Pipe Size Badges

Why sizes are a separate step

A pipe run is priced by its diameter, so a 22 mm cold water main and the 15 mm branches off it belong in different groups even though they are one continuous service drawn in one colour. Auto Takeoff reads the size callouts on the drawing and files each run under the size it found, but a callout can be missing, unreadable or ambiguous, and a run can change size partway along. Pipe size badges are how you check and correct that filing by hand.

Everything on this page happens in mask view with a linear group masked. See Mask view if you have not used it yet.

Where sizes come from

• On a vector drawing, Auto Takeoff and Auto Detect Linear read the size labels along each run (for example Ø22) and create one Linear group per size, named after it: Ø22mm, Ø15mm. Runs whose size could not be read go into an Unsized group.
• On an image drawing, sizes are read by text recognition and checked against a list of standard pipe sizes, so a misread value does not create an odd group such as Ø228mm.
• The sizes found on a drawing are available as soon as it opens; you do not have to run Auto Detect Linear first.

The sidebar search row also carries a Pipe sizes chip list for the drawing, with its own Add a size button and a per-chip Remove added size option. Adding a size there or on the mask bar makes it available in both places.

The badges on the mask bar

With a linear group in the mask, the bar shows a Ø pill for every size on the drawing, sorted from smallest to largest: sizes read from the drawing, sizes already on a group, and any you have added. Hover a pill for its tooltip, Ø22mm — drag onto a masked marker to assign. Until a linear group is masked the pills are greyed out and the tooltip reads Ø22mm — pick a group to mask first.

While a linear group is masked, its size is also painted along each of its runs as repeating Ø badges. The spacing follows the zoom: zoom in for more badges along a run, out for fewer, so a long run is always labelled without the badges piling up.

Adding a size

1. 1

   With a linear group masked, click at the end of the badge row (tooltip Add a size).

2. 2

   Type the diameter in millimetres (e.g. 28). Sizes from 1 to 999 are accepted.

3. 3

   Press Enter to add it, or Esc to cancel. The new badge joins the row in size order.

Filing a run under a size

1. 1

   Enter the mask and add the linear group that holds the run. If the run is already under the wrong size, mask that size group.

2. 2

   Press on the Ø badge you want and drag it onto the run. A ghost badge follows the pointer, and the cursor shows a copy symbol over a valid run and a no-drop symbol elsewhere.

3. 3

   Release on the run. It moves out of its current group into the group for that size.

Press Esc during the drag to cancel it.

Which group the run lands in

The run goes to the group with that size in the same Service as the group it came from. If no such group exists yet, ZeroCount creates one, and the new group joins the mask automatically so the run you just sized stays visible rather than fading out. Where the group came from a takeoff sample, the new group keeps the sample's colour.

If a matching size group already exists but you had left it out of the mask, the run fades after the drop because it now belongs to an unmasked group. CTRL+CLICK that group in the sidebar to bring it back.

Sizes on fittings

The fittings along a run carry size tags that follow the sizes you assign:

• Reducers placed by a split show 35×22, larger first, and clear again if both sides are made the same size.
• Bends show the run's single size, or both sizes such as 22×15 where a bend steps between two sizes.
• T-Junctions show all three legs, such as 22×22×15, the two along the main first and the branch last.

Tags update when you drop a new size on a run, with one limit: a T-junction refreshes only where its branch meets the main exactly. On many drawings the branch stops fractionally short, and those tees keep the size they were detected with rather than showing a wrong one. See Sizes, bends, T-junctions and reducers for how the tags are read at detection time.

Common issues

The badges are greyed out

No linear group is in the mask. Masking a Detection or Count group alone does not enable them; Ctrl+click a linear group row or tick one in the picker.

The drop did nothing

The badge only lands on a run that is currently in the mask. Faded runs are not valid targets, and the cursor shows the no-drop symbol over them.

The run changes size partway along

Split it first, then drop a size on each half. See Splitting and joining runs.

Next steps

• Splitting and joining runs — cut a run at the point where its diameter changes.
• Sizes, bends, T-junctions and reducers — how Auto Takeoff reads sizes and names its groups.
• Grouping marker groups into Services — the Service assignment that decides where a sized run is filed.
• Tidying takeoff results — the rest of the clean-up after an automatic takeoff.