Grooved Couplings

The Grooved coupling key name (and the respective QP method) allows automatic placing of straight sockets.

These components connect other components that have Grooved coupling End Treatment together or with a pipe in between.

All coordinate systems in grooved components must have the end treatment ET=19 (Grooved coupling).

A grooved component must have two pairs of INPUT_POINT and OUTPUT_POINT coordinate systems and corresponding OUTPUT_AXIS for each of them.

CSInfo of one of the OUTPUT_POINT coordinate systems must have set grooved coupling End Treatment (ET=19).

The other OUTPUT_POINT coordinate system must have unspecified End Treatment (ET=0).

The distance between the OUTPUT_POINT coordinate systems must be at least 0,01 mm (approx. 0.004").

The order and other parameters in the Pipe Specification Editor (Common setting) should be the same as for couplings, except for the Non unique Index.

The proper coordinate systems and axes as well as the CSInfo can be created easily using Coordinate System Wizard.

In practice, the typical situation is that a grooved coupling should connect two fittings whose distance (distance between their OUTPUT_POINT coordinate systems) is greater then the distance of OUTPUT_POINT coordinate systems within the grooved coupling component.

Depending on the components distance and the coupling component definition, the situation can be correctly solved in two different ways:

• one grooved coupling is placed that connects both components.

• two grooved couplings are placed (one at the end of each component) and a pipe is generated between them.

For the Piping to automatically recognize the proper situation, the grooved coupling components must have set two additional parameters:

• CT_1 (one coupling tolerance) is the largest distance of the component ends where just a single coupling is placed. CT_1 must be greater than the distance of OUTPUT_POINT coordinate systems within the coupling component (and should be shorter than the total length of the coupling).

• CT_2 (two couplings tolerance) is the smallest distance of the component ends where two couplings (and a pipe) are placed. The minimum value for CT_2 is twice the CT_1 value. In practical terms, the CT_2 value should be derived from the coupling component geometry. It should be at least twice the distance between the socket End Treatment OUTPUT_POINT coordinate system and the opposite coupling end.

The CT_1 and CT_2 must be set as custom properties of the coupling CAD file. The text values must be composed of a numerical value and a unit separated by a space (e.g. 20 mm).

In case where two components are not close enough, two grooved couplings can be used (with some internal short pipe) together to cover a free space.

For this it is necessary to define a CT_2 custom property in grooved coupling which defines minimum distance between coordinate system with ET=19 and more distant edge of coupling for proper placement of both couplings and a pipe.

Example: