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Distributor Object Output order


JeroenS.

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Hi everyone,

I'm currently in de process of updating our libraries to get everything working with v2022. While working on our Distributor Objects I came across the following issue. I've got no control over the order in wich the outputs are shown in the IOP. Every output is named and numbered in the "Name" field of the Electrical Output object, so alphabetical/numeric order would be fine. But nonetheless the outputs are shown in a seemingly random order.

Has anyone figured this out?

My whole experience with migrating from v2021 to v2022 has been troublesome. I have to figure out how everything is meant to work by myself. After 3 days of battling with Truss Magnets (our custom truss library is quite large).. It would be great if in the future there would also be an explanation before the release on how to change symbols to work properly in the new version, in addition to the release notes. I am aware that the cable tools in v2021 were still in beta. But I'm getting off topic..

image.png.aa99f855be7fbf6f34e3e742d395e4d2.png

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Works great. Thanks Jesse!

Off topic, but quick question: Wattage of Lighting Devices arent used for the power information. Am I supposed to draw Input, Output and Consumer objects in all of our Lighting Device Symbols?

Drawing only a Consumer object will disable daisy chaining...

Edited by JeroenSnoeijen
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Hi Bogdan,

 

Your cable .vwx files need to be in the installation folder->Libraries->Default->Cable Tools. We made a .bat file to automate this and make updating these files easy.

 

The .bat file looks something like this:
xcopy "..\Libraries\Defaults\Audio Tools\*" "c:\Program Files\Vectorworks 2021\Libraries\Defaults\Audio Tools" /i /e /Y
xcopy "..\Libraries\Defaults\Cable Tools\*" "c:\Program Files\Vectorworks 2021\Libraries\Defaults\Cable Tools" /i /e /Y
xcopy "..\Libraries\Defaults\Stock Bridle Materials\*" "c:\Program Files\Vectorworks 2021\Libraries\Defaults\Stock Bridle Materials" /i /e /Y
xcopy "..\Libraries\Defaults\Hoist Tools\*" "c:\Program Files\Vectorworks 2021\Libraries\Defaults\Hoist Tools" /i /e /Y

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
4 hours ago, JeroenSnoeijen said:

Off topic, but quick question: Wattage of Lighting Devices arent used for the power information. Am I supposed to draw Input, Output and Consumer objects in all of our Lighting Device Symbols?

This is a bug and is being worked on. It will hopefully be addressed fairly soon.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
4 hours ago, Bogdan Ciocan said:

we have also a custom library for cables and distributors, but the cables are not seen in workgroup folder and each of us must copy the library in user folder.

Is this working for you?

This should be possible, it was implimented in 2021 sp3, the only thing that can't be shared in a user or workgroup folder is the cableconnector xml file.

What build of Spotlight are you running, so I check this when I 'm back in the office

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
4 hours ago, JeroenSnoeijen said:

Not everything about the Cable Tool is documented well..

A set of skill videos is in the process of being prepared for the cable tools suite and should be on the Vectorworks University soon.

 

In the mean time the thread below contains a lot of info about the new cable tools

 

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On 11/26/2021 at 2:26 PM, jcogdell said:

This should be possible, it was implimented in 2021 sp3, the only thing that can't be shared in a user or workgroup folder is the cableconnector xml file.

What build of Spotlight are you running, so I check this when I 'm back in the office

We are using Vectorworks 2022 SP1.1. The cable parts can only be seen in User Folder.

This is also stated in Help.

image.thumb.png.e4f218b84a963eff063d039bdc9a3d73.png

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

The section you have highlighted tells you were to find the default cable part libraries, if you look at the first paragraph of the 'managing cable parts' page it says
"The Manage Cable Parts dialog box provides information about the cable inventory in the Vectorworks library and any user or workgroup files"

 

That being said I have just tested this an it is definitely broken in service pack 2. I'll get the bug report in to have it fixed and I'll also put a request in to have the help page looked at to make it clearer.

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10 hours ago, jcogdell said:

The section you have highlighted tells you were to find the default cable part libraries, if you look at the first paragraph of the 'managing cable parts' page it says
"The Manage Cable Parts dialog box provides information about the cable inventory in the Vectorworks library and any user or workgroup files"

 

That being said I have just tested this an it is definitely broken in service pack 2. I'll get the bug report in to have it fixed and I'll also put a request in to have the help page looked at to make it clearer.

Hey, thank you for looking in to this. You are right, but the default cable parts libraries are in the installation folders.

Anyway, there is is a workaround and with the tip from @JeroenSnoeijen is much easier to share the libraries.

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On 11/26/2021 at 2:28 PM, jcogdell said:

Have you tried adding a output component as well for the link through?

Adding a output seems to re-enable daisy chaining, however I can not assing L1, N & PE to the consumer object. Wich  seems a bit odd because I have to define a connector type for the consumer object.

I don't think I'm going edit all of our Lighting Device symbols for now and wait for a proper solution in the future Service Pack releases...

Edited by JeroenSnoeijen
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi Bogdan

 

The bug is still currently being worked on, I'll ask the dev team for an update.

 

On the subject of the Help and more info, the new cables tools skill video should be added to the Vectorworks university soon.

Also if you haven't found it yet there is another fairly long forum thread about the new cable tools, page one is mostly about the preview 2021 version.

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@JLitterio

Edit the 3D component of the symbol and use the electrical component tool to add a 'Consumer' component.

The Consumer properties include

  • Connector, choose the appropriate connector from the drop down
  • Power, this is the power consumption (load) of the device
  • Power factor, this is effectively how efficiently the device uses the power, most lights for example have a factor of 0.95 or better
  • Max and min voltage allow you to define the needed operating voltage range for the device.

 

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On 1/10/2022 at 3:13 AM, jcogdell said:

@JLitterio

Edit the 3D component of the symbol and use the electrical component tool to add a 'Consumer' component.

The Consumer properties include

  • Connector, choose the appropriate connector from the drop down
  • Power, this is the power consumption (load) of the device
  • Power factor, this is effectively how efficiently the device uses the power, most lights for example have a factor of 0.95 or better
  • Max and min voltage allow you to define the needed operating voltage range for the device.

 

Thanks,

 

Here is my issue that I am running into.  I have a tent Heater that is Cam-Lock in, uses 3 phases of power rated at 73.3 Amps and is 480V Delta.  When trying to make this custom symbol, I am essentially having to put inside the symbol a Power distro consisting of the following items.  

OPTION 1:

1 - input (Cam-Loc 2/0)

3 - Overcurrent Protectors

3 - Outputs (Bare Ends)

3 - Consumers (Bare Ends)

 

in this scenario, I don't seem to be able to connect the consumer to the Output or the Overcurrent Protector thus not being able to assign an internal load That transfers across 3 Legs of power. 

 

OPTION 2:

1 Consumer (Cam-Loc 2/0)

 

In this scenario, The consumer can attach to a power source but does not carry over the L1,L2,L3 connections from the Cam-Loc,  Consumers thus far seem to be only 1 Hot, 1 N, and 1PE.  

 

See Screenshot and Attached VW file for reference. 

 

Let me know If I am missing anything. 

 

image.thumb.png.d28ed1879879087ca9bf7d75bd9f64bd.png

Power Tools WIP.vwx

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

This is a bug, the consumer object should apply the load to each phase, not just the L1 phase.
I'll get a bug report in.

The way this should work is that your Heater should have a single consumer inside of it, unless there is a power link thru, in which case you would add a output component (which will automatically link with the consumer).

 

 

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