Dynamic lookup confusion - autocad

I am new to autocad and am using it for work, at an electrical company. We build panels, and I have been tasked with making the drawings for them.
I am wondering how to make a dynamic lookup table. For example, everywhere I have the placeholder "Well #1" I want to have it replaced with "2-67-2-8". What would be the best way to do this? Thank you.

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Best barcodes and how/what to generate barcodes from, and how to store it the best way?

I am writing an webapp for a used thrift store. We are planning to add all items to a database, and I will be using Laravel and MySQL for this.
We also want to get a barcode scanner in order to scan and add items.
But I've never worked with barcodes before and info regarded this for a website like mine is hard to find info on, so is the barcode-scanners so I'm asking help from someone with experience.
I'm not sure which barcodes we should use, but I'm thinking a 3D one, like QR would do good. I've found several qr-generators, but I'm unsure on how I should create them properly from items.
Say the store is named Brukten. And it has items, with number IDs. Should I then generate barcodes out of "Brukten_53" or something, or just the ID, or how is a smart way? Because I can use an option like this instead of storing the generated barcode, right, and its better to generate a QR each time instead of storing the data about it?
At first we will use a web interface to add items, and later on we want to get a barcode-scanner to help scan things, so I'm guessing it would be nice with a scanner that could take pictures and add to database. So we want the DB to be ready for this, and properly made to work with such systems. So I'm wondering also if anyone can recommend me a device for this. I've seen several but unsure what to choose. 2d, 3d, something with camera, or is there other devices we could use?
What we want a device for is:
We want to store in the db: Old things, new things
We want to retrieve: all things
We want to alter info: edit things, sell, check things
Something easier than going around with a laptop, phone or a tablet and entering stuff.
Building the site is no problem for me, PHP, MySQL, Laravel framework and all is old stuff, but barcodes is a new world for me.
You only have to make sure that every single distinct physical item has a unique ID.
A simple way to accomplish this is using category ids as prefixes.
Suppose your "used men clothes category" is ID 25, and when you enter a pair on jeans of that category into the system, you app assign them ID 12345.
You can reference that item as 002500012345. You only need to calculate the 13rd digit using this function (http://edmondscommerce.github.io/php/barcode/ean13-barcode-check-digit-with-php.html) and you have a full-fledged EAN13 barcode you can print using this font (http://www.fontpalace.com/font-details/EAN-13/) and read with virtually any code scanner.
The other approach is generating a unique url for each product:
http://www.example.com/25/12345.html
And embed the url into a QR code.
You can generate the image for the QR code using this library:
http://phpqrcode.sourceforge.net/

Joomla 2.5 component

Is it possible to make a 2.5 component without using TableHelloWorld class and all that field type stuff like from here. Or is it compulsory?
http://docs.joomla.org/Developing_a_Model-View-Controller_Component/2.5/Using_the_database
The system will function without it fairly well actually. All you actually need to get something running is a base file named after your component, a controller.php file, and the view as outlined in this section: http://docs.joomla.org/Developing_a_Model-View-Controller_Component/2.5/Adding_a_view_to_the_site_part
From that you will get something that runs and loads. And if you choose you can just make raw sql queries to the database.
That being said, the framework is there to help you, not to hinder you. I've cut a lot of corners over the years, and almost always you end up regretting it later. Feel free to play around with skipping the pieces, but just remember that there are pieces out there that can help you with all kinds of important things that you may not think you need right now. (Binding input, table row hierarchies, and check-in/check-out functionality are just a few that come to mind that I'm glad I didn't have to make myself.)

How to find out what an Image is about

Is there a way to understand what an image is about? I mean, if I scann a picture, how can I tell that the picture is about a spesific object? I am thinking that if I have some shape in mind, say the shape - pattern of a spesific object that meets its requirements against the object I am searhcing for, then it must be what I am looking for. Anyway I am thinking of an algorithm to scann a picture database and figure out the pictures I am actually looking for,Is there a known way to accomplish such operation?.
If I am reading your question correctly...
This is a very daunting task even for full-fledged corporations like Google, though they are attempting to create something along these lines.
Take a look at Google Goggles for Android if you'd like to see how this sort of system behaves. You'll also notice that it requires very specific circumstances to be even slightly reliable, but the base technology is there.

Need to create a "choose your own adventure" type guide - best approach to use

Basically need to ask user a set of questions and gather information along the way. Each question could have impacts on different questions down the road. Another example would be turbo tax's web interface, answering yes on some ?s may trigger future questions.
Seems like this would be a fairly common problem in software so I guess I'm asking if there are any existing solutions/Design Patterns out there that could help. Kind of seems like a state machine, but I think that is an oversimplification.
State pattern
Look at this picture which helps with choosing correct fonts which is called So You Need a Typeface (big image there!).
It asks you numerous questions and at some point suggest you one or several answers.
As I understand you want to create something similar but interactive and about another domain.
So, you need to construct similar graph with branching-nodes and leaf-nodes. It can be done very conveniently with the Composite pattern. If you already have (know) all possible questions (or if you know that at some point you will know all of them and will be able to add them manually to the system) then it's the way to go.
If you want something more dynamic and intelligent then the solution can highly vary from case to case.

How can I present and organize complex taxonomy and groupings?

this is a more generic question:
I am trying to find a way to classify a segment of data that have overlapping or sometimes multiple "broad categories."
I try to use "tags" as a way to allow some granularity, but I don't have a way to convey the more "top level" categories for people to browse.
For example, one of the vendors I am putting trying to classify does "Information Management" which isn't really a category of its own, it supports "Business Intelligence" but it isn't really Business Intelligence.
Not sure if people have thoughts or is the way to just look at how other people categorize these vendors in like directories...but wanted to know if poeple knew of both a way and, in particular, a presentation-layer / UI that makes it easier to "connect the dots" so to speak.
NOTE: This thread is a subset of what I am asking so additional elaborations would helpful:
Most elegant UI for categorizing items?
A more concrete direction: a non-proprietary way to create relationships like this:
http://www.thebrain.com/
A tag cloud, is the most ubiquitous way of displaying top level tags. Depending on your use they may be highlighted by popularity, or some other metric determined by a Folksonomy. Think Flickr or Del.icio.us

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