How to quickly add more attributes to all symbols, instead of editing them one by one?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I already created 50+ user-defined symbols. Now I realized the company may want to add in a couple more attributes to all of the symbols. Is there any way to add in the extra attributes quickly, instead of opening every single dwg file to edit one by one? It would be awful if I have to edit each of every single dwg file. 

sincerely,

Paul Chen

[rhesusminus]

You can do this manually, by opening each symbol.

Or, you can code something that do this for you.

[Anonymous]

oh no... So, you are saying I have to make a AutoLISP or Python to automate the process? My boss told me they cannot be sure what attribute names for all the symbols, and they have to update more attributes over the year. It'll be disastrously tedious to update one by one manually.

sincerely,

Paul 

[rhesusminus]

And the location of those attributes must also be considered in your code, and yes, AutoLISP. Should they be visible?

Can you tell us the reason why you want to do this? There might be other solutions.

[Anonymous]

No, they don't need to be visible. We basically want an extra column of data in the Excel Spreadsheet. Say, if I added a location number to all the symbols, then the Excel spreadsheet would show that extra column of data.

sincerely,

Paul

[rhesusminus]

How will you add data to these settings?

Via the edit component dialog?

Is it just for the parent symbols?

The more detailed you answer, the less questions from me 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi Trond,

Right now, the method I know is go to Schematic > Symbol Builder. Open each individual symbol dwg file to manually add in the attributes. (Please see screenshots and explanation)

note: all the symbol dwg files are created as parent symbols.

sincerely,

Paul

[Anonymous]

I really need someone to help me out on this. I've now made 80+ symbols. But my boss suddenly expects me to add in new attributes into ALL OF THE SYMBOLS. I don't need the new attribute names to be visible. They just need to be associated with each of the symbols.

Examples:

Name

Alias

ID

KV

BIL

Rating

In-service date

Removal date

..

..

..

How can I add attributes quicker, instead of opening and editing each and every DWG file?

sincerely,

Paul 

[rhesusminus]

You WILL need to code something to do this. There is no easy way.

Once the code is made, you can execute it on the entire symbol library using the "modify symbol library" tool.

When that is done, you can run the "update/swap symbol" function to replace all symbols in your project with the new version.

This is a LOT of work, so I hope that you're boss don't expect anyone to do this for free for you. 

[Anonymous]

Trond,

Thanks for your response. We are still probing around how to process the conversion from AutoCAD to AutoCAD Electrical. But yeah, I'd say 80+ is still manageable for me to do manually. But later on, someone else would take it over and expand the library. So, we need to figure out a way to automate the process.

Do you know where we may find people who provide coding services? I suppose this is AutoLISP coding?

sincerely,

Paul

[rhesusminus · Accepted solution]

For this I guess you can just ask in the autolisp forums. But for many other things you need later you also need them to know AutoCAD Electrical, and this would be a more rare combination.

[metal_pro2]

If I were you I wouldn't add those attributes - they are not AutoCAD Electric standard attribute names so you will not have any benefits of AutoCAD Electric like parent - child or single line relationships, reporting tools etc.

You should use the standard AutoCAD Electric attributes.

Use the AutoCAD Help and search for "About Schematic Attributes" then read, read read

For example use:

"DESC3" for Name

Rating6 -Alias

Rating7 ID

Rating8 KV

Rating9 BIL

Rating10 - Rating

Rating11 - In-service date

Rating12 - Removal date

If you need to add the same attributes to 80 symbols you could create a AcadE project of the 80 symbols (say No to apply project default values to drawing settings) then use "Project-wide Utilities" to run a command script on the 80 symbols.

The command script would just insert a exploded block of the additional attributes into each drawing.

Do some reading on scripts in help search for  "To Create a Project-Wide Script File"

[alds02]

I second @metal_pro2 's advice. Repurpose an existing attribute if possible.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice @metal_pro2  @alds02 . I have imparted the concern to my boss. But he still wants me to test it out first. I'll update y'all.

sincerely,

Paul