How to Use Piping in Assembly Design in BricsCAD Mechanical

Quick answer: Seamless and welded pipes, elbows, tees, crosses, reducers, and flanges are widely used across machinery, automotive, aviation, oil-and-gas, chemical, and water supply industries. BricsCAD’s library of parametric piping parts spans standards like ASME, DIN, and ISO. Parameters adjust easily, link to global parameters, and connect via 3D constraints, streamlined using the Smart mode of BMINSERT and the dedicated BMCONNECT command, this resolves the “Smart” BMINSERT icon briefly described on this hub’s assembly design commands and tools page.

Inserting Piping Parts in Your Assembly

Open the Library panel with LIBRARYPANELOPEN, or right-click a ribbon panel or toolbar and choose Library from the Panels list. Type a search string, then drag and drop a piping part from the panel into your assembly.

Every part from the Piping category inserts in Smart mode by default: hovering over a previously inserted piping part while inserting a new one makes BricsCAD copy that part’s parameter expressions to the corresponding parameters of the new part, and add a set of 3D constraints connecting them. Press Ctrl to switch to Regular mode instead, which skips generating those 3D constraints with other parts.

Creating 3D Constraints Manually

Piping standard parts carry a set of wireframe entities (points and lines) on the STD_PARTS_PIPING_CONNECTION layer, off by default.

Constraining a fitting (an elbow, reducer, or flange, for example) to another fitting or a pipe: create two Coincident 3D constraints, one between the two points that should coincide, and one between the two lines that should be collinear.

Constraining a pipe is more involved, since a pipe can have any length. If it’s already constrained to a fitting on one side using two Coincident constraints, constraining the other side works differently:

• Create a Coincident 3D constraint between the line representing the pipe’s axis and the corresponding line of the other fitting.
• Create a geometry-driven Distance 3D constraint between the pipe’s planar face on the opposite (already constrained) side and the corresponding point of the fitting being connected.
• Type that distance constraint’s name into the expression field for the pipe’s Length parameter.

Since a geometry-driven constraint controls a specific dimension directly, the pipe always ends up the correct length this way, without limiting further editing of your assembly through direct manipulation of other, non-geometry-driven dimensional constraints.

Automatically Connecting Piping Parts

Constraints generate automatically either through the Smart mode of BMINSERT, or the dedicated BMCONNECT command, which connects two standard parts directly.

Creating a Bill of Materials for a Piping Assembly

If you want every pipe of the same type and size (PartNumber), regardless of individual length, listed as a single part in a BOM, use the Aggregate function in the BOM Manager to combine them into one row showing their total combined length.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I insert a piping part without it automatically connecting to nearby parts? Hold Ctrl while inserting to switch to Regular mode, which skips generating 3D constraints with other parts.

Why does constraining a pipe require a geometry-driven Distance constraint instead of just another Coincident constraint? A pipe can be any length, so a geometry-driven Distance constraint, referenced in its Length parameter’s expression, ensures it always comes out the correct length while still allowing further parametric editing.

Can I list multiple pipes of the same size but different lengths as one entry in a BOM? Yes, use the Aggregate function in the BOM Manager to combine them into a single row with their total length.

Where do a piping part’s connection points and lines live in the drawing? On the STD_PARTS_PIPING_CONNECTION layer, which is off by default.