Conrad Preen

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@Pat Stanford There is one report that we create programmatically bypassing as you put it the normal database from criteria mechanism. This is the worksheet created by the tool Make Rack Equipment Worksheet. This list each available position in the rack as a worksheet row and what equipment if any is mounted there. Since it doesn't list drawing objects it can't use normal reporting. Thanks for your kind words - we do what we can! Conrad

Yes, along with any equipment placed in the console bay.

@SSvectorproblems Hello. Yes @spettitt is right. The purpose of the Use Symbol checkbox is to allow you to use an existing ordinary 3D symbol say one you snagged off a manufacturer's website as the graphics for your equipment item. If you have created a red symbol (convert-to-plugin-object) from your equipment item then all you need to do is drag that in from the Resource Manager directly. I will check on this problem and see if there's something we can do to alert you if you choose a red symbol. As for the socket symbol that you see that just happens to be the first in the document - we use symbols as building blocks quite a lot in ConnectCAD because it allows you to customise things. Hope this helps, Conrad

@btgroves I am aware that tutorial materials could be better. And that is something that I am raising with those responsible. Conrad

@Pat Stanford The Device Connections Report is in fact a report on the Socket objects in the drawing. But as Niko says we created specialized functions that allow you to access the parameters of the parent device of each socket. When you order the rows by Device Name you get what appears to be a database of Devices and their sockets. And of course we also have a function to get the circuits connected to each socket too! So that way we can get the cable number. Sockets also have a hidden parameter that counts the number of connections that a socket has. Basically all the parts are there and can be put together to create whatever views anyone wants. One thing I noticed in this request was that un-connected sockets are also listed. The Device Connections report will list these IF these sockets are present on the drawing. Not everyone includes all unused sockets in their devices because this eats up drawing space. Just to be aware. Conrad

Hi @Thomas K. Have you looked at the Cable Pull Report in the ConnectCAD > Documentation menu? Maybe that's a starting point? Conrad

Hey everyone! If your rack names look like this when you've created a rack elevation viewport, this is why. Even though the viewport is set to Hidden Line render, objects that have no fill are rendered as wireframe because they can't hide another object seeing as they have no fill... right? So when you have Fill = None in the classes CC-Rack3D-Graphics-Top and CC-Rack3D-Text-Name the top of the rack will be see-thru meaning that you will see both the front and back labels of the rack. So to avoid this at least in the viewport class overrides give those classes a solid fill and the rear text won't show.

Hello @btgroves In the end this comes down to how the classes are set up. If you have Fill = None in classes CC-Rack3D-Graphics-Top and CC-Rack3D-Text-Name then these will be rendered as wireframe even though the render mode is set to hidden line. How do you hide lines when the object has no fill - right? In viewports you can override the class settings just for that viewport so you're not forced to have a fill in your model if you don't want one. I think this clears it up. The reason why it was hard for us to make it happen was that it needed 2 classes to not have fill. Best regards Conrad

@Nikolay Zhelyazkov Side views and trays without slots have come up before so I think we should consider these. I will create the enhancement requests now.

We are checking this issue and have found a reproducible test case. Once we have determined the exact cause we will get this fixed as soon as possible. Thanks for drawing our attention to this. Conrad

Hi Simon, Just for the others watching this thread. Putting the Rack object inside the 3D flight case symbol does not work for 2 reasons: 1. each symbol instance will have the same Rack ID, 2. the Equipment Item object/tool does not look inside symbols or groups. Given that it searches for Racks dynamically as it hovers over objects, looking inside group or symbols would probably result in an unacceptable slowdown. As things stand the Rack object and any 3D symbol representing say a flight-case have to both be top-level objects. And then everything works pretty nicely IMO. Conrad

Hi @CHWE Check out this thread There is a lot of explanation about adding custom text. Conrad

That's what you get if you set the rack to Console style with Slope=0. Play with the side cheek thickness to meet your needs. You can place this inside a 3D symbol of your flight case and drop your equipment in in the normal way. Conrad

@btgroves Vectorworks reports list drawing objects. So a circuit report for example will not show un-connected sockets. The standard Device Connections report is probably your best starting point. This actually lists all the sockets, but retrieves the device info and the connected circuit using special worksheet functions e.g. =OBJECTDATA('EVAL SOCKET CIRCUITS', 'Circuit', 'number'). In the worksheet menu Insert > Function... you find a whole swathe of these functions that help you get the attached records and parameters of objects that are associated with the database criterion. I'm pretty sure you'll find the solution you are looking for there. But if you get stuck please reach out. Conrad

Thanks Scott! I think you have just excellently summarized the need to consider ALL conductors in any electrical model. As Vectorworks we cannot do less. So everyone will have to be a bit patient while we get this worked out. C

Spotlight power planning is not integrated with ConnectCAD. We are working on it. I also grew up in the 220-240 volt world so I find the antics of our US counterparts hair raising! But this is our reality.

@tk_ For a knowledgeable user who is aware of the assumptions he is making, I would agree with you. Though I wonder how the practices followed in the US involving wiring appliances across phases would fit in with this? Neutrals are often undersized on the assumption of proper phase balance etc. Would we need to be alert to a possible overloaded neutral? Designers inevitably rely on the results obtained from these models even though the small print in the EULA tells them not to. So as Vectorworks it's not so easy for us to release an electrical model that is incomplete and might fail to predict a real-world problem. However I am very interested in discussing this maybe we can find a solution. Conrad

Thanks guys! I'll add a request to fill the bubble as a separate class. That should be pretty easy to do. @livespace josha the first ever customer was Athens Olympic Broadcasting in 2002. ConnectCAD has been around a while.

What I love about this forum is how you all keep independently discovering the topics I'm working on 😄. As Simon says this is not too hard to do at the basic level. However, power planning very quickly turns from design to modelling. And those are two very different things. In your question aggregating loads came up almost immediately. Propagation of loads back to power sources involves ConnectCAD devices "knowing" what they do internally. And right now devices are just a named collection of sockets. That simplicity is by design - it makes creating devices super-easy. But imagine if every time you wanted to create a device you had to define the relationships between the sockets? Your day would never end! My challenge is to find a way to do this without making everyday design work harder. And not just for power but for every signal.

@Ben3B Could it be click-drag with the ReRoute tool that you are looking for? Conrad

@btgroves If you could PM me this file I will take a look. Moving the entire rack workflow to 3D involved significant complexity. We did extensive testing but this issue did not arise. The key to getting this fixed quickly is to find a reproducible case. Your help in this regard is greatly appreciated. Conrad

Hi @Cristiano Alves ConnectCAD and Spotlight have indeed developed separately. Until several years ago ConnectCAD was an independent product. Now as part of Vectorworks we have begun a process of closer integration with Spotlight. ConnectCAD is more aimed towards permanent audio-visual installations. It handles theoretical schematic design, physical layout of equipment and cable routes, and has extensive reporting and visualisation features to allow you to present your design to project stakeholders. Short answer - for sure ConnectCAD can help you. And it's not that hard to learn. The online help is helpful! I know that there are not as many tutorial videos as for example with Spotlight. This is a question of resources and hours in the day. Conrad

Hi @livespace josha Just been playing around with that. The overall attributes of the circuit are controlled by the signal type class e.g. CC-Circuit-Signal-HDV. So a text style applied to this affects the text in the bubble. You have to move the bubble to get the circuit to correctly recalculate the size. I notice that the text style background is also applied but only under the text and that can look a bit strange. So to cut a long story short I agree this needs some work. But before we go there could you tell me your expectations? I like to know what sort of thing you would want to do. Conrad

@TLeatherman @Nikolay Zhelyazkov I would caution against overloading this command with numbering preferences. The existing Renumber command is the way to go. It's better to have a set of simple tools than a complicated multi-tool. C