topic Re: Inserting Terminal Blocks in AutoCAD Electrical Forum

Inserting Terminal Blocks

haiduken_ae_mi — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 15:05:47 GMT

For about a week now, I have been experiencing a problem while inserting TB's into a drawing. The problem occurs when I attempt to Insert/Edit Terminal Symbol or add a terminal block by copying an existing terminal block. Just for clarity, I should make it clear that the terminal blocks that I am inserting are not the default AutoCAD terminal blocks, but a terminal block 'BLOCK' that we have created for our drawings.

Regardless of whether I insert a new terminal block,, or copy from an existing, the Insert/Edit Terminal Symbol box appears as normal (picture attached), and allows me to select the correct Installation, Location, Tag Strip, and Number. After selecting all the appropriate information, I click OK to insert the TB on the drawing. When I select the insertion point on the drawings, the terminal block appears, but without any of the information that I selected in the Insert/Edit Terminal Symbol window (picture attached). Upon inserting the 'blank' terminal block, the following text appears on the command screen, "Error: no function definition: VLAX-ENAME->VLA-OBJECT" (picture attached).

I have been using these terminal block 'BLOCK's for years, and this problem has only started to occur in the last week or so. It now happens every time I insert/copy a terminal block. I have attempted to reinstall AutoCAD on my machine, but the problem has continued to occur.

Re: Inserting Terminal Blocks

TRLitsey — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 15:54:57 GMT

Hi there,

Just wanted to say I have something very similar. Last week ACE 2017 went into confusion mode. I first noticed this with the UNDO tool, it stopped working and was a UNKNOWN command. Then other tools were acting like they had been reassigned. Which is to say I would click on the ribbon COPY SYMBOL tool and some other tool would be activated. Reinstalled ACE 2017 and now, what I have seen so far, I insert a standard out of the box terminal block with terminal number into the schematic and the info filled in on insert does not come with it. It will hold the information when I go back and edit the terminal block but not on insert. I just thought it had something to do with our IT updates but could there be more to this story?

ACE 2017, Win 7 Pro 64 bit, Lenovo W520, company machine with auto updates running

Will be watching this thread. Would love to see some input.

Thank you

Re: Inserting Terminal Blocks

jseefdrumr — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:52:13 GMT

Do you keep any files on a server? If so, have you restarted the server?

Jim

Re: Inserting Terminal Blocks

TRLitsey — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:59:55 GMT

Sorry, I should have said that the Projects (schematics and assemblies) are on a server used by everyone in the company. The ACE 2017 applications are stand alones installed on each workstation. I just noticed that the round terminal block with terminal number seems to work just fine. In the middle of a project so am a little short on time but will look into this when I can. Not a barn burner but I am wondering what else is going awry?

Thanks for the input.

Re: Inserting Terminal Blocks

jseefdrumr — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 17:05:36 GMT

I ran into a problem where a formerly intermittent quirk became more and more common. Never figured out what went on, but IT came through one day and restarted that server and my instability went away. So, I've been tossing a server restart out as a suggestion lately, you know, just in case.

My current working hypothesis is that all that communication back and forth between ACADE and the server just results in some sort of cumulative data error. I liken this to clearing out the cache on your web browser to sort of boost its performance a little.

I have no idea whether this is true, of course. But hey, it's something to try amiright?

Jim

Re: Inserting Terminal Blocks

haiduken_ae_mi — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 17:47:50 GMT

I uninstalled my Auto CAD and cleared my cache in Graphics and Browser Cache folders located in my Local\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical 2016\R20.1\enu. I also disconnected from the server since i have no control over it. Everything is back to normal, thank you for the suggestions.