Insert cable/bus command

Donnie, it is possible to extrude a shape along a path such as a B-spline using the same tools as in MicroStation. Do you need to do this for visualization purposes, or does it need to be considered a true cable by the software for some reason?

Needs to just be able to have a part number and calculate length. When you extrude a bspline it is a "dumb" item. To my knowledge there is no way to add a part number, other than symbol on the fly which is probably not the best way.

Are you connecting equipment to the grounding grid in this situation?

Are you connecting equipment to the grounding grid in this situation?

No we would typically use a straight cable for that. The issue is when we want to draw a cable that could go through multiple clamps and possibly curve we don't have a good way to control the shape. Considering you can't do much more than click the start and finish of the cable and the software creates it for you. Which is a great tool for the most part but when we need to control it we have to use the b spline and extrude which doesn't have any smarts connected to the element.

You probably want the cable going through multiple clamps to sag in between clamps, right? And so you can currently do that by having two hook points for cables on each clamp and drawing a separate cables from clamp to clamp. If this is not acceptable, is that because you want the total length of the cable with one device tag instead of having separate device tags for each cable segment and calculating the overall length?

Can you provide pictures or more details about "cable that could wrap around a piece of steel" and "possibly curve" ?

This is an example of just an A to B connection that we would need to tweek a bit to show it not really go through the steel as it is showing.  What I was explaining I don't have a actual example of but this serves the sam purpose.  What would be nice is if we could be able to manipulate this cable so it does not go through the metal.  We would like to accomplish this with the most minimal steps involved.  Extruding a b spline is an acceptable option other than the process for adding a part number.  Symbol on the fly will not account for length.  Maybe the true problem here is the Symbol on the fly command. Right now Symbol on the fly creates a element but what if we could select an element to become the symbol?  Hopefully that isn't confusing.

When you're routing around obstacles, will the cable always be held away from the obstacle using clamps or does it sometimes rest against the obstacle? You mentioned a grounding cable...

I guess what I'm getting at is, do you need to adjust a placed cable by adding vertices that will snap to hook points, or is this just a free form modification? Does sag need to be applied to such adjusted cables?