to go here to Conduit, and we need to take a look at a couple of things first. First of all, I have Conduit Without Fittings default and Conduit With Fittings default.

So please change the Conduit With Fittings, and I'm going to go to Edit Type. Now, the thing is, even though it says Conduit With Fittings, no fittings have been specified, and if I were to pull down here, I don't have the option to select anything. So what I want to go ahead and do is I'm going to hit Cancel, I'm going to hit Escape, and I want to go ahead and let’s load some plumbing fittings or some conduit fittings into the project.

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So I'm going to go here and hit Yes. I'm not going to go to Electrical—it’s going to be under the Conduit folder. I'm going to go to Fittings, I'm going to go EMT because that’s going to be the one that we're using.

I want to go ahead and use the Conduit Elbow Steel. I want to go ahead and also grab the Conduit Coupling Steel. There we go.

Everything else is good to go. I'm not really going to need to worry about anything else. I'm going to hit Open, and there we are.

They’ve now been loaded into the project. Let’s go ahead and hit Escape. Let’s go to Conduit.

I'm going to go ahead and go to my Conduit With Fittings here and then Edit Type. I'm going to go ahead and change my bend to the Conduit Elbow Steel and my union to Conduit Coupling. We need the union because whenever we splice or slice a conduit, we need some kind of fitting there.

I'm going to hit Apply and hit OK, and there we are. So conduit is just like piping. I'm going to go ahead, I'm going to change my diameter, and I'm going to go ahead and make my diameter a one-inch conduit.

We're just going to use one-inch conduit all the way through this project, and my offset will be—let's go ahead and make it ten feet. There we are. Now I'm going to come over to my plan here.

I'm going to go ahead, and I'm looking at this guy, and I know that I have some room here. So I'm going to go ahead and start about here, and then I can just draw. As I draw, I'm just going to run all the way down, and I'm going to go ahead and actually tap into the room here. There we are.

I'm going to hit Escape. Now, the one thing you may notice is that this looks just like a single line. Well, I need to go ahead and take my detail level and set it to Fine.

When I set it to Fine, now I’ll be able to see everything. Let’s also go ahead—and I'm going to change my visual style to Wireframe. There we go.

I also want to go ahead here, change mine to Fine, and there we go. Now I see the full size of that conduit. I'm going to go ahead and actually take this, and I'm going to copy it over.

So I'm going to go CO for copy. I'm going to grab the centerline. I know I have one inch, so I'm going to go ahead—let's go over two inches—CO for copy.

I'm going to choose multiple and 1,2, 3,4, 5,6, 7,8. Now I want all these to be the exact same distance. Now, as you notice, it didn't copy this end, and that’s because I only selected this one conduit. If I would have tab-selected, I could have selected the entire conduit system.

But I just want to use that one. Let’s go ahead and make all of these even together. So I'm going to go DI for my dimension.

DI. I'm going to go here to here to here to here to here to here and just work my way all the way down. There we go.

Now, sometimes when I have something like this where I need to get really tight in here, I'm going to change the drawing scale factor. So I'm going to go ahead and actually change the drawing scale factor. Let's go ahead and make it a little bit larger—and that was not—I mean here, I want to go here.

So my annotations get smaller. Now I can select this. I want two inches, two inches here.

I want to go ahead. I want to make this. I'm going to select the one I want to move, which will be this one here.

I'm going to go up here—two inches. There we go. I'm going to go ahead and now delete that.

I've lined all of those up. I'm going to go ahead also, and I'm going to grab all of these, just like that. I'm going to go ahead and move them closer to the wall.

So I'm going to go ahead, and let's say I want to place them about here. There we go. Perfect.

Now I need to go ahead and start breaking these guys off where I need to. So I'm going to go ahead. I can select here.

I'm going to draw a conduit from there. I'm going to go ahead, bring it over. And then I can grab this, and I'm just going to go ahead and take it all the way down, back towards my first office.

And I'm going to go ahead and pop this one in here. Now, the one thing that we do need to be making sure of—and I'm just going to drag it over—is we’re just going to pop it into the actual rooms.

I'm not going to be running it specifically to the individual devices. What I'm going to do is let's go ahead and make my drawing scale back to 1/8 inch. And I'm going to go down here and check this real quick.

So as you can see, we're going to have a slight issue because I'm going to be running underneath or within these specific spaces—I'm going to be going through a duct, which I can't do. So there's a couple of different ways that we can get around this. I can go up and above, or I can go under.

I'm going to go ahead and grab this, and I'm going to take it and drag it up to 45 degrees. That's going to angle it, and then I can go ahead, draw a conduit. And I'm just going to tap it into the room here.

And it's not liking that for some reason. Okay, that's fine. So I'm going to go ahead.

I'm just going to go up to Conduit. I'm going to go ahead. And actually what's happening is that I don't have enough room for all the fittings.

These fittings have to be larger because we have to have a minimum bend on our conduit to keep going. So I'm going to go draw a conduit. I'm going to go up a little higher.

I'm going to now come over. And as you can see, I can now get that fitting in there. Now I can go ahead and slide this down.

There we are. And then I'm just going to tap it into the room. Perfect.

So there's that. And again, I can't go any lower because then I wouldn't be able to fit the specific fittings. I'm going to go ahead and do my next one.

Draw a conduit. I'm just going to angle it over. I'm going to go ahead and now drag this guy back.

Let's go ahead and tap it in. I'm going to tap it in right over the doorway. I'm going to bring my section down.

Again, I need to take this guy up. So I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to take it up a little farther than I need to.

Right-click, draw a conduit. Bring it into the room. Again, it's sometimes a little tricky.

And if it's not wanting to work for you, I'm going to draw this up a little bit more. And I'm not worried about going through the floor slab right now. And that one did not quite get the correct angle.

That's fine. Draw a conduit. And there we are.

Now I can go ahead, slide it down, and just tap it into the room. There we go. I'm going to go ahead, do my next.

Draw a conduit. There we go. I'm going to go ahead, slide it on down.

Let's go ahead and tap it in right here. I'm going to bring my section down with me. There we go.

I'm going to go ahead and rotate this guy up. Find that 45-degree line. And I'm going to draw a conduit.

And again, it's just wanting to be kind of tricky. Sometimes it might work a little bit better if I draw out first, and then come over.

There it is. It's just one of those things that Revit MEP is sometimes just a little bit tricky with on those kinds of things. There we go there.

I'm going to draw a conduit. Tap it into the room. Perfect.

I want to go ahead, and I'm actually going to reduce the amount I'm seeing so I can really see what I'm hitting. And as you notice, I'm just going to go ahead and do that there. Let's go ahead.

I'm going to grab my next one. Draw a conduit. There we go.

Let's go ahead. And this is, again, power. I'm going to go ahead.

Tap into the room here. Let's go ahead. Bring that in there.

At some point, I might have to decide to go lower because, as you can see, I'm starting to get closer and closer to that duct. Draw a conduit. And again, it's just wanting to be difficult.

You just have to draw how you need to, and then I can move it into location later on. It's just one of those things about Revit MEP—sometimes it likes to be difficult and give you a hard time. There we go.

I'm going to go ahead. Grab my last one for these little rooms. Draw a conduit.

There we go. I'm going to grab this one. Bring it on back about right there.

I'm going to go ahead. I need to come into here. Now we see something else that's happening farther down the line—that these conduits are actually hitting—because this guy transitions at some point.

I'm going to go ahead and take my section, and I'm going to rotate it 90 degrees. What I could also do here is I'm just going to go VV in my view here—my floor plan—and I'm going to turn on my ducts and my duct fittings just so I can see what I'm working with. As you can see, it gets a little bit crazier.

As you can see, my transition is right here before this. I'm going to go ahead and take this guy back. Tap it into the room here.

I'm going to go ahead now, and let's see here. As you can see, the conduits are going to be clashing after that. This guy—I'm going to go ahead.

That one that we originally drew, I'm going to bring him and take him all the way back down to this first room here. I'm going to go ahead, zoom in a little bit. I know I have a lot of information going on, but that's okay.

I'm going to take this guy, draw a conduit over. I'm going to go ahead now, and I'm actually going to tap two into this room here, and then take this guy, draw a conduit. I'm going to go ahead and bring three into the room here, and this one—

What's going to have to happen is I'm going to have to do something a little different here. I'm going to tap two of these in at the exact same location. Let's take this guy, right-click, draw a conduit.

There we go. I'm going to go ahead and take this. I'm going to tap both of these into the same location here, because I need to get into this room before this transition.

I'm going to have to figure out a way to get over this. As you can see, if I'm looking here, I'm at the exact same location. I need to get this one up and over that duct, or at least underneath it.

I'm going to go ahead, and let's see here. I'm going to go ahead and bring that guy back just a little bit more—that guy back there just a little bit more. I'm going to go ahead, look at my section here.

I'm going to take this conduit, and I'm going to go ahead and select it here, and then come over. I'm going to do a right-click, draw a conduit. Let's go ahead.

It's coming up at 45. Again, I need to draw it so it actually gets the fittings. The reason why I can't really select it there—there we go.

I'm going to go draw a conduit. I'm going to really make this large. Again, it's just being difficult.

I'm going to really exaggerate it, and it's still just not liking how it is. We'll do it this way. I'm going to draw a conduit.

I'm going to come straight out first. See—it likes that. Now, I'll take it and I'll rotate it up to 135 degrees, and it does that just fine.

Again, it's just particular sometimes about the way it wants to do things. There we go. There we go.

I'm going to go ahead, and I'll select that guy down. Perfect. There we are.

I'm just going to go ahead and actually bring this guy a little closer to the wall, but I can't have that bend in the wall. I'm going to go ahead, draw a conduit, and run it down to about here. Make sure it's straight.

There we go. Perfect. We've placed some conduit on that first floor.

I'm going to go ahead and pause this video here. We've done a really nice job. I'm actually going to go ahead and adjust that real quick and pop it in here.

There we go. I'm going to go ahead, zoom extents, press Control + S to save the file. When we come back, we're going to go ahead and run some conduit up to the second floor in the walls, and I'll see you there.

See you soon.