Coloring Cables - D-Tools Forum

David_Haddad · 03-25-2010, 12:08 AM

I have never found any use for coloring cables by "type", at least if by type it means the D-Tools defaults which relate mainly to the signal type such as "video" or "control". The problem as I see it, is that those distinctions became obsolete years ago. Category 5 for example, can be a network, audio, video or control cable (and more). Therefore it seems to me that coloring cables should be done not by signal type but by physical type such as "UTP/STP", "RG", fiber etc. Alternatively, color can be done to match the actual physical color of the cable being used (this is what I do when practical, as it can make it very easy for those pulling the wires).

How do others approach this?

**Dave Kirn** · 03-25-2010, 12:35 AM

If the dealer specifies cable color types then we use those, otherwise we try to just use a line color per type of cable - RGB, Category cable, etc.

fryeguy · 05-13-2010, 12:30 AM

I say this depends on the context.

Our physical wire color varies depending on use such as cat5 yellow for control, cat5 grey phone, but for the most part the cable type is what in installer is looking for. Also, our installers use a wire checklist when pulling.

Where color is very useful for me and our team is on schematics. We use color to denote signal category (audio, video, control) and linetype to denote signal type (HDMI, component, line level, ethernet, RS-232, IR, speaker, etc.). this makes schematics very easy to pick apart.

Daniel · 05-13-2010, 10:02 PM

Cable colour for system/category type (aud, vid, control, hvac...)

Component ID defines cable type, destination location, and unique ID.

i.e.

CRN-103-002 is the second cresnet cable, in room 103. Usually (before changes destroy our system) one of our techs can tell you exactly where in a room the cable will be, without looking at the diagram.

we tried that linetype for signal type thing, it was a bit of a nightmare to read on drawings. we also tried different arrow ends, which was also unsuccessful.

**Dave Kirn** · 05-14-2010, 02:55 AM

We have changed a little - unless the dealer has a set wire color code (which it seems very few do these days which I don't understand) our default is black on all wires and we use our custom Component ID to specify the cable type

timw · 06-22-2010, 05:21 PM

Can you elaborate on your custom id. Is it static or dynamic? What is its' nomenclature?

**Dave Kirn** · 06-22-2010, 06:10 PM

It is really kind of basic - we use Custom Property 1 and have changed that to Component ID. We have a list of what we want the Component ID to be for each type of product, between 3-5 characters.

We have then formatted our Component ID in the main D-Tools setup to pull this as the second option on our Component ID

**Dave Kirn** · 06-22-2010, 06:10 PM

This is also a side benefit for any of our subscribers of our Data Subscription packages as this is included with each piece of data.