<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Drawing Environment > Detailed command descriptions > Symbol Generator > Specific details for different symbol types > Cable main symbol

Cables are typically inserted with a macro - the Cable macro - that inserts both main and help symbols. The main symbol defines the cable type with an index that refers to the Catalogue. Help symbols are primarily synonymous with cable core symbols. However, cable help symbols that are not cable cores can also exist. A discussion about that is found in the cable help symbol topic.

 

*** BILD ***

 

The figure above shows the three standard symbols that are used by the cable macro to form standard cable definitions in circuit diagrams.

 

The cable macro is configurable with a configuration file called MAC09.INI, which is located in the symbol library. For example, it is possible to adjust the positions of the attributes, without changing the symbols. However, if you have a need for additional user defined attributes in the cable symbols, the symbols must be replaced. That is also possible to do, using the same configuration file.

 

Creating your own user defined cable symbols from the standard symbols, can therefore be highly useful.

 

Creating cable symbols for other use cases without the cable macro being involved, is also possible.

 

The examples that are presented here, will focus on the most complex case, where you want to adjust the behaviour of the cable macro.

 

We assume the following wish-list:

 

•We want to have 2.5 mm text height for all cable information, instead of the mix between 2.5 and 1.8 mm that is used with the standard configuration.

 

•We want to add s few user defined attributes for additional cable information from the Catalogue:

 

oManufacturer

oType number

oName of algorithm

 

•We want these three attributes to be displayed below the cable type (electrical data) in the cable main symbol.

 

•We also want the cable type to be displayed in the additional cable symbol, together with the three user defined attributes that are listed above.

•To accomplish the latter, we will utilise the attribute mirroring feature, so that cable type, manufacturer, type number, and name of algorithm, are mirrored from the main symbol to the additional cable help symbol. How that is done, will be described further down the road.

 

The text height issue will be handled with the configuration file. We will come back to that later.

 

We must decide which attribute names to use for the three additional attributes that will be added. Since the information will be fetched from the Catalogue, we can check the names of the corresponding database fields in the Catalogue, and use them. Not because we must, but because we can. Having multiple names for the same thing in most cases brings confusion, so we want to avoid that.

 

We find the following field names when checking the Catalogue topic:

 

•LIEFERANT (manufacturer, KT database table)

•TYPE (type number, KT database table)

•ALGONAME (name of algorithm, AL database table)

 

Four standard symbols are used by the cable macro. They are listed below.