Connector pin TERMDESC report or export [AutoCAD Electrical 2023]

[alds02]

After spending a lot of time and the parametric connector builder, I have pieces of parent and child sections of a 75-pin connector, spread over three drawings in my project.

The connector accommodates various sizes of pins with crimp connections. I used each TERMDESC for plug and jack to indicate the part numbers of the pin (female part number on one side, male on the other). One of the goals was to complete the schematic and then run some kind of report so I could tally up the pins and add them to the parent catalog data as Multiple Catalog items.

I can't find an accurate way to get this information out in a report. So far, Wire From/To is a possibility but seems to list the pins and TERMDESC more than once if connected to the ladder with a tee. If it isn't accurate, it is more work than just counting by hand.

Is there a way to get the pin list out of ACADE somehow?

[alina.balkanskaia]

Hello, @alds02! Thank you for posting on Forum! Tell us, please, what version of AutoCAD Electrical you use.

[alds02]

2023, not that it matters.

[rhesusminus]

Don't mind the community managers. They are not familiar with the products, and are only here to give the illusion  that "we care" and get the number of accepted solutions up.

I don't think you can achieve what you want without doing some programing in a User Post for the report.

What I've done earlier, is to cheat a little bit.

If you draw the connector with pins instead, and add the MFG and CAT attributes to the child pins, you can actually get them included in a BOM.

Here, I've added the "HOUSING" and "FEMAPLEPINS" in the parent pin (multicat), and I've added 3 more pins with the "FEMALEPIN" part number.

It looks like this in the standard BOM's:

Maybe this can be a way to get what you want. If I haven't misunderstood your end goal completely...

[alds02]

@rhesusminus 

Trond, I really appreciate you taking the time to experiment.

My previous plan was to find a report that would help me tally all the pins I had entered in TERMDESC by hand, then go back to the parent and add them as multiple catalog items. You are correct - ultimately, I want a method to display the crimped pin catalog numbers but also get them into the BOM.

I use NFPA libraries, so I wasn't sure what you meant by drawing pins instead. I guessed the plug/jack "<<" ">>" style. I already noticed that this style of connector can appear in more reports than the parametric style, but it doesn't have the TERMDESC attribute.

For the NFPA "<<" symbol, the child doesn't have the CAT and MFG attributes. So, to clarify, are you suggesting that I make some custom child symbols that do carry CAT and MFG? I am going to try it now, but if I am on the wrong track you can redirect me!

This year I have customized more "standard" symbols than I ever did in the last ten years. The project requires wire lengths and ferrules and I am struggling to get the software to accomodate them. Unfortunately, when always working in haste, the time to learn to write User Post scripts has always seemed like time I couldn't afford.

[rhesusminus]

Yes, you need to add the mfg/cat attributes to some custom plug/jack symbols. Do you need the termdesc, when you have DESC1-3 for each pin?

And, yeah... AutoCAD Electrical should help you be a better draftsman, not a better lisp-programmer.

You always have the option to look at competing software. Let me know! 😉

[alds02]

@rhesusminus 

In my particular example, there's a female and male associated with each pin, and they have separate part numbers. I might have to put one in the TERMDESC. But then I am back to the starting point, tallying up the pins and putting them in the parent's multiple catalog items.

Maybe I need a wiring diagram with each pin as an individual component! 😫

I enjoy learning new things and I have wanted to look at the software you mentioned. But I'm at a small company right now and we can't afford it, they're also using Autodesk Fusion 360, and two of us know ACADE pretty well. 

[alina.balkanskaia]

@rhesusminus Thank you for your kind help on Forum! Yes, we care about accepted solutions. 😉

@alds02 For today, it might not be essential that much, but I always care about users who could find this conversation in the future. Sometimes users find out and read the dialogs they were in ten years ago. Many things could change in programs. So, it might be helpful for someone in the future. Thank you for your kind reply. I added it to the title!