jcogdell

A set of skill videos is in the process of being prepared for the cable tools suite and should be on the Vectorworks University soon. In the mean time the thread below contains a lot of info about the new cable tools

Have you tried adding a output component as well for the link through?

This should be possible, it was implimented in 2021 sp3, the only thing that can't be shared in a user or workgroup folder is the cableconnector xml file. What build of Spotlight are you running, so I check this when I 'm back in the office

This is a bug and is being worked on. It will hopefully be addressed fairly soon.

The input and output order is based on the stacking order of the components, with the input or output component at the bottom of the stack being the first displayed in the OIP.

At the moment we don't have a dedicated object specifically for LED tape like this, There is another route though, Vision can convert any mesh object (a piece of geometry) into an emissive RGB object. One thing to remember when doing this is that you will need to set up a separate piece of geometry for it in in spotlight, before opening the design in Vision, otherwise the complete object will light up. Also you won't get the points of light for each emitter on the tape.

Hi Mike I've been trying to reproduce this issue for the bug report and at the moment using the current 2022 sp1.1 build I can't. Can you send me the file, so I can take a look?

@Flavie Wysiwyg now supports the new MVR file format so it should no longer be necessary to use DWG or DXF files when collaberating with a Wysiwyg user. Below is the link to a recent webinar by Dany Tancou from Castsoft about how to work with Wysiwyg and MVR

Hi Mike I think this is a bug and will get it into the system, what truss symbols did you use?

this is a bug and is being worked on. This is a limitation of the data tags, they will default to the plane of the view mode used when they are created, so you need to choose what view you want them to be visible in and then draw the cable in that view mode. I have just looked through the default tags and pretty much all the data tags that start with "Breakout tag - ****" are not correctly set up, the first named "Breakout" is correct but the others have a number of errors both related to the field names and the criteria being used in the tag field definitions. I have opened a bug report to have them fixed. Normally the spare should refer to 2 possible data points, the spare settings for each type of cable as set in the cable preferences, to display this in a tag define the tag field criteria using the following settings in the define tag field drop-downs. Data Source drop-down ;- "Object Parameters" Object Name drop-down ;- "Cable - #CableObject#" Parameter Name drop-down ;- "Spare- #Spare#" or to the extra cable in the cable object, this one you would need to script so that it displays the correct value (in this case it will display in meters) Replace the tag field criteria with #CableObject#.#LengthPartsTotal##m_2_1#-#CableObject#.#Length##m_2_1# Yes it is complicated, but apart from the fixture label legends the starting point and workflow should be relatively similar, import the style or symbol into your active file's resources, right click on it and choose the appropriate edit option. Personally I never create cable styles from unstyled cables as it involves a lot of extra steps, its much quicker to duplicate, edit and rename an existing style in the resource manager. There is a new option for creating data tags in 2022, select the object you want to create a data tag for and activate the Create Data Tag Style command from the tools menu In regards to distributor objects I have a lot of ideas about how to improve the workflow fro creating them but because it would be a complete development task by itself it will likely take a while before any major changes are made. At the moment the only thing you can do is to create a cable part for the joiner and manually add it to the parts list for each cable object. I will make an enhancement request to add the ability to do this automatically.

Where did you buy your license? From one of the official distributors/resellers or second hand from a private seller?

I just did a quick check and found the issue, the new truss magnets have not been set correctly to allow connections in all 4 possible directions. The content team have been notified and are working to correct the truss library, in the mean time you can fix this yourself by editing the magnets in the corner symbol, so you can keep working. import the symbol definition into your file resources right click on it and in the context menu choose edit 3D component once in the editing mode group select all the truss magnets with the select similar tool (they are in their own class) and in the properties look for the allow extra roll angle drop-down open it and choose the 90°, 180°, 270° option exit the symbol once this has been done it should behave correctly, The final thing to do is to save the edited symbol to your user or workgroup folder so that you don't need to do this again for the next project.

One thing to consider regarding softgoods in 2022 is that the tool has had a number of upgrades including the ability to save softgoods tool settings as styles. In your file resources have you checked the style settings? (accessed by right clicking on the style and selecting edit) It may be that when your file was converted from the 2020 format that the style was not correctly configured during the import process.

Hi Geoff In the 2022 version of the tools you have to change the connector by editing the electrical components inside the distributor, Page 2 of the thread linked below below details the workflow for creating and editing distributors Not 100% sure if I've got the correct set up (I think you meant 4x 16A 2-phase CEE outputs) and I didn't hook the outputs up to the pins as I am not sure about the phasing but the attached file has the motor breakout for you. For the motor control rename one of the harting moving light distro symbols. I'll try to create a new symbol once I have a bit more time availble motor plugbox.vwx

Don't worry, if you need to ask these question then I expect others will as well and until the skill videos are ready this will provide anyone else interested in the new cable tools a good resource to get them started. There is 2 methods for creating a cable style, you can create one from an unstyled cable object draw a cable object, in the cable object properties either hit the settings button to open the cable settings dialogue and the nhit the convert to unstyled button at the top of the dialogue or open the style dropdown inthe cable properties directly and select the convert to unstyled option next reopen the style dropdown and select 'new plugin style from unstyled plugin' you'll get asked where to save the new style and then the Style dialogue will open so you can set up the style make sure to give the style a unique name there are 4 groups of settings, each individual setting has a toggle beside it, these control whether the setting is style based or instance based. Anything that you want to be able to easily edit in an individual cable object should be set to by instance. Anything that defines the type of cable should be set to by style, and these parameters will only be editable by editing the style or converting the cable object to unstyled. pay special attention to the start and end connector fields, as they define what sort of cable part the cable tool will look for to populate the cable object when you use it, and should always be set to by style also make sure to set the correct cable type as this tells the cable tool which cable library it should be looking in for the cable part, again this should always be set to by style Once you are happy with the settings hit ok and your new style will be ready to use the second option is to import an exiting style into your file reosurces and edit directly by right clicking on it and using the edit command from the context menu to open the cable style dialogue. Whichever method you choose always make sure to save the style into a user or workgroup folder so it is available for future projects. Yes this is a limitation of Spotlight numbering, it doesn't work on parametric objects (the electrical components in this case) that are inside another parametric object. It has potentially a number of unpredictable behaviors when used this way and can even cause Spotlight to crash to desktop. You can create data distributor object like a switch the only issues are that the Spotlight cable tools have no concept of an I/O port only inputs or outputs and there is no associated signal management, just material planning. I would suggest to attach a custom data record to the symbols once created to document the network specific info like IP address ranges and so if required. This can then be referenced in a data tag label or worksheet. You don't need a consumer for this, the consumer component is purely for power connection not data. The best way to do this is insert the DMX input and output components and link them together before inserting the consumer object for the boosters power supply. There are 2 issues the first is the consumer object will auto link to any output inserted after to create a power through and the second is you can't link a consumer to a input component. One limitation of devices with multiple inputs is that the cable tool currently will only see the first input when connecting to the device so you will have to use the power information dropdowns to connect the second input (consumer)

There are several fiber connector types in the cable connector list but I don't think there are any cable pats for them in the default library yet. Not at the moment, you can however add them, you will need to use some form of xml editor to do so, personally I use Visual Studio Code since its both very good and free. The 'CableConnector.xml' file is located in Vectorworks 2022>Libraries>Defaults>Cable Tools. make sure you create a back up of it first incase you make a mistake when adding the new connector type, and also make sure to save a copy of your customised xml out side of the application file structure afterwords, since it will get reset to default whenever a Service Pack content update is made. Here is an example of a connector entry in the XML. <Entry SocketPatchCount="5" UniversalName="Cam Lock 2/0 awg" LocalizedName="Camlock 2/0"> <Socket UniversalName="L1" LocalizedName="L1" /> <Socket UniversalName="L2" LocalizedName="L2" /> <Socket UniversalName="L3" LocalizedName="L3" /> <Socket UniversalName="N" LocalizedName="N" /> <Socket UniversalName="PE" LocalizedName="PE" /> <ConnectableWith UniversalName="Cam Lock 4/0 awg" /> </Entry> The top line is the description of the connector type, SocketPatchCount defines the number of pins the connector has UniversalName is the internal name for the connector type that the cable tools uses in the background, if this is changed you will need to update all existing cable parts and objects that use this connector type. When I set up the connector list I tried to base the universal names on the manufacturers official name for the connector. There are some exceptions though, typically where there are several different manufacturers using slightly different names (like for CEE connectors) or where there are multiple different pin layouts used with the same connector (like with Socapex and Harting connectors) LocalizedName is the name that will appear in all cable connector drop-downs to the user, this can be changed without needing to update the cable parts that use the connector The lines starting with '<Socket' describe the pins in the connector, starting at pin 1. The universal name and localized names work the same way as above. When you are building a distributor this defines the connection drop-downs that will appear for each connector type in the electrical component properties. A this point the pin layouts are only really needed for power cables as they are needed for phase loading calculation, so if you are creating a data connector just document the number of pins and don't bother to label each pin. The line <ConnectableWith UniversalName="Cam Lock 4/0 awg" /> defines whether the connector is physically compatible with another related connector type. You should be cautious when using this as in several case the connector may well be compatible but use a very different phase layout. Make sure to not forget the last </Entry> at the end of the connector definition otherwise it will not work correctly. A useful trick when editing connector entries to see if the entry is valid is to try collapsing the entry or the complete list, if it won't collapse using the widget it is not correctly formatted. In theory you could but it would very much depend on each scenario, and what you want to be able to connect to the cable at each end. for the example of a Front of house snake I would create a custom connector with the appropriate number of pins, then a new cable part or parts for the snake itself, a set of distributors for the break in and break out of the snake and a cable style for the snake. The break in and break out would have the correct fiber and 3 pin connectors on them. This way you will be able to easily connect everything correctly to both other cables and as well as devices. for the motor feeders, if you only need to go between the motor controller and dedicated breakouts, and the cables are kept permanently loomed together then again just create a custom connector like above. The main difference is because the loom is carrying both power and data you will probably want to make sure that the pins are correctly laid out and labeled in case you want to use the cable in power load calculations later. If the cables are not kept permanently loomed then I would suggest creating new socapex style for the data cables, which would use different classing and class attributes, so that you can easily communicate with your crew that it has to be run in the other direction. Depending on how they need to be connected (ie to the same controller and breakout at each end or not) would dictate what the most efficient workflow for drawing the cable would be (once the automatic cable insertion is fully up and running it will probably be easier to use it to draw the cables) If both connect between the same devices then draw the power first, duplicate it in place and change the duplicates style to that of the data version. if they connect to separate devices at each end I would recommend drawing them individually, so you get the correct lengths In my own experience most companies that use this sort of motor cable set up (paired 16a red and 16a yellow looms) the cables are kept permanently loomed together so I would just create a custom connector and set of cable parts (and style) like in the first example, along with a breakout that uses it and make sure to assign the correct connector to my hoists using the connector drop-down in the hoist properties.

All good, hope everything is goes well.

Just realised I forgot to mention that I'll be giving a Cable tools seminar later today at the Design Summit, it will be focused on the basic workflows and features of the cable tools.

Hi Mike Could you DM me the file, along with the exact settings you used in the Braceworks calculation? (the file will be kept fully confidential) Once I've looked it over we can share a screen and go through it to see where the issue is.

At this point the symbols are fixed no matter what type of connector is used, Kind of, you can't display the 2D thumbnail from the part symbol, but the end points of the part will display on the cable object either as a loci or sphere. This is configured in the cable style in the general section. You can also attach a data tag to the start of each individual part inside a cable object using the the data tags section of the style settings. For this to work the tag has to use the criteria 'Used Parts Ordered'. There are several tags in the default library set up for this. Not directly into a cable parts list (created using the new create cable report command) but you can in a cable worksheet created by the regular report command, by appending the distributor worksheet into the cable worksheet This is a bug and should be fixed in SP2, each possible connection in the drop-downs is meant to have the associated object ID as well as the connection name displayed. This is currently one of the areas that is a work in progress, the problem is that there is no direct link between the circuit name and circuit number fields of the lighting device and an attached cable. The cable tool will push data into these fields when the cable is drawn (depending on the mode used) but not the other way round. This means that if you edit these fields on the lighting device the data will not get pushed to the cable and the breakout or distributor at the other end of the cable. The direct link is with the connection drop-down in the power information section of the lighting device. The dev team is working on a solution but several other related issues have to be dealt with first.

I just found out from a college that it is possible to disable the right click mouse function accidentally in the mac settings (no idea where though)

As far as I know the behavior should be the same as long as you have a 2 or 3 button mouse but I'm not a mac user so I'm not 100% sure. However another way to access the electrical component tool is to change its default location it in your workspace using the workspace editor. (located in Tools>Workspaces>Edit workspace)

To create a distributor you have to add electrical components to a symbol and map how they are connected together. This is a complex, effectively you are creating a direct model of how the distributor would be wired internally (minus any RCD or earth fault protection breakers) create a symbol for the distributor, could be anything right click on it in the file resources and choose either edit 3D component or edit 2D component depending on the type of symbol next activate the electrical component tool by right clicking on the distributor tool in the lighting tool set in the tool mode bar select the type of component you want to insert, start with the input first as the order of insertion controls the order that the component will appear in the distributor's properties later make sure the component is fully inside the geometry of the symbol in the component properties configure its properties, you can leave the component name as is but you will probably want to change the scale and connector type. make sure the component is correctly classed otherwise you won't be able to control its visibility in a design layer ignore the connection drop downs at this point next reactivate the electrical component tool and insert the outputs (making sure to do so in the order you want them to display in the properties later) for each output give it a name and number in the name field, I tend to label them by output type followed by the number, for example Harting out-1 repeat the steps from above for the other parameters Reactivate the tool again and insert over current protection components (fuses/breakers) insert one for each circuit the distributor object has make sure each has a easily identifiable unique name, I tend to name them based on circuit number and phase, so for example 001(L1), 002(L1), etc,.... define what class of breaker you are using (type B, C or M) Once all your components are in place its time to connect them together, you do this using the connection dropdowns in the component properties. step one group select all the outputs of the same type open the P.E (physical earth) pin drop-down and select the inputs PE connection. repeat for each neutral pin Next group select all over current protection components that connect to the same input phase and connect their input pin to the appropriate pin of the input component (L1, ...), repeat for each group (L2 & L3) lastly you need to individually connect the live pins of each output component to the correct over current protection component output (this is why I use the circuit name in the component name), The connection drop-downs do support a search function so type in the first couple of digits of the circuit number to jump to the correct connection. Couple of important notes to remember, you can duplicate components but the automatic numbering is not very good when you do this if you duplicate a component after connecting it it can cause it to become de-synced with the other components it is connected to if you need to change connector type after connecting it to the other components it is better to delete the component than to just change the connector type due to potential connection de-syncing you can use the 'send to back' and 'send to front' context commands to change the order that input and outputs display in the distributor properties. You can convert any symbol into a supply object by using the electrical component tool at add a supply component to it, the main thing to remember is that the voltage and current are documented per phase. The output connector of the supply object is set in its component properties as well. The power planning palette is a work in progress and not yet fully functional. At this point I would recommend waiting for the developers to finish fixing the bugs before trying to use it. We are planning to add more distributor and power supply content to the libraries moving forwards and I am in the process of creating detailed skill videos going through how to create distributors, power supplies and cable parts.

You would create a cable set for each of the vendors that you want with and then in the cable preferences select the set you want to be active for the overall document. You can also use the cable area tool to assign different cable sets to different parts or layers of your file, so for example you can have a separate cable set being used on the audio layer. You create cable sets by editing a cable parts set parameter. The best way to do this is to open the application cable library file for the type of cable you want to create for the new set (located in your application folder>libraries>defaults>cable tools) open the resource manager select the part symbol that is closest to to the one you want for the new set, (to reduce the amount of editing needed and allow you to have multiple cable sets with the same parts) duplicate the part and give it a unique symbol name, its a good idea to include the company name in the symbol name to make finding the new part easier later on. repeat this for each part you want for the new set, It can be useful to group all the new parts into a resource folder for that set so you can easily share them. one you have the new symbols open the Cable Parts Manager (located in the Spotlight>Cables and power planning sub menu) use the search box to filter the parts library by the new symbols, use the company name for example once you have located the new parts either use the direct list editing in the main pane of the dialogue to update/edit the parts attached data record or double click on the part to access a dedicated editing dialogue for any parameter that is not directly accessible using direct list editing. To create the new set just replace the current set name with your new set name, just be careful to make sure the new name is exactly the same for each part in the set, I managed to create a duplicate set by having an extra space at the end the set name in one cable part! Save the edited cable parts library file into your user or work-group folder, this will avoid the library file getting reset to default whenever a new service pack update is released. If the new cable set contains cables of more than one type (both jumper and multi cables for example) you will need to repeat the above process in each the appropriate library file for each type of cable. Once you have created all the new parts and saved the library files open a new empty file open the the manage cable parts dialogue hit the update button to tell the cable tools suite that the new parts have been created and that there is a new cable set available. You should now be able to select the new cable set in the cable preferences. As Sam says don't worry about hijacking the thread, but it may be easier for other users with the same questions to start a new thread about the power planning feature. Either way I'll do my best to answer any questions.

From your image it looks like you have the simplified class turned on. All the Spotlight default trusses have a simplified view mode which is a bounding box, like in the above images. The idea is you can turn off the regular truss geometry and just use the simplified version to help with performance. Look in the Navigation palette in the classes tab for Rigging>Truss>Simplified and check its visibility