topic Re: Cable catalog data in AutoCAD Electrical Forum

Cable catalog data

galashkina — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 12:22:05 GMT

The manufacturer of cable products has prepared the data for transfer to AutoCAD Electrical:
• Interface cables – 7372 types of cables
• Mounting cables – 5376 types of cables
• Control cables – 10785 types of cables
• Power cables - 7636 types of cables
There are 31169 types of cables in total.

I am using the "Transfer Utility" to import cables into default_cat.mdb.
Will there be enough AutoCAD Electrical resources to work with a database of this volume?
Are there limits on the number of records in the database?

Re: Cable catalog data

jallenDBQ7U — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:00:12 GMT

MS Access is limited to 2 gigabytes per database. I am not sure if you use SQL instead. I am not sure of the impact on use of the catalog in AE either.

Re: Cable catalog data

jseefdrumr — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:47:45 GMT

I'm not sure if ACADE has any kind of limit on database size. Since it's designed to work with Access, we can probably safely assume that if Access can open and work with a database, then so can ACADE. However, there are character limits, I'm just not certain what they are. I want to say 256 characters. There's an entry in HELP, 'Best Practices for Customizing the Catalog Database', but it doesn't really mention that specifically.

I think the real issue will be performance. As we're all aware, the larger a database is, the longer it takes to sort through entries to find what's needed. Perhaps, add the whole cable catalog to the database, and then create a secondary, smaller database for everyday use? I'm not sure how effective that would be, it depends on exactly how you do things, and whether or not your install of ACADE struggles with a huge db.

Also, if you pull this off, there could be quite a few people here who are interested in which cable manufacturer did this for you, and whether it's something any of the rest of us can also do.

Re: Cable catalog data

galashkina — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 17:51:37 GMT

@jseefdrumr написал (-а):

Also, if you pull this off, there could be quite a few people here who are interested in which cable manufacturer did this for you, and whether it's something any of the rest of us can also do.

We are preparing a database of the plant "Special Cable".

I post the prepared data on the Russian-language forum:

Импорт продукции завода «Спецкабель» в БД AutoCAD Electrical - Autodesk Community - International Forums

Re: Cable catalog data

rhesusminus — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 11:51:19 GMT

Well, There's 137142 Circuit Breakers and 247205 Motor starters/Contactors in the database, so I guess 31169 cables should be ok. Is all the cable wires number/color included also?

Re: Cable catalog data

galashkina — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 12:25:28 GMT

Yes, the cable core cross section / color are included.

Moreover, different wires can have the same color, so we enter a color and a number, for example, black 1, black 2, black 3, etc.

Below is an example of a cable containing 52 cores.

Re: Cable catalog data

nicolas-v — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 04:04:22 GMT

@galashkina wrote:
I am using the "Transfer Utility" to import cables into default_cat.mdb.

Hi,

I'm looking for a way to import cable data in Autocad Electrical 2022, so I don't need to type wire color for each core.

Is this transfert utility part of Autocad Electrical?

Is it possible to import such data to catalog database?

Re: Cable catalog data

rhesusminus — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 06:15:31 GMT

It is the migration utility we're discussing here. It's part of Arcade.

But, for this to work, your cable data must be in MS Access format already.

All your cable data... What format are they in now?

Re: Cable catalog data

nicolas-v — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 05:00:53 GMT

Our cable data is in Excel worksheet format. We're just starting using AcadE.

So, if I knew what format is expected by this migration utility, I could shape the data to match its format.

Re: Cable catalog data

rhesusminus — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 06:43:32 GMT

If you open the default_cat.mdb in Microsoft Access, the W0 table specifically, you can see what field you have and what they're used for. You can easily copy/prate between Excel and this table.

For the conductors there's a different table. I'm not in front of my computer, but I believe it's named something like _CABLE_WIRES

Do the same here. Organize your Excel data and copy/paste.

Re: Cable catalog data

galashkina — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 17:26:35 GMT

@nicolas-v написал (-а):

Hi,
I'm looking for a way to import cable data in Autocad Electrical 2022, so I don't need to type wire color for each core.
Is this transfert utility part of Autocad Electrical?
Is it possible to import such data to catalog database?

I used the " Migration Utility " to import cable data and core data into AutoCAD Electrical. There is an easier way to import only cable data:

Copy the default_cat.mdb database so that you can return to it if necessary.
Create cable data in Excel format (the format of the cable table must match the format of the default_cat.mdb database table W0).
Select the cable data and save it to the clipboard (CTRL+C).
Run the AutoCAD Electrical Catalog Browser.
Open the table "W0 (cables, multi-conductor cables)".
Click the "Edit Catalog Database" button (the background of the table will turn yellow).
Paste the cable data from the clipboard (CTRL+V) to the end of the table.
Save the changes.

Please note that the values "manufacturer + catalog number" must be unique for each cable.

Re: Cable catalog data

nicolas-v — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:53:41 GMT

Thank you very much. I could not reply earlier, sorry.

I could find the _W0_CBLWIRES in default database.

Re: Cable catalog data

nicolas-v — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:58:16 GMT

Thank you for the explanation!

I needed to import core data easily.

Re: Cable catalog data

galashkina — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 06:17:02 GMT

@nicolas-v написал (-а):
I could find the _W0_CBLWIRES in default database.

You will find the _W0_CBLWIRES table, if you open the database in Access.

Re: Cable catalog data

nicolas-v — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 08:25:42 GMT

Thank you very much.

I was able to import cable conductors.

Re: Cable catalog data

galashkina — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 09:20:01 GMT

@nicolas-v написал (-а):
I was able to import cable conductors.

Great! 👍