Electrical Design Software | Elecdes Design Suite by Scada Systems Ltd

General Global Editing Procedure

Introduction

Alterations available in Global Editor are:

  • Retyping the user entered component NAMING attributes, e.g. TAGNAME, PNLNO or TBLOCK, T1 , LOCATION, CABLENAME, WIRENAME, CORENAME, ZONE (known as naming attributes for the rest of this section)

  • Retyping other attributes that are unique to a components insertion e.g. POWER rating for a Cable tray.

  • Incrementing / Decrementing the component NAMING attributes

  • Reselecting component specification attributes from the catalog (known as spec. data for the rest of this section).

  • Paneldes also allows resizing and movement of components

Global Editor works with database format extraction files. These files contain editable information from the drawing files, such as attributes, spec data, sizing information, location data and drawing file link information.

Caution:

The ability to globally edit large amounts of data across many sheets of a project is a powerful tool. You must exercise caution when using this process to avoid data consistency problems.

  • Deny access to the drawings whilst editing IMAGE files. The drawing files should be your master database. While you are editing IMAGE files the drawing files are not locked and other persons working concurrently on the drawings could lose their data. In general, your CAD package WILL NOT allow you to modify data, via the global editor, of a drawing that a second person is editing. If the drawing files have been updated while you have been modifying the image files you will be notified when you attempt to write your changes back to the drawing files. You can overwrite the other persons changes or discard your own changes at that time.

  • AutoCAD entity handles are used to match database information to drawing information. You should not change the HANDLE field or the DRAWING field when editing an entity's data.

  • The HANDLE field is not presented for editing in the Global Editor.

3 Step Procedure

Global editing is always done in 3 steps. Firstly, drawing data is placed in editable database format. Secondly, it is edited and finally it is written back to the drawings.

Step 1: Transfer data FROM drawings

Transfer data from the drawings to an editable database format. (For Elecdes / Ebase - the IMAGE files, for Paneldes the file '<drawing name>.dbf' which is the B.O.M. file for a Paneldes model.)

This is done with the following operations.

  • For Ebase: Select DBF-> DWG. Note that, by default, this button will be disabled. It is only available if you have the Manual Image Update option ticked, in the Setup Preferences page. By default, the transfer of data from the drawings is performed automatically when you use the Global Edit button in EBASE - Step 2.

  • For Elecdes: Select the Global Update of Attributes function from the "Utility" menu, then select drawing components to edit.

  • For Paneldes: Select the Generate Models BOM function from the "Utilities and BOM" menu. Note that running the Global Edit command will automatically generate the Paneldes BOM.

Step 2: Edit data in the database

  • For Ebase: Select "Global Edit DBFs"

  • For Elecdes Update: You will be placed in the editor immediately after drawing component selection.

  • For Paneldes: Select the "Global Edit" function from the "Utilities and BOM" menu.

At this point you will be placed in the Global Editor Window ready for editing.

NB: For Paneldes and Ebase, other Dbase compatible editors can be used i.e.

  • The EDS Database Editor program.

  • Any DBMS system capable of editing DBASE files e.g. MS Excel, MS Access, Dbase, Oracle 7 etc. Care should be taken when using these DBMS packages as they can save the files with incorrect formats when using IMPORT/ EXPORT functions.

Step 3: Transfer data back TO drawings

Transfer modified data from the editable database files back to the drawings.

This is done with the following operations.

  • For Ebase: Select "Transfer data DWG -> DBF". Note that you only need to do this if you have the Manual Image Update box ticked, on the setup preferences page.

  • For Elecdes Update: Data will automatically be reloaded to the drawing when the editor is exited.

  • For Paneldes: Data will automatically be reloaded to the drawing when you exit the editor.

  • You will receive a warning if the drawings have changed since you extracted the drawings (step 1). You have the option to overwrite the changes made to the drawings or discard your changes

NB: In general, your CAD package WILL NOT allow you to modify the data, via the Global Editor, of a drawing that another person is editing.

For more information on running these functions refer to:

Paneldes, Elecdes or Ebase