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Using Records for custom symbols


CiaraMxx

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Hi! Thanks for any help in advance

 

I'm new to using Vectorworks and am currently trying it out to compare to Revit as I want to move on from drawing exclusively in AutoCAD and get in to a BIM workflow. There's definitely huge benefits but where I'm having trouble is with adding records to symbols I have made to extract data in to worksheets.

 

Firstly when I apply a record to a symbol in the resource manager it's not applying to all instances of that symbol in the drawing. Why is that?

 

Secondly when I apply a record to a symbol theres no option to apply a value across all instances of that symbol. For example I have two different types of stand I want to apply the same record to. One is called Alpha one is called Beta. When I apply the record I want all instances of the Alpha stands to have the same reference number eg: A001 and all Beta stands to have the same reference number eg: B002. Should I separate the records and have them exactly the same but under different names so I can use the default settings? If that reference number changes in the future though will it be possible to change it across all instances without having to click in to each individual symbol or remake the record?

 

This is all the data I want to apply , am I better off separating them in to a same for every instance record and a unique each time record? 

 

Data Required per symbol

Reference - Text - Same for every instance

Power Sockets - Number - Unique

Internet Connection - Number - Same for every instance

Location - Text - Unique

Print Number - Number - Unique

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1. If you apply the record to the Symbol Definition in the Resource Manager before you insert the symbol, the inserted symbol will get the record and data from the symbol definition. But after that the link on the record is broken. If you change the data attached to the symbol definition, the data attached to the symbol instances will not change. Custom Modification (and/or worksheets) is your friend if you need to change the data associated with multiple instances of a symbol. If you attach a record to a symbol definition after there are already symbols in the drawing, the already inserted symbol instances will not be assigned the record as you have noticed. The underlying reason for all of the above is so that data associated with already inserted symbols is not overwritten by changes to the symbol definition. If you had table numbers manually inserted into the record for inserted symbols, you would not want them all to change when you change the default attached to the symbol definition. There have been many requests over the years for a field type in records that would be consistent across all instances of the record, but that functionality does not exist yet.

 

2. You are probably better off using a single record format, but attaching it to the symbol definitions before you insert the symbols rather than after. That way you can edit the data attached to each symbol definition and have that data transferred to the symbol instance.

 

Ask again if you need more help.

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Yes ideally you would set up your symbols with records pre loaded prior to inserting into your file if possible. Even better set up your symbols with preloaded records with the data you want included as a default. So the data you want in every symbol, I,e. your “reference text” and “internet connection number”, would already be preloaded as default data to the symbol definition prior to insertion into the file.
 

That said, using worksheets it is quite easy to quickly do global edits to symbol record info. Setting the worksheet criteria to list the symbols along with a column for each record field then summarising a column will allow you to do this.

 

Note also there is a command in the tools menu I think that will allow you to add records to all symbols in a RM folder.

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@Boh I'm having quite a bit of trouble with worksheets as well! Maybe it's because I learned Revit schedules first it's just blocking me adapting to a different way of doing it. The lack of the highlight tool has just completely thrown me. I guess I'll just get stuck in to some more tutorials.

 

Thank you both very much for your help!

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