The Start button remains greyed out even after checking the “Do a SAVE even if no change” box. The dialog wants some actual work. So I had it Zoom Extents on each drawing and that satisfied the dialog. This ran extremely fast! Much faster that Inventor’s Task Scheduler would have. We ran through several thousand DWG’s in under 30 minutes! Of course this workstation is running on SSD’s but still…
Autodesk took care of this post for me.
It can be a real pain setting up reports because the reported fields and formatting resets to default with each new report. I have seen users save a report as a template, and then insert the sheet into the project, as a way of controlling the reports format. However the following can be saved as a .set file and referenced on future reports.
Like most other external files in AutoCAD Electrical, these are simply text files and as such could be edited using a simple text editor. However their format can be quite confusing. The Electrical dialogs for creating/editing these files is defiantly the way to go when creating or modifying saved report formats.
Create these .set files using the Report Format Setup dialog. Its button is on the Reports tab. 
a filename if not yet named. Open Format File will load all selected options after opening an existing .set file. And finally Save As Format File will prompt for a new name and not overwrite the loaded .set file. The loaded .set files name is displayed in the top right corner of the Report Format File Setup dialog.The default location for the settings (.set) files is buried in a hidden folder under each users name.
C:\Users\swile\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical 2014\R19.1\enu\Support\User\…
However this location can changed in the wd.env file on line (*WD_SET_FILES,x:/some path/,folder for report ".set" files) Remove the asterisk (*) from the front of the line and then replace the path with your own shared network path.
Now that a .set file has been created lets use it. Both the Schematic and Panel Reports dialogs have a Format button that allows selection of any .set file for the currently selected report type. If you are not seeing the .set file desired, double check that the correct report type is selected.
These settings files are also used with the Automatic Report Selection tool. I’ll try to cover that in a future post.
I took a week and a half off this month. My vacation goal was to build an office desk/work bench. I had this idea in my head but really nothing on paper. I started on the Inventor model on Saturday last week and today finished the desk. I had no idea this project would involve so many people and I’m deeply grateful to all that helped. Technically this desk is not 100% complete. I have a good bit of sanding and painting on the routered grooves left to do. However I was so excited by the final results I had to share them.
My original conceptual drawings. The little end table picture was from the letters section of an American Woodworker magazine. Sorry I can’t find the magazine it came from anymore, so I can’t give credits for the picture.
Final Inventor Print..
Finished design (before paint) The plan is to have the grooves the same color green as the walls.
Before more pictures, I would like to give a huge thank you to my parents for helping transfer and the pieces from OH to SC and for all the help assembling once it was home. Also a huge huge shout out to Dean and Wayne at Wengerd Wood for all the routing and CNC programing time.
Three sheets of 3/4 inch cherry veneer MDF coming home from the finishers. We bought the wood from Kiem Lumber but I can’t remember the name of the finisher.
First sheet on the router. I must say, I was a bit nervous as the bit first cut into it.
Tabletop and middle front just about finished.
The grooves vary from 1/8th to nearly 3/4 inch deep.
All the parts finished ready to be wrapped up to head to SC.
3/27/14 Update
I have 99% of the sanding and smoothing complete now. Just about ready to paint.
5-16-14 Update
On all of the front edges, we extended the cuts an extra inch and then cut a 90 deg. V from the back side all the way through. The little triangle that was left we folded over and glued and nailed into place. I spent a good bit of time manually recreating a few of the knobs that broke off when creating the folds for the front edges. 
That extra work is what makes the transitions look so seamless.
I started priming the grooves yesterday. This first drawer took about an hour. 
5-26-14 Update
I spent a large part of Saturday and a few hours Sunday night painting again. You can’t see it in the pictures below but I painted behind the drawers as well.
6-1-14 Update
I updated/finished the 3D model
6-13-14 Update
I have finished sanding the primer and will start painting this weekend. The white will stay!. I am going with a high gloss white.
I posted the model to GrabCAD… https://grabcad.com/library/my-hobby-work-bench-1
There are three types of reports in AutoCAD Electrical. Schematic, Panel, and the Drawing List report. 
Schematic reports only pull values from schematic symbols on the drawings in the project. Panel reports only pull values from the panel footprints. However the Panel report has an option (Full) that will include all values from ALL components. The Drawing List report uses the data stored in the project descriptions and drawing properties. Of course a few other types could be added to the list if the audits and export options were included.
Reports are broken down into the following categories. Each of the categories come with their own options, sorting, and reportable properties list. 
All of the reports allow project wide as well as active drawing wide reporting. Project wide isn't necessarily all drawings. A separate drawing selection dialog opens to allow selection of individual drawings as needed. Most of the reports also have an option for a manual selection (pick) of components to report on.
Filtering by Installation or Location Code can further limit the components being reported on. This filtering is far more powerful than single values. See the blog post about wild cards to see how to include/exclude multiple values.
INST & LOC Codes Honor Wildcards When Searching
Typically there are a number of report type specific options in the middle of the Reports dialog.
All of the report types have a Format button. 
The Report Generator
The Report Generator shows a preview of what records will be reported and what data about each record will be included. Here header information can be added, sorting and grouping can take place, and columns can be added or removed from the table. The User Post button allows scripts to run on the data. Typically there are one or two scripts already provided under User Post for the different types of reports.
Finally either Put on Drawing or Save to File is pressed. Put on Drawing brings up a table wizard that allows control of the report table formatting. Save to File gives the following file types as exports.
Currently reports are not updated automatically as changes are made to the schematic. Simply rerun the report and then choose Place on Drawing. If that report was already placed somewhere in the project, the Table Generation Setup will default to Update Existing. Simply press OK and any changes will update in the existing table.
When saving the report out to a file, saving a new report export can save over the old export. (Electrical will prompt stating a file will be overwrote) Just be aware of this because any changes made to the original export will be lost as the new file completely saves over it.
I have several unique report configuration requests that will follow this post.
I’m not sure if its me being an engineer, or me being a true nerd, but for some reason I’m fascinated by the stats that can be created from a webpage. Below are a few interesting things about this blog from last year. All statistics are shown for the year 2013 only.
Total blog (not page) visits: 8,309
Directly entered web address (not referred): 29.10%
From a search engine (Bing, Google, ect): 21.87%
Mobile and tablet traffic: 4.39%
Visits grouped by browser:
Number of new posts: 37
My official (posted) goal was 24 posts for last year. My personal goal was 52. I’m not sure if 37 is a win or not.
Most active blog post: AutoCAD Electrical 2013 New Features! (2,210 Views)
Breaking The wd.env File Down Line By Line (908 Views)
Wire From/To Annotation On the Schematic (694 Views)
Creating a custom PLC style (620 Views)
Title Block Update - Previous / Next Sheet Numbers (604 Views)
Number of new people I have personally met because this blog: 2
Number of pages viewed per blog visit:
Average time (in minutes) spent per page visited:
Visits by location:
Top ten locations:
Percent of new viewers vs returning viewers: 54.36% New on Average
This years visits per day
The dips are weekends.
I hope you enjoyed this useless information. I have a series of reporting posts in the works.
