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Anyone want to share examples of connectcad projects or workflow?


spljohn

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I'd love to see how others are using connectcad.  I started learning vectorworks and connectcad at the same time using 2019 and theres been a lot to learn and then we just upgraded to 2020 and now everythings changed.  I definitely like it and can see it being very helpful when i get things figured out but boy is there a learning curve.  I am also disappointed so far in vectorworks support and the documentation they have in their vectorworks university is barely helpful.  The old connectcad support site was much more helpful but now its gone and only small parts made it into the vectorworks university. 

 

Here is a list of things I'd love to see how other members are using connectcad

 

1: Do you add equip items to existing floorplans?  for example if I have a client send me an existing floorplan id love to make my wiring diagram and then add the equip items and change the 2d graphic to one that ive created or pulled from a manufacturers site.  is this a common use case?

 

2: for jobs with multiple rooms that are mostly similar i like to make one wiring diagram with all the components and then duplicate it and erase what i dont need is there an easy way to renumber these devices by device instead of all devices at once?  If i use renumber devices it will just renumber everything in the order it was created id like to be able to renumber devices by symbol which i could just select the devices i want but i have some large projects that this becomes very tedious.  I'm curious how others like to renumber their devices if they copy and paste.

 

3: i havent tried this yet but my next thing id like to do is try and use connectcad to preprint cable labels so anyone with experience doing this id love to hear your tips and tricks that youve learned.

 

Overall im looking forward to lots of cool stuff with connectcad and excited to learn more about how to use it.  I'll try and upload some of my designs (have to get permission first) so people can see how ive been using it (im no expert) but id love to learn others workflows and applications.  I'm mostly work on installed systems myself but have plenty of live event experience as well.  

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Hi,

 

I'm also curious to see how people are using ConnectCAD - and I invented it !!! 🤣 One thing is for sure, in all the years you guys have never failed to surprise me...

 

I'll give you my take on these questions but hope we'll hear from others too.

 

1: adding stuff to existing floorplans - ConnectCAD uses a lot of resources from the template - these get imported into other drawings if they are  missing but hey, why not start with them already there?: so, I would say start New Drawing from ConnectCAD template, create a Floor Plan layer at the scale you want, then go to your existing floor plan doc and copy the content, paste into the Floor Plan layer you just created.

 

2: Renumber Devices works on selected devices only if you have devices selected. In 2020 that's the only way it works.

 

3: the Make Cable Labels command just creates a spreadsheet with the cable numbers ( twice - 2 ends to a cable ) with some nice formatting. You can then export this for label printing. Now we are part of a huge company 🙂  we can contemplate the project of interfacing to various label printers. It's on my roadmap for a later version.

 

Conrad

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another of the beauties of being embedded in Vectorworks. The synergies! The ConnectCAD numbering command also provides automated numbering based on the names of your devices and sockets or any other parameter you care to use. All this choice, thanks to it all being in the same environment.

 

C

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  • 1 month later...

Hey friends,

 

I've finally gotten around to really digging into ConnectCAD and I created a dummy showfile mirrored after some of the facilities we work on at our office. Attached are the PDF sheets and the VW file.

 

This has been a good exercise to get used to the ConnectCAD workflow, but I did come out of it with some questions. They are all written in the VW file but I'll post them here as well to see if I can get any clarification from the community.

 

  • Room Tool - Is there any way to use the room tool on the schematic design layer. When I was drawing my schematic views, I was already drawing rectangles to define location/rack. When I finally got to a point where I was ready to drop gear into racks, it seemed like double work to draw all of the rooms again on the rack elevation design layer. I would be awesome to define all of these location in the schematic view. Then use the update elevation function when i'm ready to define where gear lives in each rack.
  • Cable Type Tags - Is there a way to move multiple cable type tags at once? After using the reroute tool, I would find myself having to reorganize all the cable tags one by one to make them line up again.
  • Data Patch Panels - Using the Data Term Panel Tool, how can I define the connector on the front AND back of the panel. Our RJ45 patch panels typically are punchdown on the backside and would like to call that out.
  • Connector Panel - Similar question as above. How do I define the connector on the front AND back. Some of our DMX venue outputs are terminal strip inside the Jbox. Some RJ45s are punchdowns in the JBOX.
  • Symbols - I've seen a lot of suggestions in this forum about saving connectCAD devices as symbols for re-use later. I was doing this but then once I started connecting devices, I would realize that a socket would have its signal set incorrectly. I attempted editing the symbol in the resource manger to set the missing socket signal, but the exiting instances of that symbol would did not update. Is there a way to update existing instances of a symbol so I don't have to edit each one individually?
  • Patch Panels - Turn off Rack name - My rack names are typically something like NWK-001 or LTG-001, these tend to be too long and over lap with the connector type in the schematic drawing. Is there a way to turn off the location name besides deleting from the symbol?
  • 2D Rack Elevations - Is there a way to draw a 2D front view and 2D rear view of a rack? It seems that all front and rear mounted devices appear in the 2D rack elevation and its hard to tell what is a rear mounted device.

Okay I think that is probably enough questions for now. Loving ConnectCAD so far, just trying to wrap my head around the best workflow for my team's purposes.

ConnectCAD Testing.vwx ConnectCAD Testing.pdf

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi Daniel,

 

Let me try to deal with some of those right away and come back to you on the others.

15 hours ago, Daniel Dickman said:
  • Room Tool - Is there any way to use the room tool on the schematic design layer. When I was drawing my schematic views, I was already drawing rectangles to define location/rack. When I finally got to a point where I was ready to drop gear into racks, it seemed like double work to draw all of the rooms again on the rack elevation design layer. I would be awesome to define all of these location in the schematic view. Then use the update elevation function when i'm ready to define where gear lives in each rack.

Right now the answer is no. And if we did this we'd be confusing physical space with schematic space. I will think about it but I can't promise anything. It sounds tricky.

 

15 hours ago, Daniel Dickman said:
  • Cable Type Tags - Is there a way to move multiple cable type tags at once? After using the reroute tool, I would find myself having to reorganize all the cable tags one by one to make them line up again.

  Re-route is working fine for me. I select all the circuits with the tags in the wrong place, then move the cursor over the tag that's in the right place so it highlights red, click and they all line up. If that doesn't work for you let me know which version you are on and I'll sort you out. This is fixed.

16 hours ago, Daniel Dickman said:
  • Data Patch Panels - Using the Data Term Panel Tool, how can I define the connector on the front AND back of the panel. Our RJ45 patch panels typically are punchdown on the backside and would like to call that out.

Punchdown implies that no connector is to be fitted to the cable end, but it is stripped and terminated in situ. This is very like custom connector panels where the cable inside the box is soldered or crimped to the chassis connector. In these case the socket orientation is X, and the type is IN or OUT. And thus the circuit calculates the connector type on the inside of the panel is '-->' or '<--' depending on whether the chassis connector is  input (accepting a connection from the left) or an output (connection towards the right). To model these we'd need two different symbols for input and output and the way to select the right one. All the part are in place, it's how we put them together. Leave that with me...

16 hours ago, Daniel Dickman said:
  • Connector Panel - Similar question as above. How do I define the connector on the front AND back. Some of our DMX venue outputs are terminal strip inside the Jbox. Some RJ45s are punchdowns in the JBOX.

I think you may as well just create a 'slim' device for these. Connector Panels are based on the idea that bare ends are soldered or crimped to the back of the chassis connector.

16 hours ago, Daniel Dickman said:
  • Symbols - I've seen a lot of suggestions in this forum about saving connectCAD devices as symbols for re-use later. I was doing this but then once I started connecting devices, I would realize that a socket would have its signal set incorrectly. I attempted editing the symbol in the resource manger to set the missing socket signal, but the exiting instances of that symbol would did not update. Is there a way to update existing instances of a symbol so I don't have to edit each one individually?

That could have a lot of unforeseen consequences. Which is why we don't use symbols directly but convert them to groups first. But this could be a nice power-user utility provided it is well-designed to show you specifically what is being changed. I'll keep the idea in mind.

16 hours ago, Daniel Dickman said:
  • Patch Panels - Turn off Rack name - My rack names are typically something like NWK-001 or LTG-001, these tend to be too long and over lap with the connector type in the schematic drawing. Is there a way to turn off the location name besides deleting from the symbol?

  If you edit the symbol 'VJX_label' you can remove this linked text specifically for patch panels.

16 hours ago, Daniel Dickman said:

2D Rack Elevations - Is there a way to draw a 2D front view and 2D rear view of a rack? It seems that all front and rear mounted devices appear in the 2D rack elevation and its hard to tell what is a rear mounted device.

The command ConnectCAD > Layout > Front-Rear Rack View... gives you the choice to display front, rear or both.

 

Hope I've helped. I'll be back with some more thoughts soon.

 

Conrad

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

If it's helpful,  here is a workaround I have been using to draw feed-thru panel connectors in a way that is similar to what Conrad suggested:

 

I created a "Panel" device label. On one side is the back of the connector denoted with a leading "$" and on the other side is the front of the connector. The front/rear of the connector can be on either side of the "device" depending on whether it's an input or an output:

1703155851_ScreenShot2020-04-07at10_51_02AM.thumb.png.cfff62349b60e64a9142c2a60eea764d.png

 

The connector type will be whichever connector is on the cable that plugs into it. If it's Solder or Punchdown you could use "----". I personally use "SOLDER" and "PUNCH" connector types. 

 

One thing worth noting is that this schematic panel representation is no longer linked to the panel drawing in any way. I generally prefer to do it this way because the text on my panels isn't always conducive to schematic representations. For example, I may have a Macro Label that says "----MIC INPUTS ---" and then the numbers 1 through 8 above the XLR connectors. This wouldn't automatically translate well to the schematic. 

 

For others the default ConnectCAD workflow may be preferable. 

 

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  • 4 months later...
On 3/18/2020 at 1:41 PM, Conrad Preen said:

That could have a lot of unforeseen consequences. Which is why we don't use symbols directly but convert them to groups first. But this could be a nice power-user utility provided it is well-designed to show you specifically what is being changed. I'll keep the idea in mind.

Hi @Conrad Preen, just for clarity are you saying that working from custom symbols is not a supported/recommended workflow?  

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi @Cookie_NZ

 

Whoa! We were not talking about how to use ConnectCAD. This discussion rambled off a bit into the question of why when you edit device symbol in the Resource Manager that change is not applied to all instances of that symbol in the drawing. And the answer to that is "be careful what you ask for". Nothing to do with customising the look of ConnectCAD by changing the system symbols. We encourage users to develop their own look.

 

Does that answer your question?

 

Conrad

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Hi @Conrad Preen,

 

Yes sorry for the drift from topic.  Still very much feeling my way though with ConnectCAD and wanted to understand your comment about use of symbols better.  As I understand it, this more to do with Plug-In object behaviour.  Hence why updating the symbol in the resource manager doesn't update each instance of the device in the drawing.

 

Cheers,

 

Cookie 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

No worries!

 

The way devices are implemented is by design. There is a whole host of reasons why you might want the same make/model to appear differently in different instances. You may want the sockets arranged differently so as to uncross circuits. You may want to show only the relevant sockets and not clutter up your drawing with unused stuff. You might have half the device on one layer and half on another  (eg. audio and video drawings). ConnectCAD gives you a lot of flexibility like that.

 

Equally there are good reasons not to have a situation where you edit a device symbol (say you delete a socket) and suddenly on a layer far far away you have a disconnected circuit you had totally forgotten about. This is what I mean by unexpected consequences.

 

We are developing a tool that will let you copy content from one device to  a selected group of devices. That way you will be able to preform mass edits but explicitly with nothing happening behind your back.

 

Conrad

 

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