When Creating Rooms, Default Should Be Alphabetical - Page 2 - D-Tools Forum

avzone · 06-03-2009, 04:24 PM

David, thanks for sharing. I currently use and like Kevin's schema. I also like the advantages yours provides too, so I'll give this some thought. Nice work.

David_Haddad · 07-08-2009, 10:48 AM

I just wanted to report back on this. After further consideration I am considering moving to Kevin's method. His method has one big advantage - it does not matter if a project starts with a room being called one thing and changes to the room being called another thing. Consider this not to uncommon scenario.

The bedrooms on the plan are named bedroom 1, bedroom 2 and bedroom 3. Using my method the labels will be prefixed with BED2A, BED2B etc. Now the job progresses and the Client is calling those rooms by the names of the children who will be living in them, "Joe's Room", "Brian's Room" etc. With Kevin's method you can easily update the room names to reflect what they are being called, and everyone is on the same page. With my method if you change the room name for reports, now the labels don't match the new room names. So the report might say "Joe's Room" but the room ID says "BED2A". Make sense?

So I am changing my method to Kevin's. In actuality, I was using his method from the beginning and was just testing you Graham, seeing if you would point out the the limitation of my method. Fail :p

!

avzone · 07-08-2009, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by David_Haddad

So I am changing my method to Kevin's. In actuality, I was using his method from the beginning and was just testing you Graham, seeing if you would point out the the limitation of my method. Fail :p

!

To be honest David, I had no intentions of using your method. My post above was only meant as encouragement and support rather than pointing out the obvious. I'm surprised how long it took you to "get it."

David_Haddad · 07-08-2009, 02:05 PM

Touche!

OK, who helped you with that comeback Graham? Your wife?

AE Engineer · 07-14-2009, 11:59 PM

I couldn't stop laughing long enough to post on this subject before!!!!

I will admit, I use Kevin's schema as well - - BE NICE --

I agree with Mr. Hadadd (puke) as well though. I leave a room off of the proposal when I write it...lets say its a storage closet that I have no intentions of using. Then I write my proposal and the house is large enough for 2 vac motors. Guess what, in my proposal, I now need to add a storage closet between numeric numbering 133 - Pantry and 134 - Office. what is your suggestion, use 133A as the schema and click the move up button 29 times to move the room into the correct place? A re-auto sort button will allow me to add rooms to the bottom of my list, then click it and it will re sort the rooms correctly.

David_Haddad · 09-23-2009, 02:54 PM

Question, for those of you using Kevin's schema, room #/category/ID #, i.e. 101-CBL-001, why bother including category? If I am looking at a cable or similar, seeing the room # and ID# is useful, but I know that I am looking at a cable! I can't think of any report or situation where I need the component ID to tell me the category.

The main reason I ask is that 9 characters takes up a lot of space on the drawing page and I'd prefer fewer unless necessary.

Thanks

**Kevin Mikelonis** · 09-23-2009, 03:55 PM

I agree Category is not very useful for wire shapes in COMP ID's, but it is useful for shapes like keypads. We use one shape for all keypads and the category within the COMP ID denotes if the keypad is a control system (CTL), distributed audio (DA), and Lighting Control (LIT) keypad.

Since D-Tools only gives us one COMP ID schema to work with, the extra characters are just one of those things we live with.

We do use categories like Interconnects (ICN) and Conduit (CDT) that appear on plan views along with Cable. The COMP ID helps installers discern the difference there too, not a huge value, but another way to just live with it.

David_Haddad · 09-23-2009, 04:55 PM

Gotcha. For us the distinction of keypad type has almost lost meaning since with Crestron a keypad is pretty much whatever you want it to be (A/V, control, lighting) and we are often doing some basic control of each on the same keypad. But I can see your point if it's a Crestron system with Lutron lighting keypads, or the lighting is distinctly separate, especially if the electrician was installing the lighting so you want clear differentiation at a glance.

fryeguy · 09-23-2009, 06:08 PM

Great thread guys! Might I add for our friendly developers that a seamingly simple way to address this issue is to add columns within the Location List on the Locations Tab. It would follow the Location Details section but show Name, Description, & ID across the main window. When you click on one of the tab headers the list would sort by that detail. This would also allow for numbering locations using the ID field and then sorting by that field. Move Up/Dn would still be available for those of us who order locations by relevance.

NareshN · 09-30-2009, 12:58 PM

Thanks all - added as a feature request.