Understand how to model a cable tray using the systems tab in the electrical section for effective coordination, especially in the electrical room. Learn how to set the middle elevation, draw through the room, avoid conflicting elements, and create a detailed and clear visualization of the cable tray's route.
Key Insights
- The cable tray modeling process begins in the systems tab of the electrical section, where the middle elevation is set to reflect its actual position in the building, such as running over the ceilings in a classroom.
- It's essential to model the cable tray where it's important for coordination, such as in the electrical room, avoiding elements like transformers, lights or distribution boards that could interfere with its path.
- Revit provides several viewing options for the cable tray, ranging from a single line diagram to a detailed view showing all the rungs of the cable tray, which can be chosen according to preference and clarity.
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We can model a cable tray by going to the Systems tab, then over to the Electrical section, and finding Cable Tray. Here’s the cable tray. It works similarly to conduit because it has a middle elevation.
Let’s set the middle elevation to 10 feet 6 inches for now. The idea is that it might run through the electrical room and then over the ceilings in the classroom. I’ve got that middle elevation, and we don’t need to model the cable tray for the entire building.
We need to model it where it’s important for coordination. So especially in the electrical room, we might want to coordinate where that cable tray goes. Let’s say it’s coming in from our classroom wing here.
I’ll click out in that classroom wing, draw into the electrical room, and I’ll stop here. I probably don’t want to go over the transformer. I’ll stop here, then I’ll draw straight up through the room.
I’m trying to get to that corner. It’s going to go up here, and then maybe I don’t want to go over the light or the distribution board. I want to go straight to the right, and it will continue into the rest of the building.
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So, there’s my cable tray. I’ll click Modify, and there it is. Revit gives me a single-line diagram for that, and I can change it.
I can change it to the medium view, which will give a wide line but keep the conduits as a single line. I like this view. It’s pretty clear.
If you'd like to show more detail, you can change it to Fine, and you’ll see all the rungs of the cable tray. There’s all the detail. I’m going to leave mine at medium, but feel free to choose whichever one works for you.
Let’s look at it in our elevation views. Let’s start by looking at the main distribution board. I’ll double-click, and there’s that cable tray right there.
You can see all its details as it enters and exits the building. We’re cutting it here. It turns the corner and continues on out.
Let’s go back to our electrical room and review it. Here’s the panel board view, and there it is, coming across just above all of our panel boards. It’s about even with the lights, which is okay because we’re not conflicting with them. The lights are just there.
Alright, back to the electrical room, and everything looks good. So at this point, with the cable tray, we have created all the components for our electrical distribution system. It’s time to draw a simplified diagram of our electrical distribution system, called a one-line diagram.
