BlueCielo Meridian Asset Management Module 2017 Administrator's Guide

Configuring the AutoCAD link

An AutoCAD link is installed with the Asset Management Module that supports drawing tag extraction. It can use information that exists in drawings to create and manage links between the drawings and tags. The information can reside in AutoCAD attributes embedded in blocks that are inserted into the drawings to represent plant assets. The Asset Management Module can read this information and store it in the Meridian Enterprise vault. The information can then be used to find or create matching tags in the vault. Users can link these tags to the drawing with indirect linking as described in Indirect linking using tag references and theBlueCielo Meridian Asset Management Module User's Guide.

Configuring tag extraction includes specifying the attribute tags within your equipment tag blocks for which you want to extract values. You must also specify the corresponding Meridian Enterprise document property where you want to store the extracted data.

This topic describes how to configure basic tag extraction. That is, one attribute tag per tag, where the tag value alone is the tag name. This is the typical scenario. Additional instructions to configure more complex scenarios are described in the following topics.

Before you begin    Compile a list of the block names used by your organization as equipment tag blocks in the past and present. For each block, list the attribute tag names that contain asset numbers. The Meridian Enterprise property where the tag numbers will be stored must already exist and it must be configured as the memo data type.

To configure tag extraction:

1. In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Application Link Settings. The settings for each application link appear in property pages in the right pane.
2. Click the AutoCAD tab. The AutoCAD link’s settings page appears in the right pane.

3. Click the Edit button to modify the settings.

   Tip    To export the settings file to your computer, click the Export button. This can be useful if you would rather edit the file in your favorite text editor. You can then copy your changes to the Clipboard and paste them into Configurator.

4. Locate the section of the settings that begins with [TAGEXTRACTION] and locate the TagBlockTypes setting. If the settings do not yet exit, create them at the bottom of the file. The value of the TagBlockTypes setting contains the names of all blocks that the Asset Management Module will search for attributes to extract.

   Tip    You can type comments in the file by beginning each line with a semicolon (;).
   

5. Edit the value of TagBlockTypes to include the names of all blocks that you want to extract. You can delete any unused block names to simplify editing and increase synchronization performance. The setting should look similar to the following:

   [TAGEXTRACTION]
   TagBlockTypes=XDIN_,XDHV,XDE_SRV,XDE_SIZ,XDE_PMP,XDCV

   If multiple block names begin with the same characters and will all use the same settings, you can type a single wildcard pattern to match the names, for example, XD* would be equivalent to specifying the individual block names in the example above. However, if you want to specify different settings for each block name, you must list each block name separately and create a separate settings section for it as described below.

6. Locate the TagListProperty setting. If it does not yet exist, create it below TagBlockTypes. The value of this setting is the Meridian Enterprise property set name and property name where extracted tag values (tag number list) are to be stored for each drawing. The property should be a memo data type. The setting should use the following syntax:

   TagListProperty=<PropertySetName.PropertyName>
   

   Tip    You can find the names of property sets and properties on the Properties page of each document type definition.

   To add a prefix or suffix to the value that is stored in the property, see Configuring tag name prefixes and suffixes.

7. For each block name in TagBlockTypes, locate the section in the file with a label that includes the word TAGBLOCK followed by the block name separated by an underscore, for example, [TAGBLOCK_XDIN] or [TAGBLOCK_XD*]. If one does not yet exist, create it at the bottom of the file.

8. On consecutive lines in each TAGBLOCK section, type settings using the descriptions in the following table.

   Following is an example of one complete TAGBLOCK section for a single attribute tag:
   

   [TAGBLOCK_XDIN]
   TagProperty=NAME
   TagType=Instrument

9. Click OK to save your changes.

10. By default, tag extraction occurs automatically whenever a drawing is saved in AutoCAD. This can be disabled by creating a DWORD value named SyncTagsOnSave at the following registry key on the client computers:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\AutoCADLink

    Set SyncTagsOnSave to 0 to disable extraction when the drawing is saved, set it to 1 (default) to enable extraction.

11. Test the link thoroughly by extracting each tag as described in the BlueCielo Meridian Asset Management Module User's Guide.

Note    When tag extraction occurs, a Meridian Asset Management Module Client Extension license is claimed.

Following is an example VBScript function for use with the TagProperty or TagType setting.

' Option Compare Text

' args - array of:
' 0: (In) layout name, string
' 1: (In) block name, string
' 2: (In) array of attribute names, strings
' 3: (In) array of attribute values, strings
' 4: (Out) tag value, string
' function should return TRUE upon success or FALSE on failure


Function ReadTag(args)
   Dim fRes
    
   fRes = False

   If IsArray(args) Then
      Dim Layout
      Dim Block
      Dim Names
      Dim Values
        
      Layout = args(0)
      Block = args(1)
      Names = args(2)
      Values = args(3)
        
      If IsArray(Names) And IsArray(Values) Then
         Dim TagValue
         Dim Count
            
         Count = ubound(Values)
            
         For i = 0 To Count
            TagValue = TagValue + Values(i)
         Next
            
         args(4) = TagValue
         fRes = True
      End If
   End If

   ReadTag = fRes
End Function ' ReadTag