Smart Electrical supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) to provide a flexible and efficient means of inserting and working with external objects. An object is data created in another application and inserted in a composite drawing. Part of the power OLE provides is the ability to update objects automatically if they've been modified in their source document, or to edit objects in place.
Smart Electrical is fully compatible with OLE-compliant software, such as Microsoft Office. You can transfer text, numbers, sound bites, or intelligent graphics between documents that were created with Smart Electrical and other Microsoft Office applications. For example, you can use Microsoft Word to create a materials report and then display the report in your composite drawing. You can also link a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to a composite drawing. You can then use the spreadsheet in the composite drawing. You can even create a document that contains a drawing created by Smart Electrical, notes from Microsoft Word, a spreadsheet created by Excel, and an image created in Photoshop.
You can insert objects into your composite drawings using any of the following methods:
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Linking
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Embedding
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Cutting/Copying-and-Pasting
After inserting an object into a composite drawing, you can use it as any other auxiliary
graphic. You can associate it with a plant item, group it with other graphical elements,
and so forth.
SmartFrames
Any time a data file is inserted as embedded or linked, or pasted into a composite drawing in Smart Electrical, a SmartFrame is created containing the object. A SmartFrame usually appears as a rectangular outline in a document file, but it can also have other boundary type shapes (elliptical, for example).
SmartFrames provide ways for these objects to be manipulated, including moving, scaling, rotating, mirroring, and cropping. SmartFrames also contain properties for defining borders, styles and placement options. You can access these properties via the SmartFrames Properties dialog.
Linking
Linking takes data that's stored in one location (referred to as the source document) and places a reference to it in another location (referred to as the destination document). Linking allows you to use consistently updated versions of an object in multiple composite drawings. You can edit the linked object only by opening the source document and making your changes there. When you change the original data, the linked data automatically updates. You can link an object in a composite drawing by inserting the information with Object on the Insert menu.
Relative Paths for Linked Objects
Linked objects placed in a composite drawing are saved as relative links. You can think of a relative link as being a "child" of the composite drawing in which it is inserted. A relative link points to the location of the linked file in relation to the "parent" drawing. For example, a link to Building\Doors\door1.igr points to a file called door1.igr, which is located in the Building/Doors subdirectory inside the directory or folder where the parent drawing is located. The use of relative links in your composite drawings enables you to create drawings that are portable, meaning you can copy or move an entire directory structure to another location without updating the file paths.
The parent drawing must already exist as a saved file prior to inserting the linked
object; otherwise, there is no "relative" location.
Embedding
Embedding takes data from the source document and stores a copy of the information in the destination document. The copy becomes an independent version of the original information. Although editing the data in the original application has no effect on the copied version, you can edit the embedded object in-place from within the composite drawing. You can embed an object inside a composite drawing by inserting the information with Object on the Insert menu.
Linking and Embedding with Copy/Cut-and-Paste
You're not limited to using the Smart Electrical Insert menu to link or embed files. You can move information between documents or between locations using Cut, Copy, and Paste on the Edit menu in any OLE-compliant software.
You can also move information between Smart Electrical and other software by selecting the information in a document or a document in the Windows Explorer and dragging it to another location or another document. With this method, you simply select the information that you want to move, press the left mouse button, and drag the document to a location inside Smart Electrical or another Office application. To finish the operation, release the left mouse button.
If you want to copy the information, and not move it, press Alt while dragging the object.
When you drop the information, a shortcut menu appears beside the pointer. The options on the shortcut menu allow you to select how you want to place the information in the destination document, such as pasting, linking, and so forth.
If the software that you are copying or pasting to cannot edit the information, it will automatically store, or embed, the information in the document. You can then edit the embedded information with the software that created it. If you cannot edit the information, the information is displayed as a static picture.
When Do I Link or Embed?
Choosing whether to link or embed depends, in large part, on how you intend to use your composite drawing. Linking is useful when you want to share information in many different places and have that information update automatically. For example, if you want to display a composite drawing in several different documents, you can link the drawing inside each document. Then, later, when you edit the drawing, each document automatically displays the results of the drawing updates. Another consideration is file size. Because linking only adds a reference to a file, the data does not significantly increase the size of the composite drawing. If you want to keep the document's size small, considering linking the data.
If you place dimensions or constraints to items located within a reference file,
it is recommended that you do not manipulate those items in the reference file without
first deleting the dimension or constraint in the Master file. Such manipulations
could cause problems in the Master file.
If the document's size is not an important factor, then you might want to use embedding. Because an embedded object becomes part of the composite drawing, it will increase the file size. Embedding is also useful when you want to keep your data in one file, or if you want to distribute the data among several people who may not have access to the source application. For example, if you want to send out several drawings for review, you can embed your drawing document into a Word document and mail the Word document to each reviewer.
Embedding information is also a good choice if the information does not require frequent updating.
If you want to embed an object or edit an embedded object, you must have access to
the software that created it.
When using connectors to connect OLE objects in a composite drawing, the connector
points are not visible.