Node Scaling

Nodes can be made larger and smaller to show the changing size of the connections in the real world.

Note that this acts in a very specific way - if you want your pipework to be visually accurate, it's best if you understand how scaling is applied and why you should always create your main line first.

Node scales behave differently between the first child and all subsequent children.

The first child you create is assumed to be the main line.

In this case, if you have two nodes with different sizes, the size will smoothly transition between them (which is handy for real-world pipe size changes, venturi tubes etc.).

All other children are assumed to be branches from that main line. They will be sized according to the size of the branch and won't smoothly transition at all.

This is extremely difficult to visualise from words alone,, so let's have a look at an example.

In the illustration below, the nodes were created in the order they occur in the alphabet (ie. A was the first, B was the second, C was the third and D was the fourth).

The size of the circle represents the size of the node, and the black line shows you the thickness of the generated pipework.

Because C is the first child of B, the pipework there transitions smoothly to a small outlet.

However, since E is not the first child of B, the connection between them doesn't transition smoothly - the entire length is based on the size of E.

This difference in behaviour allows you to define a distinct main line vs branches along your connections.

Once you have setup all of the pipes connection nodes and scaled them appropriately, you will then need to save those changes to the server. To do this, see Saving and Restoring Changes.