AutoCAD Electrical Customization from A to Z

11/30/2005-10:00 am - 11:30 am Room:Parrot 1/2 (Swan) Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort Orlando, Florida AutoCAD Electrical Customization from A to Z Randy Brunette - Brunette Technologies, LLC MA32-1 AutoCAD Electrical 2006 is extremely flexible and configurable to your company's specific needs. Take this class to learn more about creating custom blocks and catalog entries. We'll cover threephase, form-c contacts, footprints, and other interesting block types in detail. You will explore the details of the core utilities, Black Box Builder and Icon Menu Wizard, learning what makes them tick. You'll also learn how to make the symbols and menus in AutoCAD Electrical 2006 your own. About the Speaker: Randy has used AutoCAD in mechanical and electrical design applications for 19 years. He owns Brunette Technologies, L.L.C., and provides international support for AutoCAD and AutoCAD Electrical software, including custom programming, training, implementation consulting, and program development management. He has been involved in numerous beta testing programs and has been a top-rated instructor at several Autodesk University conferences. randy.brunette@brutec.us

AutoCAD Electrical is very configurable, adaptable to most companies systems and styles of electrical design. Wizards are available for most tasks that require more than a couple of steps, or for making additions into the parts catalog, pin list and other design databases. Introduction The goal of this class is to guide you through the operations necessary to add a custom part to your AutoCAD Electrical design system. You will learn how to add a new part number, create a new schematic symbol, add the new symbol to the icon menu, create a footprint, and insert the footprint from an extracted schematic list. Part Catalog When using AutoCAD Electrical to insert symbols, a special attribute editing dialog box appears to allow you to edit the attribute data on a symbol. The edit boxes in this dialog correspond to the edit boxes in AutoCAD s attribute editing tools. The difference is that AutoCAD Electrical has many editing aids built into the dialog, allowing the user to enter data easier and more accurately from lookup tables, or by accepting automatic formatting options available in AutoCAD Electrical. One of the most important tools is the Catalog Data: Lookup function. This utility allows you to search through an Access part number database to add Bill of Material data to your symbol. Filters allow you to search through thousands of entries to find the exact part you a looking for quickly and easily. AutoCAD Electrical has an underlying philosophy of eliminating the need to enter data manually more than once. This goal also has an underlying benefit of helping a company to standardize part and functional descriptions. For example, once the part number information is entered into the database you won t need to type it again to assign it to symbols, create BOM tables on the drawing, or to export it to Excel, ASCII, or Access reports. Sub-Assemblies are also supported in AutoCAD Electrical through the use of an assembly code that ties together in the database all of the components in an assembly. AutoCAD Electrical also provides an area to add hyperlinks to the part number information. The Weblink field allows the entry of local and internet based URL s to information such as Material Safety Data sheets. The TextValue field is very useful for hard coded information, such as fuse ratings. It can also be used to insert data into non-standard attributes contained within an AutoCAD Electrical block. 2

Different catalogs may be set up and used for specific customers or projects. AutoCAD Electrical uses the databases in the following order: <PROJECT NAME>_CAT.MDB DEFAULT_CAT.MDB DEFAULT_CAT.MDB DEFAULT_CAT.MDB Symbol Naming Conventions Located in the same directory as the project file Located in the same directory as the project file Located in the User directory Located in the catalog directory Although not required, AutoCAD Electrical depends on a specific naming convention for some of the automated processes to work correctly. Some of the more commonly referenced naming conventions are listed below. Any characters not specified can be user defined to maintain unique symbol names. Schematic Symbols, 32 character maximum Char. 1 H or V, determines horizontal or vertical orientation Char. 2-3 Family type; for example PB for push button or CR for control relay. A 0 in the third position indicates no wire change through symbol. Char. 4 (optional) 1 or 2; a 2 for child contacts, a 1 for everything else. Char. 5 (optional) 1 or 2; a 1 for normally open contacts, a 2 for normally closed contacts. Terminals Char. 1-2 Char. 3 Char. 4 Wire Number Symbols WD_WNH WD_WNV WD_WCH WD_WCV Source/Destination Arrows The first two characters are HT Wire number change through symbol; 0 for no change, 1 if it does. Attributes to process; if symbol is dumb with no attributes to process, this character is an underscore, _, otherwise they are defined by the user. Horizontal wire insertion Vertical wire insertion Wire number copy for horizontal wire Wire number copy for vertical wire Char. 1-4 HA?S for Source arrows HA?D for Destination arrows Configuration and Ladder Master Line Reference Symbols WD_M This block is inserted in every AutoCAD Electrical schematic drawing. It contains about 50 invisible attributes containing the drawings settings. WD_PNLM Similar to the WD_M block, but for panel drawings. WD_MLRH This is the block containing the configuration information for ladders. This includes, first line reference number, spacing, and length WD_MLRV Same as above, but for vertical ladders, (lay on its side). 3

Black Box Wizard Creation of custom symbols and components is aided with the use of a utility called the Black Box Builder. Unlike AutoCAD where all attributes have to manually created and defined, in the Black Box Builder, standard attributes are pre-defined and presented to the user for easy placement. All tools necessary for the creation of AutoCAD Electrical symbols are located together in the dialog. Multi-Position Switches Multi-position switches have two things that make them different than the standard electrical component, Position and State attributes. A position attribute is inserted from the More menu in the Black Box Builder, one for each position of the switch. This attribute holds the position description information. As each position attribute is inserted the menu will display the next incremental attribute number. The State attribute holds the default contact state for the switch. 3 Phase Component Insertion The insertion of 3 Phase components is an automated LISP (custom program) command. The LISP utility, WD_3UNIT, inserts three single phase components in a single operation, automatically linking the components together using the Dashed Link Line tool. If a parent symbol (fourth character of symbol name =1), then the utility will insert the parent on the first line and the matching named children symbols (fourth character of symbol name =2) on the remaining lines. Note: If the matching children do not exist, the command only inserts the parent and ends. If a child symbol is selected for insertion, the command uses the listed symbol for all insertions. 4

Parametric PLC Database File Editor AutoCAD Electrical comes with many styles and manufactures of PLC modules built into it, in fact, over 2,000 new modules were added for 2006 alone. PLC modules are built parametrically. That is, they are built per user input, allowing spacers between I/O points and even breaks in the module for continuation in different locations or on different ladders. Several small libraries of PLC pieces (one for each graphic style) are accessed and assembled together to create the PLC module. When the insertion operation is completed all of the pieces are combined into a PLC block with attributes, just like all other symbols in AutoCAD Electrical. If you need an additional style or brand of PLC module, AutoCAD Electrical includes a PLC Database File Editor to help create new PLC modules. The new modules are added automatically to the PLC I/O insertion utility. The individual pieces from the PLC library to are combined in the editor in the order they will be assembled at insertion time. Right click over the insertion position to select the proper terminal. Default text and prompts, including module description and catalog number can also be added. 5

Pin lists AutoCAD Electrical can automatically track how many contacts have been assigned to a device like a relay or timer coil. Once again, data is entered only once in the Pinlist table (Access database). As you are entering parts that have pinlist information assigned, AutoCAD Electrical will automatically enter the pin list information for you. You can easily list the pin list information right from the editing dialog and manually assign contact information to the pins. If you insert too many contacts, AutoCAD Electrical will alert you, warning you of the problem and prompting you to cancel or ignore the overage. This functionality is not limited to just devices like relays that have contacts. Just about any device that has pins or terminals can be added to the pin list database. AutoCAD Electrical will find any part number matches to the pin list information and automatically fill in the appropriate data. Whenever a part number is added or changed on the parent symbol, AutoCAD Electrical checks for matching MFG, CAT, and optional ASSYCODE values. If a match is found, AutoCAD Electrical will automatically update the pin information accordingly. This database table, located within the parts catalog database, can be expanded as needed. You can edit this Access database table directly or use the AutoCAD Electrical editing dialog found at: Components>Cross-Reference>Pin List Database Editor Form-C Contacts A form-c contact is a symbol that includes both the N.O. and N.C. contacts, normally for a relay, on a single symbol. Created using the Black Box Builder, like most other electrical symbols, you just need a few extra steps to cover both contacts. During creation of contact block, the first terminal, TERM01, corresponds to the common or first pin number in the pin list. The second terminal, TERM02, corresponds to the normally open or second number in the pin list. The third terminal, TERM03, corresponds to the normally closed or third number in the pin list. Two different representations of a From-C contact are shown at left. An attribute with the tag name CONTACTS needs to be present in the block. The Contacts attribute stores the information for the cross reference attribute on the parent component. Normally a default value of NO or NC is assigned. If you want to have both the NO and NC references update, manually assign NONC to the contacts attribute. Because AutoCAD Electrical uses the insertion point of the block for location cross-reference information, both cross-references show the same ladder reference even when they are located on different ladder rungs. 6

You can include three different cross-reference attributes on a parent symbol, the standard XREFNO and XREFNC, and a generic XREF. When all three attributes are present, child components with the CONTACT attribute value containing "NO" or "NC" substring will go to the XREFNO and XREFNC attributes respectively, (or both as shown above. But, child contacts with no CONTACT attribute or with a blank value will go to the third attribute, XREF. (Note: if XREF not present then these "unknowns" get lumped in with the "NO" references.) Another little known trick is to mark a child contact's CONTACT attribute with a value of "NULL". This will suppress this child contact from being included in the parent's cross-reference listing. Icon Menu You can use the Icon Menu wizard to add or modify icons for both the schematic and panel symbol libraries. The wizard uses a navigation tool that looks almost the same Insert Component dialog box, but you cannot insert components from here. (Notice all the dimmed areas.) The icon menu is driven by a text file that you can customize to meet your needs. You can add symbols to existing menu pages, and you can add new menu pages. An individual icon can trigger a submenu page, insert a component, insert a circuit, or run a command. Each new submenu page can have icon selections that cascade down to other new menu pages, calling a submenu from a submenu. Three pieces of information are needed to add a component to the menu: the name of the block to be inserted, the slide name to appear on the menu icon, and text you want to appear in the select list bar. Tip1: When you are making a slide ensure that the current screen image is zoomed as large as possible and is as uncluttered as possible. When a slide is captured, all graphics on the screen are captured and shrunk to fit into the icon box. Tip 2: You should not create a submenu more than three levels deep. For example, a submenu could contain 28 icons, each calling another submenu containing 28 icons, for a total of 784 choices. Each of these icons could also call submenus of similar sizes. (That s more than 21,000 icons!) 7

Panel Footprints Schematic symbols by their nature use a generic symbol that represents the function of the device being inserted. Symbols from different manufacturers are represented in the same manner. Since one symbol is used for many different part numbers creating a symbol with catalog and other attributes is the most efficient method. When working with panel footprints however, each manufacturer s style of device may look entirely different on the panel layout. To create a new block with attributes for each of these would require a tremendous amount of effort. Instead, AutoCAD Electrical can automatically apply the required information tags to the footprints in the form of xdata. Xdata is invisible electronic information tags that AutoCAD applies to individual entities in a drawing. In the case of AutoCAD Electrical these entities are always blocks. When working with panel footprints, AutoCAD Electrical searches first for any electrical attributes, then searches for xdata tags. The only required attribute is P_Tag1. When a generic block is selected for use as a footprint, AutoCAD Electrical will use a template attribute block (names wd_ptag_addattr_comp) and automatically add the required attributes re-creating the existing block. All this is seamless to the user. The only evidence that xdata is being used is when you try to display the data on the screen. Only attributes can be visible. With this method you can use the extensive footprint libraries available from the manufactures, inserting footprints onto your panel layouts and making them AutoCAD Electrical with very little effort. If you want to edit the xdata directly on a footprint, AutoCAD Electrical provides and Xdata Editor utility. Similar in function to the AutoCAD Enhanced Attribute editor, it is found under Projects/Extras/ pull-down menu. 8

Foot Print and Schematic Lookup Tables When creating panel layouts from the schematic information, AutoCAD Electrical provides several tools to increase productivity and accuracy. AutoCAD Electrical will extract a list of components from the schematic and present it to you for insertion in the panel layout. AutoCAD Electrical keeps track of the items that have already been inserted to prevent duplicates. When an item is selected for insertion, AutoCAD Electrical uses the MFG and AssyCodes, opens the appropriate table in the Footprint Lookup database and tries to find a match with the catalog number. If a match is found AutoCAD Electrical retrieves the footprint block and inserts it into the drawing. New with AutoCAD Electrical 2006 is the Schematic Lookup Table. With this new feature you can extract a list of panel components for insertion into a schematic drawing. The workflow is similar for both methods. 9