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Customize Device Look


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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

If you want to add images or hyperlinks to a device

double click on it, to activate the edit device mode

 

to insert images into the device , either drag and drop them from the resource browser, or directly add them by using the import image and import bitmap commands. You may need to resize them to fit (double click on the image to activate the resize handles)

to insert a hyperlink into the device, to the manufacturers website or the user manual for example, use the hyperlink tool in the dims/notes tool-set

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

@leighmap Thanks! 

 

As far as I'm aware there is no way to make custom device label boxes scale automatically. @Conrad Preen are you aware of any way to make that happen?

 

The device labels that come with the software get around this by having no box around the text. Since the text is always centered, scaling is not an issue.

 

Stylistically I prefer to have a box around that text and also prefer to make all of my devices the same width for neatness purposes, but others certainly have different preferences there. As such I only made all of my device labels the one width. Sometimes devices created in the device builder do end up being wider or narrower than the standard size, and it's a little frustrating when it happens, but it's quick work to resize those and then save that device to your device library so you never need to do it again. 

 

Hope that helps!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

 

Ideally I’d like to build my own ConnectCAD template file with devices pre-formatted to my tastes.  A few questions in that regard:

 

Custom Schematic Devices

1. As stated in this post, it’s possible to edit the look of the top of a schematic device by editing the dev_label_XXX symbols.  Is it possible to pre-assign this label specific specific to each device type, or does the label type need to be manually assigned every time?

 

2. What about adding an image onto a device?  Is there a way to add this to a device type in advance, or must it be done manually on each device in the schematic view? 

 

3. In the 2D rack elevation it’s possible to edit the look of an equipment item by double clicking on it and adding your own geometry.  Can this process be done ahead of time by device type?

 

4. The text alignment in 2D rack elevation can be changed to Centre/Left/Right/Above.  Can this be edited to add custom labels/formats?  Can additional fields be added to this?

 

 

Cheers,

 

Cookie

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Great questions!

 

21 hours ago, Cookie_NZ said:

1. As stated in this post, it’s possible to edit the look of the top of a schematic device by editing the dev_label_XXX symbols.  Is it possible to pre-assign this label specific specific to each device type, or does the label type need to be manually assigned every time?

For this pre-assignment to work ConnectCAD would have to "know" what the device type is. Say that devices have a device type parameter. Then setting the device type would set the symbol. Isn't that the same thing as setting the symbol. I'm missing something here...

21 hours ago, Cookie_NZ said:

2. What about adding an image onto a device?  Is there a way to add this to a device type in advance, or must it be done manually on each device in the schematic view?

The way to do this is to use the ability to save devices as symbols.

 

Any device that  has a Make and Model set can be saved as a symbol in your document's resources. You just select the device on your drawing, click Save as Symbol in the Object Info Palette and a symbol is created named <make>_<model>. You can use the New Device tool in symbol mode to add new instances of the symbol to your drawings. Goes without saying that is the symbol has an image in it each new instance of it will also have an image.

21 hours ago, Cookie_NZ said:

3. In the 2D rack elevation it’s possible to edit the look of an equipment item by double clicking on it and adding your own geometry.  Can this process be done ahead of time by device type?

Exactly the same process applies to Equipment Items as to devices. Double click on an Equipment Item to add geometry to its group. Save it as a symbol using the Modify > Create Symbol command. Explore the capabilities of the Resource Manager. You can import symbols from your projects  and keep them in a shared library file. What a lot of people do is after each project they get all the useful new symbols they created and stash them in a file shared with their workgroup. Each designer has a link to that file in the Resource Manager favourites so they can easily access it.

21 hours ago, Cookie_NZ said:

4. The text alignment in 2D rack elevation can be changed to Centre/Left/Right/Above.  Can this be edited to add custom labels/formats?  Can additional fields be added to this?

Not right now. Our idea here was to make Equipment Item text format itself as best possible in the available space. That way the process is fast. Tell me a bit more about what you want to do, what extra data you want in there etc.

 

Best

 

Conrad

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Hi @Conrad Preen,

 

Thanks for the detailed response.  My gap in understanding of how plug-in objects function is slowly being filled in, hence questions 1 & 2.  It seems to the best way forward is to edit devices to my liking and use the 'Save as Symbol' function in the OIP to save these for future use. This will then bring in the geometry & dev_labels I would like when I add the devices to my schematic from the resource manager. 

 

5 hours ago, Conrad Preen said:

Exactly the same process applies to Equipment Items as to devices. Double click on an Equipment Item to add geometry to its group. Save it as a symbol using the Modify > Create Symbol command. Explore the capabilities of the Resource Manager. You can import symbols from your projects  and keep them in a shared library file. What a lot of people do is after each project they get all the useful new symbols they created and stash them in a file shared with their workgroup. Each designer has a link to that file in the Resource Manager favourites so they can easily access it.

 

Once saved as symbols, could you please elaborate on the workflow to link these custom Equipment Items to Devices?  When using the ConnectCAD/Layout/Update Rack Elevation function, is it possible it pull in these custom Equipment items, or do they need to be manually added to the rack layout from the resource manager?

 

5 hours ago, Conrad Preen said:

Not right now. Our idea here was to make Equipment Item text format itself as best possible in the available space. That way the process is fast. Tell me a bit more about what you want to do, what extra data you want in there etc.

An option that places the text outside of the rack, but still on the same Y coordinate of the Equipment Item would be really useful.  That way users could add accurate geometry to the front of the Equipment Item without the label displaying over the top.  

It would be great to be able to selectively add user fields to show on Equipment Items.  On simple control networks I might want to display the IP address of a device for example.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

HI @Cookie_NZ

 

You'd need to manually add in custom Equipment Items at this point. But I will make a note of that and see if it could be automated.

 

16 minutes ago, Cookie_NZ said:

An option that places the text outside of the rack, but still on the same Y coordinate of the Equipment Item would be really useful.  That way users could add accurate geometry to the front of the Equipment Item without the label displaying over the top.  

It would be great to be able to selectively add user fields to show on Equipment Items.  On simple control networks I might want to display the IP address of a device for example.

Ok that makes sense as a formatting option. Regarding custom text display we'll be supporting the ability to add text linked to parameter values in a future version.

 

Thanks - good discussion 🙂

 

Conrad

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1 hour ago, Conrad Preen said:

You'd need to manually add in custom Equipment Items at this point. But I will make a note of that and see if it could be automated.

If there is eventually a path to automate this process, that would be fantastic.  It's great to be able to edit Equipment Items, but a little laborious that these can't be saved and associated with Devices.  I submit fairly graphical racks plans to the control team on jobs at the moment, and would like to maintain the same look if possible.  (Example attached).  One of the things that convinced me to purchase ConnectCAD was the automated link between the schematic and the racks elevation.  But it seems this process is a lot more manual than I was hoping to produce a customised look.

 

Thanks for the time and information.  Much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Cookie

GRM Rated Awards 2020-A1.101-Control R3.pdf

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The way I device setups are very similar.

All of my devices are uniquely named using DNS as IP Addresses are mostly DHCP on designs I work on/use a seperate sheet for ip address assignment.

The other cool thing you can do is add a picture of device after creating the block. It really helps with the ease of identifying components with not much real estate.592889258_DeviceExample.thumb.png.4b1a92ee35ff9ee167b1c6ea010e7fbf.png

 

As for saving 2D for front and back rack elevation (or JPG/png in the proper dimensions) it would be nice for the build team in build racks, however I will not be using it for full cad for elevations. I would rather keep that in a separate symbol as there always is a seperate Design layer for Horizontal/Vertical Views, and Signal layers. And dragging in a symbol into that will mess/duplicate for the global reports for total device counts (i know i can exclude the layers on the worksheet, but keeping signal flows separate is a good thing.) 

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Hi Kevin,

 

Thanks for sharing an example of your custom Devices.  Looks really nice.  I definitely plan to add an image to mind as well as a visual aid.

 

The 2D rack elevation look is a horse's for courses question of course.  But I'm sure given the opportunity to customise this, many people would use it.  After all, I don't know anyone who uses the stock lighting symbols!  

I do feel that visual aids are really helpful for repetitive activity, like building racks.  It really helps to see at a glance that the right thing is going in the right place.

1 hour ago, Kevin Krautle said:

And dragging in a symbol into that will mess/duplicate for the global reports for total device counts

I don't think this should be an additional symbol.  It should be linked to the schematic Device in the same way Equipment Items currently function.  It would then be down to the user to choose if they want to use the stock Equipment Item geometry, or add their own and save it for use in other projects. 

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7 minutes ago, Kevin Krautle said:

Yeah its a workflow thing I am confused by how it could work, having both a symbol on a Design Layer for elevations, and on the ConnectCad Signal Flow Design Layer. I guess I can exclude the Design layers for elevations from the master reports. would need to see it in action.

 

I'm very new to ConnectCAD, but my understanding is the 'Device' on the Schematic Design Layer and the 'Equipment Item' on the Rack Elevation Design Layer are linked, so they don't duplicate on Worksheet counts.   

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5 minutes ago, Cookie_NZ said:

 

I'm very new to ConnectCAD, but my understanding is the 'Device' on the Schematic Design Layer and the 'Equipment Item' on the Rack Elevation Design Layer are linked, so they don't duplicate on Worksheet counts.   

I am talking about actual elevation layers outside of ConnectCad Rack Elevation layer.  As my vectorworks documents contain both types of drawings Horizontal/Vertical design layers CAD, and connectcad signal layers.

1952765226_ScreenShot2020-09-09at1_34_59PM.thumb.png.8b76ed3b658b635ef931dec97c5dd294.png

Edited by Kevin Krautle
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Oh that's interesting.  I've been keeping my network plans separate from my installation plans.  But my line of work the exact location of the racks is less vital than what's in them.  

 

Are your CAD elevations completely separate from your ConnectCAD workflow, or are these integrated/linked the to Signal drawing? 

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  • 11 months later...

Is it possible to add the top view of a 3D object into a device as its "Image"? I was just playing around with adding the sockets on top of the PCB to show where things are connected on the board. I can paste it inside the device when I am editing it, but then when I exit and return to the schematic layer it just shows the white box.

Duet3DWifi.png

Edited by tk_
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  • 4 months later...
On 9/7/2020 at 8:29 AM, Conrad Preen said:

For this pre-assignment to work ConnectCAD would have to "know" what the device type is. Say that devices have a device type parameter. Then setting the device type would set the symbol. Isn't that the same thing as setting the symbol. I'm missing something here...

The way to do this is to use the ability to save devices as symbols.

When you are in the device builder looking for your gear there is a field Label symbol and even with creating a new device it always goes to the generic one. Wouldn't be more logical that it remembers the setting of Label Symbol in custom devices? 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
14 hours ago, jdepaepe said:

When you are in the device builder looking for your gear there is a field Label symbol and even with creating a new device it always goes to the generic one. Wouldn't be more logical that it remembers the setting of Label Symbol in custom devices? 

Hello @jdepaepe,

 

If I understood you correctly you want to change the default symbol that is selected in the device builder, right? If this is the case, you can do so by editing the "Basic Device" symbol and changing the Symbol of the device in there, as we are using this device to set up the default symbol used in the device builder. Let me know if this gets the job done.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

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