2015 Catalog Editor

[jacquesbenoit]

Question-

Why is the catalog browser/editor so useless? What happened to the filter ability. I am finding parts lookup to be very cumbersome.

Jacques

[dougmcalexander]

It has filtering.  It works like Google.  Just type in Manufacturer and/or part number, or voltage, or amps, etc. and click the magnifier icon. It keeps a running tally of the filter criteria you have entered previously.  Just click the down arrow to use a previous filter string.  Also, you can type any word or phrase in quotes for an exact match.  For example, select the CB table, type in SIEMENS 3-POLE CIRCUIT BREAKER "32AMPS" and click the magnifier.  You will see a list of Siemens brand 3-pole circuit breakers that are rated for 32 Amps. The new search function searches all fields for an exact or partial match, depending upon your use of the quotation marks or not.  In this example, the only exact match I required was "32AMPS".  See the attched screen capture.

[jacquesbenoit]

Doug,

I understand how it works in the new version and what I am saying is that I prefered the old catalog lookup with the ability to use the dropdown filters.

You had the ability to type your criteria in the old lookup as well. I just don't understand why it was changed and think it's less user friendly than the old dialog.

Jacques

[Icemanau]

I can totally agree with you on the catalog search being a huge step back in functionality.

I find the new search in 2015 to be very time consuming and hard to use mainly because of the so called search improvement.

Before, I could define a barnd and see if the component I wanted was actually in the listing but now, I have no idea if the item is in the listing or if it's because I haven't typed the correct search term in.

Regards Brad

[jmatel]

Is there a way to get the user fields to reappear in the catalog lookup? I have been sticking my companies part numbers in USER1 so it was nice to sort by that column and see what we keep in stock. Now the search doesn't even look in that field.

Thanks,

Joe

[jmatel]

Found that right clicking on the heading of the columns lets me edit which fields are shown and are searched as well.

[mathalekar]

Hello Joe,

The search will work for whatever columns you keep it enabled (or visible). The search query is based on the visible column only. It is from a user point view to make sure necessary number of columns are searched. This also gives faster search results.

[mathalekar]

Hello Jacques,

Thanks for your feedback. There are various positive aspects of new catalog browser. I really do not want state how better this catalog browser is than the old one but it is more important for us to gather some good feedback to improvise the catalog browser to meet the customer needs. Ofcourse if you are a user of AutoCAD Electrical for couple of release then eventually you will get use to the older catalog lookup. When we designed this feature some key aspects that we took into consideration are :

1. Performance of search

2. Give ability to create subset (or favourite) list per category for most used items in order to reduce the searching efforts.

3. Ability to refine the result window as per user needs

4. Edit feature in single place for adding, modifying the catalog data

5. Copy-Paste capabilities to reduce pain of adding the records. If you have table defined in excel, just copy the table cell in bulk to add data.

6. Single entry point for Pin list / Catalog data / block assignments etc.

7. Autocomplete option for MFGs along with history of recently searched items per category.

There are many more which are lot better than older version. However few users like you, do like filter capability to sort. We really apprecriate you view and have noted down this requirement as well at our end and forwarded to concered team to brainstorm the idea.

Again, do reach out to AutoCAD Electrical Ideastation to give your valuable inputs for betterment of the product.

[dougmcalexander]

Hi Mayuresh,

I may have communicated this before, but I have had requests for putting the "search all tables" option back in.  Perhaps a check box that tells Electrical to search all tables for a search string, not just the one selected.  For example, sometimes a fuseholder might be stored in the TRMS table, because it is a terminal block style fuse holder.  Yet the user might have the FU table selected because they just looked up a fuse part number.  I would say that the global "search all tables" checkbox should not be checked by default though.

Another option is to make it easy to see the parts of a subassembly without having to click the Edit icon. Have an option checkbox that we can turn on or off to view subassembly parts associated with a main part.  Also allow the user to edit the subassembly parts from this view.

Just my input.  Thanks!

[jacquesbenoit]

I think the first place to start is to put the old version of the catalog lookup back and start adding features if needed. This new lookup is so useless unless you can remember all of descriptions and identifiers.

This was not a good idea in my opinion. It takes me 2-3 times longer to find parts. This was a several steps back.

At this point I am not moving to 2015. I will stay with 2014 for now.

Jacques

[ccad2509]

Yep this is a classic programmers "we can make it better" with no real regard to how people that actually use the product on a day to day basis would like it to work

We are stuck with it as clearly from the wording from Autodesk programmer here he thinks it’s good

With no though to it actually slowing up and making us less efficient the 2015 upgrade was a bad year and this reinforces my opinion to ignore 2015 and wait to see what 2016 has in store

So Autodesk are you going to re-write your case studies and literature to downgrade your efficiency claims now that people using ACADE 2015 are actually working slower than ACADE 2014 users?

[dougmcalexander]

Other than the two issues I mentioned in my previous post I rather like the new catalog browser. I find it quicker in the end. Just enter any search string like you would with Google and find a part based upon the criteria you enter, using quotes for an exact match or no quotes for a partial match. Leave blank to search and return all records in the table. Each time you enter a search string for a particular device type (table) it is remembered for the future. Use the drop down list next time so you need not type again. Ultimately this becomes faster than checking and unchecking, as with the previous lookup method.

I know we humans are resistant to change but change is inevitable. We saw a change in catalog lookup between 2010 and 2011 that we had to grow accustomed to. I didn't like the ribbon at first but now I wouldn't have it any other way.

[jacquesbenoit]

Doug,

You are entitled to your opinion however I think more of us disagree with you.

I have been using ACADE sinse it was owned by CimLogic, this is the most useless the catalog lookup has been.

Jacques

[vladop]

I too prefer new Catalog Browser.

[dgorsman]

Not all software changes are from "programmers making it better for programmers".  While the advances of technology are requring that the developers know more about their tools than the tool they are creating that particular meme isn't as common as some would think, or at least not as presented.  As electrical/instrumentation designers have to work within constraints particular to their industry so do programmers.

Some changes are a technical requirement in order for the program to be compatible with current or future operating systems.  Others are a result of older operating systems no longer being supported (ie. dropping XP support) to reduce program bloat.  Yet others are to take advantage of newer technology which will be a major component in future development (ie. 360 services).  This means in many circumstances there is no "putting it back" - its not like printing a fresh drawing and slipping it into the package in place of the old one.

[ccad2509]

Intresting Responce Dgorsman a new player in the in this section

The saliant point i was making is Autodesk in the electrical world change things with little or no regard to what the enduser is actually doing

and yes if they were serious about implementing newer technology then when are they going to dump the MS access database in the background and use SQL

Heres dougs chance to make a fool of himself again by claming SQL is not reliable (even though the world runs on it ) and looking out my window the world hasnt ended yet

if they were serious about improving the product they would be slavishlishly looking at the ideas station and making comments on ideas and making encouringing noises to us users that have been exposed to mutiple ECAD systems but as i predicted a few months back its in the slow lingering death mode

 i've noted that its still at 6 under review and 1 acepted pretty poor since it doesnt include the 30 plus ideas i removed ( cost me nearly 100 Kudos there so i wasnt alone in my thoughts)

rant over going back to my sick bed

[jacquesbenoit]

I have also questioned why the database was never moved to SQL. I have actually had to purge data out of the access database to improve lookup performance.

Access has limitations, SQL is better and I could also tie my ERP system into a SQL database. I have some pretty extensive Excel macros I wrote to take the output of the purchasers list and get all of our current pricing and vendor info from our ERP system.

Jacques

[mathalekar]

Wow, There are lot of comments and concerns over the catalog browser that we introduced. Currently, this topic is getting mixed with lot other topics instead of discussion around a single topic. I shall try to list out one by one here. You guys are welcome to send me direct email with your queries and i shall try to answer in details or with specific details.

1. Ideastation :

This is a new initiative that we have taken up and it is getting good traction from you guys. Thank You all ! Some of the concerns that you have listed and clarification for it wheather we read or take note of it on. We are absolutely reading every single post and takeing note of it whereever applicable. It necessarily may not possible to comment on each and every post but YES we are reading your suggestion. It will get more and more traction moving forward from our product management.

2. Catalog Browser Implementation :

Do reach out to me to details out your concerns to my email id : mayuresh.athalekar@autodesk.com

I shall make sure to give clarificaiton or resigster your concerns in appropriate way in our systems to get insight !

3. SQL Implementation:

There are lot of architectural investigation & viability study needs to be done. We already have few requests for this and is under consideration with our product management. 

[ccad2509]

mathalekar

1) I disagree less and less postings from fewer posters that’s your metric for success I don’t think so

 2) Don’t use it for the very valid reasons being posted by the original poster stated staying with 2014 simply because there is no benefit from upgrading to 2015

 3) well that’s an interesting one since there is so many issues with the access databases dougs favourite solution which he no longer posts which was to delete the scratch database to solve issues !!!!

From your words it’s quite obvious to me you can’t swap to SQL at the present time because Acade is simply incompatible with SQL

Ps spotted another glaring bug in the IEC demo project been there for years

Ill give you a clue it’s in the drawing list report maybe thats why there isnt a drawing list report in the demo project ?( right now the conspiracy theorist should be jumping up and down with glee)

[jacquesbenoit]

I had a conversation with one of the Autodesk ACE team members and the explanation I received was as follows:

"There are various purposes of introducing catalog browser is to improve performance of catalog browser for component insertion. We had some major complaints about performance of the catalog lookup & issues around it. After detailed architectural investigation, we found that with current architecture, it is relatively difficult to achieve the desired performance. Apart from this there are several reason which pushed us to make this major change in ACE 2015 release.

Nevertheless, we cannot revert back ACE 2015 catalog browser to its old legacy way, but what’s important for us is to understand your concerns to use catalog browser & new catalog lookup."

I want to know what changed that they can't bring back the other dialog. it's still the same Access database, the insert/edit component dialog didn't change. If they want to speed up the lookup process move to SQL.

This is so disappointing.

Jacques