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Bolt with washers and nut symbol and count the components in a worksheet?


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Vectorworks can absolutely count nested symbols.  If you are doing it inside a worksheet, you just want to make sure that you have INSYMBOL as part of the criteria (or INOBJECT if you want to count inside plug-in objects).  Attached is a screenshot that I set up for a quick test which shows the formula in the worksheet.

 

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Likewise, running Tools - Custom Selection also gives the proper results when Include Components of Symbols is checked.

 

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Add another column with a formula of =ObjectTypeName and you should be able to see what you have that is invisible.

 

Or in reality it is probably the other parts of the piece. InSymbol is non-exclusive. That means that your IS Visible criteria is going to show all the objects that are currently visible. When you add the InSymbol you there ALSO get the objects that are INSIDE of Symbols.

 

Can you put you hardware in a class and then add that class to the criteria to make it more specific? Or attach a Record and use that? Or put them on a separate Layer? Or make them a specific color and use Pen Color or Fill Color?

 

Lots of ways.

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Hi Bruce,

my personal workflow in this case is as follows:

 

- deselect the "summarize" checkbox in your part-column

=> you will get a worksheet with 74 lines each with one object in your drawing

=> the 34 "missing" items will show up individually (suppose they will have an empty field in the "part"-column)

You can now right click one of these lines and choose "select item"

=> VW will then point to that item in your drawing.

 

As Pat sais, now there are lots of ways to proceed, as changing class, layer, colour and/or adapting the criteria of the worksheet.

 

Unchecking the summarizing and looking up single lines is an easy way to check where these "34 items" do come from.

 

hth.

 

 

Edited by halfcoupler
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What you did will definitely work Bruce. But wouldn't it be easier to not have to specify every different symbol?  Like I said, If you give them a Class or a Color that is not used for other parts, then you can simplify the criteria.

 

IE, if all the hardware is in a class named Hardware, then the Criteria would be just Class Is Hardware and the Including components of Symbols box would be checked. Then if you switch from a 3 1/2" bolt to a 3" bolt you don't have to remember to edit the criteria.

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8 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

What you did will definitely work Bruce. But wouldn't it be easier to not have to specify every different symbol?  Like I said, If you give them a Class or a Color that is not used for other parts, then you can simplify the criteria.

 

IE, if all the hardware is in a class named Hardware, then the Criteria would be just Class Is Hardware and the Including components of Symbols box would be checked. Then if you switch from a 3 1/2" bolt to a 3" bolt you don't have to remember to edit the criteria.

I agree. I will work on that. Color is a great suggestion too. This is how I set the criteria for my KV Brackets hardware worksheet. I used the "Steel" material as a definer, and it works. I can't attach Material to a symbol. But the other thing I could do is to make a simple Record that could be attached to all the nut and bolt parts. We are having our user group picnic this afternoon. I will discuss this with our group too.

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Edited by Bruce Kieffer
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Are you using Symbols anywhere else in your drawing besides in the hardware? 

 

If not, try setting the criteria to Type is Symbol and check the In Symbol option.

 

Anything you put above the Include check boxes identifies objects anywhere in the drawing. If you check the boxes then it adds objects inside those types of containers also.

 

So you can't use Visible because there are lots of other things in the drawing that are visible.

 

If you don't use Symbols anywhere else in the drawing then you could use Type is Symbol.

 

Otherwise you need to find something else unique about the objects. Put them in a Class. Attach a Record to them. Or use a record that is used for other objects as well, but define a field to specify hardware. Or set a Pen of Fill Color. Or put them on a different layer.

 

Or...

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@Bruce Kieffer You still are not using anything that is unique to your hardward. If you draw a rectangle on Design Layer-1 that is in the None class, it will be caught by your criteria and will display as part of the database as a blank row.  Or any other object that is on Design Layer-1 and in the None class.

 

I keep failing to explain that you need to make your hardware symbols in some way UNIQUE so that you can use a UNIQUE criteria that will get them and nothing else.

 

Create a new class called Hardware. Put all of the symbols into that class. Set your criteria to Class Is Hardware.  Now as long as you don't put anything else accidentally in the Hardware class, your worksheet will always contain only the objects in the Hardware class.

 

You can even right click on the symbols in the Resource Manager and choose Edit Symbol Options and set the class that they will be inserted into.

 

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Class does not work because the symbols are nested and I cannot give the individual symbols different classes than their instances in the nested symbols. I have bolt, washer, and nut symbols, and I use those to make bolt assemblies which consist of a bolt, two washers, and a nut. In this drawing of mine, building the bolt assemblies as a symbol saves me a lot of time.

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52 minutes ago, Bruce Kieffer said:

Class does not work because the symbols are nested and I cannot give the individual symbols different classes than their instances in the nested symbols. I have bolt, washer, and nut symbols, and I use those to make bolt assemblies which consist of a bolt, two washers, and a nut. In this drawing of mine, building the bolt assemblies as a symbol saves me a lot of time.

 

You could put all the individual symbols in a 'Hardware-Components' class then the bolt assembly symbols in a 'Hardware-Main' class. This would allow you to exclude the assembly symbols from the report + just report on the component symbols

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