Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD

What is an Asset Symbol?

Asset symbols are items in drawings that are linked to database records and which describe them. Archibus's use of asset symbols enables you to record your facilities items both alphanumerically (in database records) and graphically (as items in drawings).

screen shot with the Smart Client CAD Extension tiled horizontally beside the Smart Client grid application

Asset symbols typically display asset text—text that reports on values in the linked record and is located within or near the asset symbol. For example, the asset symbol for room 109 displays as asset text the room number, room standard, and the area; all of this information is stored in the database.

Asset text is handy for reviewing database information about an item from a CAD drawing; you can see information, such as a departmental assignment, right from the drawing without having to call up a separate report. You can also check database values using the Query Table command or the Edit Data command.

Asset symbols can be formed from polylines or blocks:

Polylines are the basis for asset symbols documenting floor areas, such as gross areas, service areas, vertical penetrations, suites, and rooms.
Drawing blocks are the basis for items such as furniture, equipment, and telecommunications devices.

To create an asset symbol, you link a polyline or block in a CAD drawing to a database record. Once this link is made, the database record holds information about the linked polyline or block; likewise, the block or polyline holds information about the linked database record.

For example, you might have a floor plan drawing that uses polylines to depict room boundaries. For each room boundary, you can create a record in the Rooms database table and store such information as the type of room (workstation, conference room, office), how many employees occupy it, and the division and department that use the room. You can link the database record and the room polyline so that your room is documented both graphically and alphanumerically. Once you link the room polyline to a database record, the room polyline is considered to be an asset symbol.

If the asset symbol represents a floor area, the area information from the drawing is stored in the record’s Area field. Because area information comes from the asset symbol, area database fields are not editable except through CAD and their values are displayed in gray in Archibus grid windows. Asset symbols that represent areas are known as area asset symbols.

Note: Not all facility drawing items form asset symbols, and not all database records connect to drawing items. For example, walls are often depicted in facility drawings, yet you do not need to create asset symbols from wall lines to show them in your drawings and work with them. Similarly, you do not connect records in the Divisions, Departments, and Leases tables to items in drawings; instead, you connect them to groups, suites, and rooms so that you can represent how departments and leases span different floors and different drawings.

Note: The term “asset symbol” refers to a drawing item linked to a database record. Archibus uses the term “asset” to refer to the drawing item and linked record together.