Edit Terminals

Overview

You can edit terminals (Jacks, Terminals, Pointers) to show hidden attributes. 

There are several rules that you must adhere to in order to be successful. A breif outline of the rules follows with more detail in the article below:

1. Terminals that the program uses will reside in the %BLOCKS% Settings:Support_Paths
2. You may only edit terminals with the WC3_xxx_yy.DWG naming convetion. These are terminals that have the editable attribute set.
3. You must not delete any attribute that you wish not shown. Rather you should mark it as invisible by setting its InvisibleMode=true.
4. You should rename your edited versions of the file following the required naming convention.

Available Attributes in All WC3_xx_xx.dwg Terminals

All WC3 terminals have the following attributes (though many of them may be marked as invisible):

• SysName
• EquipmentName - Not always populated
• ManufacturerName - Not always populated
• Location
• Alias
• SheetRef - Not always populated
• CreatedWith
• EquipmentID
• WC_TYPE
• EquipmentDescription

All WC3 terminals will have at least oneCP_IN or one CP_OUT attribute or both.

In addition to the CP_IN and CP_OUT attribute the terminal may also contain display attributes for the connection point data such as:

• INPUT_NAME
• INPUT_CONN
• OUtPUT_NAME
• OUTPUT_CONN

File Naming Convention

Terminal file name suffixes determine where the terminal is displayed in the application. 

Terminals that are suffixed: _SD.dwg or _S.dwg will appear in the list of source terminals.

Terminals that are suffixed _SD.dwg or _D.dwg will appear in the list of destination terminals.

If a terminal has only a CP_IN attribute it should be suffixed _D.dwg. This will tell the program to put it in the terminal desitinations list.

If a terminal has only a CP_OUT attribute it should be suffixed _S.dwg. This will tell the program to put it in the terminal sources list.

A terminal that has both a CP_IN and a CP_OUT attribute should be suffxed _SD.dwg  to allow it to be visible in both lists.

FAQ

Q: Can I edit Pointer_S.dwg to show the alias?

A: No. Pointer_S.dwg and Pointer_D.dwg are legacy terminals that do not possess all the attributes.

Q: I edited the file and my changes don't show in my existing drawing. What's up?

A: The AutoCAD file suffers from a condition call the imutibility of blocks. This means that the block cannot be edited and reinserted without redefining all instances of the block. WireCAD does not redefine blocks by default. So to get around this you can do one of two things:

1. Rename the file and re-insert. This may be the easiest approach.
2. Click CAD Tools>Blocks>Insert Block into Drawing then browse to the file location of the block. Then check the Redefine checkbox and finally the [Insert] button.