Why piping?

A piping method is used in industries to convey the liquids or gases from one location to the other. The liquid or gases are conveyed with the help of pipes. Proper routing is provided according to the route that the pipes will follow to reach the required location. In pipe routing, not only pipes but other components are used. Components such as bend pipes, flanges, gaskets, etc.

Bend pipes let the pipe change its direction. It is a joining or attaching part which attaches at the end when you want to divert the direction. The bend pipes are available at various angles, or in shapes like L bend or U bend pipe. L bend pipe is bent at 90 degrees whereas U bent is a U shape bend.

Whereas flanges are used to connect two pipes. Gaskets are used to make leakproof joints or connections.

Piping using SolidWorks

In Solidworks, there is one dedicated feature and library assigned to the Piping. In which various parts required for piping are available and designers can use those designs. The parts available can be modified to the required dimensions. We just have to drag and drop the parts in SolidWorks assembly. Then give the proper dimensions and route using the sketch.

Make sure the SolidWorks Routing option is enabled in the SolidWorks assembly library. You can activate the SolidWorks routing option by going to the drop-down arrow of the settings option. Click on Add-in, and check the SolidWorks Routing option.

This SolidWorks option is available in the SolidWorks premium version only. Those who have a professional or standard version will not get this option.

Using the Routing library for piping

Click on Design Library from the Task pane. Under the Design Library folder open the Routing option.

Under the Routing option, you will see one option of piping select that. Now you can start using the available components and create the piping.

 

Creating pipe routing

Select the Flange, Drag and drop in the Assembly design screen. You will see the options for configuration in the part dimension. Choose the required type and click OK. It will ask you to save the Assembly file, save the file and give the name to it.

Then Routing property will display in the Property Manager. Make the changes if any and then click OK.

You will see in the inner diameter of the Flange the cylindrical part is visible and also the line. You can drag the line’s end point the pipe will also change its length according to the line.

Go to Sketch and chose lines. Now you can draw the 3d or 2d Sketch of the line. This sketch makes the pipe routing. Using Smart Dimensions we can assign the dimensions to the sketch.

Now Right-click on the pipe join point and click on the Penetrate option. This will remove the internal material of the other pipe which is connected to the main pipe.

Adding Elbow to piping

This is one more way in which we can add an elbow to the bending pipe. Drag and drop the flange of any other component then in the property manager go to bends – Elbows and chose the ‘Always use Elbow’ to place elbows to the bending area.

You can open the individual part in SolidWorks part design. By right-clicking on the part you want to open. Click on the open part. This part can be saved individually. You can use this rounding to make a technical drawing for the manufacturing.