MattyB

Oh yes, if only Spotlight lights could come across too...

.

.

We're Electricians (or I am at least), these kinds of decisions are part of our everyday workload (or should be). If you modify the CM to something off-piste, then you could mark the result in red text, and have a pop-up warning, much like the one that you get in Braceworks.

Ultimately, I would like to see the cable tool like the irrigation tool, whereby the sprinklers are our loads, the pipes are our cables, the valves are our distro boxes, main pipes our feeders, and the POC, our generators, or house breakers... Then as we add elements (loads, cables etc..) the system reports on the drawing, pressure (voltage) and flow (current). But hey, that's a pipe dream.

Hi Sam, Essentially yes, something like that. Or this.. I would like to be able to input the circuit amperage, and have that give me the true volt drop across the cable. The loop impedance is essentially the same equation, but with 0 (zero) amperage. And then have that displayed on the drawing, much like the Phasing field. (the one that's says' 3 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground (or rather CPC!)). Is that possible?

That's it. I want the chance to make those errors, I am using a metric system, so was confused about the role of CM, but my industry does use aluminium cabling on occasion (I know, I know, I'm trying to change that, one cable at a time) so I do want to adjust the CM, or metric equivalent. Being able to calculate the actual volt drop may be an Entertainment specific thing, where I know the actual loading of each and every cable, so I see now why VW may not want to allow that connection.But it is called Spotlight. True, I might have to get my wallet out.But in my mind I want so little, the cable tool is so close, I... just...want..it...to...do...just.a..little...more. I just want to mess with the volt-drop calculation, the rest I can live with. Cheers Sam, Matty

Hi Sam I don't think you have a vocabulary problem, I think I have a vocabulary problem, I often use words that I don't know the real meaning of, or I make up, so thanks for your patience. When I say extensible, I mean that its functionality can be expanded, I know nothing of computer coding, I did some work with XML in my rebellious youth, before realising that I had absolutely zero aptitude for it. Maybe that's where I have stolen the word from. The thing I want the cable tool to do most, is calculate loop impedance, and write it on the cable at any of the marker points. The Volt drop thingy is so close to what I need to do, but it doesnt actually calculate volt-drop. The volt-drop calculation needs amperage to function correctly, 0 amperage = 0 volt-drop (simplified to heck). There is a field where you can input an amperage value, but it has no effect on the volt drop shown, meaning its not part of the equation, it just shows a max value, which is like removing your car's speedometer and replacing it with a sticker stating 'Max speed 240kph' or replacing your fuel gauge with a 'Max tank capacity: 75litres' sign, sure its information, but not very useful. when i say extensible, i want to get back there and join up the various bits of information the drawing has, to produce the information I desire. It has all the variables, cable length , cable construction, amperage etc just need to get them together properly. I guess my only understanding of how this may work is from filling out formulas in Excel cells, and obviously that is not correct. Failing above, maybe it can be done in the worksheet... I thought there must be a worksheet that the report tool populates, but I see now that this is not so. When I create a cable worksheet I get to choose from many fields that I would like shown, but I would like to add my own custom fields at this point, to say, add column with my loop equation, take the cable info and produce an output. I can add these columns after worksheet creation, but I was hoping to add it somewhere upstream and have every worksheet have it at creation. My idea of a template. There is some calculation going on back there, as the cable totals are added, but its done before the sheet is created, or I cant see the formulas within the sheet cells. I suppose I could have my own worksheet that has its cells linked to the Cable report worksheet, then it could apply my formulas, then I could link the results back to the cable phasing field, (as I'm not using it) and then that could be marked onto the cable in the drawing, There! King of the Kludge! Or I could retreat back to my land of crayons and calculator. Cheers Matty

And that command could be expanded to include a template to look up a user defined column or row. In vectorscript. Create Cable Worksheet, you have a bunch of choices, that is true, but why not lay the whole hog on the table, and make it extensible? Correct, the latter, A template, so the report populates My worksheet. I want to be able to 'CALL' parameters from the drawing, So, I draw a cube, I want to be able to populate the PIO, or Record(?) field, with this info. I then want to be able to call the field, without going to a spreadsheet (excel) apply a User constraint, and tag to the Drawing. Ha!, I don't mess with any settings on the machine I use for work, I use my daily driver to run the experiments on, 2020 13". " Tractor" its a pet name for something to which people rely upon to get their job done. The Beast is my "only for Cad 'Tractor' so its stock, and if CM doesnt work there, it doesnt work any where, New york, New York!

Wow, thank you Sam, I will have to think hard about each of these, to construct a cohesive reply. In the meantime, I appreciate your interest in my very 'me' specific problem. But, can you use the CM tool, for Anything(!), mine does not work... Cheers Matty

I just kicked the Beast, and CM doesnt work there either.

Additionally, I mess with VW on a sandbox machine, to not mess with my primary tractor, so it could be that I have screwed up some functionality by modifying the P'in-manager, but can anyone give me the CM of any cable/source? Then I will know its my end. Cheers Mat

There must be a template from which this worksheet is to be built. When I do a cable report i get the standard worksheet, if I then want to USE this information I have to populate new rows and columns to apply calculations, IE, take the length, apply the resistivity of copper, as per the cable Size, and work out a Zs (R1+R2) + Ze. I have to do this every time!!! If I could save as default the worksheet with my added columns and rows that hold these formulae, then I could populate the allowed fields to the drawing (like phasing). It's easier to manually transfer this to Excel, Or export to Excel, so what is the point of having a worksheet in VW, if you have to go to a third programme and start typing....,? To qualify, I may be missing a whole lot of stuff here, but Ive been beating on the Cable tool for 3 days now and am no wiser to its use. I just want to keep drawing, I could do this with crayons and have. There is a promise of functionality, that , in my case, is not realised. Matty *(excellent pun, before,)

Thank you Sam, You have offered a wealth of insight, to which I shall have to ponder extensively. Regards Mat

Or.... Is there a way of modifying the Cable worksheet Template...