simple terminal block question

[rickstarosto4361]

is there a way to insert a termianl block into a drawing and tag it as spare

so it will be called out as such on a terminal list drawing?

[drew_morework · Accepted solution]

Rick, do you have to show the spare terminal on the schematic? Where you are showing the "SPARE" text in your screenshot, is what I assume to be a WIRENO attribute. If you are okay with the text of "SPARE" replacing the TERM01 attribute ("6", in your case), that can easily be done. It would look like this instead:

In the TSE, select a row where you would like to place a spare terminal and press the button below. You will be prompted to give it a catalog number and place the spare above or below the row you selected. This will now share a spare terminal associated with that terminal strip in your graphical layout and in your terminal reports for that terminal strip. You can add as many spares as you'd like.

Vanilla ACE won't populate that WIRENO attribute with "SPARE" if there is nothing connected to that XTERM attribute. Though, it sounds like a perfect and easy application for User Post function (I have never made a User Post function). Someone smarter than me could help confirm that and maybe even help create one ( @arshdeepsingh404 ). Or maybe what I said above was wrong anyway and there is a way to do what you want without it.

[rickstarosto4361]

thanks for the response!

my screen shot showing both SPARE/SPARE along with the terminal number "6" is the format the engineers want to see.

i have modified some terminal strip in TSE when there aren't many to do, but a lot of projects we are seeing re upgrades and with that there are now MANY spare terminals which would require a lot of manual input. i'll hopefully figure something out.

as you said "Someone smarter than me", which is just about everyone in this forum, but i am trying.

and as for (@arshdeepsingh404), he has been so helpful already and so have many more and i greatly appreciate it.

[arshdeepsingh404]

Thanks for tagging me @drew_morework

My preferred method is exactly what you already described (inserting spares directly through the Terminal Strip Editor).

Since this report is generated directly through TSE, I'm not sure if a user post can be called from within it to manipulate the output data, but we can definitely use AutoLISP to update the table after it's placed in the drawing.

@rickstarosto4361

Regarding your original question ("Is there a way to insert a terminal block into a drawing and tag it as spare?")

If you want to place the terminal in the schematic and tag it as a spare, I recommend using the type with Terminal Number.

This lets you manually declare a terminal number, unlike wire number terminals, which automatically inherit the wire number.

In the table below, two spare terminals were inserted into the drawing as symbols, and two were inserted via TSE (like Drew mentioned).

If you want to populate the Wire1 and Wire2 columns with "SPARE SPARE", we can easily write a LISP routine to scan for spare rows and update them.

Let me know if you're interested! Just post a "before and after" screenshot of a manually updated terminal table, and I can help write the script for you.

Cheers!

[rickstarosto4361]

I always appreciate responses!!!! the only support i have to rely on are the people on this forum, and they are so willing to help.

with our Safety PLC Upgrades and Burner Control Upgrades there are now a circumstance where we need to change used existing terminals to spare terminals.

attached you can see my changes (noted in revision cloud) these terminals to "SPARE". (this format is from our Autocad Mechanical we use to use)