Surfable Reports - Error Message

[pmccutcheon]

I am trying to use the "surfable reports" feature in Autocad Electrical 2019

1 I have a project with a BOM generated by autocad electrical.

2 Start surfer

3 Click on a catalog part in the BOM, get error message -- see screen shot attached

"Alert - The selected item has a blank value for one of these attributes .... Autocad Electrical cannot surf on a blank value"

I have some projects where this fails (as above) and other projects where it works just fine. I cannot spot the difference between projects.

I tried "rebuild" database, makes no difference

Attached is the dwg I was using

[jseefdrumr]

Surfer can only surf to things that exist.

The first item you pointed to, a jumper bar, isn't likely to have a symbol anywhere in your schematics. As for the footprint, did you draw one for this part number? Is it in the panel layout? If not, surfer can't surf to it.

If it does exist, whether in the schematic or in the panel, then this error message is telling you that you can't surf there because the symbol/footprint you used is missing a needed attribute.

The second item you pointed to looks like a subassembly part to the item directly above it. If that's the case, you can't surf to it because it doesn't exist as an independent symbol or footprint. In those cases, you can only surf to the main component.

[pmccutcheon]

We insert jumper bars as a schematic item. You can see it has a tag (left column). Therefore exists in the schematic.

{it wouldn't be in the BOM if it wasn't on the schematic}

I just picked that one part "for example". As far as I can see, *none* of the items in this BOM are surfable.

[jseefdrumr]

Oops you're right, I didn't notice the tag. (However, just because something appears in a BOM, doesn't necessarily mean it's also in the schematic. For instance, DIN rail and wireway.) I rarely encounter terminal jumpers in schematics, so I just assumed that it wasn't drawn in on yours, sorry.

So, in that light, the surfer error message is telling you that it can't surf to that component because it can't find the TAG1 attribute...but we know that's false, because the component is tagged. So, the next thing to check is the panel footprint. If one doesn't exist, then skip ahead. If one does, verify that it contains the attribute PTAG. If it's missing that attribute, this could be the problem. If the attribute is there, then we check the next thing.

The next, and really, the only, thing I can think of to check is whether or not the BOM you're concerned with is part of the active project.

I'm still on ACADE 2017 so I don't have access to surfable reports. Hopefully someone else can chime in with some insight here.

[rhesusminus]

Is it only the catalog number that don't work? What if you select a tag?

[pmccutcheon]

clicking a tag or clicking a part number has same effect (ie neither works)

also I tried more than one component in the BOM 

and different pages in the BOM (bom took multiple sheets)

Oddly I have some projects where the feature works fine 

[pmccutcheon]

This is a BOM that works

(interestingly, I think we made with with ACE 2012, but is surfable in ACE2019)

(unfortunately, without a project, it probably won't work for you 😞

I'll post a non-working sample next

[pmccutcheon]

This is a BOM that does NOT work

I believe this was created in ACE2019, and we try to surf in ACE2019

[rhesusminus]

I have NO idea how the surfable PDF works for tables. Tried to look into the bits'n'bytes, but noo...
Maybe @Anonymous can help out here?

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

I spent some time looking at the drawings provided. I am able to reproduce the Surf issue. There seems to be something odd about the table itself on the drawing that doesn't work, but I don't know exactly what would cause it. I did find out that if I simply move the table, surf starts to work. It also starts to work if I change the table color, or edit a blank cell and add text. I hoped simply saving the drawing might also fix whatever is odd about the table but it doesn't. This is out of my area of expertise as it seems to be something in the table's definition itself.

I would suggest if this happens frequently, to keep track of the workflow when inserting the table. And then log the issue with any reproducible steps. You can log an issue at https://knowledge.autodesk.com/contact-support/using-my-product

Regards,

Pat

[pmccutcheon]

on my laptop, I set to "save in 2018" format.

I noticed the drafters here are still saving an older format (2010 maybe)

not sure if this is making the difference?

(I've open some old projects we did in ACE 2008, and they seem surfable in 2019... but maybe I did a save without noticing)

anyways, I'll try to make a screen cast of how we are making the BOMS