Equipment Item Linked Symbols

[spettitt]

I’m looking at the workflow of Equipment Items where the appearance on the Eq Item is replaced with a symbol. A while ago, some work was done on automating the acquisition & display of the correct symbol to match the Eq item. I remember that the first iteration of it wasn’t quite there, but it appears that more work has been done since with the ‘Get 3D Symbols for Equipment’ checkbox in the Create Equipment modal.

 

Can you clarify what the current functionality is and how it works please?

 

• Should it find symbols from stock libraries and Workgroups?
• How does it find the association? Just by Equipment Item Name = Symbol Name?
• Can an Equipment Item be saved with the symbol pre-attached, in a way that I can insert it with one operation and/or Create Equipment will find it?

 

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

Hello @spettitt,

 

This is a bit hidden from the user and not that easy to edit. We have done an internal research to see which make/models in our database already have symbols for them in the default content. After this, a new column was added to the device database file with the symbol name in it. So basically we have hardcoded fixed symbol names for the makes/models in the default content.

 

This is looking for symbols in the Entertainment folder and I think that it should consider workgroup data too, if it is placed in this folder.

 

If you want to add or edit the symbol mapping, you will have to manually edit the device database file and make the changes there, as there is no UI added for this. As always, editing this file directly can cause issues if you mess up the formatting, so do this carefully with backups and on your own responsibility.

 

If the symbol mapping is correctly set, then the equipment item will be created with this symbol selected when using Create Equipment command.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[spettitt]

Thanks @Nikolay Zhelyazkov. That works for me using Device Builder and a stock definition. I can see the extra tabbed column in the text file.

 

For a lot of reasons, we store our device library as symbols rather than the text definitions, so adding the symbol name in the text file isn't an option to us. At the point of insertion via Device Builder, is the target symbol name being stored in a hidden record on the Device? In which case, I could inject this field in our Device Symbol library?

 

Or at point of Create Equipment, is it then doing a lookup back to the text file to get the symbol name? If so, I could keep the text file updated in our workgroup even if we don't use it for insertion of Devices. Presumably, as long as the Make and Model match.

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

Create equipment uses the data from the text file.

[spettitt]

Thanks @Nikolay Zhelyazkov, this works great from the workgroup. Nice work.

 

[Ben3B]

Hello I tes the equipment item, and have a problem 

If I put an equipment item who use a symbol, in my case a speaker.
So in sheet layer I put a graphic legend but speaker arent recognized ... 

 

If I put speaker on my drawing and attached equipment item to it, I can use my graphic legend to legend the speaker on the drawing 


Graphic legend is by speaker record, so may I can attach speaker record to equipment item  but it's loosing time
Or I can use graphic legend by nequipment item , but I've to build new one or modify existing one

So it will be nice if when using equipment item who use a symbol, it "takes" it record too :)

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

On 12/20/2023 at 12:08 AM, Ben3B said:

Hello I tes the equipment item, and have a problem 

If I put an equipment item who use a symbol, in my case a speaker.
So in sheet layer I put a graphic legend but speaker arent recognized ... 

 

If I put speaker on my drawing and attached equipment item to it, I can use my graphic legend to legend the speaker on the drawing 


Graphic legend is by speaker record, so may I can attach speaker record to equipment item  but it's loosing time
Or I can use graphic legend by nequipment item , but I've to build new one or modify existing one

So it will be nice if when using equipment item who use a symbol, it "takes" it record too 🙂

Hello @Ben3B and Happy New Year! 🙂

 

Can you share a test file showing this?

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov