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Worksheets, looking for a better understanding of record formats


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Greetings all,

Delving into more advanced worksheets prompted me to ask about these two particular records. The Truss record and the Truss Record record. As you can see in the attached screen shot, I can use one or the other and get three different results whilst specifying the exact same record columns. I'd like to better understand why. I've figured out the right combination of settings to get the info I actually need.

  1. Why do the settings on the right side give me an empty column for the user field 1 and has missing info in some of the other cells?
    1. How do I have the same items have the "Truss" record not present when the setting on the left side worked using the "Truss" record?
  2. In the middle, why does it double everything? And why the empty cells?
  3. On the left, why do I have success in setting the basic criteria to "Truss" but only need to search the "Truss Record" record?
    1. Further, why did this and the settings on the right side offer the same counts?

 

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a feedback loop.

I've attached the file to play with as well.

 

Thanks, Scott

 

2019-02-15_17-41-26 copy.png

WorksheetsForTrussCounting.vwx

Edited by SCParker
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Hi Scott!

 

Here's what I think is going on.

 

Truss Record um… Record is the format associated with the Insert Truss tool.  The "new" tool.  The fields are the ones you see in the OIP:

 

        Model Name, Manufacturer, Length, Width, Height, Weight Imperial, Weight Metric, Truss Color, User Field 1 thru User Field 6

 

Side note:  There is a separate record format for the old truss objects called Strait Truss and Curved Truss that have all those OIP parameters.

 

But I suspect you are interested in the braceworks parameters.

 

There is a "hidden" record called Truss in the criteria GUI, TrussItem in the database call and BrxTrussItemRecord (Brx = Braceworks?).  I think they all refer to the same record format.  (btw there are also hidden formats for BrxPrefLocal and MassAndForceUnits that have a huge number of fields)

 

The Truss/TrussItem/BrxTrussItemRecord …um… Record has a bunch of fields that deal with what connects to what.  And there are a bunch of booleans that I didn't look up.

 

I don't have Braceworks, but I'm guessing that what you are seeing is a Light Fixture Symbol vs. Lighting Device Parametric Object scenario.  The symbol has record fields for type, wattage, etc., and the parts of the symbol have fields for base, yolk, and body, while the parametric object (Lighting Device) has fields for channel, dimmer, etc.

 

Some of those fields have the same name.  Like wattage.  The symbol has a default wattage, and the device has a wattage.  I think you're seeing something like that.

 

Good question.  I've never looked at the data behind braceworks objects.

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Dear Scott,

It is difficult to do using records as the Truss objects have the truss record and the Hanging Positions (HP) are made up of these truss objects. So when you right click and edit the database row criteria you can uncheck 'Plug in Objects' but then you don't see the HP's. I suppose you'd need multiple worksheets or a worksheet with multiple database rows with different criteria to look only for 'raw' trusses and then 'raw' HP's. And all the rest. Using classes as the criteria is the easiest way I suppose. 

 

 Either way it is too difficult and messy. That's why I put in that enhancement request I sent to you (off list) about there being an intelligent truss reporting command (not just a series of worksheets) that automates the creation of counts based on what the command finds in the drawing and guides the user into adding or leaving out certain items. Such as including all HP's only for example and/or every truss system. There might be truss used for scenery that is not part of a truss system which would need to be counted. 

 

So not much luck from me I'm afraid as I can't figure out an easy way to do this apart from classing.

 

Cheers,

Peter

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Hi Peter,

The thing is that the worksheet on the left in my first post works just fine. It has the correct counts and no duplicates. I'm trying to figure out why so when I advise others I have an explanation that makes sense. I also want to understand better because it'll save me time. Each time I run a worksheet report on truss objects, I need to triple check my counts (not that I shouldn't anyway) in case some didn't get counted or got double counted.

 

I'm tempted to simply add my own counting record to all my objects and just use that. This solution makes it more time consuming to jump into drawings made be others, etc.

 

Best, Scott

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PS, MichaelK has an explanation that is likely on the right track. A "hidden" record of some sort that gets counted when I use one record vs. the other. However, since the worksheet column is asking only for the info contained in the "Truss Record" record, why would this hidden record not show up in the worksheet that worked and keep giving me double results? Or why does it return blank info in the other two. I surmise that this hidden record is not getting populated with the info from the non-hidden record. This might be the root of the issue.

There's a lot of stuff in here.

2019-02-22_07-33-09.png

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On 2/22/2019 at 7:25 AM, SCParker said:

 

I'm tempted to simply add my own counting record to all my objects and just use that. This solution makes it more time consuming to jump into drawings made be others, etc.

 

Scott, that is exactly what I've done at GPJ.  And we count a lot of truss!  Of course, I added other useful bits to my record.  Things like truss color, purpose (set, lights, mothergrid, etc), position name (whatever that chunk of truss is going to be referred to, not necessarily a Lighting position), and booleans for pre-hung and sleeves/shrouds.

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