what is "LINKTERM" ??

[Anonymous]

Hi

Copied a terminal, renumbered it

all appears ok

however the new and copied terminal share the same "LINKTERM"

I have added a "2" infront of the LINKTERM number for the new terminal -

is tis ok?

Any advice is great

Thanks

Steve

[Anonymous]

Linkterm is a random number assigned to components when they are "linked to otther component's, including  terminals. It is Autocad's way of marking them so it knows they go together. If You have a two-level terminal, both levels will have the same "linkterm" number. I also believe that the panel footprint for the terminal uses this "linkterm" number to know that a footprint goes with the correct schematic component. Without the linkterm being the same, your panel components will not update properly.

Hope this helps.

[Icemanau]

If you use the Copy Component command from ACADE, you won't get that problem.

From the sounds of it, you used the plain ACAD command.

Using the plain ACAD commands means that a lot of the functions that happen behind the scenes are missed which leads to problems with the scratch database being out of sync, erroneous data being left in blocks (as you have found) and other problems.

A lot of the reports are generated via the scratch database. The Terminal Strip Editor (TSE) also seems to use the scratch databse in it's function.

All this means that it is more adventageous to use the ACADE commands over the plain ACAD commands as you have less trouble.

Regarsd Brad

[Anonymous]

That is the one thing that I try to beat into the skulls of new employees. Always use the ACAD Electircal commands whenever possible. do not use "delete" to remove a component, Use the "delete component" command". Do not erase a line, use the "trim wire" command.

 Terminal strips are the most tempermental of all ACAD electrical components. If you do not use the proper commands to edit your drawings, you WILL end up with problems.

[drathak]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That is the one thing that I try to beat into the skulls of new employees. Always use the ACAD Electircal commands whenever possible. do not use "delete" to remove a component, Use the "delete component" command". Do not erase a line, use the "trim wire" command.

 Terminal strips are the most tempermental of all ACAD electrical components. If you do not use the proper commands to edit your drawings, you WILL end up with problems.

---

I'm pretty much the same for most of that, but with wires being simple lines on a dedicated layer, what is the harm in deleting a wire rather than trimming it?  (Provided you don't need end healing or changing a dot to a corner.)  I presume it is just to be consistent, but I have erased wires plenty of times with no ill effect.  I've also used the grips to extend a line past an existing connection (tee) in order to use the "Stretch Wire" to reach another point.  Again, no problems that I am aware of.

Just curious.

[Icemanau]

Behind the scenes in the scratch databse, there will be a entry for that wire (line) linking any components together. By using the plain delete command, that information is left behind.

If there are wire numbers associated with the wire, they are also placed into some attributes on the blocks. The delete command also leaves all of that information..

Upshot is that you are better off using the trim command to avoid all the problems.

Regards Brad

[drathak]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Behind the scenes in the scratch databse, there will be a entry for that wire (line) linking any components together. By using the plain delete command, that information is left behind.

If there are wire numbers associated with the wire, they are also placed into some attributes on the blocks. The delete command also leaves all of that information..

Upshot is that you are better off using the trim command to avoid all the problems.

Regards Brad

---

Thanks for the reply!

I get what you are saying, but my understanding is that the scratch database is just that.  Scratch.  The intelligence and information in the model is stored in the drawings and on the entities within them.  (Attributes and XData)  The scratch database is built up from that information to make the program work much faster.

If I navigate to the location of the scratch database and delete it, it will rebuild from the drawings the next time I execute a command.  Right?  The only time the database updates the drawings are when you import from it (a manually started task) or add information from a report to a drawing.  All of the reporting is done from the database which is usually refreshed before the reports run.  Is this not correct?

All that said, I am still a newbie to Electrical and a lot of the wanton deleting and such of wires (after removing any components properly to trigger updates of any related parts) is done because using the AETRIM command to remove a lot of wires takes forever as you have to click on each segment one at a time.  I also remove any wire numbers before erasing the wire lines.  The things I mentioned previously (erasing & stretching) affect only wire lines with no other information attached.

I'll try to be more concious of this in the future and will certainly impress this upon all the people I'm to train.  What we really need is a Delete Circuit command that would properly remove everything within a selection.  i can delete components by a window, but that leaves the wires to be dealt with.

Again, thanks for the reply.  it made me think this morning.  🙂

[testsubject]

Just an FYI,

The AEWIRE command allows (C)rossing and (F)ence for selecting wires for trimming. Goes way faster than picking each line one at a time...

The Right-Mous-Click for trimming wires only allows one wire at a time.

[drathak]

I had failed to notice that.  I guess I'm so used to commands allowing a window or crossing window without having to explicitly tell it to, that I assumed AETRIM didn't allow it at all.  Helps to read the prompts now and then.  😞

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I have been using the copy circuit command with ACADE 2010, 11, 12, 13, and 15, never had an issue before.

ACADE 2017 is having an issue using the copy circuit command, I am getting duplicate linkterm's, on single tier terminals.

This is a huge issue for us, I've never seen this before, and it's not just me, all of our ACADE 2017 users are having the same problems.

We just upgraded from Autodesk suite 2015 to Autodesk suite 2017, I'm starting to think it's a setting issue.

[Anonymous]

Hi Mike,

I understand I need to use "copy component" to create a new symbol. But why do I need to use the "delete component" command instead of a normal "delete" command?

sincerely,

Paul

[rhesusminus]

This is because you mistake AutoCAD Electrical of being AutoCAD.

As all the information in a project is spread over many, many sheets, AcadE needs to put this information somewhere, so that cross-references, suggesting new tags etc. will work.

And this would be the project database.

To keep this database up to date, you NEED to use all the special electrical commands to do everything. That's why you can't just do a CTRL+C/CTRL+V to copy anything, but must use "copy symbol" to copy a symbol within the same DWG, "Copy circuit" to copy multiple symbols/wires within the same DWG, and use the "clipboard" functions in the schematic tab if you want to copy something between sheets.

Perfectly logical, right?