Rating Field in AutoCAD Electrical Catalog

[GMangat]

I am trying to add a new family to my catalog, the name of the family is to be FC (for field cables). A table already exists at my company for cables although it is under the W0 family which we are trying to change for organization under the new family FC. When I add the table, I would also like there to be a "RATING" column, which I will be able to input various cable lengths for their respective catalog. In theory when I select a component and apply a catalog, the block has been designed so that the "RATING1" attribute will populate when selecting a catalog. I have attempted already a few times to make this work, however, once I add the column through Access Database (my method from my old job which also had the same table setup so that "RATING" would apply a cable length to "RATING1" and appear below the block) I receive an error in AutoCAD stating that there is a formatting issue. and to use the migration utility to fix it. I have tried that as well with no success.

Can someone in simple steps explain how I should add the new family, and have a column in my new family which will store the information applied to the "RATING1" attribute?

[rhesusminus · Accepted solution]

The rating field is just a field to search for and sort on.

Use the TEXTVALUE filled to transfer data to attributes. 

RATING1=50 FT

For example.

[arshdeepsingh404 · Accepted solution]

Hi @GMangat 

If you look in the existing W0 (Cables, Multi-conductor cables) table, you will see that there is no RATING column of cables.

The rating attributes are populated through the TEXTVALUE column. I think the RATING1 attribute is used by cables to show the conductor colour by default and you can use RATING2 and so on for your custom text like lengths.

See this symbol below where I setup RATING1,2,3 attributes in a cable symbol and set the TEXTVALUE field in catalog to RATING2=18AWG/3C;RATING3=10M

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will still need to label the symbols with HW0# and VW0# for the cable functionality to work like reports.