2008

Table Of Contents
Use catalog tables
Sample catalog information is furnished with the default AutoCAD Electrical
installation. The information is held in tables in an Microsoft Access Database
file (.mdb) which are populated with sample vendor data. You must expand
and modify these tables to meet your specific BOM reporting needs. Use tools
provided with AutoCAD Electrical or through the use of a database program
that can read/write the Access file format.
The .mdb file is a single file that is named <project>_cat.mdb or
default_cat.mdb. If the project-specific.mdb file is used, it must be in the same
subdirectory as the <project>.wdp file is located. Here is the AutoCAD Electrical
search sequence:
1st choice -- <project>_cat.mdb (in project's subdirectory)
2nd choice -- default_cat.mdb (in project's subdirectory)
3rd choice -- default_cat.mdb (in user subdirectory)
4th choice -- default_cat.mdb (in catalog's subdirectory)
Catalog information can be carried on parent or stand-alone components that
have MANUFACTURER, CATALOG, and optional ASSEMBLYCODE attributes.
Assigning catalog information to a component's attributes can be done at
component insertion time or any time later during an edit of the component.
Catalog table naming conventions
Each primary or stand-alone component type can have an associated table in
your Access mdb file. This approach is taken for both performance reasons
and to exclude invalid choices (for example, you can't assign a blue press-test
pilot part number to a standard red pilot light symbol). This means that there
can be multiple catalog tables for the same component family. Alternately,
all master test and all neon pilot lights (of all colors) might be combined into
a single catalog table named LT. AutoCAD Electrical determines what the
default catalog lookup table name should be based on the WDBLKNAM
attribute.
The following example references a custom master control relay with block
name HCR1_MC_PWR.
766 | Chapter 13 BOM and Catalogs