Cable Suite - not working as expected

[raouls]

I am revisiting cable suite in VW2022, unfortunately I’m encountering a number of hurdles which I’m not sure are operator related or otherwise.

 

Customised Distribution and cables

Working with the files within ‘Applications / Vectorworks 2022 / Libraries / Defaults / Cable Tools’ I note that for whatever reason there are no dimmers in the Distrobution EU file. As such I’ve added one, that said if I import directly from that file (normal route not working and I’ll come back to this) it still thinks it is a distro (it was copied from one with an edit to the data to make necessary changes, type, input and output connections). What is the required syntax for these changes, given it would appear editing the data doesn’t cut it?

I also edited some of the cable files in order to add a 1.5m length to jumpers and data options. However when I open a new file and look for either of these 1.5m cable lengths or the aforementioned Dimmer, there is no sign of them. It would appear that an alternate set of files are being referenced. 

 

I have also noted that customising the cable parts does not appear to alter the global value. What I mean is if I remove (untick use) for say imperial lengths and US only cables these changes are only valid for that file, leading to my having to do the same for each file or save as template. It would be handy to do so once and for the changes to be recorded in the associated XML file.

 

Lastly, more of a feature request. Given the methodology (if I understand it right) it would be great to have ‘Cable sets’ that can be loaded into a project, similar to the way Sam Jones’s Cable Tools can so that if you change suppliers you can ‘load in’ their cable lengths (as we know, not all suppliers carry the same lengths of each cables and that’s before you look at different geographic territories). If you were to detail the respective lengths and cable types in an XML file which you then choose through the cable preferences before recalculating the cables used.

 

Thank you in advance. 

[jcogdell]

 

On 10/16/2021 at 9:34 PM, raouls said:

 I note that for whatever reason there are no dimmers in the Distrobution EU file.

There will be dimmers added to the default content, do you have any particular brand/models that are a priority?

 

 

On 10/16/2021 at 9:34 PM, raouls said:

it still thinks it is a distro (it was copied from one with an edit to the data to make necessary changes, type, input and output connections). What is the required syntax for these changes, given it would appear editing the data doesn’t cut it?

The new cable tools doesn't distinguish between breakouts, plugboxes, dimmers,  distro's and switch packs. All are classed as distributor objects as they split/distribute power. Anything that requires power and or signal like a lighting device is classed as a consumer.

 

On 10/16/2021 at 9:34 PM, raouls said:

(it was copied from one with an edit to the data to make necessary changes, type, input and output connections). What is the required syntax for these changes, given it would appear editing the data doesn’t cut it?

In the 2022 cable tools, Distributor objects are not defined by a data record but by the electrical component objects that are inside the symbol definition. These components are designed to behave in a similar fashion to how their real world equivalents behave and provide the information the power planning palette needs to accurately model the electrical behavior of the device.

There are 5 types of components,

• Power source- documents the electrical behavior of a power source (output connector, voltage per phase and current per phase), can be used to create a mobile generator, venue power supply cabinet and so on
• Input- which defines the input connector and pin hook up
• Over current protector- MCB or circuit breaker, normally every live pin/phase on an output connector should have a fuse connected between it and the pin/phase of the input connector, just like in the real world.
• Output- defines the type of output connector and pin hook up
• Consumer- which can be used to document the electrical behavior (input connector, power consumption, power factor and voltage range) of any device for power planning. this can be added to any symbol.

A couple of important things to note, is at this time Spotlight doesn't model the behavior of the earth fault protectors(RCD's etc..) and most importantly the components have to be connected together in the same format that they would be wired in the real world.

The pin drop-downs in the object properties are used to connect the pins together. One thing to watch is that if you duplicate an already connected input or output component and then change the connector type it can cause the pin connection to get out of sync with the existing components.

 

On 10/16/2021 at 9:34 PM, raouls said:

I also edited some of the cable files in order to add a 1.5m length to jumpers and data options. However when I open a new file and look for either of these 1.5m cable lengths or the aforementioned Dimmer, there is no sign of them. It would appear that an alternate set of files are being referenced. 

Did you edit your active show file or the application cable library file?
The cable parts manager dialogue is designed primarily to edit and manage the application library files rather than your active show file.

There are 4 cable library files (data, jumper, feeder and multi cables) located in your application folder

Vectorworks 2022>Libraries>default>Cable Tools

Open the file for the type of cable you wish to customize and use the cable parts manager to edit its data, save the library file as a user or work-group library (this will avoid it accidentally getting reset when ever a new service library update is released).

after saving the library file, either re-open your active show file (or a new empty file) and use the update button in the cable parts manager dialogue to import the changes into your application (if you are using a user or work-group library you may also need to refresh your libraries in the resource manager). This has to be done manually, so that the new parts do not accidentally force a recalculation of any exiting cable objects in your file.

 

If you need a completely new cable part the easiest method is to open the corresponding library file and duplicate a part in the file resources that is similar to the type of cable you wish to create (make sure the new part has a unique symbol name)

. Update its 2D geometry, you could for example import an image of the cable you are creating to use as a the thumbnail.

Once you are happy with the symbol or symbols open the cable parts manager and search for the symbol name (use the text filter in the upper right corner) and update the part data as required. one useful thing to note is that the manager can access the part data in 2 ways for editing, direct list editing of a field in the manager itself or by double clicking to access the dedicated edit dialogue.

Once you are happy with the new parts save them and update cable tools to use the new parts, the same as way as above.

 

On 10/16/2021 at 9:34 PM, raouls said:

I have also noted that customising the cable parts does not appear to alter the global value. What I mean is if I remove (untick use) for say imperial lengths and US only cables these changes are only valid for that file, leading to my having to do the same for each file or save as template. It would be handy to do so once and for the changes to be recorded in the associated XML file.

This is because the cable parts manager is primarily designed to control the background library file not the active show file. If you untick a part while in the library file and then save the file, that part will now be unavailable to the cable tools in future design files, without needing to create a separate template file.

However there is an easier way to control what cables are available in your design files, the Cable Preferences (located in the Spotlight > Cables and power planning menu) allow you to define which cable set you want to use when drawing cables by default, at the file level, and the Cable Area tool allows you to further assign different cable sets to specific parts or layers of your file.

At the moment the default sets are imperial, imperial adapters, metric and metric adapters.

 

On 10/16/2021 at 9:34 PM, raouls said:

Lastly, more of a feature request. Given the methodology (if I understand it right) it would be great to have ‘Cable sets’ that can be loaded into a project, similar to the way Sam Jones’s Cable Tools can so that if you change suppliers you can ‘load in’ their cable lengths (as we know, not all suppliers carry the same lengths of each cables and that’s before you look at different geographic territories). If you were to detail the respective lengths and cable types in an XML file which you then choose through the cable preferences before recalculating the cables used.

This is already possible, you can create new cable sets by editing a cable parts 'set name' parameter, which will both create the new set and assign the part to it (make sure to pay attention to the spelling of the set name including any spaces, it very easy to accidentally create duplicate set names because a part has an extra space at the end of the set name)

You can use this to create sets for specific company cable stocks, departments (Audio vs Lighting) or for different types of cables, for example 1.5mm² socapex vs 2.5mm² socapex cable sets.

The cable parts manager will automatically register any new cable sets based on the parts libraries once they have been created and the application updated as described above.

If you decide to create custom sets its a good idea to group the parts in each set into their own folder in each library file. Another point is that you may need the same part in multiple sets, in this case you will need to duplicate the part and give it a sightly different symbol name, since at this point in time each part cna only be linked to a single set.

 

 

 

[raouls]

@JCodgell Thank you for your detailed response to which I have one or two reply / questions;
 

Dimmers - Primarily Avolites ART2000 / Powercube  would be great also LSC  and generic dimmers with Powerlock, 125A 3ph, 63A 3ph, 32A 3ph inputs

Socapex-19 or 16A 1ph outs (the latter more for the generic 32A 3ph option)

 

Is it possible for user changes to the connector options of existing items; I.e 125 > power lock, Harting > socapex-19 etc

 

Files - I was looking and attempting to edit the application cable library files but I didn’t use the cable parts manger to edit them. I just created / modified the symbols enclosed (in each file).  It would appear I may have only got half way. 

 

Could you elaborate on ‘saving as user / work-group library’?

 

Custom cable sets - Good to know and requires further investigation on my part. That said I believe I need to get some of the basics down first, specifically the saving option as user of work-group. 

 

Lastly, it would be very useful if a video could be created that details the in-depth workings and custom modifications of Cable Suite.

 

Many thanks.

[jcogdell]

13 hours ago, raouls said:

Dimmers - Primarily Avolites ART2000 / Powercube  would be great also LSC  and generic dimmers with Powerlock, 125A 3ph, 63A 3ph, 32A 3ph inputs

Socapex-19 or 16A 1ph outs (the latter more for the generic 32A 3ph option)

I'll put them on the content list, for the generic dimmers do you have a phasing wish?

 

13 hours ago, raouls said:

Is it possible for user changes to the connector options of existing items; I.e 125 > power lock, Harting > socapex-19 etc

Yes you can change the existing connection options but there are a couple of things to be aware of.

To change the connector, right click on the symbol definition in the resource manager and select the edit 3D component option. select the input or output component that is inside the symbol and in the object properties you can use the connector drop down to select a new connector type.

• If you change the connector type to one that uses a different pin layout (going from single phase to a 3 phase connector for example) you will need to reconnect them before the distributor will work correctly.
• Make sure to rename the input and output connector component names, this will display in both the power information section of the object properties and in the power info connection drop-downs (along with the relevant object ID)
• If you add or remove components pay attention to the 2D stacking order as this dictates the order the components will display in the object properties of a distributor (first to last).
• The pin connections between the components are used for calculating the phase loading's of distributor and supply objects in the Power Planning palette (which is a work in progress at the moment)
   

So in your above examples changing from 125a 3ph CEE to Powerlock will not require the pins to be remapped as they are both effectively 5 pin 3-

phase connectors (I know in the real world Powerlock would be actually 5 single cables but the way the connectors are currently set up we treat Powerlock sets as a single cable). However changing from the Han-16 to socapex-19 connectors will require remapping the pin connections as the connector have both a different number of pins and different pin layout/phasing.

 

13 hours ago, raouls said:

Could you elaborate on ‘saving as user / work-group library’?

User or workgroup folders are a way to save your custom symbol libraries and other custom resources like styles outside of the Vectorworks application file structure. This makes sure that the custom libraries will not get over written whenever an update to the default libraries is released (potentially whenever a new service pack or or years version is released) and for the workgroup option allows multiple users to have access to the same custom resources if the file is stored on a accessible network drive or company server.

The link below is for the Vectorworks help page and goes into more detail about setting up user and workgroup folders

https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2022/eng/VW2022_Guide/Preferences/Preferences.htm?rhmapid=d_VW_Preferences#CSH_92

 

13 hours ago, raouls said:

Lastly, it would be very useful if a video could be created that details the in-depth workings and custom modifications of Cable Suite

I am working on a detailed set of skill videos for the new cable tools and power planning suite. The videos will start being added to the Vectorworks university soon.