# Rack Drawings



## np18358 (Aug 6, 2015)

I am trying to make rack drawings and signal flow diagrams for a few different racks for an upcoming show where all equipment is being rented. Searches of CB and the internet haven't revealed much. I tried changing some of the manufacturers CAD drawings to VWX objects and putting them into a rack, but it isn't really working well. Some manufacturers make 1 3d model of the product, while others will do multiple 2d views. I also haven't really found any good rack CAD blocks that I like, I used a modified Middle Atlantic one, but it is not exactly what I am looking for. I looked into ConnectCAD, a Vectorworks Plugin, but it doesn't make actual rack drawings, it just lets you label a rack and color code. I want an actual drawing, like the ones attached, by Nick Kourtides, as featured in Live Design July 2015 "What's Trending in Audio Paperwork". Thanks in advance.


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## rochem (Aug 6, 2015)

Unfortunately, there isn't any standard floating around like there is for Billington's lighting symbols. Generally, most people are just making their own symbols and continually updating their files as they need new stuff. It's really not that hard to make your own, especially if you can import a high-quality front image of the panel and convert it to a polygon in Vectorworks. Some of them you just end up drawing yourself. I now have a pretty substantial stock symbols file with all of the rack equipment I've ever had to draw, and that gets me through 95% of what I ever need. I'm running off to work, but I'll try to remember to post some of my stuff here later.

That said, while those drawings look pretty, and I was in the same boat as you, remember that having a nice graphic of your equipment isn't necessarily the best way to clearly convey what goes into a rack. While I love the clean look of using graphical symbols, sometimes just a 2U high rectangle with the name of the equipment (and perhaps what it does/where it's patched) is much more clear. His drawings look nice, but that doesn't tell me anything about what the back of the rack looks like, how anything is internally patched, what the power scheme is for each rack, what software version and IP addresses he wants, and so on. Just food for thought.

Side note: I'm amazed no one has started trying to sell a Sound Symbols file in the same model as SoftSymbols. I feel like you could very easily sell a set for ~$30, not to mention the added benefit of slowly bringing the industry around to some sort of standardization. But alas.


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## JohnD (Aug 6, 2015)

I'm just throwing this out there, but a rather pricey option might be Stardraw:
http://www1.stardraw.com/#/stardraw/sd7/overview


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## epimetheus (Aug 6, 2015)

I prefer Visio and am currently converting my church's new worship center drawings from badly drafted CAD over to Visio. Visio is $13 a month via Office 365 Business.

Here's a video schematic that I've already converted. I've built custom attributed symbols as needed to make changes and redesigns easier.


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## np18358 (Aug 6, 2015)

Thanks everyone for the responses. Agreed on the Sound SoftSymbols. I would gladly buy. Sent an email to stardraw. Visio would handle the System Flow, but not the rack drawings, which is more of what I am worried about. With what I have been trying, the problem I have been having, is for example, with the Shure UR4D CAD block, I convert it to VWX, and then save as an object. Then when I try and import the objects and place them in the rack, I have all sorts of issues, including sizing (not tremendously off, as if I was having a scale issue), and opacity. I am currently bring the items into the rack, but the rack is not saved as its own 1 piece object. Is there a better way to do this?


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## gordonmcleod (Aug 14, 2015)

I use ProgeCad proffesional as it offers full Acad DWG/DFX support and almost every manufacturer offers cad drawings of there products in those formats
It is very reasonable price wise I used the USB key version that allows multiple machines to have it installed and a dongle activates it when I am at that machine


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## Joshualangman (Aug 17, 2015)

I've seen people use Omnigraffle very successfully for system flow diagrams.


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## tschnuckel (Aug 17, 2015)

I tend to use Visio because I know how to use it. It works ... Doesn't have preconfigured audio images but they are easy to build.


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## Dionysus (Aug 18, 2015)

OpenOffice Draw works great for flow diagrams, etc. Not quite as good as Omnigraffle or Visio (but essentually the same as Visio) but it is COMPLETELY FREE AND OPEN SOURCE!
There is also a decent Free CAD program that works pretty much the same as the slightly older Auto-CAD versions (actually there are a few. LibreCAD and DraftSight (I use this one)). A list of some Open-Source and Closed-Source options http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/CAD_tools


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## mikeydoesstuff (Aug 18, 2015)

I really liked omnigraffle, and my (former)students got into it, so I started getting sound plots finally.


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## connectCAD (Aug 31, 2015)

np18358 said:


> I looked into ConnectCAD, a Vectorworks Plugin, but it doesn't make actual rack drawings, it just lets you label a rack and color code. I want an actual drawing, like the ones attached, by Nick Kourtides, as featured in Live Design July 2015 "What's Trending in Audio Paperwork". Thanks in advance.



As the author of connectCAD, I'd just like to intervene here. Our software does let you make rack drawings like Nick's we just don't provide ready-made symbols for the front panels of equipment. The reason for this is that it's a huge amount of work to get all this information and repackage it for use in our software. But yes we do support rack drawings and we have great tools for creating and updating. How detailed a look you get depends on you and what you want.

So here's question for this forum: would a community-sourced set of symbols be of interest?


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## Dionysus (Aug 31, 2015)

connectCAD said:


> As the author of connectCAD, I'd just like to intervene here. Our software does let you make rack drawings like Nick's we just don't provide ready-made symbols for the front panels of equipment. The reason for this is that it's a huge amount of work to get all this information and repackage it for use in our software. But yes we do support rack drawings and we have great tools for creating and updating. How detailed a look you get depends on you and what you want.
> 
> So here's question for this forum: would a community-sourced set of symbols be of interest?



I think community sourced symbol/blocks/etc sets are ALWAYS of interest. Saves you from making them yourself when you don't have time or such. They are always hard to find as well.


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## connectCAD (Sep 1, 2015)

Well that's good feedback and I will certainly look into ways of providing this. Thanks for your reply.


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## Timothy A. Samuelson (Sep 1, 2015)

Would definitely be interested in a community sourced library. I use SketchUp's warehouse religiously!


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