Auto Route Piping
With heads placed, Auto Route Piping walks you through building the system a stage at a time. Nothing is committed until the last step, so you can back out of any of it.
| What | Where you'll find it |
|---|---|
| Start it | Auto → Auto Route Piping (Guided) |
| Sizes and options | The step window that appears — it never steals your keyboard focus |
| Instructions | The banner across the top of the drawing view |
| Default sizes | The Main and Branch boxes in the AUTO toolbar group |
Before you start
Place your heads first. The router builds branch lines through the rows your heads already form, so the layout is the input.
Step 1 — branch lines
The moment you start, branch lines appear across the sprinklers at half opacity. No fittings, no hangers, no labels — just straight pipe, so you can read it.
- Tab flips the orientation (east–west becomes north–south) and the preview re-runs immediately.
- Ctrl+Shift + wheel offsets every branch in half-inch steps, with the exact offset shown above the cursor.
- Pick the branch size in the step window. Sizes 1"–2" sit at the top because that is what you usually want; the default is 1-1/2", and Set as my default remembers your choice for future jobs.
- Click a previewed branch to remove it from the plan; click again to bring it back. The last remaining branch cannot be removed. Removals survive flipping and offsetting.
Step 2 — branch elevation
Enter moves on. Choose how the branches sit, and the preview re-elevates live as you change it:
- a distance above or below the sprinklers (the default is 1'-0" above);
- a distance above or below the roof plane — branches then slope with the deck;
- or an exact above-finished-floor height.
All of them are feet-first, so 10-0 is 10'-0". An AFF height stays level on purpose.
Step 3 — the cross main
Enter again and a main appears perpendicular to the branches, riding your cursor. Drag it to where it belongs and click, or press Enter.
- Sizes 2-1/2"–6" are at the top of the picker; the default is 4".
- The main snaps to the middle of a bay. As you drag, it locks dead centre between two adjacent sprinkler rows, draws a dashed guide along itself, and the banner says LOCKED. It only snaps between rows — there is no invented bay past the outermost one.
- F3 releases the magnet, like every other magnet in the program.
- The main may overrun the branches; it always stays perpendicular.
Step 4 — main elevation
Same choices as the branches, but the offset can be measured from the branch lines, and it
defaults to below them by a foot. Type feet-first (3-2 is 3'-2").
Step 5 — connecting
The main joins the branches with riser nipples at the branch size; a box lets you change the nipple size. If the main meets the branches at the same elevation, plain side outlets are used instead and no nipples are created.
Press G here to add a second main at the far end of the branches — a grid system. It mirrors the first one and connects the same way.
Step 6 — the riser
The riser rides your cursor with its plan symbol and a live preview of the route back to the main. Click to pin it (click again to move it), then Enter builds everything. The route to the main is chosen for least pipe and fewest 90s: straight if it can, one elbow if it must, two at the most.
Moving around the flow
- Enter advances a stage.
- Esc goes back one stage. Esc at the first stage cancels everything.
- The step window has Back and Continue buttons, so the entire flow can be driven with the mouse.
- The window never takes keyboard focus, so Tab always reaches the drawing.