Wire numbers placed chaotically

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am having issues with automatically inserted wire numbers on some occasions. I have come across a couple of other threads (below) that seem to be referencing this same issue but have not seen a viable solution (apologies if I've missed it).

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-electrical-forum/wire-number-location-seems-random/td-p/48794...

Sometimes when I insert the wires numbers they are placed at what seem like random locations and I will need to click on the number to see which wire it is associated with and then align manually or with a lisp routine. I've attached a picture as an example. The highlighted wires were all inserted at the same time. The un-highlighted ones were previously aligned.

Generally I notice the wire numbers being chaotically placed when the drawing is quite busy (lots of components in a tight space) and am thinking this might have something to do with it?

My project wire settings are below.

If anyone has had any luck with this I'd appreciate it if you would share your secrets.

Thanks,

Brian

[rhesusminus]

It's difficult to guess what's happening here. Would it be possible to see the DWG? There might be many reasons to why AcadE's algorithms for placing the wire number decides on that location.

Did you try to rebuild the project database with the AEREBUILDDB command?

[jseefdrumr · Accepted solution]

I've experienced this problem. What's happening is that your wire numbers are too long for the wire, as it's drawn. What ACADE is doing is placing the wire numbers off to some area where they'll fit - using the collision-detection algorithms mentioned by Trond - and then drawing a leader to connect the wire number to the wire. However, in your settings, you have wire number leaders set to 'Never'. So, you're not seeing the leaders which would make it easier to figure out what's going on.

I agree that ACADE's placement for wire numbers in these circumstances often comes across as random. I prefer to just not ever have this happen, and the only workaround I've found is to make each wire a certain bit longer than the length of the wire number it will eventually hold. How much longer is the question. My rule of thumb is to keep wires a minimum of twice as long as their number. Keep in mind that with OSNAPS off, and with the GRID off, ACADE will always place a wire number in the midpoint of the line.

Another thing to remember, the collision-detection thing works on all objects. So, a piece of text on a symbol, or even a wire dot, can cause the software to shift the wire number. (One thing I wish I knew, is whether or not the collision detection features consider attributes that are hidden/unused.)

I think your fix here is to drag all of those wires with the source arrows on them a little farther to the left, before placing wire numbers.

Hope this helps,

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for the replies.

I have tried to rebuild the project database as this has happened a number of times throughout different projects.

It generally seems to happen in instances when my wire lengths are short or there are a number of close components inserted into the drawing so I believe that Jim is on to something. I extended the wires and the placement was much better. Still not aligned perfectly but that's probably because the disconnect terminal block I created is larger than the normal one so the wire will have a different centre point.

Thank you both again.

[jmartin]

I agree that Autocad thinks there is not enough room to put it in the right place.  So the quickest way if found to fix it is to just right click on the wire number and select toggle wire number in line, it does it, then right click the wire number again and select toggle number in line again and it puts it back where it should be.