Device Builder Tool

[ChollyO]

My organization has created a number of "User Folder" devices using the Device Builder Tool.  Somehow a few of them were not sorted properly into the appropriate "Category" folders under the Device Browser section in the tool's dialogue window that appears.  The devices are showing their main categories as blank.  Shown below:

 

 

Is there a way to correct this?  Or at least a way for me to delete it from the list and recreate the device so that these blanks do not appear in this browser?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

Hello @ChollyO,

 

Could you share your devices database file so that I can check what is going on?

 

Did you create these new devices from the device builder or manually by editing the txt file? In which version of VW did you create them and in which version do you see this issue?

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[ChollyO]

 Hello @Nikolay Zhelyazkov

 

I would be happy to share the database file.  Is that done by sending you the .vwx file or is there a separate file?

Possibly this one?

 

ConnectCAD Devices DB.txt

 

Any new devices we create are done using the device builder.

I do not recall exactly what VW version it was but it is most likely 2022.  My organization has upgraded to 2023 SP2 (build 679347) since and that is the version where I'm seeing the issue referenced. 

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

Hello @ChollyO,

 

Yes this is the file to send but I think that you have sent me the app folder copy of it. What I need is your user folder copy, because it contains your user entered devices and it is probably the one with the empty categories. Could you send me that file?

 

Thanks,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[ChollyO]

I am not familiar with that file location.  Could you steer me in the right direction?  I'm using a Windows 10 Pro Machine 64-bit OS build 19044.22551

[Pat Stanford]

Go to VW Preferences. Users pane. Click the Reveal button in the upper right.

 

That will take you to the top level of your User folder.

 

Navigate to the same relative path (Libraries:ConnectCAD........) as where you pulled the file from the Application folder.

 

HTH

[ChollyO]

Thanks @Pat Stanford

 

@Nikolay Zhelyazkov, here you go - from my user folder copy... 

 

ConnectCAD Devices DB.txt

Edited December 1, 2022 by ChollyO

[Jeff.Sullivan]

@ChollyO How do you share these devices in your organization? We are looking to move everyone to VW and I will have everyone making devices in the builder. I would like this to be a shared database.

 

 

[ChollyO]

@Jeff.SullivanThe procedure we have is that once a new drawing is completed, the Schematic and Elevation elements are deleted and the file is saved as a Template that following users will then use to have access to any User made (and saved) symbols/devices via the Resource Manager. 

 

I'm at a smaller organization and I am primarily the one creating our drawings.  It's not that critical for us to have a database available for multiple users to access simultaneously, however, if that is possible I would love to know how it would be done.  I would imagine using the "Project Sharing..." option in the File menu may be the solution?  I have not yet experimented with it.

 

Using our process though, I've noticed that any new devices created while making a new drawing will be shown in the file's root folder in the Resource Manager.  Once a drawing is completed, those new symbols are copied into the Template file into custom Resource Folders (we use folders for equipment types, eg. Audio, Video, Lighting, etc).  The only caveat to this is that if edits are made to an existing symbol and saved, the user will have to remember to move it from the sorted Resource Folder back to the root so that it isn't missed with the copy process back to the Template file.  Only *new* symbols are saved to the root folder, not edited and saved symbols.

 

If there are a few of us working on separate drawings simultaneously, once we complete them we just go through the same process of making sure the new symbols are inserted into the Template file's appropriate Resource Folders.  That way anyone down the line that opens that Template file will have access to all devices user-made.  

 

Again, I'm sure there's probably another way to streamline this process, and I'd love to hear if anyone else has a better solution.  

Edited December 1, 2022 by ChollyO

[Pat Stanford]

@Jeff.Sullivan The terminology you are looking for is Workgroup Folder.

 

This is a folder that is located in a "shared" location. This could be on a local server if everyone is in the same office, or on DropBox (or something similar) as a shared folder.

 

Workgroup folders are configured from the User Folders pane of Vectorworks Preferences.

 

VW has three primary locations for "custom content", the User Folder, the Workgroup Folder(s) [you can have more than one], and the Application Folder. When you are looking for a resource it searches them in that order.

 

You do have to make sure you get the correct folder structure and put the files in the correct location in the User or Workgroup folder, but those folder structures are generated automatically when you create the folders from the VW Preferences.

 

HTH

 

[ChollyO]

21 hours ago, ChollyO said:

@Nikolay Zhelyazkov, here you go - from my user folder copy... 

ConnectCAD Devices DB.txt 32.67 kB · 1 download

 

@Nikolay Zhelyazkov To make it easier to locate in the file, the devices that have the category blank in my original post are the following:

 

Under "PTZ Camera": QSC, PTZ-20X60

Under "Antenna": One For All, Outdoor Antenna 17421

Under "Distribution": Sennheiser, ASP 113 & Sennheiser, EW-D ASA

 

Let me know if there's a fix for this.  Is it simply to edit the entries in the txt file?

[ChollyO]

Just checking in on this thread... Anyone have any solutions for the issue I'm having?

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

On 12/6/2022 at 4:10 PM, ChollyO said:

Just checking in on this thread... Anyone have any solutions for the issue I'm having?

- Hello @ChollyO, sorry for the delay but I was not able to work this week. I will get back to you next week with what I have found out from your file.

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

Hello @ChollyO,

 

Just had some time to check this, the problem is that you are adding a new category "Conference". We will work on fixing this so that user added categories do not appear blank. In the meantime you can maybe try to fit your device in one of the existing categories?

 

Sorry for the inconvenience!

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[ChollyO]

7 hours ago, Nikolay Zhelyazkov said:

In the meantime you can maybe try to fit your device in one of the existing categories?

 

That actually is one of my issues.  Now that I have already created the device, it is no longer editable (from what I can tell).  Is there an easy way to adjust the category settings after a device has been created?

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

On 12/9/2022 at 5:51 PM, ChollyO said:

That actually is one of my issues.  Now that I have already created the device, it is no longer editable (from what I can tell).  Is there an easy way to adjust the category settings after a device has been created?

- Create a device with this make/model. Select it and in the OIP click on Save to Database... Then change the category and click Save. This should change the category.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov