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Tracing links and conflicts

Discover how to trace existing links between AutoRebar objects and highlight potential conflicting Marks that have identical tags and numbers but are linked to Rebars with different shapes or diameters.
  • Open an new drawing and insert a U shaped Rebar and link a Mark.
  • Edit the bundle data of the mark and change it to 5 × (1 + 0). Leave a zero spacing and a zero range; we just want five pieces of this rebar. Generate the BBS and verify that it does show a total of 5 bars for the record number 1.
  • Copy the linked Rebar and Mark. AutoRebar will increase the copied Mark number to 2. (Note: this default behaviour can be changed in the Settings). Update the BBS and notice that a new record is added for Mark number 2.
  • Edit Mark 2 and change the Mark number to 1. Update the BBS and notice that the two records have been collapsed to just one. That poses no problem because the bars are identical.
  • Make a copy of one of the Mark objects. Update the BBS and notice that extra bars are added to the same record.
  • Edit the Mark and change the mark number to 2. Update the BBS. A new record is created that contains just the bars pointed by Mark 2 even if they are linked to the same Rebar.
  • Make a new copy of a linked Rebar and Mark 1. Notice that the mark number is increased to 3 because it is the first available number. The BBS creates a new record for Mark 3.
  • Make a new copy of the linked Rebar and Mark. The Mark number is 4. Turn the U bar into an L bar by removing one of its end vertices. The BBS inserts a new record for the L bar with Mark number 4.
  • Change Mark number 4 to 3 and update the BBS. A conflict exists because two Marks with identical Tag and Number are linked to different Rebars and this is reflected in the BBS. Tracing conflicts in a large BBS with the naked eye can be challenging. To make it easier, run the TraceConflicts command . Red boundary boxes and arrows are displayed to trace any conflicting AutoRebar objects in the drawing.
  • Change one of the conflicting Mark numbers to 4. Run the TraceConflicts command again and update the BBS. No conflicts are found.
  • Run the TraceLinks command . Orange boxes and arrows are displayed that trace every linked object and the direction of the data transfer.
  • Run the HideLinks command to remove the arrows.
By default AutoRebar starts the Mark Numbers from 1. This can be changed in
Options > Marks > Mark data > New Mark numbers start from n.
That can be useful to assign different Mark numbers to different parts of a structure. For instance, in a multi story building:
Mark numbers 100, 101, 102, ... for level 1;
Mark numbers 200, 201, 202, ... for level 2;
Mark numbers 300, 301, 302, ... for level 3;
ecc.

Additionally you may specify a Tag for each Mark that will serve as a prefix and may be used to easily identify Marks that belong to a specific structural member.