Due to the increased number of axes, the preferred icon and rotation must be selected to obtain visual consistency. The other unique aspect of using the Isometric Pipe Drawing Mode is that the visual appearance of the junction icons is more complex than in a 2D grid.

In all three Pipe Drawing Modes, you can Add/Remove Segments by right-clicking on a pipe.

The scroll wheel/arrow key function can be used in combination with the Alt key function to optimize drawing and adjusting pipes on the isometric grid. However, if you hold down the Alt key while adjusting a pipe by the endpoint, the center vertex of the pipe will also stay fixed and an additional segment will be added. When you adjust a pipe by dragging the endpoint to a new position on the grid, only the opposite endpoint will stay fixed. Once the preview line appears how you would like your pipe drawn, you can drop the pipe endpoint. When this is done, the preview line will change to show the alternate paths for the pipe. To view other options for the pipe, you can scroll the wheel on your mouse or click any of the arrow keys on your keyboard. The preview line shows where the pipe will be drawn. When you draw a pipe, a red-dashed preview line will display. To show the grid as in Figure 1, go to the Arrange menu and select Show Grid. The remainder of this blog will focus on how to best utilize the Isometric Pipe Drawing Mode. The Isometric mode will segment the pipe onto the isometric grid. The 2D Orthogonal mode will segment the pipe onto the orthogonal grid. The 2D Freeform mode will place a pipe on the Workspace as drawn. There are three Pipe Drawing Modes available on the Arrange menu: 2D Freeform, 2D Orthogonal, and Isometric.įigure 1: Pipe Drawing Modes available on the Arrange menuįigure 1 shows the differences between the three Pipe Drawing Modes.

Whatever the reason may be, the great news is that AFT Fathom 10 includes a new Isometric Pipe Drawing Mode! Or maybe you are incorporating your model into a report and want to represent the x, y, AND z axes. Have you ever wanted to show the three-dimensional nature of your piping system in AFT applications? Maybe you are building a model from an isometric reference drawing.

Isometric pipe drawing