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Creating cable styles and parts in the new cable tool


Greg A

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I'm trying to learn the cable tool and having an issue, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong. I've modified some cable parts, that went ok, and I see them in the Cable Part Manager. One of the new cables I tried to build is L6-30, which doesn't exist at all in the library. I was able to build the parts and created a style, and I can draw a cable and it's pulling in the wrong  cable parts. It's adding L6-20 cable parts to my cable run and I don't see how to tell it A: to use the L6-30 and B: that L6-20 is not a compatible cable type. I'm wondering if the problem is that L6-30 is a connector that doesn't exist in the drop-down? and if that's my problem, is there a way to create it? Thinking ahead, if I want to create cables like tac-4 fiber and 5-wire BNC, will the system confuse those with single-strand fiber and std. coax BNC? would building them as multi-cables make any difference there?

 

thanks,

Greg

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Yes, they're pretty thorough, but they do not answer these questions, at least not that I can see. Nor do they explain why cables don't seem to attach properly to some of my cable paths, or they work fine until I complete the cable, then the entire shape changes so it's running backwards with both ends near what should have been the "end" of the cable

Screen Shot 2022-04-14 at 2.45.55 PM.png

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi Greg

 

I just had a quick look at your file

 

The original issue issue with the cable seems to be that the 2D part of the cable is displaying as a closed polyline, this was a bug in earlier builds of Spotlight.
Oddly I found that when I forced the cable object to recalculate by changing into a 3D view with the cable selected, opening the cable configuration dialogue, exiting and changing back into top/plan the 2D geometry reset and started to display correctly. Was this file started in SP3 or earlier version?

 

The second issue looks like it is caused by how cables and cable paths interact, at the moment cables can enter or exit a cable path anywhere along the path and will try to do so where-ever the auto-connect logic says the most efficient point to leave the path to reach the end point is. Another factor is that the cable path on the projector truss is not linked into the main path on Cable truss A. When these 2 are combined the cable tries to take the most direct route between the cable path on the cable truss and the end point.
The easiest way to get this to work correctly is to connect the 2 cable paths together and then draw the cable in a 3D view, this will ensure that the cable follows the path correctly. Also make sure that you have the class and layer options set to show/snap/modify others when drawing cables or the cable will interact with other objects correctly.

 

 

 

 

 

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@JCodgellThanks, that's helpful. part of the problem may be that the file was started in 2021 and converted. I've definitely noticed a few other things not working like the tutorial shows, such as attaching to truss. I had originally connected the two cable paths, but after having some trouble, rebuilt them. I'll keep all of this in mind moving forward, I think I'm doing ok for now, bigger problem is just not having our specific devices in the libraries.

 

Any insight into my L6-20 vs. 6-30 cabling issue? Is it based on the connector type? Is there a way to make a new connector type?

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi Greg

 

In regards to the cables not following trusses correctly, the truss objects in your file are corrupted, again this is likely because the file was forwards ported from 21 to 22 and there were some fairly big changes to truss objects in 22.

You can create new cable part libraries, styles and connectors, look on the Vectorworks university, there is a complete learning path for the new cable tools that has videos covering how to create content for the tools

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