David_Haddad

I used to be able to do find and replace the D-Tools would respect how the items I am finding and replacing had been positioned and formatted on the page. Now I just did a find and replace on a project where I need to change every cable from one manufacturer to another. And D-Tools disconnects every wire and changes the formatting! So now I have to reconnect every wire on the project and reformat it? This is going to be hours and hours of work for what should have been a 10 minute chage.

Why is it even touching the shape? I don't want to change the shape, all I want to do is change the model.

David_Haddad

There are no words to express how angering or frustrating this is.

I now see that find and replace disconnects every single wire, takes away the formatting for every single wire, removes the head end, and puts the wrong location on every single wire! It will probably take me 8 hours to fix this single drawing. Who should I send the bill to at D-Tools for all my lost time ;-)?

TouchToBegin

I believe the new project scheduling feature in 5.5 will take into account when this happens and automatically add a weeks time to the project life. If you're using Quicklinks I think it will also automatically add an additional expense to the job to reflect lost profit margin.

It's wierd that they spent the time developing those features instead of making it work right in the first place.

__________________
Boy do I feel like a tool.

RandyB

Originally Posted by David_Haddad

I used to be able to do find and replace the D-Tools would respect how the items I am finding and replacing had been positioned and formatted on the page. Now I just did a find and replace on a project where I need to change every cable from one manufacturer to another. And D-Tools disconnects every wire and changes the formatting! So now I have to reconnect every wire on the project and reformat it? This is going to be hours and hours of work for what should have been a 10 minute chage. Why is it even touching the shape? I don't want to change the shape, all I want to do is change the model.

Update:

This bug has been fixed in 5.5 (ref #4591). The only thing that changes when you replace a wire is the component ID, which is recalculated. Wire connections remain intact.

I apologize for the lost time until then.

Best regards,

Randy Bownds
Program Manager
D-Tools, Inc.

David_Haddad

edit-Randy edited his response so my response no longer makes sense.

Thanks Randy. Though I have to be honest and tell you that the logic that major bugs are left unaddressed while new functionality is focused on, escapes me. If I'm installing a home automation system and there's a serious bug in in it, I'm not going to ignore it just because the customer, or another customer for that matter, is requesting new functionality. Do I keep adding new functionality for a year without fixing the serious bug? I'm sorry for being argumentative, but I'm letting you know as a very loyal user that I'm of the opinion you need to reevaluate your development philosophy with regard to what you are giving priority.

BTW, I'm confident I am not the first person that has complained about this .

RandyB

As a policy, all major bugs we know of are fixed in every release. I guess the disconnect is what is considered a major bug and what is not, and often we rely heavily on user feedback to help with this decision.

Fortunately in this case, the bug has been fixed, despite my initial posting.

Bottom line - please keep posting to let us know the issues that are most important to you. We are listening and we will fix any major issues found.

David_Haddad

Originally Posted by RandyB

Update: This bug has been fixed in 5.5 (ref #4591). The only thing that changes when you replace a wire is the component ID, which is recalculated. Wire connections remain intact. I apologize for the lost time until then.

Hi Randy,

I missed the part in bold when you posted this. That's sort of like saying "the only issue with the car is it doesn't have any wheels" . I just needed to use this on a project, but in its current form cannot use it and will again have to change every wire manually. Here are my observations:

1. The component ID's are all wiped out. Why? I want to replace the model, not wipe out all of the component ID's. Those component ID's are tied to other documents we use and already generated based on them.

2. When I try to do the replace it prompts me for the head end of every cable (I know that's not new). Why? It should just use the same head end that is already there, that's sort of the point of find and replace, isn't it? Worse yet, if I click cancel when it asks for the head end, then it proceeds to replace every wire and just wipe out the head end.

Lastly, if I have to reselect the head end for every wire, than it would be nice if I could see the head end on the original wire I am replacing on the screen. But the head end is not one of the columns that can be displayed in find and replace.

In summary IMO find and replace should do just that - find and replace. It should not change component ID's and it should not change cable head ends.

Thanks

NareshN

David,

If you replace a rough wire with another rough wire the Wire Length and Headend copy over to the replaced product. Note: You must replace a rough wire with another rough wire for the headend and wirelength to copy.

The CompID does change though and it is being considered as a fix for the next service pack.

David_Haddad

Hello Naresh,

Thank you, I just saw your response, much appreciated. I will have to test it on a test project, but it seemed that what happened is that if I did not select a head end, and just selected "cancel", that all the wires got replaced with [b]no[/b[ head end assigned to them. Are you saying that is not the case? I did not proceed further at the time because having the component ID's replaced was not an option.

I vote big time for not replacing the component ID, please !!! Imagine this scenario. I have sent out documentation to the architect, designer, all parties. Now we need to change the wall plate configuration for every wall plate in the house. We need to document this internally and have it reflected in our file but we can't/don't want to have all the component ID's change on the floor plans which have already been send out, as they are often used to refer to in discussions with the architect, builder, designer, electrician etc.

Many Thanks,

David

NareshN

David,

Thanks for the great explanation. The option to replace ComponentID as part of Find and Replace is added as issue 5882 for the next SP and will be considered.

When you Find and Replace a Rough wire with another Rough Wire you are NOT prompted for Headend or WireLength - HeadEnd and WireLength are kept the same as the product being replaced. Only CompID changes now.

Only when you add a new Rough Wire you will be prompted for Headend and WireLength.