Hot on the heels of last weeks Family Naming for AutoCAD Electrical comes this post on changing the default filters for the Insert Component command's database lookup.
When Electrical 2011 first shipped and users got to using it a boisterous protest became widespread on this functionality. And I was one of them as well...until I looked into how to adjust it. Essentially in the older versions of ACADe there was a simply table to look up your components. Emphasis on simple. In 2011 this dialog box became much more in depth allowing the user to see more and more columns of their database without heavy customization and programming changes to the native software.
While I think this is a good thing, it does significantly slow down the lookup table for components if left in its default installed state. If modified it can be quicker than it was even in older versions and also provide preffered components every time. The trick my readers is in the Access Database table called _LISTBOX_DEF. This Access table controls the default filters for the lookup table. Personally I think it was a bad move not having a more user in canvas directed method rather than this apparent back door, but maybe they are saving that for next year...fingers crossed. Until then check out my paper here on how to adjust this table to suit you and your company's needs in Electrical.