Blogging about AutoCAD Electrical 2010

• 

  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.

  About Nate

Latest Post

• Add to Bookmarks Send to Peer

  Blogging about AutoCAD Electrical 2010
  February 18, 2009, 08:26 PM Nate Holt

  Here are links to two more AutoCAD Electrical blogs: Rob Stein and Autodesk's Jared Bunch! Rob hopes to blog extensively on the new AutoCAD Electrical 2010 in the coming weeks...

  Robert Stein: www.robertstein.blogspot.com/

  Jared Bunch: gotcontrols.blogspot.com/

  5 Comments | Add Comment Controlling the Machine >

Comments

• 

  February 19, 2009 12:29 PM Marjie Stoffer

  Nate, Is there a mapping file that ACE uses to populate the schematic blocks from the information in the catalog databases? Is it editable? I would like to add my internal part number to the USER1 field and have it automatically insert into an attribute (that I will add to the block prior to inserting). I need to have both the manufacturer's part number and my own on the block.

• 

  February 19, 2009 03:28 PM Nate Holt

  Here's an earlier blog posting that may have what you're looking for: http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/blogs/blog/view/7/Automatic_Display_Internal_Part/

• 

  February 23, 2009 05:56 AM Marjie Stoffer

  Thank you Nate! That is exactly what I was looking for.

• 

  March 2, 2009 05:19 PM John Magnus

  Nate, I have been tasked with setting up new title blocks for my company. I was reading the help files about the WD_TB block for mapping attributes for auto update in ACADE. I understand the concept but the help files describe the ability to insert multiple WD_TB_name block for additional mapping of rev blocks and such. Is there a tutorial on this subject, or can you point me to someone who can explain this. I would like to have the ability to add additional blocks and have ACADE update them automatically. Thanks in adavnce.

• 

  March 3, 2009 08:57 AM Nate Holt

  Hi John, There are two options for title block mapping. You mention one above. The other is to create a ".wdt" ASCII text file. I know that this second method supports wild cards in the title block block names that are processed. The line in the ".wdt" file you create that defines what title block names to process looks something like this: BLOCK=<block name> where <block name> can be wildcarded or a comma-delimited list. Here is some info pulled from the default ".wdt" file shipped with the product. ;; The name of this file can either match the current project ;; "wdp" file name (but with a ".wdt" extension) or be named ;; "default.wdt" (which WD uses if a project-specific one is not ;; found). ;; ;; The name of the existing drawing's title block BLOCK is given ;; below in this format: BLOCK = <block name>. For example, if ;; your standard title block block name is "TITLE" then the ;; entry below would be BLOCK = TITLE. If your title block consists ;; of multiple blocks, let's say a title block and a revision block, ;; encode the "BLOCK = " line listing all blocks separated by commas. ;; For example, if there are two blocks, TITLEBLK and REVBLOCK, then ;; encode the line as "BLOCK = TITLEBLK,REVBLOCK". If you have multiple ;; sizes such as TITLE-A, TITLE-B, TITLE-D and all have the same ;; basic target attributes, encode the line with a wild-card ;; "BLOCK = TITLE-*" so that it always finds the title block, no matter ;; what "size" is used on the drawing.