Our very own DuctQuote Guru, Steve Rayburn, gives us the rundown on the TOP TEN most helpful Tips for DuctQuote users.
(Unfamiliar with DuctQuote? Learn more here)
- Perspective is everything. Remember to position the layout in the best way for you to see and control how you are drawing. This is typically a view from an angle slightly above the part you are drawing. Bad positioning (perspective) can cause frustration.
- You can change the defaults for your entire drawing on the Design Tab if you set the defaults before beginning the drawing. You can also change defaults for selected sections by selecting the sections and then making the changes in the Design Tab. The sections you change will be marked with a blue "S" for "special".
- When you change something and DuctQuote asks whether to move things "Upstream" or "Downstream", it is asking whether to move sections located at the inlet to the selected section (Upstream), or the Outlet (Downstream).
- If you have a large layout and your response is slowing down here are some tips to speed things up. First, turn off section number and icon labels in the settings tab. Set the Render details to Low under Display on the settings tab. Still slow? Try turning off the Show Center Line option. Remember very large layouts have MANY display points to calculate. Be patient or see if you can break the layout up in to smaller sections.
- When drawing, the Snap lines can be really helpful. But they can sometimes pull your duct sections out of the desired alignment. That is why you have the control to Disable or Enable the snap lines during any Drawing or Editing function. The control is there at the bottom of your layout screen.
- If you are told you have "more than one exit…", look at the air flow direction first. Incompatible or colliding air flow can cause this error.
- You can quickly check for proper connections and orphaned sections in your layout by using Edit mode and double clicking on a section of duct. This will select the section you double clicked on and every section reachable throughout that system. If a section doesn't select, it isn't connected.
- If you have a system (should be gated) where you want to automatically size the duct, but you don't want to have the trunk size exceed a certain diam, use the "Max Trunk Volume" field. To do this:
- Open the Calculation tab
- Enter your Target Velocity
- Look up the CFM of the desired size connection at the Target Velocity on the chart from our website
- Enter the CFM from the chart in the Max Trunk Volume
- Run the calculation
- Remember to Clear your Cache each week to insure you are using the latest advances in DuctQuote.
- Reviewing your layout / DuctQuote with your client will build their confidence in you and in the bid you present. This helps strengthen your business relationship and can help you close more business.
For more helpful DuctQuote tips and free online training information, contact us here!