Ductwork Design Tools Made Easy

Whether you’re a veteran or just starting out, ductwork design can take up a lot of your time. Luckily, there are 3D CAD solutions that help expedite the duct drawing process.

DuctQuote is our web-based, 3D drawing software that does exactly that. With these few quick tips, you can get to designing — and selling — faster.

Creating a Duct Design Layout

The most important thing you’ll be doing in DuctQuote is drawing layouts for your clients’ facilities. Layouts are design drawings within a project. In DuctQuote, your layouts can represent rooms, floors, or even different systems. There’s no limit to the number of layouts you can design in a project.

When you create a new layout, you have to specify a floor size. To get the results you need, this specified size should match the actual floor within a 25% margin of error. 

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Pro tip: Keep all of the layouts together for any given job, but don’t mix jobs and layouts. Doing so increases the potential for confusion and can make it tough to find them later.

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Setting the Defaults

When you start drawing your system, there are several defaults you can set at the beginning to make the work easier. This list includes:

• The material you want to use (galvanized or stainless steel)
• The connection type (rolled lip or flanged)
• The flange type
• The default fitting radius

Setting these preferences at the beginning of your design process can prevent you from running into issues further into the drawing and quoting process.

 

Importing Your Own Floor Plan

It’s likely that you already have a floor plan. It's a breeze to get drawings of your clients’ facilities into the layout tool.

1. Click the "Drawings" drop-down and choose "Import Plan Drawing."
2. Select the PDF you want to use.
3. Zoom to the minimum point where you can read everything you need to in the plan.
4. Draw a scale line. It’s easiest to draw a line from one end of the room to the other, which would be the room’s length.
5. Crop your plan down to the area you’re interested in designing onto.
6. Done! Your 3D floor plan is ready!
    

Tips for Adding the Ductwork to the Design

The most important part of your system will be the ductwork you add to your drawing. Because you set many of your defaults ahead of time, it will be easy to select the right duct, connections, and flex hose. 

A common question for distributors designing ductwork systems is, "where do I start?" With DuctQuote, you can start anywhere on your layout, so you should start where you find it most convenient. When you start drawing, guidelines and other visual cues will help you design without errors:

• Alignment: If you’ve created multiple points on your layout, your cursor with stop when you draw your duct across one of the dimensions of a point. This can help when you want to be as precise as possible.
• Arrows: DuctQuote uses arrows to indicate airflow direction. When designing a ductwork system that flows into a collector, use the arrows to make sure the air is flowing the right way. Additionally, the software will signal when your drawing is at odds with the part sizes you’ve specified. 

Designing Ductwork Systems Doesn't Have to Be Hard

The purpose of DuctQuote is to make designing, quoting, and selling ductwork systems easier and faster. If you're ready to get started (for free), register for DuctQuote and a Duct Guy will help you get started.