Sub-Assembly

[agustin_calleA2G2F]

I have a sub-assembly that is made out of various sub-assemblies (Jacks, Plugs, Terminal Blocks, and Wires) The wires connect jacks or plugs with a terminal block, but there are also wires that can be connected somewhere else. All these components are mounted in a frame. Can I create a Symbol to represent the frame with all these components? If something needs to be rewired, removed or added; Can that be done dynamically? (meaning no need to create another symbol).

Thanks

[jseefdrumr]

Can you build a symbol to represent this? Absolutely. Can you build one that can handle something getting rewired, removed, or added? Nope.

If the configuration of the plugs/jacks/terminals will never change, then yes, you can do it with one symbol, all the time, forever. If the wiring will never change, you can include that in the symbol too.

Beyond that, every change to the configuration will require a new symbol to be made. An example of a configuration change would be if you had an application that needed to add or remove any plug, jack, or terminal.

Dynamic blocks don't really play well in the ACADE sandbox. ACADE precedes dynamic blocks by a few years and the devs never updated command coding to accept them. So that potential avenue is basically closed to us in ACADE.

So if you can't handle all this in one single block, what do you do?

Here are my recommendations.

1. Don't include the wiring as part of the symbol.

2. Start out by building the biggest symbol first, the one with the maximum number of bells, whistles, components, etc. Build this one even if you don't need to use it yet. When you need a different version, open the big one up, do a Save As to change its name, delete what you don't need in this configuration, and move on.

3. As for the wiring, I would use the User Circuits in the Icon Menu. Set down your new symbol, draw all the wires to it, then save just the wires to their own circuit. This enables you to have multiple wiring configurations for one given hardware configuration - reducing overall the number of symbols you'll end up needing.

It might seem like extra work to do it this way but it also offers you the most flexibility. There's no way you're doing this with one symbol forever, unless those plugs, jacks and terminals NEVER EVER change. Knowing that every configuration will need a new symbol to be built now, will save you headaches later.

[agustin_calleA2G2F]

Thanks you. I will try your recommendations and see how it works.