Equipment Rack Layout and "Views"

[Caylen Staub]

Hey Everbody or @Conrad Preen,

 

I am wondering about a couple of topics.  I have attached some examples of what I have to do to make these work but hoping there is a better way. 

 

First, I wanted to know if you can add more attributes to an equipment rack like manufacturer, part number, and mounting type.  I use standard text fields but this seems like it could simply be an option in object info that can be enabled and customized for the layout type.   This can be critical in the prefabrication process when you have to sift through many different part numbers to determine which rack is allocated for each label.  My goal is to include enough information on one sheet that they don't need to jump around the drawings.

 

Second, while I really like the option for identifying equipment mounted Front or Rear, It seems like it could be more useful if you had the option to see both the front AND the rear of a rack at the same time.  Currently, I would have to add two separate viewports with different class views as well as different saved views (one option) to update the racks.  This actually adds time to the process that seems like it could be simpler to allow a front and rear rack view at the same time.  I have to add a second rack to the drawing and change the name to make this work which translates well to the device block.  I just wish I could shrink the rack name and not have to include -REAR in the rack name.  I understand that some things just need to be custom but if there is a better way to work with 2D racks, I would love to know.

 

[Conrad Preen]

Hello @Caveman

Regarding extra data for your racks, the way to go is to create your own record format and attach it to your rack. You can use the Data Manager to automate this so that every time you create a rack your record is attached. Data Tags are the best way to visualise attached records. You can set them up exactly the way you want. I'm really loath to add anything but the basic name text to racks. The experience with equipment items has shown that however much effort we put in to providing a solution that will "just work" there's always someone who has a problem. So moving forward we will just create some example data tags in content which will work for most people.

 

So, on to front and rear views. We're moving towards modeling all the physical layouts in 3D to provide a cleaner data model. That means using viewports to present front and rear views. Creation of viewports can be automated just like everything else in Vectorworks. So I would strongly suggest not duplicating racks but instead get into scripting those operations that you find yourself doing repeatedly using Marionette, Python or Vectorscript. I know it's a bit of learning curve but the pay-off is huge.

 

Best

 

Conrad

[Caylen Staub]

I was able to create and add the Record Format and update it to be included each time when adding a 2D rack.  Couple questions...

1. Can you have the Data Tags be added automatically (I have two, one above and one below the rack)
2. Can I somehow force this update using the workgroup library so that this addition to the equipment rack happens for all future projects as well as others that are using the shared workgroup?  
   1. Is "Exporting the Data Tag and Record Format the best way?
   2. Is there a way to apply the update added in Data Manager to automatically add the Record to the rack when others add to a project or will this just apply to my machine version?

[Conrad Preen]

You could save the configuration (Rack + Data Tags) as a symbol - you'll need to experiment a bit but I suspect Convert To Group would be the way to go. Then you can just drag it on from the Resource Manager and un-group it. Sharing symbols with your colleagues is easy. Just set up a shared document on your network and add the resources in their. In the Resource Manager set up a Favorite pointing to this and you're done.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Conrad