Hanger Configurations

Hanger Configurations are the settings for inserting or modifying hangers and supports.

'Hanger Configurations' reads the files specified in the 'Configurations Files' Location'. You can read more here on how to get sample configurations and set them up.

Grouping

Groups are a way of organizing configurations.

At the top left of the configurations window, there is a selection for Groups. Only the respective configurations are shown in the drop-down below according to the selected Group.

You can assign configurations to different groups, delete, rename, or create new groups in the 'Grouping' window, which can be accessed through a button on the right side.

Options to duplicate, rename, delete, or create new configurations are under the […] button.

'For Whole Run' functionality and Rule tabs (Rule 1, Rule 2, …) are explained in greater detail in separate paragraphs at the bottom of this article.

Hanger Selection

In this section, the Revit family to be inserted and the placement side of that family on the MEP element are specified.

'Rule Active' determines if the rule is being carried out. It can be used to temporarily turn off a given Rule without deleting it.

'Hangers Placed On' is the category of Revit MEP elements with which this configuration works. Each configuration can only work with one category. Changing the 'Hangers Placed On' value in one Rule will change values in all other Rules of the active configuration as well.

To select a hanger or support family, use the 'Browser Tool' or the 'Select Category' and 'Select Family' dropdowns.

Notes:

• MEP Hangers can only insert face-based families and only these families will appear on the list.

• The names of Agacad's provided families start either with 'M_Hanger' or 'I_Hanger'. On the list, you might see more families that are components of the complete hanger families.

• It's possible to use families that you’ve created yourself, as long as they're face-based and have certain parameters needed to control their size.

'Placement Side' is where you specify where to place a family on an MEP element. In the most common situations, when hangers need to be attached to the structure (e.g. Floor or Roof) above, the 'Top' placement side is usually used. For hanger installation to the structure below, use 'Bottom' placement.

'Left & Right' is used for MEP elements by a vertical structure (e.g. Wall). It figures out which MEP element side is closest to the structure and places hangers there. Similarly, 'Top & Bottom' will place hangers either on the Top or the Bottom, depending on where the closest structure is.

The rod position is usually a good indicator of the 'Placement Side'.

Structure Selection

On the left side of this section, you can select one or several Categories of structural elements for hangers to connect to. MEP Hangers software will only look for the selected categories and ignore others.

The best practice is to have not all available Categories selected but only the relevant ones. This will result in configurations being carried out faster.

If the specified structure isn't found when running a configuration, this will result in an error, and no hangers will be placed.

Using the 'Select Family and Type' dropdown, you can narrow down the structural elements to which the hangers will attach. It is only available when you have only one Category selected. 'Use All Types' will use all types of the selected family type.

Alternatively, you can use the 'Browser Tool', but it only works with Categories that have loadable families: Structural Framing, Structural Connections, Structural Columns, and Mechanical Equipment.

MEP Hangers works by measuring the distance from the Placement Side on the MEP element to the structural elements in the specified direction.

'Searching Rule Class' is where you specify a direction to measure: 'Top & Bottom' (for MEP elements above or below a horizontal structure) or 'Left & Right' (for MEP elements by a vertical structure). By using these options, hangers will be placed according to the Spacing settings. This is used in the most common situations when we have flat structures like Floors, Roofs, or Walls.

'Virtual Intersections' options are used to connect hangers to every structure instance that is in the MEP element’s way and will ignore the Spacing settings.

You can also specify '- None -' in the Searching Rule Class. In that case, MEP Hangers will not look and measure to any structure and will simply insert families with default values.

'Searching Rule Name' further narrows down the measuring direction.

For the 'Top & Bottom' Rule Class, the 'Searching Rule Name' options are 'Top' or 'Bottom'. But for 'Top & Bottom Virtual Intersections' you can also set the Rule Name to 'Top & Bottom'. This way, only one configuration is needed to place hangers on MEP elements that are either above or below the structure.

For 'Left & Right' and 'Left & Right Virtual Intersections' Rule Classes, usually, it’s best to set it to 'Left & Right'. This way, the software will look in both directions and will place hangers where the structure is the closest.

Good examples of Virtual Intersections are columns for the 'Left & Right Virtual Intersection' or beams (as Structural Framing) for the 'Top & Bottom Virtual Intersections'. The Virtual Intersections option is also good for creating multi-level hangers.

MEP Hangers can look for structures to attach hangers to in either the current model, linked models, or both. 'Search In Project' allows that option.

‘Searching Distance (Min, Max)’ is the range in which to look for structures in a direction specified in the ‘Searching Rule Name’. If a specified structure is found in a given range, a hanger/support is placed.

This setting can influence how long it takes to run a Rule. When structures are near MEP elements, you can reduce the 'Searching Distance' to make a configuration run faster.

If the specified structure in a given range isn't found when running a configuration, this will result in an error and no hangers will be placed.

'Do not Place Details at Same Point' will stop hangers from being placed if there’s already a hanger placed at the exact point on the MEP element.

In the 'Additional Filter' you can create your own filters for structural elements. These filters must be True for hangers to connect to the structure.

MEP Element

Here you can set up filters for MEP elements. Hangers will only be placed if selected MEP elements fit the filter.

If selected MEP elements in the model don't fall in the given range of 'Length (Min, Max)', hangers for these elements will not be inserted.

'Host Filter' allows filtering MEP elements by any parameter. All parameters from the MEP category with which this configuration works ('Hangers Placed On' setting) will appear here.

Some use-cases of MEP element filtering:

• Often in Revit, we encounter MEP elements that are very short because the Fittings and Accessories divide MEP elements into segments. Having a minimal value for the Length specified in the configuration will prevent inserting hangers onto these short pieces.

• Having several Rules in a configuration and using regular spacing settings for long MEP elements in one Rule and using different spacing settings (e.g. just one hanger in the middle) for short pieces in another Rule.

• Filter MEP elements by size and use different hangers or different spacing settings.

• Filter MEP elements by Type Name and use different hangers based on that. E.g., different hangers for copper and steel pipes or for rectangular/round ducts.

Spacing

This is where you define settings for the spacing of hangers on the MEP elements.

The 'Layout Direction' defines the start point and the direction for hanger placement. There are 4 possible options:

• Start End – distributes hangers in equal spacing throughout the length of the MEP element (most common)

• Start – begins placing hangers at the start of the MEP element and moves towards the end..

• End – begins placing hangers at the end of the MEP element and moves towards the start

• Center – begins placing hangers at the center of the MEP element and moves towards both ends.

'Layout Rule' determines the number of hangers that are being inserted and the spacing between them. The 'Layout Rule' options depend on the 'Layout Direction' and are:

• Maximal Spacing – places the least number of hangers equally spaced on the MEP element without exceeding the 'Maximal Spacing' field value between the hangers (most common).

• Fixed Number & Fixed Spacing – places hangers by the 'Fixed Spacing' field value but stops when the number of hangers reaches the value specified in the 'Fixed Number' field.

• Fixed Spacing – places hangers by the 'Fixed Spacing' field value.

• Fixed Number – places a set number of hangers equally spaced on the MEP element.

You can change where the distribution of hangers begins and ends using Offsets.

'Start Offset' defines the position of the first hanger from the start of the MEP element when using the 'Start End' or 'Start' Layout Direction.

'End Offset' defines the position of the first hanger from the end of the MEP element when using the 'Start End' or 'End' Layout Direction.

'Additional Offset' moves all hangers on the MEP element by a specified amount.

Also, the 'Rotate' option can rotate all hangers on the MEP element by a specified angle.

Rule tabs

Rules are configurations inside of the configuration.

Rule tabs (Rule 1, Rule 2, …) allow inserting multiple different hangers or hangers with different settings while using a single configuration.

Rules are carried out from left to right. This allows for hanger placement solutions with a single configuration like:

• Multi-level hangers when a unistrut hanger is being placed in Rule 1 and a hanger that connects to a unistrut from Rule 1 is being placed in Rule 2.

• Different hangers/spacing depending on the size of the MEP elements.

[+] button duplicates a selected Rule and [-] deletes it. And there can be up to 10 Rules in a configuration. Rules can be renamed by double-clicking their names. And you can change the order of Rules by dragging them.

The green color in the Rule name indicates that the Rule is active and the hanger family is selected. Yellow means that the hanger is selected but the 'Rule Active' is set to False. Black indicates that the rule is inactive and no hanger is selected. Red means that the hanger family is missing.

Having many rules in a configuration can slow down the software because every Rule is applied to every element. For optimal results, find your balance between having many Rules in a configuration and using different configurations for different scenarios.

For Whole Run

Configurations are typically applied to selected MEP elements (Ducts, Pipes, Cable Trays, Conduits, and Fabrication Parts) individually. 'For Whole Run' allows for looking at selected elements as a whole.

When using a 'For Whole Run' configuration, you can place hangers with consistent spacing on a run that has Fittings (tees, crosses, transitions, unions), Accessories, and multiple MEP elements.

Our software will treat MEP elements as one run until there's a change in direction (e. g. pipe elbow). If the gap between the MEP elements is larger than the value of the 'Max Gap', that is also considered as an end of one run and the start of another.

Some limitations of 'For Whole Run':

• When in use, the 'MEP Element' section, where you can set up filters for MEP elements, becomes inactive.

• Hangers can only be placed on Revit categories of Ducts, Pipes, Cable Trays, Conduits and MEP Fabrication parts. If the hanger placement point lands on other categories, such as Fittings or Accessories, that point will be ignored and the software will move to the next one. But that doesn't restart the run and the spacing setting will remain unchanged for the remainder of the run.