• Design Master HVAC
• Design Master Electrical
• Design Master Plumbing
• Design Master HVAC & Electrical
• Design Master HVAC & Plumbing
• Design Master Electrical & Plumbing
• Design Master HVAC, Electrical, & Plumbing

When installing an update, it is necessary to update all three programs at the same time. You do not want to update one program and not the others.

It is necessary to have AutoCAD closed on the computer you run the installer on.

None of your existing customization will be overwritten during the update process.

Update Installs for Multiple Users

Install the update to the same location as where you originally installed Design Master.

You do not need to close AutoCAD on the other computers with our software installed.

The next time a user opens a drawing in AutoCAD, Design Master will be updated automatically. They will be prompted to restart AutoCAD if necessary.

This high ventilation requirement is caused by one of the rooms in the zone requiring 100% outside air. The room typically has a small load in it that does not require very much air to condition. The supply air required for the space is lower than the ventilation air required, resulting in 100% outside air. If any space in a zone requires 100% outside air, the whole zone will require 100% outside air when using these calculation methods.

The solution is to increase the supply air required for the critical space. The percentage of outside air required in the space will go down, resulting in the percentage of outside air in the zone going down as well.

Here are the specific steps in Design Master HVAC to take to diagnose and solve this problem:

1. Run the DM HVAC->Building Definition->Project Information command.
2. Confirm that the Ventilation Calculation Method is not set to Minimum. If it is set to Minimum, then something else is causing the problem.
3. Run the DM HVAC->Load Calculations->Print Preview command.
4. Confirm that the Print Ventilation Schedule toggle is checked. Confirm the zone in question is selected to be printed.
5. Press the Calculate and Print Loads button.
6. Locate the Ventilation Schedule section of the print out. The critical room will be highlighted. This room is the one you will need to modify. The Discharge Outdoor Air Fraction should be 1 for this room. Check for other rooms that are set to 1. If there are any, they will need to be modified also.
7. Run the DM HVAC->Building Definition->Rooms->Edit Rooms command.
8. Use the Find button to select the room from step 6 that needs to be modified.
9. Select the toggle next to Minimum Supply Air. Specify a value that is greater than the outside air required for the room. The outside air value can be found in the Zone Outdoor Airflow column of the print out from step 6.
10. Run the DM HVAC->Load Calculations->Print Preview command again and confirm that the Outdoor Air Discharge Air Fraction for the critical zone is less than 1.

The room load is the load that is seen inside the room. This load needs to be accounted for by the air being supplied to the room.

The system load is the load that is seen at the air handler. This is the total load that the air handled needs to account for.

The system load includes the ventilation load and the plenum load. The room load does not include these two values.

Wrap Block

When the circuit description wraps, an additional block is inserted in the schedule to extend the space available for the circuit.

To set the name of this block, go to DM Electrical->Customization->One-Line Diagram Schedule Blocks. Look for the “Circuit Wrap” blocks. The name of the block that will be used is listed there.

To create the block, you will want to start with one of the existing circuit blocks. Insert a panel schedule on the drawing. Use the DM Electrical->Customization->Open Block From Drawing command. Select the panel schedule on the first circuit line. This will open the circuit block for you.

Save the drawing using a new name for the wrap block. Erase all of the text and attributes from the drawing. Change the height of the lines so they are 1 unit tall.

One way to do this is to select all of the lines and use the Properties window in AutoCAD. You can open this by pressing CTRL+1. Set the Starting Y value to 0 and the Ending Y value to -1.

Description Width

The width of the circuit description area is specified in the first circuit block. To modify this width, insert a panel schedule on the drawing. Use the DM Electrical->Customization->Open Block From Drawing command. Select the panel schedule on the first circuit line. This will open the circuit block for you.

The insertion point of the DEND attribute is used as the end of the circuit description area.

If you can find the attribute, move it to the appropriate location.

If it does not exist on the drawing, use the DM Electrical->Customization->Block Creation->Insert One-Line Device Schedule Attribute command to insert it. Insert the Circuit: Description End (DEND) attribute.

After you have modified the location of this attribute in the block, return to your original drawing with the panel schedule on it and use the DM Electrical->Customization->Redefine Block in this Drawing command to select the circuit block. Update the block, then erase the panel schedule and reinsert it.

Design Master Electrical has two types of motor loads: “Single Motor” and “Multiple Motors.” The software uses these load types to determine the largest motor when calculating a feeder size. It always looks at all of the connected motors. For example, when determining the largest motor for a panel, we look at all of the motors connected to the panel, plus all of the motors connected to panels fed from the panel.

The largest “Single Motor” load is used as the largest motor.

If there are multiple “Single Motor” loads, the largest is used as the largest motor.

If there are no “Single Motor” loads, the largest “Multiple Motors” load is used as the largest motor.

For a piece of equipment with a single motor, you want to use the “Single Motor” load type.

If the equipment has multiple motors, you have two choices:

• If there are four or fewer motors, and no other load types, you can specify each motor as a “Single Motor.”
• If there are more than four motors, and you need additional load types, you specify the largest motor as “Single Motor” and the sum of the other motors as “Multiple Motors.” Even if the sum of the other motors is larger than the single largest motor, the largest motor can be determined.

If no motors are designated as a “Single Motor”, the software does not have enough information to figure out what the largest motor load is. It uses the largest “Multiple Motors” load as a conservative choice. The largest motor will be smaller than that, but how much smaller cannot be determined. Sizing that group of multiple motors at 125% might result in a feeder that is too big, but that is better than having it be sized too small.

When the offset changes in the middle of the ductwork, the ductwork ends up looking like this:

To prevent this, you need to insert a transparent duct at the break where the offset changes. The transparent duct is the one drawn in red in the following example.

The keyboard shortcut sequence for this is ALT+F Y I.

Select the IFC file you want to import.

After the IFC file is imported, save it as a Revit file. You can now use this Revit file to check for collisions with other Revit files.

Limitation: There is one limitation when doing this. The pipes must use a continuous linetype. It is not possible to both use a linetype and automatically insert hidden lines.

How To: This setting can be specified individually for each pipe type. To turn it on, go to “DM Plumbing->Customization->Pipe Graphics->Edit Project/Standards List”.

The last column is labeled “Hide Pipes Below Ductwork”. Check the box in that column for pipes that should be hidden. You might have to scroll to the right to locate this column.

After you make this change, run the “DM Plumbing->Customization->Update Pipe Graphics” command to update all of the pipes that are already inserted on your drawing..

First, use the “Export Layers to Excel” button. This will create the file you can modify in Excel. You can either modify the layer system you want to modify if you want to make changes to it, or you can export a different layer system that you want to use as the starting point for the layers in a different layer system.

After you run this command, the file will automatically be opened in Excel. Make the necessary changes to the layers.

The first three lines are file headers that should not be modified. The first column is the “Layer Key”, which corresponds with the “Layer Key” grid on the top-right side of the “Layers” dialog. This column should not be modified. The last column is labeled “DO NOT EDIT” and should not be edited. It is used by Design Master to during the import process to transfer layer settings correctly.

When you are finished editing the file, save it. Excel will display a number of warnings, asking if you really want to save the file. Say “Yes” to all of these prompts.

Then, use the “Import Layers from Excel” button. This button will import the selected file to the currently selected layer system. You can either overwrite the layer system that was originally used to create the file, or you can overwrite a different layer system.

Go to “DM Electrical->Customization->Wire Sizing”. Choose “Edit Project List” to make the change for the specific project you are working in. Choose “Edit Standards List” to make the change to future projects.

In the top-right, raceway sizes are listed. Select the 1/2″C row and press the “Delete Raceway Size” button.