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Linking ConnectCAD Devices to custom symbols in Spotlight


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Is there a way to link the individual devices created in ConnectCAD to custom symbols in Spotlight?

 

What we are wanting to do is take our MEP sets that we create with custom symbols with an attached record in Spotlight and link them to the individual devices that will have wires traveling through that MEP location.

 

Here is an example of what I am looking for:

SWR-1 (ConnectCAD device) is linked to MEP location AV-101 (attached record has ID of AV-101)

RTR-1 (CC Device) is linked to MEP location AV-201 (attached record has ID of AV-201)

Wire V-111 connects the 2 devices

When we run an All Layers Cable report, it will show that for cable number V-111, it has a Src_dev_name of SWR-1 and a loc of AV-101 and connects to dst_dev_name RTR-1 with a location of AV-201.

 

The goal is to tie all the devices to a location so when we do an All Layers Cable report, we are able to create a wire list that has the location that the wires will be pulled through. Currently we have to manually sort the cable report multiple times in multiple ways to figure out which wires need to be pulled from one location to another. It is a very manual process and we would like to be able to automate it as much as we can.

 

One possibility I thought of that doesn't seem to work would be to allow for rooms inside of Rooms. That would allow us to put the SWR-1 device in the AV-101 room which is inside the Production Room. Currently, it appears only the outer most room is attached to the device for location reporting.

 

Another option that could work (although not really linked and wouldn't track changes) would be some type of user data field that is part of every ConnectCAD device that we could type the MEP location into. I found this link 

which appears to do something similar for doors/windows in Spotlight, but couldn't find anything equivalent for ConnectCAD devices. 

 

Is this possible?

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi @DSchoepke

 

That sounds interesting and on the verge of being totally possible! Nested rooms are something we are looking into. You can add user fields to ConnectCAD objects and visualise them on the drawing (see this thread)

If you are not in a big hurry even better ways of doing this are coming 🙂 .

 

The locations of physical equipment (as opposed to theoretical schematic devices) are defined by Equipment Item objects. When you move this object around it detects its location in rooms and racks and updates the corresponding device(s). All that happens automatically. The location information appears in the default circuit report too. So you can filter by this also. You can assign your own symbols to Equipment Items in the Object Info palette to have whatever look you desire.

 

ConnectCAD reports are normal Vectorworks reports - no magic. We just have them in the menu to make life easier. You can customise them to add extra fields, modify the criteria to filter by location etc. etc. and you can save it all as a template so you only have to set this up once.

 

If you have time to PM me some example files I'd really like to see what you are doing and maybe I can offer more specific advice.

 

Regards

 

Conrad

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