Equipment groups — MEP Tools

Bundle related equipment into a group you can move, rotate, and lay out together.

A group bundles related equipment (for example a switchboard lineup) so you can move and rotate it as a unit and keep an internal arrangement fixed. Groups are managed from the Group verb and the Groups panel.

Creating a group

Select the equipment you want, then Create New Group — or, from the panel, pick a parent item ("Click parent equipment — or Esc to cancel") and then click the children to add ("Click children to add — Enter when done, Esc to cancel"). The panel shows each group and its member count.

Managing members

For any group you can:

• Add members — pick more equipment to include.
• Remove members — take equipment out; it stays on the canvas.
• Delete group — removes the grouping only; the equipment remains ("Equipment stays on canvas.").

Moving and rotating

Move or rotate the whole group as a unit; members keep their relative positions.

Editing the internal layout

Edit layout opens the group for internal arrangement: "Move or rotate equipment to change positions inside the group. External items are locked." Make your changes and Save Changes (or Cancel). If the new arrangement introduces clearance problems, the tool warns you and you can revisit the group later to resolve them.

Groups and AutoFit

AutoFit doesn't honour groups or placement-preference relations, so running it removes all groups and adjacency relations from the document first. Undo brings them back. If you need a group to survive, lock its members before running AutoFit rather than relying on the grouping itself.

Groups are also an editor-only concept for IFC: exporting to IFC and importing it back does not carry groups. See Exporting.