component IDS - D-Tools Forum

12-03-2007, 11:22 AM

Does anybody know the answer to this question - when adding an electrical plate to a project at a later stage to other plates dtools will generate a component id number.

How do I then re jig the component ID numbers so that they follow in sync

Ie. Bedroom
ComponentID: BOX-059,Model: 47MMD BB 1400FF
ComponentID: BOX-060,Model: 47MMD BB 1400FF
ComponentID: BOX-061,Model: 47MMD BB 1400FF
ComponentID: BOX-079,Model: 47MMD BB 1400FF ------------------------------ this plate was added after the others and because box 062 has already been used in a different room it assigns it the last available id number in the projects which is then difficult for the customer to follow.

**Kevin Mikelonis** · 12-03-2007, 12:20 PM

Trying to chase exact sequential order in COMP IDs is a big goose chase, basically impossible to have it sync up with th last number and giving your an order that will be exact when factoring in the addition of other items from the same CATEGORY into the project.

The best you can do is have a COMP ID schema formatted in SETUP that helps make the COMP ID more useful by giving it more definition.

We recommend tying the COMP ID to the room (or location) for better definition.

Also adding more CATEGORIES to the database and reassigning items to more granular CATEGORIES helps too if you include CATEGORY as part of the COMP ID.

For example:

Project Location Types:

AREA (Location 1)
ROOM (Location 2)
CLOSET (Location 3)

Project Locations:

AREA (Location 1)

100 - First Floor
200 - Second Floor

ROOM (Location 2)

101 - Entry
102 - Kitchen

COMP ID Schema

Field - Location 2 - Length 3
Field - Category - Length 3

With the setup above, a speaker in the Kitchen would have a COMP ID of 102-SPK-NNN (where NNN would start at 001)

The bracket that is an accessory to the speaker above would be in a new category called Brackets with a category ID BKT and its COMP ID would be 102-BKT-NNN
(where NNN would start at 001)

We believe the need to get these numbers exactly in order by many is to aid in their definition.

I agree it would be nice to have all the parts that make up an assembly of sorts be in sequetial ascending order, and it would help identify things that go together a bit more clearly, but reality is this is not acheivable.

Try this out and see what you think.

You can reformat the COMP ID schema for a currentl project which has not yet gone to production, select all the items and right click --> select 'regenerate COMP ID" and take a look

Best-