OT - Autocad Electrical Wire Numbering

[Kidblue]

Doesn't make much sense to put different numbers at each end of the wire

Yep. Agree totally. Unfortunately this is a huge project (it's part of a £4.5 billion platform project) and i'm afraid there is little scope for deviation from the client specification!

Oh well - manual labels at each end it is then...!

 

[Lancie1]

"K1-13/TB02-01" and the other end should read "TB02-01/K1-13"

Rob,
"K1-13/TB02-01" is the same as
"TB02-01/K1-13", except for the order of printing the two parts.

I know that ACAD has a bunch of parameters associated with each label. Can you create a "Direction" parameter that sets the order of how the single wire number prints: "Part P1/Part P2" for the Origination end, and "Part P2/Part P1" for the Destination end?

 

[Timbert]

I understand that they want each end labeled A/B and B/A, but what do you put on the schematic between the ends? Leave it blank, so that the tech has to follow it all the way to the other end?

A/B--------???--------B/A

I mean are you supposed to use A/B if the tag is closer to the A end and B/A if the tag is closer to the B end? But that is a schematic representation and may not have any meaning in the real world.

A/B-----A/B----------B/A or
A/B-----------B/A----B/A

What happens when you daisy-chain a signal?

A/B-------B/A then B/C-------C/B then C/D-------D/C

A wire might be point to point but a lot of signals aren't. I pity poor ol' Bubba when he has to figure out the wire D/C is really the same signal as A/B by continually flipping back and forth between pages.

What about power? Is 24VDC going to be called by 700,000 different wire numbers?

What happens if on the schematic A and B are adjacent but in the real world A and C are adjacent. You're either gonna have to use extra wire to preserve the point-to-point wire names or rename everything.

When drawing the schematic, every wire is gonna have to be drawn point-to-point.

I don't think this is simply gonna be "manual labels it is." This is gonna keep on rearing its ugly head and drive you crazy. You better tell them to add a 100 million or so to the project to deal with this silliness.

I've also worked when they used a similar scheme and during integration it was a royal pain in the backside as if you moved a connection on one end you had to go and relabel the other end (which of course was a couple of floors away or in a different building entirely).

I know this isn't your idea, but if it's their spec then they should be able to easily answer the above kind of questions. Maybe bombard them with enough of these what-if questions they will realize how unworkable it is and they relent and you can use something a little more normal.

Good Luck.

 

[Lancie1]

Timbert,

I agree, this would be a nightmare if followed literally. Maybe they only care about the beginning and ending numbers, or maybe there are no intermediate points. I would keep bugging them about this until they are forced to go from the Project Manager down to some company hack Dilbert engineer in the basement who can tell them what a crock this idea really is.