AutoCAD Electrical: 60 Tips in 60 Minutes

Transcription

1 AutoCAD Electrical: 60 Tips in 60 Minutes Tiffany Bachmeier AutoCAD Electrical Implementation Consultant Join the conversation #AU2016

2 Class summary On your mark...get Set!...GO! Back by popular demand, this fast paced class will keep you on your toes with brand new rapid fire tips and tricks and all-time favorites to get the most out of your time in AutoCAD Electrical. Hold on tight, it s going to be a wild ride!

3 Key learning objectives At the end of this class, you will have discovered: Project Management Tips and Tricks Drawing Creation Tips and Tricks Customization Tips and Tricks Template Tips and Tricks AND MANY MORE Tips and Tricks for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced AutoCAD Electrical enthusiasts

4 Project Management Tips 1. Project Level Node in the Location View Tab (2017) Select this node when you want to view or export the entire project from the Details and Connections panels. 2. Security Updates (2017) To minimize the possibility of loading and executing malicious code, some files previously installed in the public folder, C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Acade {version}\support\{language code}, are now installed in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD {version}\acade\support\{language code}\shared\

5 Project Management Tips 3. Project Utilities 4. Publish to PDF with Hyperlinks! (Publish in general is a great tool!! It will save an immense amount of time!)

6 Project Management Tips 5. Folders! in the Project Manager RMB on Project > Add Subfolder 6. Surfer: "enter" to trace 7. Surfer Option: fill in NO/NC attributes on blocks that wouldn't normally need them in order to be able see more info in the Surfer DB 8. Hold SHIFT to have Surfer act like MDI mode instead of SDI mode (i.e. all touched drawings stay open)

7 Project Management Tips 9. Drawing List Report for Index Sheets RMB on Project > Drawing List Report 10. Drawing-wide location tools 11. Project-Wide Update for cut sheets

8 Drawing Creation Tips 12. Do NOT Explode (or BURST) 13. Schematic List > Insert from Wiring Diagram Table 14. TAB during insertion of Connectors to first flip the connector, TAB again to reverse the pin numbering

9 Drawing Creation Tips 15. Insert and Link Inventor Connector in the Location View Tab (2017) Select any node or a specific connector in the tree and right-click to insert. 16. Link ACADE Components to their respective Inventor Parts in the Location View Tab (2017)

10 Drawing Creation Tips 17. Align 18. Toggle NO/NC 19. Find/Edit/Replace Component Text 20. Hide/Unhide Attributes (window/multiple)

11 Drawing Creation Tips 21. Copy Catalog Assignment 22. Copy Installation/Location Codes

12 Drawing Creation Tips 23. Resequence Item Numbers Updates (2017) Drawings are no longer opened for processing, improving the performance. The manufacturers are sorted across the project, not per drawing. The entire project is always processed, keeping item numbers in sync for components with the same catalog. The project property, Reset with each Drawing, has been removed and is no longer valid

13 Drawing Creation Tips 24. Item Number Balloon Update (2017) 25. Multiple Bus to a component with Continue & Flip options 26. Wire Sequencing (info lives on symbol in the wire connection attribute as xdata so it sticks even if you delete the wires)

14 Drawing Creation Tips 27. PLC Save Block for Later Option 28. On a cross-reference, you can have it visually display how many unused contacts you have available. 29. When you add/edit signal arrows the related arrows (S&D) are automatically updated on other drawings (2017) 30. Creating custom workspaces is a great way to keep your environment always looking like you want it to.

15 Drawing Creation Tips 31. Insert from Schematic List saves sort settings now across sessions (2017) 32. Installation, Location, & Tag attribute values support up to 255 characters each. (2017) 33. Terminal Strips can be sorted in the in the Table Generator by clicking the column heading and they are generated in the sort order (2017)

16 Drawing Creation Tips 34. The Trap Distance (0.025") is done by an invisible crossing window that searches for a X_TERM attribute within the crossing window to autoconnect the wire to a component Fun Fact: When a wire connects to another wire, it throws the crossing window all the way around the wire with the Trap Distance going on both sides perpendicular to the line attaching to it and it will recognize that the wires are connected (which is how it sees wire networks connected to devices) Tip: Wire Numbers have to stay within the Trap Distance of a Wire to maintain connection with that wire

17 Drawing Creation Tips 35. Always keep wires organized on proper wire layers 36. Intelligent Location Box Inserting/moving a symbol into a location box updates the location and installation values of the component. Moving a symbol out of a location box gives you the option to update the location/installation codes of the symbol to match the drawing values. The insertion point of a symbol determines whether it is considered inside or outside of the location box.

18 Drawing Creation Tips: Reports 37. Multi-page Report generation

19 Drawing Creation Tips: Reports 38. AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor Combined Bill of Material Report (2017) Tip: This option is also available in the Report Format File Setup for saving your SET files.

20 Drawing Creation Tips: Reports 39. Ignore errors in Electrical Audit (2017) Tip: Top 3 warnings: Wire No Connection for missing Source/Destination Signals Component No Catalog Number for missing BOM info Child No Connection for missing parent/child relationships 40. DWG Audit Tip: You get the bonus option to Show wires when running the DWG Audit on the Active Drawing.

21 Customization Tips 41. SQL Server & Access Database options available now (2017) Deployment Mode/Autodesk Content Migration Utility Connect to your already created SQL Server instance or create one using the Autodesk Content Migration Utility for AutoCAD Electrical Standalone Mode Use the Configure Catalog Database command that allows you to connect, and then select your catalog and footprint databases on an SQL Server instance.

22 Customization Tips 42. In the Catalog Browser, for a given part number, you can actually define more than just one 2D or one 3D library symbol to use. 43. Add new Part Numbers plus Pin Lists in new Catalog Browser at the same time

23 Customization Tips 44. Textvalue in Catalog Database Optional user-defined miscellaneous attribute values (ex. Rating2=xyz; Rating3=abc) 45. LISTBOX_DEF Table Catalog Database Define part number filters for specific component types

24 Customization Tips 46. Make additional Catalog Database columns visible to include in Part Number Searches RMB on any column in the Catalog Browser

25 Customization Tips 47. Wire Connection Attributes X_TERM Wires know to connect into a component buy this invisible attribute sitting on the component where the origin of the attribute text attaches The first _ is a number to specify which direction the wire is coming from 1 = Wire coming in from the Right 2 = Wire coming in from the Top 4 = Wire coming in from the Left 8 = Wire coming in from the Bottom 0 = Radial The second set of is a unique number to match to the following attributes (Ex: 01, 02) TERM Pin numbers associated to the wire connection and the number at the end is the same as the in the wire connection point at the same spot TERMDESC Used to control which side of a terminal is to receive internal or external wire connections and would also carry the same 2 digits as the TERM and the X_TERM

26 Customization Tips 48. Naming Conventions Schematic Symbols First: H or V for Horizontal or Vertical Second & Third: 2 character family code Fourth: 1 (Parent/Standalone) or 2 (Child) Fifth: 1 (Normally Open) or 2 (Normally Closed) All other characters are user defined unique identifiers 32 Characters max TIP: Do not use "HH", "HV", "VH", or "VV" as the first two characters of a symbol block name. Terminal Symbols First & Second: HT or VT Third: 1 (if the wire number changes as it pass thru) or 0 (no wire number change) Fourth: "_" underscore if there are no other intelligent attributes (dumb terminal) or user defined for all others Source/Destination Signal Arrows First is H or V Second is A for "arrow" Third is the number that related to the radio buttons in the Properties DB The Fourth character is an S for Source, D for Destination Fifth is a 1,2,3,4 in relation to what direction the wire is 1,2,4,8 (respectively) They have to have the SIGCODE attribute on them

27 Customization Tips 49. Split Component Tags: TAG1 Alternate TAG1_PART1, TAG1_PART2, TAG1_PARTX TAG2 Alternate: TAG2_PART1, TAG2_PART2, TAG2_PARTX Ex. position one piece above the other on the symbol It will split characters from numbers (ex. CR will split from 402) 50. ACE_FLAG attribute a value of 2 will identify the symbol as a parametric connector a value of 3 will identify the symbol as a parametrically generated twisted pair representation 51. WD_JUMPERS attribute Internal Wire Jumpers within a Symbol The Value would be what is being jumpered: Ex: ((01 02)(03 04)(05 06))

28 Customization Tips 52. Default.wdn file Text file used by the Electrical Audit for terminals. Terminal numbers listed in this file are not listed as duplicates in the Audit They are ignored when checking for duplication and are not listed in the Electrical Audit report Edit this file with an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad By default the terminal number filters GND, PE, and E are included in this file Use wildcards to exclude a group of terminals

29 Customization Tips 53. Naming convention and search sequence for user-defined Support Files: <project name>.<support file extension> located in the same folder as the.wdp file for the project DEFAULT. <support file extension> located in the same folder as the.wdp file for the project DEFAULT. <support file extension> located in the Support Directory 54. Wiring diagram tables An alternate table in the footprint look-up database Table matches the MFG code but attaches an "_WD" suffix Tables with the "_WD" suffix are set up to insert a symbol that carries the wire connection attributes

30 Customization Tips 55. Modify Symbol Library Tip: Make sure to save a backup of your library before you run this command.

31 Customization Tips 56. Spreadsheet to PLC Tips NEW_DWG in Code column to make it skip to next drawing BREAK in the Address column to break the PLC module and continue in the next ladder column SPACER in the Address column to skip a rung before continuing to insert the next I/O point SKIP in the Code column to make the PLC module skip a ladder and continue in the next ladder 57. Lastproj.fil text file In the User Support folder List of recent projects Each line in this file gives the following information for each project: Project name and path Project descriptions 1-4 Project state: "2"=Active"1"=Open"0"= not open but available from the Recent Projects dialog box

32 Customization Tips 58. Need for Admin rights: There are a number of places in the code where AutoCAD Electrical will read attribute data from an unopened DWG file and some places in the code where it will write attribute data to an unopened DWG file. Cross-reference update is one of the few examples of the latter. To write data to an unopened DWG file, AcadE makes a call to a function called wd_dbx_open with arguments of the full path/filename DWG and an argument of w for write 59. Environment file modification tips Make sure that you save a copy of the existing environment file (wd.env) in its clean state If you move it make sure to put the location at the top of your Search Paths in the Options dialog box

33 Template Tips 60. WD_M block edits Update to New WD_M Block, Values, Layers Replaces the schematic wd_m.dwg block in the current drawing with a newer copy, and converts to the newer configuration values and layers. Update to New WD_M Block, No Changes Replaces the schematic wd_m.dwg block in the current drawing with a newer copy, but keeps existing configuration values and layer names. Update to New WD_PNLM Block, Values, Layers Replaces the panel wd_pnlm.dwg block in the current drawing with a newer copy, and converts to the newer configuration values and layers. Update to New WD_PNLM Block, No Changes Replaces the panel wd_pnlm.dwg block in the current drawing with a newer copy, but keeps existing configuration values and layer names. 61. Always save your templates with Layer 0 as the Current Layer

34 Questions Meet me in the Lounge on this floor 2pm-2:30pm Today

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37 AutoCAD Electrical Track Classes Up Next Wednesday - 3:00pm GEN21987 Murano 3203 I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed-AutoCAD Electrical Automation Thursday - 8:30am GEN21987 A New Kind of Dewey Decimal for Your Library Thursday - 1:00pm GEN21261 (late addition) Get Powered Up: How to Implement AutoCAD Electrical

38 Thank You So Much for Your Attention!! Join me in the next ACADE Class on Automation! WHO S AWESOME?! You re Awesome!

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