topic Re: Obsolete catalogue entries in AutoCAD Electrical Forum

Obsolete catalogue entries

liam.barham — Wed, 18 May 2022 11:41:38 GMT

Hello,

Just wondering what approach people take when a manufacturers part (s) become obsolete? In regards to it has to stay in the Access database so old projects have something to reference but new projects need the new part, this is leading to a very large list of parts both old and new that can be hard to allocate the right part. For example Murr have just replaced a range of cable we use so the old ones have to stay in but we also now need the new ones, leading to a very confusing task when assigning the new ones.

Re: Obsolete catalogue entries

rhesusminus — Wed, 18 May 2022 12:04:15 GMT

When you "archive" an old project, you should create a project specific catalog that contains all the parts used in the project at that time first.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACAD_E/2023/ENU/?guid=GUID-031AA9B4-9578-4166-A5A4-79E3B0B990AD

Then, you can do whatever you want with the default catalog, as the report generator, lookup function will use this local project specific catalog for everything.

The only hair in this soup is that this does not apply to the footprint lookup database.

Re: Obsolete catalogue entries

liam.barham — Wed, 18 May 2022 12:44:06 GMT

We have hundreds of old projects, So would we need to got back to everyone and apply this solution? Also what would happen if we reloaded this project and tried assigning a new part? As it states all entries not in the project are removed.

Re: Obsolete catalogue entries

rhesusminus — Wed, 18 May 2022 12:53:57 GMT

@liam.barham wrote:

So would we need to got back to everyone and apply this solution?

Unfortunately, yes.

@liam.barham wrote:

Also what would happen if we reloaded this project and tried assigning a new part? As it states all entries not in the project are removed.

It all depends on the amount of changes you need to do.

You could always merge the project specific database in to the default catalog, delete the project specific database, and continue from there. And create a new project specific database when done.

Or, you can try to fiddle around with secondary databases, unless you're using SQL databases. This feature isn't available then, for some reason.

Re: Obsolete catalogue entries

liam.barham — Wed, 18 May 2022 13:45:33 GMT

Thanks,

We have just tried the following and it seemed successful at first glance:

Copied the default_cat file and renamed it obsolete_cat, then deleted obsolete parts out of the default_cat and set the secondary catalogue as the obsolete_cat which only contains obsolete parts.

Can you see any flaw in our approach?

Re: Obsolete catalogue entries

rhesusminus — Wed, 18 May 2022 16:18:28 GMT

I guess this could work. Anyone else see a problem with this?

Re: Obsolete catalogue entries

jseefdrumr — Wed, 18 May 2022 20:56:48 GMT

It *seems* like it should work, but to be honest I've not tried something like this before either, so who knows for sure.

I would proceed with (optimistic) caution. Pay close attention as you work to make sure the software is handling this correctly.

Definitely seems like a strong idea at first glance, though. Please update your post if you experience problems, that way others will know, and also we may be able to help you troubleshoot if needed.

Re: Obsolete catalogue entries

liam.barham — Thu, 19 May 2022 08:22:53 GMT

Thanks, Will report back in a few days.