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Catalog Issues

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Message 1 of 6
Jay Mackey
234 Views, 5 Replies

Catalog Issues

After reading the help chapter on the BOM and Catalog, I still have some questions:

How can we change the order of the listing of fields in the Catalog listing? Specifically, I would like to list in order of Cat No., Description, etc. (Why is Misc1 and Misc2 first in the list after Cat No.?!?)

How can the "Show list sorted by catalog part number" check box be set to ON by default? (Why would anyone want their parts listed by order of entry, newest at the bottom? It 'might' make sense if it was listed with newest at the top.)
5 REPLIES 5
Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
in reply to: Jay Mackey

Jay,
I had the same question about the order of display when we first got the software back before Autodesk.
If I remember correctly if you change the order in the access database to what you need, it changes the display when you insert a component.
I agree with you on the second question, perhaps Nate will chime in.
There are also some other things that I wish would default.
"build up", and "group" in the BOM report are the ones that I run into the most.
Message 3 of 6
Jay Mackey
in reply to: Jay Mackey

Hmmm... tricky.

Why is it that I feel like a game modder trying to get ACADE configured to work like I think it should?

Thanks, Chad! I haven't even gotten into BOM generation. We generate a project BOM in Excel, and then the ACADE BOM ends up being just a check to make sure the Master BOM has everything we've designed into the project. My goal in life is to unify and simplify our whole BOM process.

- Jay
Message 4 of 6
Anonymous
in reply to: Jay Mackey

Jay,
Make sure you have the catalog the way you want it before you start creating drawings (I know its too late) because the drawings retain the catalog information.
So if you change your catalog and use a drawing done before you changed the catalog as a "skeleton" for a new drawing you will have problems with the bill being incorrect.
As far as i know the only way to fix it is to edit each component on the drawing to refresh the database.
I could be wrong about this, or have I missed something.

Maybe somebody else out there knows how, or a better way.

Chad
Message 5 of 6
Jay Mackey
in reply to: Jay Mackey

Thanks, Chad. Right now, this is the least of my problems as I trudge up the learning curve.

- Jay
Message 6 of 6
Jay Mackey
in reply to: Jay Mackey

(Still wondering...)

And more questions...

It appears that in comparing symbols names to catalog tables, ultimately it comes down to the first two letters of the table name. Is it the case that a third letter is not used? I have multiple tables with the same first two letters, such as PCP for computer peripherals, and PCB for printed circuit boards, and LS for limit switches and LSR for laser components. Is this a problem for AE? (It really would have been better to use something like industry 'standards' where possible for naming the catalog tables, i.e., the NFPA-79 component designations.)

It seems like there needs to be a good tutorial just on using the catalog. When I create symbols, is it imperative that I use a name that will work with the catalog?

If I don't like AE table names, and I change them all up, does that mean I need to change all of the symbol names in the symbol library to match?

Why doesn't the catalog look-up work off of the TAG instead of the symbol name? Many symbols could be used for different types of components, and therefore should not be linked to a single table based on the name of the symbol. If it was linked to the tag, and the symbol was suitable for two different things, I could just name it 'PE3' in one case so that the PE (Photoeye) table is opened, and PX5 in another case so that the PX (Proximity Sensor) table is opened. This would also mean that I could just rename any tables I wanted to match my company's standards on component designators.

- Jay

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