DigiPara Blog

Liftdesigner - How to setup a user defined door width

Recently a question came up, how to change the door to a specific individual door width. In this case the user wanted to get a 48" door width for a single speed door. Unfortunately this door is available as 36" only.

First, select a door from the database that is almost similar:

Then select the door. In category [0196], you will find "Extended door dimensions".

If you click on the very right button with the 3 dots a pretty powerful dialog box comes up and it is easy to change the door width.

Repeat the same operation for the car door:

Liftdesigner - Changing the Gear Base Construction Unit

 

Step 1: The Gear Base Construction Unit can be activated via the “Properties” docking window.

Step 2: The selection of the Gear Base Construction unit is done via the category “[0020] General”.

Select a gear base construction by choosing a specific manufacturer component or use our Common Components library:

Step 3: Enable or disable component sub-profiles via the property “Subcomponents”.

How to create large elevator types within Elevatorarchitect

Recently a question came up, on how to create elevators with higher capacities (like 32 passengers) than suggested in the solution suggestor drop down list.

When you create your elevator please choose the largest capacity, like 20 passengers:

Complete the create process.

In the "Compare vendors" dialog, expand the "Requirements" and change the number of passengers.

Note that you can type in any number while the drop down list suggest only the small sizes. Click "TAB" to leave the field.

Finally choose one vendor that supports the required size ( like Schindler 2600) and refresh your drawing by clicking "Create or Update in Revit"

Liftdesigner Training Videos on YouTube Released

We recently released a set of 8 Liftdesigner training videos. These videos shall help you toget a good start with Liftdesigner.

 
Image: DigiPara Youtube channel

The series is called "Liftdesigner Training in 60 Minutes". Even the videos are just 30 minutes long, the other 30 minutes are reserved for your own tests. We recommend you to try on your screen what is shown in the videos.

 
Picture: Very helpful is the pane at the bottom of your browser, that let you easily switch between the different videos.

Any feedback is, as always, appreciated.

Liftdesigner Tip - Traction sheave inside shaft arrangement

A traction sheave inside shaft arrangement can be setup via the Rope Wizard. The Rope Wizard gets started either via the traction machine, the counterweight, the pulley or the pulley beam properties.

Step 1: Start the Rope wizard:

Step 2: The gearing type can be changed in step 5 of 5 in the Rope wizard:

Close the Rope wizard when you are done.

Step 3: Manual customization of the

• machine position,
• machine hole,
• pully beam arrangement and
• traction sheave shaft.

Liftdesigner - Changing the pulley beam settings

Pulley beam car- / counterweight frame

The pulley beam of the car- and the counterweight frame can be changed via the the pulley beam properties.

Step 1: The pulley beam properties can be activated via the Pulley Beam link in the Quick Link Control underneath the main properties window.

Step 2: The angle and location of the car and counterweight pulley beams can be set via the Angle and the pulley Location properties.

 

Additional pulley beams in shaft head

The additional pulley beams can be changed via the pulley beam properties.

Step 1: The pulley beam properties can be activated via the Pulley Beam link in the Quick Link Control.

Step 2: The angle and location of the additional pulley beams can be set via the P*X- / P*Y- and the orthogonal properties.

Liftdesigner - Changing the counterweight location

The counterweight position can be changed via the Rope Wizard. The Rope Wizard gets started either via the traction machine, the counterweight, the pulley or the pulley beam properties.

Step 1: Start the Rope Wizard:

Step 2: The counterweight position can be changed in step 4 of 5 in the Rope wizard:

 

Close the Rope Wizard when you are done.

 Step 3: The counterweight is now on the left side.

 

Adding a Sheet Constant with translations

Normally in Liftdesigner you can add Sheet Constants depending on rules. You can combine this feature with a translation message to create a constant that has translations. This can be extremely useful for drawing title blocks.

In the example we will see how we can do this for a constant called "PistonSide" that shows where the piston is positioned in the shaft.

First create appropriate LD  Drawing Messages and translations for each piston position. In our example this is rear, left and right.

Then create 3 sheet constants that correspond to the 3 sides. Name all 3 of them "PistonSide". This can be done since only one constant will be true each time, depending on the piston position.

 

   

In the SHCSTITEM_RULE column, put LDS("") & "External$(""MSGGRP3200.MSG00"")", changing the numbers to correspond with your drawing message. Then in the SHCSTITEM_CONDITION, use the piston side LD("Shaft0.Car.Frame.WALL")=2 as a rule for the constant.

To use this constant in a dwg title block, we must remember that constants are stored in Sheet.Storage. and the title block is a viewframe in a sheet. However, since we never know in advance the sheet index, you have to reference the constant in a relative way.

The sheet is the parent of the viewframe, so we use Me.Parent. to reference it. To use the constant we created, use this reference External$("Me.Parent.Storage.PistonSide")

This way you can have only one title block for every piston position and every language. The same trick can be applied to the counterweight side for traction elevators.

 

 

How to change the top profile of the landing door frame

Changing the right and left door frame profile is quite easy to change in LIFTdesigner.

See the image below:

 

Unfortunately there is no dialog box field to change the height of the top profile.

Before you change the top profile, please make sure that the Wall Opening height calculation is set to "Relative to door height":

 

Next select the door.

In the data tree the "landing door [ShaftDoor.]" is selected:

 

Underneath this [ShaftDoor.] there is a node [L_DoorTypeTab.]. Open this node and select the "DT_K" variable (single click).

Next click on properties and change the value (e.g. to 500):

 

Door frame and wall opening is updated accordingly.

Tip: Quicklinks help! Changing the distance between pulleys

Recently I got a request from a version 4 client who had updated on version 5. Even he tried to find, he was nit able to find where he can change the distance between the two pulleys on top of the car. The main reason as that the pulley beam (that is the parent object in the hierarchy) had no geometry in the case below, so he was not able to select it on the drawing. 

The distance of the pulley is not a property of the pulley, instead it is a property of the parent object, that is the pulley beam.

Making use of the "Quick link" list at the bottom of the properties grid, allows you to select object that are close in the hierarchy. The different colours are indicating:
Red: the parent object
Blue: Objects that are in parallel
Green: Child objects
  
Please proceed as below to select the pulley beam:
  
First: Select the pulley in the drawing, then choose "Pulley Beam" at the bottom ( selected the pulley beam):
 

 
 
This will show you the properties of the pulley
beam with the required options: