Wire Signal Cross References corrupting projects

[cybertroluser]

I am having trouble with wire reference arrows on just one project (so far).  They work normally within a page, but when referencing off page they refuse to update with the wire number or reference. The references do not show up in the "project" listing for edit reference - nothing at all shows. I am able to surf to the destinations on another page though, but the wire numbers and references won't update the attributes with them all showing ???.  The strangest thing is that if I copy one of these drawings to another project and add it to the project, when I do a signal retag update, ALL the referencing for the other project breaks after the addition of this dwg.  The scratch DB shows the correct info but it doesn't write it to the drawing. 

I have done audits, rebuilds, deleted the scratch DB, checked project/dwg settings, dxfout etc. multiple times with no luck.  Anybody have any other ideas?

[Anonymous]

I am having same issues with signal references and have performed all the same functions as above to solve the issue with no luck. I got them to work correctly, only to fail again the next time I open the projeect. Can we get some assistance here? 

[cybertroluser]

I have learned a few new tricks since tis original post that may take care of the problem(s).  Autodesk really needs to fix this part of ACE as it is the flakiest part of the system.  It has been this way from at least Version 2010.  We do a lot of changes with the reference arrows and quite often they will stop updating or get confused to the point that it just stops updating. 

One thing to check is that your database service hasn't crashed - if it has save all drawings, close autocad and restart, this is the only way to make sure that this is fixed or you will continue to have problems. 

If it has't crashed, try saving all drawings, rebuild/refresh the database, then under reports, run the drawing audit on all affected drawings, then rebuild/refresh the database again.  It looks redundant, but if there were errors/updates from the audit this is the only way they get written to the database.

Then check one of the links that appear broken by right-click retag/update, to see if it will update.  If it does you are in business.  If it doesn't you can try activating another project, then reactivate the project with the problems and retag/update to see if it fixes it.  Finally if switching projects doesn't work. Save all drawings and restart Autocad Electrical. Then when you go to the problem arrows they will usually update.  We have had projects that none of this worked, and we just deleted all the destination arrows and re-inserted them to get them fixed.

If your project is set for sheet & row numbering (%S%N), you will have less trouble with reference arrows breaking. If you use any other method such as sectio-sheet-row (%A%S%N), or inst-loc on a non-IEC project as we commonly do for large projects, it will be quite common that it will fail to update the section portion of the reference.  In either case you will either have to go to each refence and retag/update each one, or run the "update Signal References" command located on the bottom drop-down on the Edit Wires panel.  If you use the "Update Wire Signal and Stand Alone Cross Reference" command, ONLY select the "Drawing Wide" button - The "Project Wide" has never worked except on small projects using sheet-row and less than 10-12 dwgs.

I hope this helps you dealing with these pesky arrows.

Craig Smith

[Anonymous]

Ok, I had to rebuild the database and do a Drawing Audit 3 times before it worked. Thank you for your help. 

[cybertroluser]

Yes, we here at my company tire of rebuilding the database too.  We do it so much that we created an icon on the QAT!

One other thing that may lessen the frequency of problems with source and destination arrows.  When adding a destination arrow, or changing it's source is to use the pick button if it is on the same page, or use the select from project button.  If you are adding a desination arrow and you type in the "source code" because you know it, the incidence of problems increase.  We have reduced the number of times that the arrows become broken and quit updating, by trying to always pick the code from the selection boxes rather than typing it. If you are changing destination arrows that are already linked pick from project & make sure that the "show all" button is selected so that you can pick an existing code.  Also try not to have too many drawings open, one of our operators had a habit of having 5-10 drawings in a project open all the time and he had the highest incidence of arrows becoming "broken".

Glad it worked!

Craig Smith