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Coinciding with the acquisition of VIA Development, Nate joined Autodesk in March of 2003 after a decade stint as an entrepreneur following a two-decade stint as a controls engineer and software applications developer at Owens-Corning. Nate is now the lead product architect for AutoCAD Electrical. He loves this stuff.
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Wire From/To - limiting to certain component type
December 29, 2006 02:21 AMby Nate HoltHere's a user request related to AutoCAD Electrical's wire from/to reporting feature. The desire is to display only connections for a given component type, for example, wiring that ties to plug/receptacle connectors. All other wire connections are to be filtered out of the report.
This is a good excuse to program up a little addition to the "user post" utility for the Wire From/To report.
The user post utility that ships with AutoCAD Electrical is just a small AutoLisp utility. Its file name is c:\program files\autodesk\acade 2007\support\wirefrm2.lsp and the companion dialog definition file is wirefrm2.dcl.
Here is a modified version of the AutoLisp file and here
is the modified dcl file. Copy both to the target folder and overwrite the old versions (make BACKUP first, just in case!).
To test...
1. Run the Wire From/To report
2. When the report displays, select the "User Post" button.
3. This dialog displays:
Pick option 5 and type in the tag/family you want to report. For example, enter CR to report only wiring that ties to components a "CR" somewhere in their tag-ID.
4. Hit OK.
The report dialog will redisplay with only wire connections for "CR" components.
NOTE: don't be afraid to edit this file and experiment. This stuff can be a lot of fun...!
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Catalog Lookup - Browsing on Internal vs. Manufacturers part numbers
December 20, 2006 01:53 AMby Nate HoltThis comes up fairly often. AutoCAD Electrical's catalog lookup works off of manufacturer part numbers but with provision for you to populate a "user" field with your company's internal part numbers. But, you want to select off of your internal part number and not the manufacturer part number. You want have the manufacturer part number reported in a secondary manner.
A solution is to swap the CATALOG and USER1 field values in each record in the database table.
Here is a small test utility that might make this process easy to do. It lets you pick the table and the records each table to process. Give it a try (but make a backup of your file first!). Feel free to enhance this tool. It is straight AutoLisp with some calls into the AutoCAD Electrical API.
To use:
1. Copy both attached files (Download file ace_catuser1_swap.lsp and Download file
ace_catuser1_swap.dcl) to your "c:\program files\autodesk\acade 2007\support\" folder (should also work for ACE2008 beta).
2. Start ACE2007
3. APPLOAD "c:/program files/Autodesk/acade 2007/support/ace_catuser1_swap.lsp"
4. Type ACE_CATUSER1_SWAP at the command line. Follow dialog instructions.
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Altering the twist in Twisted-pair symbols
December 13, 2006 05:55 PMby Nate HoltThis question just came in from the other side of the planet: how do I control the height of the "twist" when inserting parametrically generated twisted-pair symbols? The default is shown in gray, the desired in bold red.
AutoCAD Electrical (2007 and above) creates these parametrically. An in-line library symbol is popped into each wire, creating a gap in each wire, and then polyline "twist" is added. An attribute defined on the library symbol, ACE_OFFSET, controls the height of the twist. A negative value (default) reduces the height of the "twist" by the value's amount. A zero value makes the twist come up to the wire-gap mid-point. A positive value extends the twist through the gap.
So, it looks like this user wants a positive value assigned to ACE_OFFSET so that the twist vertex pokes through the gaps.
Next question is this, what is the library symbol block name used to create this symbol? The easiest way to figure this out is to insert a twisted pair symbol, type LIST at the command line, and window the symbol. You might get some extra stuff included in the listing but, in there, you should see insert block name HT0_TW.dwg or VT0_TW.dwg.
Call up these symbol drawing files (your current symbol library folder might be something like "c:\program files\autodesk\acade 2007\libs\jic125\") and edit attribute definition ACE_OFFSET. Change the value to a positive amount. Save.
That should do it. The next time you insert a twisted pair symbol into a new drawing (or old drawing "purged" of all instances), the twisted part should poke through the gap.
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Solar Storm - Dec 7, Dec 14
December 7, 2006 07:41 PMby Nate HoltMy phone went momentarily dead this morning. I was thinking "sunspots" as a joke... but who knows...!
Here's today's lead headline on this site:
http://www.spaceweather.com/
RADIATION STORM: A radiation storm is underway. Based on the energy and number of solar protons streaming past Earth, NOAA ranks the storm as category S3: satellites may experience single-event upsets and astronauts should practice "radiation avoidance."
The rush of protons may be a sign of an approaching CME (coronal mass ejection). Protons are accelerated in shock waves at the leading-edge of CMEs, so when the proton count rises, we can guess that a CME is en route. Northern sky watchers should remain alert for auroras, which could flare up if and when a CME arrives.
This is interesting stuff.
UPDATE: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/061213_solar_storm.html
UPDATE: here is comparision between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/aurora_cam.html
Wednesday, Dec 13
Thursday, Dec 14
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How to Alias AutoCAD Electrical commands using the ACAD.PGP file
December 3, 2006 03:44 AMby Nate HoltI like to use the keyboard. Even copying files... I usually drop down to the DOS window and type away.
So, for keyboarders, let's create keystroke shortcuts to invoke some of the more commonly used AutoCAD Electrical commands.
One way to do this is to make some minor additions to your system's acad.pgp file. This file is used to map an abbreviated keyboard character combination out to a full command name.
The existing, stock version of this file is probably in a folder named something like this:
c:\Documents and Settings\{you}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical 2007\R17.1\enu\Support\
1. Make a backup copy of acad.pgp file (in case we have unexpected problems)
2. Open acad.pgp with a text editor (ex: wordpad.exe or notepad.exe should work okay)
3. Start up AutoCAD Electrical for reference.
Now we're ready to make it happen.
Alias for "Insert Component" command
Let's start with the Insert Component command. We want a one or two character shortcut to invoke this command to pop up the main insert component icon menu dialog.
Step 1: We need to find an unused short-cut character combo. "I" won't work because it's already defined in acad.pgp as an alias for the block "Insert" command. How about two I's? Try it. Type "II" at command line prompt and hit [Enter]. Returns "Unknown command", so we're good to go.
Step 2: Now we need to figure out the actual command name used to launch the AutoCAD Electrical "Insert Component" command. There are a couple ways to do this. We could type CUI at the command line, find the Insert Component command, and look at the tail end of the "macro" entry. Or we can do the same thing a whole lot easier by just invoking the command from the toolbar or pull-down menu and cancel out. Then we right click in empty space and pick the "Recent Input" option.
There it is... WD_INSYM_DLG
To confirm, type WD_INSYM_DLG [Enter] at the command line. If the dialog pops up, then we've found the desired command name.
Step3: Now add this line to the end of the opened acad.pgp file:
II *WD_INSYM_DLG
Hit the file save button (you don't have to exit the file at this time). Now, let's get our current AutoCAD session to re-read the modified acad.pgp file and then we can test our new alias.
Step 4: Type REINIT [Enter] at the command line, pick the PGP toggle and hit OK.
Okay, here we go. Type "II" at the command line and hit [Enter]. Bingo. The Insert Component dialog pops up!
Aliasing the Edit Component, Insert Wire, and Scoot Commands
Let's repeat the above process for three more commonly used commands. We'll follow the same idea for alias keystrokes and find that EE, WW, and SS are available for each command respectively. Note: the single EE "Edit Component" aliased command will be really nice. It should work for schematic and panel components, terminals, and wire numbers and a few other things.
Using the Invoke --> Cancel --> Right Click --> Recent Input technique, we find the actual AutoCAD Electrical command names. Add to our acad.pgp file, REINIT, and we're golden!
With this modified acad.pgp file in place, every time we restart AutoCAD Electrical, our quick command keystrokes will be there, ready and waiting.
UPDATE: there's actually an ALIASEDIT tool under Express > Tools that makes the above a lot easier to do. See Ellen Finkelstein's posting here: http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/autocad/select/finkelstein/031607_command_alias.htm
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Multi-wire bus command - gimme 4
December 1, 2006 04:46 PMby Nate HoltSitting at gate D14 and this question showed up. User wants the Multi-wire bus command to start up with four wires to insert as default instead of just three. So, any way to set this up to be the default?
Well, AcadE will "remember" your last selection during your current session but it will reset when you exit and restart AutoCAD Electrical. All is well except for the very first time the command is invoked during the current AcadE session
This isn't pretty, but I think it will work. The command creates a global variable to save the command's last settings. The global's name is GBL_wd_3ph_spacing. After you run the command, type
!GBL_wd_3ph_spacing [Enter]
at the command line to view it. The first two values give default horizontal and vertical spacing with the last being the wire count.
The non-pretty way to change this default is to hard-code it into the command's toolbar button.
Type CUI at the command line, select "Electrical Commands" and then select the "Multiple Wire Bus" command in the lower left-hand window. Now, on the right-hand side of the dialog, carefully edit the "macro" string to something like what is shown below (the 20.0 and 40.0 spacing values are for a "millimeter" units dwg... change to something like 0.5 and 0.75 for English units).
^C^C^P(if(not wd_load)(if(setq x(findfile "wd_load.lsp"))(load x)))(wd_load)(if (not GBL_wd_3ph_spacing)(setq GBL_wd_3ph_spacing (list 20.0 40.0 1 nil nil nil nil 4)));wd_in3wire
Apply and save. Test. See if it works...