Suggestion for labeling circuits in grid

[Darin K]

I am finishing up a drawing of my black box theatre. We have a standard dead-hung grid with circuits every 4 feet across the entire ceiling (nearly 200 total).

 

I would like to create a class in my grid layer that can show the location of these circuits for my student Master Electricians to do their pre-hang prep (we are not a dimmer-per-circuit space, so there is some hard patch math to figure out for each show).

 

I just need numbers in a circle/box. No need for the data to be used in any reports or anything.

 

Is there a simple way to a) copy/paste rows of these objects and/or b) have them auto-number so that I don't need to hand type 200 numbers one by one?

[Sam Jones]

Harder to describe than actually do.

1. Create a record format called "Circuit Box Record", or "Circuit Tail Record", or "Circuit Paddle Record", or any other name you prefer.

       a) The record should have at least one field call "Number", or something else that will tell  you that the field is holding the circuit value number.

2. Make a symbol to represent the circuit

3. Make a text field part of that symbol and place that text field in the symbol definition where you want the circuit number to show up.

4. With the text field you created selected,  go to the "Modify" menu and select the "Link Text to Record...".

       a) In the resulting dialog select the name of the record you created and select the name of the field that will hold the number value.

       b) Select "OK"

5. Go to the layer on which you wish to place the circuit box symbols.

6. Assuming the circuit boxes are in rectangular array on the grid , place one of the symbols in one in one of the corners of that grid.

7. Duplicate the symbol you just placed using the "Duplicate Array..." command.

8. Select all the symbols you just placed.

9. Go to the "Spotlight" menu and use the "Spotlight Numbering..." command to number your symbols

        a) In the resulting dialog, select the name of the record field that will hold the number and type in the starting circuit number

 

There are variations to this that depend on how your circuits are actually laid out.

 

HTH,

 

Sam

[Darin K]

I will give that a shot, thank you