Topic Title

I am in the process of building my Smart Door & Window library and I have a few questions.

1. Looking at the .dor files that come with Datacad it looks like they can use a base path for the symbol locations. Are these using the Symbol base path? I like the idea of using a base path but not sure it would work well with our current setup for our existing symbols since it would be looking for the next part of the path at the root of our existing symbol library which it's management rules would not jive with having a library of entities tossed in the root. Think I want to keep our Smart Entity libraries on our local drives under the support files like our hatch patterns and linetypes. I am thinking about putting the 2D/3D symbols used for the Smart Entities in the same folder as the .dor/.win files Just from a file management standpoint I think I just like having the corresponding files next to each other since I'm going to have one .dsf for each .dor file. I think if I could use the Smart Entity Base Path instead as the root for the smart entity symbols that would work perfectly. Any reasons why this might not be a good idea? Anyone else doing something completely different/better?

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2. Am I right in thinking the only way to get the multiple color options for 3D door symbols is to create a collection of door symbols with materials for each color option? Or is there is batter way to handle this with a single set of door types replacing the materials in the drawing? I was thinking of doing something like below.

Example: Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\Exterior Color\Interior Color\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor
Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\White\White\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor
Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\White\Pine\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor
Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\White\Maple\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor
Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\White\Oak\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor
Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\Sandtone\Pine\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor
Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\Sandtone\Maple\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor
Door Types\Andersen\Frenchwood\Gliding\Sandtone\Oak\FWG6080.dsf, FWG6080.dor

Looking at this task, it sure would sure be nice if we had a way to replace materials within symbols at the drawing level or a way to view the symbols information (is it a table or database?) that we could swap out info.

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3. Another way to help simplify the material options would be a material override/highlight that would ignore the symbols materials, and use the one defined in the manager. Would also want a per entity override in the Door & Window Properties dialog, because why not have more awesome?

Thanks for any ideas or direction!

The more I am playing with our setup the more I am realizing that how easy it is to break a .dor file similar to how the templates or materials break when a path changes. I think what would be a godsend would be is if the symbol is not found at the location expected that Datacad could look in the same location as the .dor file. That way no matter if you want to reorganize your catalog later your all set and not locked into something that might be out dated in a few years if your needs change.

Hi Josh

I recently started doing the same thing. I created my own folders on our server to keep my files separate from DC. From what I see I won't be using any of their symbols anyway (except maybe as a starting point). This way if and when we convert to doing all jobs with smart ent's everyone is on the same page.
All my wood doors have material assigned by entity at the symbol level. The problem with that is if I need a different wood color I will need to figure out how to change the definition of the assigned material color to what I want. Still have not tried this one yet.
As far as doors of different colors what I have tried so far is to create a door of each type with no material assigned. After I insert one of these smart doors I switch my SB to drawing and edit the symbol to the color I want. Of course if you need more than one color door then I would just do a save-as for the second color needed.
Windows will be a lot more of a challenge. My biggest problem is when I need a window with different color trim on the inside and outside I can only do one color sill. There needs to be in-sill and out-sill settings just like with the trim so we can show different colors. Doesn't seem to make sense that we can have 2 color trims but only 1 color sill. Would like to know how you deal with that. And the same goes for the sash settings. I would like to create DH windows with a check rail narrower than the sashes but this is not an option. And to have to create my own 3D symbols again for the windows just makes me think these smart entities need to be a lot smarter.
I agree with #3. Some kind of override would make life very easy and enable us to do any color door with one symbol.