2013 TSE doesn't follow the search path?

[Anonymous]

I am using AutoCAD Electrical 2013  (64 bit) on a brand new Windows 7 (enterprise) 64-bit installation.  The corporation has spent literally millions of dollars to upgrade every computer to this specification, and I spent several thousand of the department's dollars to upgrade all 25 users to the latest and greatest.  We're now 2 weeks in, and have no path to back out, and NOW stuff stops working.  Needless to say, I need help getting this handled NOW (!).

Using the Terminal strip Editor, we can select the terminal strip from the schematic input just like always (been doing this since 2009 release) and add accessories, edit the terminal and/or device data just as always, no issues.  When we switch over to the terminal strip Preview window, we discover that the only devices that show up are DEFAULT devices.  The system appears to not follow the search path (which is the path setup Out-Of-Box, so we don't accidentally ask the system to do something it doesn't know...) since I have verified that the Footprint lookup table, and the footprint (Panel) library do indeed have the correct part numbers, and the correct block elements in place as they should be, yet ONLY elements from the DEFAULT set (remember these are at the root of the PANEL folder) are applied.

As an experiment, I took all of the DEFAULT devices out of the Panel folder, and the system then returned an error statement to the effect that it could not find any device symbols.

Does the TSE use a different search path than a manual insert?  I ask because manual insert works OK.

An ideas?  I can't find ANY reference to the TSE search path in any of the documentation or the Knowledge base, so I'm hoping someone here has a thought.

Thanks,

JK

[Icemanau]

When you say there are only the default devices, I take it to mean that you only have the blocks that come with ACADE showing. When you got NEW systems and installed ACADE 2013, you would have been installing to a clean system. No old blocks left behind or old database's for ACADE 2013 to get confused with.

This has a lot of advantages and a few disadvantages.

ACADE 2013 has no blocks or data for the non default items in your terminal strip.

You will need to copy over the blocks you were using previously and then add the correct entries to the footprint lookup tables.

Same with any other custom blocks and catalog entries. You will need to copy those blocks over to the new systems and add those entries to the pinlist and catalog databases as required.

Regards Brad

[Anonymous]

You are right on all counts Brad;  except that we have, in fact installed (several thousand) footprint blocks, including several dozen that we drew ourselves (and that worked and were properly scaled, etc. with our previous 2009 installation).  What I meant to say was that TSE doesn't "see" any of those, and just passes back the Default devices.

The problem here is that apparently TSE does not drill into the (multiple) manufacturer folders to look for terminals within them.  I'd call that dumb;  If I have to add 107 manufacturer folders to my Project Properties/Panel Footprint Libraries list, first I'll go crazy, then my users will go crazy, and then, most likely AutoCAD will go crazy too.

I have double-checked; the Footprint libraries are where we called for them to be, and the Footprint Lookup Table has the devices listed, and pointing to the correct folder. (Same path as footprint libraries + manufacturer-specific sub folder).

Like I said this works just fine if I manually select and place terminals from the schematic list, so the path and lookup table must be right, but for some reason TSE seems to quit looking at the top level of the Panel library (Perhaps when it "finds" the default symbols?) rather than drilling into the manufacturer folders to find the target device.

I am curious if there is something different about this iteration of the TSE?  We did some testing before our computers were replaced in the 32-bit version and didn't see this (mis-)behavior.

Any input you might have is very welcome.

JK

[Icemanau]

When you copied over the footprints, did you update the footprint databse for ACADE 2013?

If the part number is not listed in the footprint database then ACADE's TSE will use the default footprints.

ACADE checks the footprint databse to find a footprint file name and sometimes the direct path. If it does not find that filename, then it pops up an error or uses the default footprint (in the case of TSE) for that part assuming there is one.

Without those entries in the footprint database, ACADE won't know what file to look for.

You also have to look for any entries that point ACADE to a different footprint than the one you want.

Regards Brad

[rhesusminus]

Is it possible for you to post a few screenshots here?

This MIGHT be a small typo somewhere...

Could you post:

1. The edit Terminal windows:

2. The edit footprint database, and the record that shows this specific instance:

3. The panel search path in the project properties:

Then MAYBE we can help you spot something 🙂 ?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Alright.  I think I have found the problem.

the sub-folder naming used in the PANEL library in 2013 is different from what was used in 2009.  When I copied my Lookup table from 2009, into the 2013 lookup table, I did not re-structure my data, so the lookups were looking for sub-folders that didn't exist. 

That means I've got quite a lot of work to do....

Thanks for your help...  you forced me to look in detail, and that found a fix.

Thanks again,

JK