How to hide multiple wire numbers in AutoCAD Electrical with ease!
Wire numbers are a requirement in ACADE. They are needed to properly complete a connection between devices in a schematic. However, when the wire number is poorly located or clutters up a drawing, the layout of said drawing is compromised. In the screen shot below, the wire number shown with the lasso is cluttering up the layout, and not really desired where it is currently located.
The wire number can be hidden by right clicking on it and selecting the hidden button (see screen shot below).
However, what if I have multiple wire numbers that I prefer to hide and do not want to waste my time repeating this operation? There is an efficient way to process many wires at once to complete this task.
A wire number can also be manipulated as an attribute, however there is an alternate method required to do this. The wire number in the screen shot below is not necessary, as the terminal has the same data shown (I have right clicked on the wire number in this case). In this example, I want to hide the wire number on the actual wire, as it is not really needed.
Note that the “attributes” flag, which allows editing of one or more attributes, does not come up as a valid option when selecting the wire number to edit. As a wire number is tied to the connection (wire) between devices, one cannot just “erase” the number without creating issues in ACADE. By selecting an attribute on another device – NOT a wire number, I will get the option to edit attributes.
I have selected the terminal and right clicked on it to edit. Note the “attributes” flag is present and brings up several options. I can now select the “hide attribute” option from the menu above. This will allow me to hide any attribute that I select anywhere on the drawing, including wire numbers.
After selecting the wire number as the desired attribute to hide, the result is shown above. To hide multiple wire numbers in a schematic drawing, select the proper option at the command prompt (W=window hide), this will allow a user to select multiple entities and hide them with one command.
See the result in the screen shot below
Every wire number highlighted will be hidden in one operation saving time! Note, the wire numbers were not “erased” simply changed from “visible” to “hidden”. Any wire number which is now hidden can be made visible by right clicking on the desired wire and selecting “visible” instead of “hidden” in the dialog box.
BONUS TIP - With the window select option, any number of attributes (wire number or other data) can be selected at one time, eliminating the need to repeat the command!
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