Conrad Preen

Well let's start by thanking you for raising the issue in the first place! That's what this forum is all about. On behalf of the ConnectCAD team.

Hi Daniel, Let me try to deal with some of those right away and come back to you on the others. Right now the answer is no. And if we did this we'd be confusing physical space with schematic space. I will think about it but I can't promise anything. It sounds tricky. Re-route is working fine for me. I select all the circuits with the tags in the wrong place, then move the cursor over the tag that's in the right place so it highlights red, click and they all line up. If that doesn't work for you let me know which version you are on and I'll sort you out. This is fixed. Punchdown implies that no connector is to be fitted to the cable end, but it is stripped and terminated in situ. This is very like custom connector panels where the cable inside the box is soldered or crimped to the chassis connector. In these case the socket orientation is X, and the type is IN or OUT. And thus the circuit calculates the connector type on the inside of the panel is '-->' or '<--' depending on whether the chassis connector is input (accepting a connection from the left) or an output (connection towards the right). To model these we'd need two different symbols for input and output and the way to select the right one. All the part are in place, it's how we put them together. Leave that with me... I think you may as well just create a 'slim' device for these. Connector Panels are based on the idea that bare ends are soldered or crimped to the back of the chassis connector. That could have a lot of unforeseen consequences. Which is why we don't use symbols directly but convert them to groups first. But this could be a nice power-user utility provided it is well-designed to show you specifically what is being changed. I'll keep the idea in mind. If you edit the symbol 'VJX_label' you can remove this linked text specifically for patch panels. The command ConnectCAD > Layout > Front-Rear Rack View... gives you the choice to display front, rear or both. Hope I've helped. I'll be back with some more thoughts soon. Conrad

Hi @James Chipman From the first time I wrote Device Builder I knew that there would always be some device that would exceed its capabilities. But with ConnectCAD there is always a "get out of jail" card. You can add the extra sockets and save the device as a symbol. That way you never have to create it again. You can easily share symbols with your colleagues and access symbols from other documents using the Resource Manager. Ultimately we would have to make the socket groups into a scrolling list to allow arbitrary numbers of rows - but would it be easier to use? That's the question. Conrad

Hi Jeff, I see your point. We will certainly look into that. There are two issues here: Adding the cable-type as a parameter. Optionally displaying this on the drawing. I'm going to log this as an enhancement request. Thanks for reaching out. Conrad

Yes, I see the problem. Let me have a look at that and get back to you. Conrad

Hi Jens Just to expand on that a bit, Circuits are assigned to classes according to their signal type so HDMI circuits would be in the class Sys-Circuits-HDMI etc. You can of course override this assignment or better still set up your own colour code using the Class editor to set the default "by Class" colour for each signal type. So you don't have to do this for each drawing just make yourself a copy of the ConnectCAD template set up the way you like it. You can't customise the labeling of circuits right now. But I would like to know what sort of thing you have in mind? Maybe we can add this facility in a future version. I'm not promising anything right now. We have to balance the ability to customise ConnectCAD against keeping the software accessible and easy to use. That said let's have the conversation - sometimes a very simple change can make a big difference. Regards Conrad

Hi Daniel, Short answer to that is no. However I will add an enhancement request to make this reload happen via ConnectCAD Settings. That seems reasonable. Thanks for reaching out, Conrad

Yes, this is a known issue which is fixed in the next service pack. That should be available soon. Conrad

Hello! The workflow is like this: - use Update Rack Elevation to create a Rack Elevation layer (if you don't have one) and to create Equipment Item objects for each unique Device. - use the Layout Room tool to create a Room object and give the room a name - drag the Equipment Item into the Room and the schematic layer Device updates automatically This is faster to do than to describe in fact. Just to add some extra clarification. Schematic drawings are about connectivity. Physical locations of equipment in room, racks and rack frames are a separate workflow. The reason is that often the clearest way to show signal flow isn't the clearest way to show locations and vice-versa. Hope I've helped a bit and do ask if anything is not clear. Conrad

Hi, First off all I'm glad you're finding ConnectCAD friendlier than WireCAD. You are not the first by any means. So, wire/cable types... Generally speaking it makes more sense to setup your Sys-Circuits-<sig type> classes to color Circuits by their Signal Type code than use the Cable field for friendly signal names. You can use the Legend object to explain the color code with friendly names of your choosing. Many people are comfortable with the idea of signal type being what determines cable type. Most of the time you run the same signal thru the same cable type anyway. Other people use the Cable field for cable type, but it really depends on what you want displayed on the drawing. And of course you can always add a custom parameter. Here's how you do that. My point is this. There isn't a particular "right way" and that's just another example of the freedom and flexibility that people value in ConnectCAD. Conrad

Hi Max If you create a Legend object, select it and then use the menu Modify > Convert > Convert to Group, you can turn the parametric object into a normal Vectorworks group and edit everything inside the group to be exactly the way you need it. Most of the time it's a pretty fixed set of signal types you use so chances are the same legend will be fine for most drawings - correct? So this seems like the simplest way to go about it. I prefer not to add a zillion controls to something like the Legend when it is fairly easy to modify it with standard Vectorworks. Does that cover it or have I missed the point? Conrad

Dear Gary Do you mean 19" rack modules? Conrad

Hi DEZ Sockets are always created on snap grid points. This is done so that the Connect Tool will detect sockets even when Snap To Grid is the only active snap (recommended). So what I think is going on is that you have chosen a rather small snap grid and hence the text overlaps. Not quite sure why you have the snap grid set so close? If it's a matter of fitting to a particular sheet size then you can always achieve that by displaying your design layer in a viewport located in a sheet layer. This is better in any case since it gives you more control over presentation. If you think I'm missing the point please send me the drawing and I'll take a look. Conrad

Hi Max, Dare I say it? You can always Convert To Group and edit this to whatever look you want. In essence the Legend is just a bunch of lines assigned to the signal type classes in your drawing. What kind of editing were you looking for? Conrad

I just checked and Nikolay is right - a fix is in the pipeline. Still interested to hear your view though 🙂 Thanks for the feedback! Conrad

Thank you DEZ I do see your point. Would you be happy if the text did a combination of shrink-to-fit and flow onto a new line? Conrad

Would it be possible to post a picture showing exactly what the problem is? The Equipment Item text display is designed as far as possible to "just work" and therefore speeding up your workflow by you not having to attend to this. Obviously there is a case here that we have not covered so if I could know what it is maybe we can handle this too? Looking forward to the screenshot !!! Conrad

Sounds like you may need to check class visibility settings. Let me know if this fixes it, and feel free to send me the file if it doesn't. Conrad