Symbol Question

[JKEdmo]

Good morning,

 

A while ago, I created a railing type for a front porch that included a custom post symbol, called "COLUMN 1 - GUGGENHEIM", as part of the railing definition.

 

I cannot find this post symbol in my library.  Pretty sure when I built the symbol I did not add to my library and just kept it part of my PLAN file.

 

I now want to place these columns separately / manually on the porch, so I just need the column itself...

 

Question: How do I "insert (this) symbol?"  Where is it?  I assume it lives somewhere in the file and there should be a way to get at it.

 

Hope I am explaining my predicament well.

 

Thanks again,

 

Jim

 

 

[DBCooper]

I don't think you can, at least not without jumping through some hoops.

 

With some objects, you have an "add to library as" button that lets you extract the various pieces and add them to the library by themselves.  Place a cabinet and check it out as an example.

 

Railings don't have this.  What you can do is to set the railing style to "open", remove the top and bottom rails, and then turn off the end post.  This should leave you a rail with just a single post.  Then you can use "convert to symbol" to make a new library post.

 

[JKEdmo]

3 minutes ago, DBCooper said:

I don't think you can, at least not without jumping through some hoops.

 

Thanks DBC for quick input.

 

Seems weird that you cannot get at a non-library symbol in order to re-use within a drawing.

 

Do you think this feature would be a reasonable suggestion request?  If so, I'll post.

 

 

5 minutes ago, DBCooper said:

Railings don't have this.  What you can do is to set the railing style to "open", remove the top and bottom rails, and then turn off the end post.  This should leave you a rail with just a single post.  Then you can use "convert to symbol" to make a new library post.

 

Good workaround.  I'll try that.

 

Jim

 

[DBCooper]

Yes, I think it would be cool if you could choose symbols that are already in the plan, just like you can for materials and cad blocks.

 

[MarkMc]

2 hours ago, JKEdmo said:

Pretty sure when I built the symbol I did not add to my library and just kept it part of my PLAN file.

Since you had to change it into a symbol to use it in the railing it would automatically end up in your library. If you can't find it then...

If what you used to build it was in the actual plan file AND it is not in the current plan file (because you deleted it after making it a symbol) AND if you have Preference, File Management, Auto Archive set to hourly 

you can sort through early versions in the archive to find a file with the original. I also move archives, when the DBX asks if I want to manage them as they reached a limit, to a sub folder within the project folder and save those for at least a year.

 

In the future you might want to do what I do: when making a new symbol of any kind start a new plan, save plan with a relevant name, (in a folder dedicated to symbols from the version you are using) 

 make object, give it name BEFORE clicking OK in the symbol DBX.

Advantage is if it gets lost you have a backup but more importantly it can be easier to adjust into something different. 

 

[JKEdmo]

33 minutes ago, MarkMc said:

it would automatically end up in your library.

 

Mark, not sure this is correct.  I get the option shown below.  I think at the time I decided not to add to library because it was unique to project and I did not want to clutter up my library.

 

Thanks for the file management tips.  I'll read through them.

 

Jim

 

 

[MarkMc]

3 hours ago, JKEdmo said:

I decided not to add to library

The object you used to make the symbol should still be in a plan in an archive (if you have that)