CABLE TRAY APPLICATION

What is a Cable Tray Main (Pipe) and What is a Branch?

Similar to Piping Application, Site and Zone are the administrative elements. Although
we will be creating Cable Tray Main and Branch, in the Members List the type of
element created is PIPE and BRAN, similar to Piping Application. The important
attributes of Cable Tray is listed below:

NAME

The name of the Tray. In most cases, the line designation will
be used as the name.
BORE
The default bore of the pipe. It is more useful in generating reports/
drawings (Applicable only for circular ducts)
PSPEC
Duct/Cable Tray Specification
ISPEC
Insulation specification
TSPEC
Tracing specification
PTSPEC
Paint specification.
REVISION The revision attribute.

Each pipe should have at least one branch to create the components. The attributes PSPE,
ISPE and TSPE are cascaded down from the Main automatically. We will be discussing
about the other important attributes of the branch later on.
Valid PDMS Cable Tray elements
The Cable Tray elements can appear under a branch in the hierarchy. Unlike piping, here
the tray will not be drawn automatically. To get the tray create the elements, give the
length, fix it between two components by fill option. This can be don by Modify>Fill.
The valid PDMS Cable Tray elements are listed below:
BEND RISER FIXED TRAY TEE REDUCER CROSS

Creation of Cable Tray Main

Select Create>Main from the main menu; in the form obtained give the name as
C-TRAY-MAIN1. Using the specification button, the specification can be changed.
Below, this is the button to change attributes of Cable Tray, if required. Click OK, then
Create Cable Tray Branch form appears on screen. The default name of the new branch is
shown in the text box, which consists of the Cable Tray name with the suffix /B1. Here
also, the Attributes and Specification buttons are provided to change the Attributes and

Specification respectively, if required. Now, select OK on this form, to get Branch at

Explicit Position form. With this form the Head or Tail or both of the Branch can be
positioned as required. In this form fill in the coordinates for the Head and for the Tail.
Set the Direction of the Branch. Set connection to Open or Boxing, as required. Select the
size of the Tray. After setting these items, select Apply. Now, a yellow line running from
Head position to Tail position of the Cable Tray Branch could be seen in Graphics
window.

Creation of components
On main menu select Create > Component, which brings Cable Tray Components form
as shown in Figure. Note that this form looks almost similar to the Piping component
form.

This form could be used to:

Change the Specification for a component

Set Forwards or Backwards mode
Switch Default Selection and Auto Connection criteria off and on
Select the type of Cable Tray component required. The types available are those
in current Cable Tray Catalogue.
Create the component. Position and orientate the component using basic facilities.

P-point details of Components

So that the component can be manipulated and linked to adjacent cable tray items, all
principal points needed to define its position, orientation and connectivity are identified
by uniquely-numbered tags. These tags, which have both position and direction, are
called p-points. Each p-point is identified by a number of the format P0, P1, P2 etc.,
while the principal inlet and outlet points for the logical flow direction through the
component are identified as p-arrive and p-leave. P0 always represents the component
origin position, while in normal cable tray routing mode (Forwards mode) P1 is the same

as p-arrive and P2 is the same as p-leave. Components like tee or cross components will
have more than two p-points.
Orientation of Components, which change direction of Cable
Tray Components
The components which change the direction of flow are ELBO, TEE, etc. If the direction
of ELBO and BEND has to be changed to N 45 E we can do so by typing DIR N 45 E
If we want to change the direction of the p3 of a tee to W, we can do so by typing
ORI and P3 is U
For the changing of routing of componene for e.g. Tee has to be re-routed so we can
arrive in the middle and leave from one side.
From the Main Menu Bar pick Modify>Component>Route....The Modify Route form
appears, select Split Route and click Apply. The different routing options are as follows:

Route through

Branch off

Split Route

How to reselect a component?

If we have modeled a equal tee and that needs to be changed to a unequal tee, we can do
so by navigating to the corresponding tee in the database and by clicking the Reselect
button in the Create Component Form.
The amount of information which is displayed in the choose selection form can be
Controlled. If we type CHOOSE, we get the bare minimum information required to
choose the component. From menu Settings>Choose Options and change selection
criteria from basic to all.
Common Attributes of Cable Tray Components

Q SPREF
Returns the specification reference of the cable tray component.

Q CATREF
Returns the catalogue reference of the cable tray component.

Q CREF
Returns the reference of the branch, which is connected with this element.

Q DTXR
Returns the description of cable tray component

Q ABORE
Returns the nominal bore of component of the cable tray.

Q LSTU
Returns the specification reference of the leave side tube.

Q MODE
To check the mode of cable tray i.e. Forward / Backward.

Common Attributes of Cable Tray Branch

Q PSPEC
Returns the specification reference of the cable tray and branch.

Q ISPEC
Returns the insulation specification reference of the cable tray and branch.

Q TSPEC
Returns the tracing specification reference of the cable tray and branch.

Q HPOS
Returns the coordinates of Head position of the branch.

Q TPOS
Returns the coordinates of Tail position of the branch

Q HBORE/TBORE
Returns the nominal bore of Head/Tail side tube.

Q HCONN/TCONN
Returns the connection type at branch Head/Tail

Q HDIR/TDIR
Returns the direction of flow from branch head and from tail end.

Q HSTU
Returns the specification reference of the tube emerging from branch head

Q HREF
Returns the element with which Head of the branch is connected.

Q TREF
Returns the element with which Tail of the branch is connected.

ADD HREF TREF

Add the equipments with which Head & Tail of the branch is connected.

AXES AT HPOS
Set the axes at the head position of the branch

AXES AT TPOS
Set the axes at the Tail position of the branch

CH CE
For the data consistency check of the branch.

CONN PT TO LAST MEM

To terminate any pipe up to the last member of the branch.

How to work backwards?

It is not always possible for us to work from head to tail of the cable tray. We may have to
work backwards also. To do so, toggle the Backward button in the Create Component
form. You can immediately see that the members list got reordered. To revert back to the
forward mode of working toggle the Forward button in the Create Component form.
How to reverse the flow direction?
Navigate to the branch element and select Modify>Hierarchy>Reverse Order from the
main menu. This will reverse the flow direction. When this command is executed, PDMS
reverses the hierarchy of the branch members and navigates to every member and
executes the FLIP command. FLIP command changes the arrive p-point and leave p-point
of the components.
Data Consistency Check
Navigate to any hierarchy for which the data consistency has to be checked and type
CH CE in the command window or from menu Utilities> Data Consistency
If we get the response NO DATA INCONSISTENCIES the cable tray routing is
consistent.
The data consistency is to check:

Adjacent items are connected and no gaps exist, i.e. to check axial or angular
Misalignment
Connection types are compatible as per the COCO table
Connected components are not skewed with respect to one another
Branch connections are properly terminated
Angles of Bends and Elbows fall within the limits set in the relevant
specifications.