The subject of how to deal with speakers always seems to come up when new clients begin using our software. The question being, do you enter speaker pricing for a pair of speakers or for a single speaker. The answer I always give is “whatever matches your accounting system”. Keeping consistency in pricing between your SI 5 database and your accounting database keeps life simple and keeps your accountant/bookkeeper from trying to harm you.
When it comes to Visio drawings, a few steps must be taken to get a second shape on the drawing page for a pair of speakers. A speaker priced as a pair only displays on one line in the Project DataMatrix (PDM) so when you drag the product to a page, you only get one shape. The example below shows this on a Plan View page.
To add a shape to represent the other speaker in the pair, select the shape, right-click and select D-Tools->Shape->Insert Alternate View. Select the shape you want from the form that opens.
A second shape now displays on the page. Notice that the Component ID is the same for both shapes and that another speaker line item has not been added to the PDM:
Add your wires and you are done. In this example, a wire connects one speaker to a keypad and another connects one speaker to the other. The Head End displays on the wires.
Even though the Component ID is the same for both speakers, each wire connection does display in the Installation Reports.
Another useful way to use “Insert Alternate View” is to add a Line Image shape on the schematic page in Visio or an Elevation block to a schematic sheet in AutoCAD.