Placing equipment

Rack equipment is placed within a rack, and it becomes associated with the rack, inheriting its ID/location and moving with the rack. Modular equipment can optionally be placed within a rack frame located in the rack. Equipment can also be placed stand-alone.

If the name of the equipment matches that of an existing device, the equipment recognizes the device’s make and model number.

If the drawing already contains devices, the Update Rack Elevation command automatically creates an equipment item for each device; see Updating equipment racks automatically.

2. Click to place the equipment in the drawing; normally, place the equipment within an equipment rack. The first time you use the tool in a file, a properties dialog box opens. Set the default properties. The properties can be edited from the Object Info palette.

Parameter	Description
General
Name	Enter the equipment name for labels and reports; if the name is the same as an existing device on the Schematic layer, the device’s make and model information is automatically entered. Name the equipment item with a CTP_ prefix to create a connector panel. If needed, select Text > Size to change the size of the Name text only.
Manufacturer
Make/Model	Enter the manufacturer’s make and model information
Physical
Height/Width/Depth	Enter the dimensions of the equipment
Power	Enter the power requirements of the equipment
Weight	Enter the equipment’s weight
Height RU	Select the height of the equipment in rack units
Rack Width	Select whether the width of the item is constrained by the half or the full width of the equipment rack. Select non-rack to use any width, unconstrained by the rack or not placed within a rack. A control point on the item allows you to manually adjust the height and width by dragging. If the Rack Width is constrained, only the height can be adjusted by the control point.
Mounting	Select whether the equipment mounts to the front or rear of the equipment rack
Configuration
Modular	Select to indicate that the equipment is modular, taking up several slots in the equipment rack
Number of slots	Enter the number of slots occupied by a modular configuration
Display
Text align	Select the text alignment for the Name label
Location	Displays the containing layout room and equipment rack ID, as well as the rack location (in rack units) and slot if placed in a rack frame. If the equipment item is associated with a device on the Schematic layer, the location information updates automatically for the device.
Custom Panel	Name the equipment item with a CTP_ prefix to enable these additional connector panel parameters. See Creating connector panel layouts.
Get Connectors	Places detailed views of associated connectors on the custom connector panel equipment
Create Panel Devices	Places corresponding Conn panel devices on the Rack Elevation layer

Viewing front and rear mounted equipment

Some equipment is mounted to the front, and some to the rear, of the equipment rack, based on the Mounting selection in the Object Info palette of a selected device. For times when you need to see only equipment mounted in front or rear configuration, this command creates classes to control the visibility of the equipment.

● Both (Rear grayed): Front mounted equipment appears normally; rear mounted equipment is gray

● Both (Front grayed): Rear mounted equipment appears normally; front mounted equipment is gray

To view all of the equipment again after hiding or graying some of the items, select Both.

In a viewport, accomplish the same effect by using viewport class overrides to control the visibility of the Sys-Equip-Front and Sys-Equip-Rear classes in the viewport.

Command	Path
Front-Rear Rack View	ConnectCAD > Layout