Autodesk AutoCAD AutoCAD Electrical - 2008 User’s Guide

AutoCAD Electrical 2008

User’s Guide

February 20, 2007

Disclaimer

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Third Party Software Credits and Attributions

ACIS Copyright© 1989-2001 Spatial Corp. Copyright © 1999-2000 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved. This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org) subject to its license terms and conditions (http://xml. apache.org/dist/LICENSE.txt). Typefaces from the Bitstream® typeface library Copyright© 1992. HLM© Copyright D-Cubed Ltd. 1996-2006. HLM is a trademark of D-Cubed Ltd. AutoCAD® 2008 and AutoCAD LT® are produced under a license of data derived from DIC Color Guide® from Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc. Copyright © Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc. All rights reserved. DIC and DIC Color Guide are registered trademarks of Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc. Portions of this software are based on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. Active Delivery™ 2.0 © 1999-2004 Inner Media, Inc. All rights reserved. ISYS and the ISYS logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of ISYS® Search Software Inc. Copyright© 1988-1997 Sam Leffler. Copyright © 1991-1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc. Copyright© Lingea s.r.o. 2006. The New Features Workshop contains Macromedia Flash™ Player software by Macromedi, Inc. Copyright © 1995-2005 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Macromedia® and Flash® are registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States or other countries. Copyright© 1996-2006 Macrovision Corporation. All rights reserved. Copyright© 1996-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Copyright© 2002 Hiseoph M. O’Leary. PANTONE® Colors displayed in the software application or in the user documentation may not match PANTONE-identified standards. Consult current PANTONE Color Publications for accurate color. PANTONE® and other Pantone, Inc. trademarks are the property of Pantone, Inc.© Pantone, Inc., 2004. Pantone Inc. is the coyright of color data and/or software which are licensed to Autodesk, Inc., to distribute for use only in combination with certain Autodesk software products. PANTONE Color Data and/or Software shall not be copied onto another disk or into memory unless as part of the execution of this Autodesk software product. Typefaces from Payne Loving Trust© 1992, 1996. All rights reserved. RAL DESIGN© RAL, Sankt Augustin, 2004 RAL CLASSIC© RAL, Sankt Augustin, 2004 Representation of the RAL Colors is done with the approval of RAL Deutsches Institut für Gütesicherung und Kennzeichnung e.V. (RAL German Institute for Quality Assurance and Certification, re. Assoc.), D-53757 Sankt Augustin. This product includes code licensed from RSA Security, Inc. Some portions licensed from IBM are available at http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu4j/. The Sentry Spelling-Checker Engine Copyright© 1994-2003 Wintertree Software, Inc.

Portions of this software include one or more Boost libraries. Use of the Boost libraries is subject to its license agreement

http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt.

Stingray Objective Toolkit & Objective Grid © Rogue Wave Software, Inc.. promis-e® is a registered trademark of ECT International, Inc..

GOVERNMENT USE

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in FAR 12.212 (Commercial Computer Software-Restricted Rights) and DFAR 227.7202 (Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software), as applicable. Published By: Autodesk, Inc., 111 Mclnnis Parkway, San Rafael, CA 94903, USA

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

What's New in AutoCAD Electrical 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

What's New in Previous Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

What's New in 2005 Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

What's New in 2006 Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

What's New in 2007 Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 2 Project Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Overview of AutoCAD Electrical Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Overview of projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Use recently opened projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Create a new project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Add a new drawing to the current project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Add existing drawings to the current project . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Group drawings within a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Change the order of drawings in the project . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Remove a drawing from the active project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Assign a description to each drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Preview a drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

About collaborative design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Create a new drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Change drawing display options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Overview of project related files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Overview of the project file format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Archive a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Work with Multiple Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Overview of set up for multiple clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 3 Drawing and Project Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Overview of project and drawing properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Use replaceable parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Save settings to the project file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Create a template drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Updating the WD_M Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Overview of the WD_M block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Using Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Manage layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Use wire layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Change wire types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Chapter 4 Symbol Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Determine symbol block names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Library Symbol Naming Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Overview of symbol naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Split a tag name into two pieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Use multiple symbol libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Overview of Hydraulic and P&ID symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Attribute Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Schematic Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Overview of schematic attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Non-Schematic Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Overview of non-schematic attributes . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Overview of parent and stand-alone component attributes

(TAG1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Overview of child component attributes (TAG2) . . . . . . . . . 196

Copy attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Managing Library Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Substitute symbols in the library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Change appearance of existing library symbols . . . . . . . . . . 197

Predefine symbol annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Create a new library symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Overview of the Symbol Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Swap blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Chapter 5 PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Generate PLC layout modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Parametric PLC symbols vs. Full Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

vi | Contents

Insert PLC modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Overview of the PLC database file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Single, Stand-Alone I/O Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Modify single, stand-alone PLC layout symbols . . . . . . . . . 246

Work with PLC styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Modify a PLC appearance style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Create a new PLC style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Add a new PLC style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Create PLC I/O Drawings from Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Overview of the PLC spreadsheet/database format . . . . . . . . 253

Create PLC spreadsheets using RSLogix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Create PLC drawings from Unity Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Create XML files for export to Unity Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Chapter 6 Component Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Insert schematic components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Insert a copy of a component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Insert similar components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Insert from catalog lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Use the schematic lookup file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Insert from panel lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Manipulate Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Manipulate components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Annotate ratings attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Reverse/flip components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Swap contact states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Check coil/contact count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Follow signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Insert dashed link lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Overview of DIN Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Edit schematic lookup files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Overview of user data records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Component Cross-References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Use stand-alone cross-reference symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Change cross-reference visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Insert a dashed link line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Overview of cross-reference settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Overview of graphical cross-reference formats . . . . . . . . . . 368

Overview of table cross-reference formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Update cross-reference tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Use cross-reference exception reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Use circuitry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Wire Jumpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Define wire jumpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Contents | vii

Chapter 7 Component Attribute Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Edit attribute values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Force attributes to layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Manipulate component text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Manipulate terminal text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Move description values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Manipulate Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Manipulate component attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Set tags to fixed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Change to multi-line text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Add location codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Update child codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Location Mark Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Substitute location mark symbols for text location codes . . . . 418

Change attribute justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Change attribute text style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Change attribute text size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Modify library symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Add attributes to blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Chapter 8 Wire/Wire Number Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Overview of wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Insert 3-phase bus wiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Insert wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Trim wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Stretch wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Overview of wire color/gauge labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Insert cable markers into wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Insert cable markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Insert multiple cable markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Insert shield symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Add a second shield to a cable/shield represenation . . . . . . . 467

Insert in-line wire markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Wire Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Manipulate wire gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Ladder Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Define and insert new ladders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Modify an existing ladder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Wire Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Overview of wire numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Set wire number placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Find or replace wire number text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Encode wire color/gauge information into wire numbers . . . . 502

Fix Wire Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Fix wire numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

viii | Contents

Reposition Wire Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Reposition wire numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Modify Wire Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Modify wire numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Erase or Hide Wire Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Erase or hide wire numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Wire Sequencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Control from/to report connection sequencing . . . . . . . . . . 525

Add custom signal arrow styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Edit the cable conductor database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Source and Destination Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Show source and destination markers on wires . . . . . . . . . . 543

Chapter 9 Terminal Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Overview of connection sequencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Insert terminals and connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Multi-Level Terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Overview of terminal relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Edit terminal jumpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Resequence terminal numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

View terminal wire connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Show terminal internal/external connections . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Mark internal connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Mark external connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Erase connection codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Terminal Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Create terminal strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Use the terminal strip editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585

Generate terminal strip tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624

Terminal Properties Lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629

Overview of terminal properties database . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629

Chapter 10 Point-to-Point Wiring Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Working with Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636

Use point-to-point wiring tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636

Bend wires at right angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659

Insert multiple bus wiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Import data from Autodesk Inventor Professional Cable &

Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Overview of the spreadsheet import file structure . . . . . . . . . . . 673

Insert splices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

Chapter 11 Project-Wide Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

Move from reference to reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Contents | ix

Start the Surfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

Continue a previous surf session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690

Move between drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

Plot one or more drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694

Create a project-wide script file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697

Track drawing changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700

Translate description text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703

Publish to the web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

Title Block Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

Use drawing title blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

Link information to the title block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

Map AutoLISP values to the title block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Chapter 12 Icon Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

Overview of the Icon Menu Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Add a new icon to the menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

Edit the properties of an existing icon in the menu . . . . . . . 733

Use alternate icon menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

Modify Icon Menu File Directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Overview of the icon menu file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Chapter 13 BOM and Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Use catalog tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Catalog table naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Family tables in the default_cat.mdb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

Overview of the catalog database table structure . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

Use the merge utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781

Catalog Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Assign catalog information to components . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Overview of the LISTBOX_DEF catalog database table . . . . . . 788

Copy catalog assignments from component to component . . . 790

Show missing catalog assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793

Contact Quantity/Pin List Lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793

Use pin lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793

Set pin list assignments for special uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800

Chapter 14 Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Generate reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

Schematic Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 897

Generate schematic reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 897

Panel Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Generate panel reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Overview of format files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938

Run automatic reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991

x | Contents

Modify spreadsheet data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996

Create user-defined attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005

Export to Autodesk Inventor Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008

Set up for export to Autodesk Inventor Professional Cable &

Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008

Chapter 15 Panel Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1021

Overview of panel layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022

Automatic schematic/panel update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022

Relationship between schematic drawings and panel layouts . . . . . 1026

Overview of footprint attributes/Xdata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1028

Footprint/Terminal Insertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031

Select and insert footprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031

Insert a copy of a panel footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1061

Copy code values to components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1061

Use panel templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064

Select component data from a spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . 1066

Layout Wire Connection Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074

Merge schematic wire numbers onto footprints . . . . . . . . . 1074

Add wire information to footprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077

Lookup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081

Use the footprint lookup file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081

Item Numbers/Balloons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1087

Assign an item or detail number to a footprint . . . . . . . . . 1087

Nameplates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091

Insert nameplates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091

Panel Leveling/Sequencing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093

Remove sequencing assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093

Show sequencing assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093

Swap terminal strip wire text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095

Chapter 16 Conduit Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109

Overview of conduit tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1110

Conduit Marker Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1110

Overview of conduit marker support files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116

Generate a conduit marker report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118

Generate a conduit routing report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120

Chapter 17 Conversion Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123

Convert promis.e drawing files to AutoCAD Electrical . . . . . . . . 1124

Convert non-AutoCAD Electrical blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128

Finish mapping values from non-AutoCAD Electrical

blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128

Convert text to an attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131

Contents | xi

Convert Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132

Convert non-AutoCAD Electrical arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132

Overview of ECDS legacy conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1133

Tagging and Linking Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1137

Use tagging and linking tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1137

Overview of block/attribute mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1151

Chapter 18 Miscellaneous Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1157

Overview of power check tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158

Overview of pneumatic tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161

Insert hydraulic components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1166

Insert P&ID components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1171

Troubleshooting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176

Overview of real-time error checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176

Modify invisible data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1184

Chapter 19 Advanced Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1187

Set up peer-to-peer component relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1188

Create automated pin assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1190

Set up AutoCAD Electrical for multiple users . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1193

Show source and destination markers on cable wires . . . . . . . . . 1197

Use the PLC Database File Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205

Add your own symbols, circuits and commands to the icon

menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1214

Build your own symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1223

Configure projects for various drawing standards . . . . . . . . . . . 1243

Use Autodesk Vault with AutoCAD Electrical . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250

Chapter 20 AutoCAD Electrical Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257

AutoCAD Electrical Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271

xii | Contents

AutoCAD Electrical What's New

In this chapter

■ What's New in AutoCAD

Electrical 2008

■ What's New in Previous

Releases

■ What's New in 2005

Release

■ What's New in 2006

Release

■ What's New in 2007

Release

What's New in AutoCAD Electrical 2008

PLC I/O Import/Export

You can now communicate your electrical designs between AutoCAD Electrical and Schneider Electric’s Unity Pro. Employing the widely used XML language format, you can transfer design data back and forth while maintaining structure and organization.

Use the new Unity Pro Export to Spreadsheet tool to import Unity Pro XML export files to aid in the creation of PLC-style ladder drawings and panel layout drawings (in both vertical and horizontal format) in the active project. The Unity Pro export files also contain catalog information. You can reformat it to generate an equipment list to aid in the creation of a rack layout drawing used in panel layouts or separate rack layout drawings.

Use the new Unity Pro Export tool to create a Unity Pro I/O variable file (*.xsy) in the Unity Pro XML format from your AutoCAD Electrical drawings. The Unity Pro export file is generated from the PLC drawings and their respective PLC symbols.

For More Information (page 270)

PLC I/O Libraries Enhancements

You can quickly create PLC I/O drawings by selecting from a library of over 3,000 intelligent PLC I/O modules from the industry’s most popular manufacturers.

Spreadsheet to PLC I/O Utility Enhancements

You no longer have to create and save the starting drawing for the Spreadsheet to PLC I/O Utility tool. You can now define a starting drawing file name or start with the active drawing. Additional enhancements include:

■ Default settings are now read automatically the first time you run the tool.

■ You can select a settings file and make it the default.

■ You can have the newly created drawings added automatically to the end

of the active project.

For More Information (page 257)

2 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

Surfable Reports

When reports are placed into a drawing as a table, you can click on various report cells to quickly find the corresponding devices within the schematic or panel layout drawings in the active project.

When surfing on a table inserted by the Terminal Strip Editor, you can click the title cell to surf on the Tagstrip value, even if the Tagstrip is not included in the title. If you select a cell that is not surfable (such as the Tag, Catalog, or Wire Number cell) the Tagstrip value is surfed for the terminal strip.

For More Information (page 688)

Insert Component and Insert Footprint Enhancements

The Insert Component and Insert Footprint dialog boxes are updated to improve ease of use when selecting components to insert into your drawing. Enhanced dialog box controls include:

■ Menu tree structure

Displays the main menu and submenus from which you can freely navigate. Clicking the menus displays the corresponding menu icons in the Symbol Preview window. The menu is created by reading the *.dat file defined in the Project Properties dialog box.

■ Symbol Preview window

Displays the symbol icons and submenu icons corresponding to the selected menu. Clicking an icon performs one of the following functions based on the icon properties as defined in the *.dat file: insert a component or circuit, display a submenu, or execute a command.

■ Recently Used

Displays the last components inserted during the current editing session.The most recently used icon displays at the top. This list follows the view options setting in the symbol preview window and the total number of icons displayed depends on the value specified in the Display edit box.

■ View

Changes the view display for the Symbol Preview window and Recently Used window. The current view option is indicated with a check mark. Options include: Icon with text, Icon only, or List view.

■ Tooltips

When you move the cursor over an icon, the icon name and block/circuit/command names display as tooltip information.

What's New in AutoCAD Electrical 2008 | 3

Icon Menu Wizard Enhancements

The Icon Menu Wizard allows you to easily customize the icon menus. You can now copy and paste icons from one submenu into another, drag and drop icons to place those that are commonly used at the top of the Symbol Preview window and those that are used less frequently at the bottom of the window, and create new icons to use when inserting components.

You can also easily modify the existing icon or menu properties like changing the name, image or block name. Right-click the menu or icon on the Icon Menu Wizard dialog box and select Properties. The existing data is overwritten in the *.dat file with the new changes.

For More Information (page 730)

Direct Wire Sequencing

You can now use the Edit Wire Sequence tool to define additional direct-to-terminal wire connection sequences in schematic networks. For example, 1 side of a schematic terminal might be connected to 3 field devices. A specific wire connection sequence can be defined to force the connection reporting, but it is limited to reporting the terminal as a common connection point for only 2 of the 3 field devices. The third has to be reported as jumpered to 1 of the other 2 devices. Now, with the support for secondary direct-to-terminal sequences, the third field device can be sequenced directly to the terminal and the Wire From/To report shows all 3 field devices tied directly to the terminal.

For More Information (page 528)

Visual Wiring Sequence Indicators

Once you define additional wire connection sequences, use the Show Wire Sequence tool to graphically show the new sequencing. When any changes are made to a wire sequence, the updated information is accurately reflected in the from/to wire list report.

For More Information (page 530)

Terminal Strip Editor Enhancements

The Terminal Strip Editor provides an easy way to manage and edit terminals used throughout a project. You can now start designs with a terminal strip layout drawing representing the terminal strip. In the modified Terminal Strip Selection dialog box, you can either select a terminal strip for editing, or create

4 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

a new terminal strip definition in the project and maintain its properties in the graphical terminal strip layout drawing.

The Terminal Strip Editor dialog box now has an enhanced grid control with bolder grid lines that provide better visual definition for the terminal strip. Other enhancements to the dialog box include:

■ The Terminal Pin (TPin) column is now “T.”

■ The TERM column is now “Number” to indicate the terminal numbering,

whether it is a wire number or user-defined number.

■ The Function column is now “Installation.”

■ A new column (on the far left side of the grid) indicates the level definition.

■ Tooltip instructions display once you move your cursor over 1 of the tool

buttons in the dialog box.

■ There is better context menu support that is based on individual cells.

■ The Preview tab is now “Layout Preview.”

■ The Cable Preview tab is now “Cable Information.”

New tools are available on the Terminal Strip Editor dialog box to create associations, separate levels from a multiple level terminal block into separate terminal blocks, reverse the left and right wiring information for a terminal, and edit terminal block properties such as the number of levels and number of wires per connection.

The Layout Preview tab of the Terminal Strip Editor dialog box has been enhanced to allow AutoCAD’s table objects to be inserted as a terminal strip. This allows for more accurate representations of what is in the Terminal Strip Editor, more flexibility with the style, and provides a means for automatic updating.

For More Information (page 585)

Inserting Spare Terminals

Extra terminal block definitions and accessory information is now maintained and saved on the graphical terminal strip layout. You can insert spare terminals and have them accurately update the Bill of Materials as well as various terminal reports.

For More Information (page 614)

What's New in AutoCAD Electrical 2008 | 5

Multi-Level Terminals

Multi-level terminal blocks are quickly becoming an industry standard. Using AutoCAD Electrical, you can define and manage the terminal numbers and levels as well as all connectivity information with no added complexity.

You can now associate schematic terminals to build a multi-level terminal block that is limited to the number of levels defined in the block properties. Use the new Add/Modify Associations tool to search project terminal strips for existing multi-level terminal blocks so that you can define and maintain terminal associations. Terminals must be in the same terminal strip and be in the same project to be associated together. You can also remove a terminal from any multi-level relationship and copy terminal properties from 1 terminal symbol to another.

Associating schematic terminals combines the terminals into a single terminal block property definition. The number of schematic terminals that can be combined is limited to the number of levels defined for the block property. Terminal associations can also tie together a set of schematic terminal block symbols to one panel representation of a terminal footprint.

For More Information (page 568)

Terminal Properties Database Editor

Terminal properties data is now managed based on manufacturer. Use the new Terminal Properties Database Editor tool to select the manufacturer table to edit or create a new one in the catalog database for the active project.

Terminal Jumper Support

Use the new Edit Jumper tool to add, edit, or remove jumpers between terminals that share the same potential in a schematic drawing. You can display temporary line graphics between the primary terminal and secondary terminals within the same drawing.

Jumpers now display on the panel drawing so you have a visual representation of jumpers that appear on tabular terminal strips. Cells of a table row are joined with a graphical jumper that looks like 2 circles connected by a solid thick line. Three columns of jumpers are supported within a single jumper column in the table.

6 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

Pin List Data Management

Pin list data is now managed based on manufacturer. Use the Pin List Database Editor tool to select the pin list table to edit or create a new table.

The _PINLIST table in the default_cat.mdb file now uses a single PINLIST column and a single PEER_PINLIST column. The continuation columns have been removed.

For More Information (page 795)

Installer Improvements for Manufacturer Content

You can now selectively install content based on manufacturer, reducing the size of the content databases and data redundancy. If you later decide you want to install content from another manufacturer, open the Add or Remove Programs tool in your Control Panel, select AutoCAD Electrical 2008, and click Change/Remove. Click Add/Remove Features, click Next on the first screen, and then select the manufacturers to install on the Manufacturer Contents Selection screen.

Catalog Content Updates

AutoCAD Electrical ships with a manufacturer’s catalog database that contains over 350,000 components from the industry’s most popular vendors. These components provide a full spectrum of input and output devices including switches, sensors, lights, and numerous panel devices, such as wireway and panel enclosures.

Improved Performance

Significant improvements in running commands that affect other drawings have dramatically improved the performance of AutoCAD Electrical 2008. Most notably, the Project Database Service (PDS) now only monitors the active project.

64-bit AutoCAD Electrical

AutoCAD Electrical now ships in 64-bit and 32-bit versions. The 64-bit version supports the same functionality as the 32-bit version.

DWG product recognition

Easily identify which Autodesk product created a DWG file and open the file with the application that owns the DWG file. For example, if the DWG file is

What's New in AutoCAD Electrical 2008 | 7

owned by AutoCAD, double-clicking the file in Windows Explorer automatically opens the file in AutoCAD. When you move the cursor over a DWG icon, the tooltip identifies which Autodesk product and version was used to create the DWG.

Parametric Twisted Pair Symbol Enhancements

The icon menus are enhanced to include three new parametric twisted pair symbols. To insert a twisted pair symbol, click Components > Insert Component. On the Insert Component icon menu, click Cable Markers.

User’s Guide

A User’s Guide for AutoCAD Electrical is now available in PDF format. This is accessible from the Launchpad and the homepage of the Help.

InfoCenter

A new search engine, InfoCenter, is included on the title bar of the main AutoCAD Electrical window. It searches AutoCAD and AutoCAD Electrical Help systems to give you the most relevant information for any query you enter. You can filter content and add frequently used content to the “Favorites” section.

InfoCenter replaces the Communication Center. It provides notifications of software and content updates through a balloon notification mechanism. You can also publish internal content within your team, support RSS feeds, and easily provide feedback to Autodesk.

What’s New for Previous Releases

You can now quickly see which features were added or enhanced in past releases of AutoCAD Electrical. This PDF is accessible from the homepage of the AutoCAD Electrical Help. Click on the “x” for a particular feature to get more information about what functionality was added for that release.

8 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

What's New in Previous Releases

The chart below shows which features were added or enhanced in past releases of AutoCAD Electrical. Click the ‘x’ for detailed information on what was added or enhanced for a particular release.

X (page 12)PLC Module Builder

X (page 13)Support for Multiple Design Standards

X (page 12)Automatic Report Generation

X (page 13)X (page 12)Merge Utility

2008200720062005Feature

X (page 17)X (page 13)Autodesk Inventor Professional Integration

X (page 4)X (page 12)Terminal Strip Editor

X (page 21)X (page 13)X (page 13)Engineering Design Management

X (page 7)X (page 20)X (page 12)Catalog Content Updates

X (page 14)MDI Aware

X (page 13)Insert Component (Equipment List) Tool

X (page 14)AutoCAD Data Migration

X (page 14)Convert promis.e Drawings

X (page 20)X (page 13)Project Manager

X (page 2)X (page 14)PLC I/O Libraries

X (page 4)X (page 14)Wire Sequence Updates

What's New in Previous Releases | 9

2008200720062005Feature

X (page 8)X (page 14)Help Updates

X (page 15)Connector Generation

X (page 16)Splice Tool

X (page 16)Wire Number Placement

X (page 18)Multiple Wire Bus

X (page 17)Bend Wire Tool

X (page 18)New Symbol Libraries

X (page 18)Real-time Error Checking

X (page 18)User Defined Attributes

X (page 19)Wire Label Report

10 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

X (page 20)New Project Tool

X (page 20)New Drawing Tool

X (page 20)Wire Type Selection

X (page 21)Autodesk Productstream Integration

X (page 21)Simplified Configuration Settings

X (page 17)Wire Number Leaders

X (page 16)Wire Connection Improvements

X (page 16)Wire Collision Avoidance

ments

2008200720062005Feature

X (page 19)Cross-Reference Updates

X (page 19)Table Style Cross-Reference Updates

X (page 19)Enhanced Drawing Audit Report

X (page 7)X (page 20)Improved Performance

X (page 3)X (page 15)Insert Components from a Menu

X (page 4)Icon Menu Wizard Enhancements

X (page 2)PLC I/O Import/Export

X (page 2)Spreadsheet to PLC I/O Utility Enhance-

X (page 3)Surfable Reports

X (page 4)Direct Wire Sequencing

X (page 5)Inserting Spare Terminals

X (page 6)Multi-Level Terminals

X (page 6)Terminal Jumpers

X (page 6)Terminal Properties Database Editor

X (page 7)Pin List Data Management

X (page 7)Installer Improvements

X (page 7)64-bit AutoCAD Electrical

What's New in Previous Releases | 11

What's New in 2005 Release

Terminal Strip Editor

The Terminal Strip Editor tool automatically creates accurate terminal strip drawings in either a graphical or table format. You can now manage and edit terminals used throughout an entire project through a simple interface.

PLC Module Builder

Use the new PLC Module Builder tool to graphically add new PLC modules as they are introduced by manufacturers. This eliminates the need to ever manually add any module information or wait for a new version of AutoCAD Electrical to ship.

2008200720062005Feature

X (page 7)DWG Product Recognition

X (page 8)InfoCenter

X (page 8)User’s Guide

Expanded Catalog Content

The standard parts catalog has been expanded to include more than 43,000 components from multiple vendors.

Merge Catalog Database Utility

The Merge Catalog Database utility merges the new catalog database with the customized database already on the system. This maintains any custom entries and modifications that you have made to your database while adding the new catalog information.

Automatic Report Generation

Use the new Automatic Report Generation tool to generate multiple reports with one command.

12 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

Vault Integration

The Vault Explorer and Vault Server are now included with AutoCAD Electrical to help manage your engineering data.

Enhanced Link to Autodesk Inventor Professional

The link to Autodesk Inventor Professional has been enhanced to support cable information instead of simple discrete wires.

Enhanced Drawing Standards Support

Drawing standards have been expanded to cover the JIC, IEC, JIS, and GB standards

What's New in 2006 Release

Merge Utility

Use the new Merge Utility tool to merge your existing manufacturer catalog databases, PLC I/O libraries, footprint lookup databases, and corresponding footprint symbols with your existing content in one simple operation. This maintains custom entries and modifications that you have made to your databases while adding the new database and library information.

Improved Page Management

Use the new Project Manager Enhanced Secondary Window (ESW) to manage all drawing files in a project. You can manage entire projects or make modifications to single drawings using the Project Manager ESW.

Vault Integration

Autodesk Vault Explorer and Vault Server now better handle AutoCAD Electrical projects and support work group environments where multiple users can be working on the same project at the same.

Starting designs with a panel layout drawing

You can now create a panel layout drawing, and then create the corresponding logical control schematics. Once the panel creation phase is complete, AutoCAD Electrical extracts a list of schematic components for placement

What's New in 2006 Release | 13

into schematic drawings. You choose the component location and a physical schematic representation of each device to be inserted into the layout and a "link" is automatically created between the devices. Any changes to the either schematic or panel representation updates the other.

MDI Aware

You can now have multiple drawings open at any one time. This allows you to cut and paste design information between two open drawings without closing one of them.

AutoCAD Data Migration

Use the new conversion tools to migrate existing electrical designs from AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT into AutoCAD Electrical for further modification. The existing tools have been greatly enhanced, making it even quicker and easier to migrate from AutoCAD drawings to intelligent AutoCAD Electrical designs.

promis.e Data Migration

Use the new promis.e data migration tools to easily migrate electrical designs from promis·e into AutoCAD Electrical.

Additional PLC I/O Libraries

The PLC I/O libraries have been expanded to include more than 2,000 new PLC I/O modules from industry's most popular manufacturers. Additional connection devices and panel footprint symbols have also been created and added to the lookup database.

Visual Sequence Indicators

A new option has been added to the configuration that allows you to graphically indicate the proper wiring sequence of a circuit directly on the schematic.

Printable Help

The AutoCAD Electrical Help system has been enhanced to allow you to print all or portions of the Help for reference. In the Help system, click the Contents tab, right-click on the section you would like to print (or click Print AutoCAD Electrical Help to print the entire Help system), and Select Print. In the Print

14 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

Topics dialog box, select Print the selected heading and all subtopics and press OK.

AutoCAD Electrical Launchpad

Use the new AutoCAD Electrical Launchpad to quickly access the Getting Started Manual, AutoCAD Electrical newsgroup, white papers, and more

What's New in 2007 Release

Connector Generation

Automatically generate a multi-pin parametric connector on the fly with the new Insert Connector command. The parametric connector build process allows you to select number of pins, spacing, and orientation to quickly create connector definitions in active drawing files without having to build or maintain a connector library of symbols. When you click Insert an outline of the connector displays for placement on the drawing. The rounded corners are the plug side of the connector, the x' indicates the connector insertion point and the arrow indicates the plug side wire direction. You can change the connector orientation before insertion using the Tab, V key, or X key on your keyboard.

New connector editing commands add to the features versatility:

■ Scoot - (existing Scoot feature) moves the parametric connector horizontally

or vertically, relative to the wires that are connected to the connector. Scoot also moves the wires and pins along the connector axis.

■ Reverse, Rotate, Stretch, Split Connector - allow you to reverse a connector

about its horizontal or vertical axis, rotate a connector about its insertion point at increments of 90 degrees, increase or decrease the connector's overall length or width, and split the connector into two separate block definitions.

■ Add, Delete, Move, Swap Connector Pins - allow you to add, remove, or

move the pins found inside of the connector.

Parametric Twisted Pair Symbols

The icon menus have been enhanced to include parametric twisted pair symbols. To insert a twisted pair symbol, select Components ➤ Insert

What's New in 2007 Release | 15

Component. On the Insert Component icon menu, click Miscellaneous ➤ Shields ➤ Twisted Pair.

Wire Collision Avoidance

Instead of drawing each line segment between components on your point to point drawings, simply select the two connection points and let AutoCAD Electrical do the rest. Using the existing the Insert Wire command, select a connection point on each component and your wire is automatically routed, without running through your existing geometry.

Splices

The new Splice tool allows you create up to two wire to wire connections per side while maintaining connectivity throughout your drawing and project.

Wire Number Placement

AutoCAD Electrical supports the automatic placement of new wire numbers above, below, or directly in-line with the wire. You can set the wire number placement for all new wires inserted.

You can use the new Toggle Wire Number In-Line tool to switch the wire number between in-line and the drawing default (above or below the wire). If the selected wire number is in-line, it toggles to above or below the wire based on the default Wire Number Placement setting in the Drawing Properties > Wire Numbers dialog box. If it starts as above or below, the selected wire number toggles to in-line.

Wire Connection Improvements

Enhancements were made to the Insert Wire command to make generating point to point drawings easier. These include:

■ Temporary wire graphics change color to indicate when an electrical

connection can be made.

■ Wire connection points display as a green 'x' at the wire connection point

attributes' insertion point.

■ Wires are drawn with an angled wire connection if a wire is already

connected to the selected wire connection point.

16 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

Bend Wires

Bend a wire into a right angle turn to avoid or add geometry using the new Bend Wire tool. When a wire is defined at a right angle, you can modify the wire and create a new right angle bend while maintaining the original wire connections to the components.

Reposition Wire Number Leaders

When defining wire number leaders you can type "C" at the command prompt to go into a wire leader collapse mode to collapse the wire leader back to the wire number block. You can do this immediately after inserting a leader if you determine that you don't want the leader or you can re run the Wire Number Leader command if you want to remove the leader from existing wire numbers.

Link to Autodesk Inventor Professional - Cable & Harness

You can now communicate your electrical designs bi-directionally between AutoCAD Electrical and Autodesk Inventor Professional Cable & Harness. AutoCAD Electrical users can pass electrical intent information for cables and conductors to Autodesk Inventor Professional for the automated creation of a 3D harness design. Autodesk Inventor Professional users can now pass wire connectivity information to AutoCAD Electrical for the automatic creation of the corresponding 2D schematics. Employing the widely used XML language format, you can transfer design data back and forth while maintaining structure and organization.

From the XML import from Autodesk Inventor Professional into AutoCAD Electrical, you can select from a list of connectors defined in the export and then place the connectors onto a 2D drawing file. Once the connectors have been inserted onto the drawing, you can place all wire connections to all components on the drawing file. AutoCAD Electrical parses through the file data to determine all wire From and To connections. Once the wiring information is determined the wires are routed making sure to miss existing geometry on the drawing. The wire insertion tool finds the best possible route with the least amount of wire loops in between the connection and the wires are connected in the appropriate position on the connector representation.

What's New in 2007 Release | 17

Multi-discipline Symbol Libraries

AutoCAD Electrical now includes comprehensive symbol libraries for creating pneumatic, hydraulic, and P & ID drawings.

■ Hydraulic Symbol Library: AutoCAD Electrical's hydraulic symbol library

includes filters, valves, cylinders, pressure switches, motors, pumps, meters,

restrictors, quick disconnects, flow arrows and more, all adhering to the

NFPA/T3.10.4R1-1990 and AS1101.1-1993 standards.

■ Pneumatic Symbol Library: AutoCAD Electrical's pneumatic symbol library

includes operators, valves, flow paths, filters, regulators, cylinders, meters,

motors, quick disconnects, mufflers, manifolds, flow arrows and more.

■ P & ID Symbol Library: AutoCAD Electrical's P&ID symbol library includes

equipment, tanks, nozzles, pumps, fittings, valves, actuators, logic

functions, instrumentation, flow, and flow arrows, all strictly adhering to

the ANSI/ISA's S5.1 Instrumentation Standard

Real-time Error Checking

AutoCAD Electrical monitors and alerts users to potential design errors as they occur. You can locate the problem component automatically using the Surf command.

Identify and clean up problems that might affect an AutoCAD Electrical drawing using the improved Electrical Audit tool. This tool displays a report of detected problems for the active project. You can save this file for reference or surf the file to view and correct the errors.

Multiple Wire Bus

With a single command you can configure a new multiple wire bus that automatically routes from an existing multi-contact component or bus or in empty space. While you are defining the wires, temporary display graphics appear on your cursor to indicate the direction and number of wires that will be placed on the drawing file.

User Defined Attributes

Add and define your own attributes for existing AutoCAD Electrical symbols. The newly defined metadata is easily customized and can be extracted for various reports. The new User Defined Attribute List tool allows you to selectively determine which non-AutoCAD Electrical attributes are allowed in the AutoCAD Electrical report generators; otherwise only those attributes

18 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

defined inside of AutoCAD Electrical for each component category are processed in the project database and subsequent reports.

Table style cross-referencing updates

Tabular cross-referencing styles now function at the same level as graphical and text styles. Create customizable tables, updated your drawing in real-time and benefit from increased flexibility with the way you display cross-referencing information.

Cross-reference updates

Cross-reference settings are now supported at the project, drawing, and component level. During normal operation of cross-referencing commands, AutoCAD Electrical looks to the component for its settings information prior to using the drawing settings. If the component has settings defined, those are used. In the event that there are both component and drawing cross-reference settings on the same drawing, the component settings are used where applied and the drawing settings are used for the rest of the components. Use the new Copy/Add Component Override tool to set display settings for a specific component that are different than the drawing or use the new Remove Component Override tool to remove component overrides so the cross-referencing commands use the settings for the drawing.

Use the new Hide/Unhide Cross-Reference tool to change the visibility of cross-references. In most cases the cross-referencing should be visible but there are times when you may not want cross-referencing displayed on parent symbols.

Wire Label Report

Use the new Wire Label report to list wire and cable labels that exist in your drawing or project. The new preformatted wire label report is ready for export and can be printed on any ASCII, Microsoft Excel, Access, CSV or XML-compatible wire label printer. After the report is generated, you can still edit the format or make changes to the data before exporting to your desired file format.

Enhanced Drawing Audit Report

The Drawing Audit utility can be used to clean up certain problems that might affect your design connectivity. The audit checks for wire gaps, bad wire numbers or colors, zero length wires, wire number floaters, and visually verifies

What's New in 2007 Release | 19

all wires in your display. This report can be exported as a script file for post processing or sent directly to a printer.

Catalog Content Updates

AutoCAD Electrical ships with a manufacturer's catalog database that contains over 45,000 components from the industry's most popular vendors. These components provide a full spectrum of input and output devices including switches, sensors, lights and numerous panel devices, such as wire way and panel enclosures. In order to support our worldwide user base, the catalog database now includes a greater number of Asia Pacific and European vendors.

Improved Performance

Improved memory management and script-based command reallocation have dramatically improved the performance of AutoCAD Electrical 2007. Drawings open more quickly, with enhanced editing and referencing speed.

New Project Command

Creating new projects and applying project properties is now easier using the New Project tool. In a single dialog box you can define the minimum requirements to create an AutoCAD Electrical project definition file (WDP), the folder in which the project will be maintained, and the settings and options defined within the project. The new project automatically becomes the active project.

New Drawing Command

When you are faced with multiple customers or many one-off designs, the New Drawing tool helps reduce the hassle of configuring new drawings to specific standards. In a single dialog box you can apply a template, add drawing name, border, drawing type, and descriptions, which are then stored and available for future use. The new drawing then automatically becomes part of the active project.

Simplified wire type selection

Managing wire properties from the Layer Manager is no longer necessary. During wire insertion, the current wire type displays at the command prompt. Now you can simply type in the hotkey "T" for immediate access to the Set

20 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

Wire Type dialog box where you can quickly assign the wire type. You can use this hotkey with the following commands:

■ Wires > Insert Wire

■ Wires > Angle Wires > Insert 22.5 Degree Wire (also 45 or 67.5)

■ Wires > Multiple Wire Bus

■ Wires > Add Rung

■ Wires > Ladders > Insert Ladder

Use the new Create/Edit Wire Type tool to create new or edit existing wire types or use the new Change/Convert Wire Type tool to convert lines to wires.

Simplified configuration settings

Configuration settings have been condensed into a centralized Properties dialog box, where you can view and edit project settings, format styles and select default drawing settings for the entire project or a single drawing.

Autodesk Productstream Integration

You can now use Autodesk Productstream to manage AutoCAD Electrical bill of materials (BOMs) by controlling the release and change of a design using the Change Order environment. Additional enhancements include:

Productstream now supports AutoCAD Electrical components, quantities, catalog numbers and balloon numbers.

Productstream Explorer supports all Productstream and AutoCAD Electrical data.

New controls in Productstream make it easier to navigate to and find AutoCAD Electrical data.

Autodesk Vault Integration

Autodesk Vault integration provides tools for running Vault operations on the entire project or individual drawing files listed within the project. It supports a single-user environment where the Vault working folder is local to the customer or a multiple-user environment where the Vault working folder is shared by many users on a shared network resource. Additional enhancements include:

What's New in 2007 Release | 21

You can now check out individual files as they are needed rather than having to check out the entire project at once while maintaining drawing file versioning.

The multi-user environment in AutoCAD Electrical now provides drawing status indicators and better control of project-wide commands when you are logged into Autodesk Vault.

You can now get previous versions of the drawing or project file.

22 | Chapter 1 AutoCAD Electrical What's New

Project Management

In this chapter

■ Overview of AutoCAD

Electrical Help

■ Overview of projects

■ About collaborative design

■ Create a new drawing

■ Change drawing display

options

■ Overview of project

related files

■ Overview of the project

file format

■ Archive a project

■ Work with Multiple Clients

■ Miscellaneous Reference

files

Overview of AutoCAD Electrical Help

The AutoCAD Electrical Help system is a browser-based system available through context-sensitive links or by accessing it through the Help menu or icon. Key features of the Help system include:

■ The Help home page is designed for new users. It provides access to the

basic Procedure topics.

■ There is on-demand access from the F1 function key, menus, dialog boxes

and the menu bar.

■ Then navigation tabs in each topic link to related procedures, references,

and concepts.

■ The Help menu gives you access to Design Support System (DSS)

components: AutoCAD Electrical Help and AutoCAD Electrical Launchpad.

What are ways to gain access to Help?

You can get help about a command while you are using it.

Help Menu

Press F1

Help button

From the menu bar, select Help ➤ Electrical Help Topics to view the AutoCAD Electrical Help home page.

■ At the command prompt, press F1 to open the Procedure topic for the active tool.

■ In a dialog box, press F1 to open the Reference topic for the active tool.

In a dialog box, click Help to open the Reference topic for the active tool.

How is Help organized?

Most of the subjects in the Help system have three topic types: Procedure, Reference, and Concept. Every Help topic selected from a menu has a tab row

24 | Chapter 2 Project Management

above the topic title. You can click a tab to go to the other available topic types.

■ Procedure topics provide step-by-step procedures for accomplishing

AutoCAD Electrical tasks.

■ Reference topics offer detailed descriptions of elements in the dialog box.

■ Concept topics provide conceptual information about tools and tasks and

may explain related concepts.

There are See Also links at the bottom of the topic that display a list of related topics.

The titles of Help topics are designed to tell you the kind of information they contain:

■ Procedure topics start with an action word, for example, "Create projects."

■ Reference topics have the names of the dialog box as their titles.

■ Concept topics start with the words "Learn about."

How do I get around in the Help system?

When you start the Help system, the first thing you see is the AutoCAD Electrical Help home page. This page is designed for new users and accesses the basic Procedure topics. For a list of all the Procedure topics, you can access the Site Map. There is an option to make the Site Map your home page.

Navigation bar

Table of Contents

At the top of every Help window is a navigation bar with icons. The left-most icon is either Show or Hide, which opens or closes the navigation pane of the Help window. The navigation pane has tabs for Table of Contents, Index, Search, and Favorites.

Presents an overview of the available documentation in a list of topics and subtopics and provides a structure so you can always see where you are in Help and quickly jump to other topics. Click AutoCAD Electrical Command Listing for an alphabetical list of AutoCAD Electrical tools found in the menu and toolbars.

Overview of AutoCAD Electrical Help | 25

Index

You can enter a word in the box to locate the term in the alphabetical index. Double-click the term to display the topic, or if multiple topics, to open a list of topics found.

Favorites

You can enter a search word in the box and click List Topics to view a list of topics that contain the search word anywhere in their content. Click a title, and then click Display (or double-click a title) to open the topic.

With a topic visible in the Help window, you can click the Favorites tab, and then click Add to add the current topic to a list of favorites. To remove a topic from the list, select the topic in the list, and then click Remove.

How do I learn the product?

Training programs and products from Autodesk help you learn the key technical features and improve your productivity. For the latest information about Autodesk training, visit http://www.autodesk.com/training or contact your local Autodesk office.

The Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC) network delivers Autodesk-authorized, instructor-led training to design professionals who use Autodesk software. Autodesk Authorized Training Centers use experienced and knowledgeable instructors. More than 1,200 ATC sites are available worldwide to meet your needs for discipline-specific, locally based training.

To find a training center near you, contact your local Autodesk office or visit

http://www.autodesk.com/atc.

Use AutoCAD Electrical Help

AutoCAD Electrical has a variety of learning tools to assist you, whether you are a newcomer or an experienced CAD user.

To gain access to Help

Use any of the following methods to gain access to Help.

■ Select Help ➤ Electrical Help Topics from the menu bar, and then browse

to the desired topic. You can use the tabbed pane to access the Index, Search, or Table of Contents. You can also navigate through the home page and site map.

26 | Chapter 2 Project Management

■ Press F1 to open the Procedure or Reference Help topic for the active

command.

■ In an open dialog box, press F1 or click Help to open the Reference topic

for the active command.

To customize Help

Use any of the following methods to customize Help.

■ Click the Hide or Show button in the Help toolbar to control the visibility

of the tabbed pane beside the content window.

■ To add a topic to the Favorites tab, select a Help topic, click the Favorites

tab, and then click Add. To delete a topic from the Favorites tab, select the topic in the list, and then click Delete.

To search Help

Another method for finding Help topics is to use the Search tab.

1 Click Show in the browser toolbar if the tabbed navigation pane is not

displayed.

2 Click the Search tab.

3 Enter text in the search text box, and then click List Topics. Use quotation

marks (" ") around the search criteria to search for a string. Use an asterisk (*) before or after text as a wildcard.

4 Double-click a topic or select a topic, and then click Display to show the

topic.

5 You can also select one or more of the following Search options to limit

the results.

■ Search previous results

■ Match similar words

■ Search titles only

6 Use operators to further refine your Search criteria. Click the right arrow

next to the search text box, and then select one of the following operators.

■ AND Use AND to search for topics with more than one set of your

search criteria.

Overview of AutoCAD Electrical Help | 27

■ OR Use OR to search for topics with at least one of your search criteria.

■ NEAR Use Near to search for specified text within close proximity to

each other.

■ NOT Use NOT to search for topics that do not include your search

criteria.

To print Help

You can print a single file or you can print sections of the Help.

1 In the Help Contents tab, right-click on a heading and select Print.

2 Select whether to print the selected topic or the selected heading and all

subheadings.

NOTE You can also print a single topic by right-clicking in the file and selecting Print.

3 Click OK.

If you want to print the entire Help system, in the Contents tab, right-click on AutoCAD Electrical Help and select Print. Select the option to print the selected heading and all subheadings and click OK.

To find out What's New about AutoCAD Electrical

What's New topics describe the new functionality in the most recent AutoCAD Electrical release.

1 Click Help ➤ AutoCAD Electrical Help. In the AutoCAD Electrical Help,

click What's New from the navigation bar.

You can also open the What's New by selecting Help ➤ Display Launchpad. Click What's New on the AutoCAD Electrical Launchpad.

2 Browse to a feature you want to learn about.

3 Click More Information to learn more about the feature.

To get started with AutoCAD Electrical using Getting Started

1 Select Help ➤ Display Launchpad.

28 | Chapter 2 Project Management

The AutoCAD Electrical Launchpad screen appears. The Launchpad has two sections. The top section is for first-time users. It has links to white papers, the Getting Started manual, the AutoCAD Electrical newsgroup, and frequently asked questions. The bottom section has links to places for additional information about AutoCAD Electrical. You can find out what's new in the current release, link to the Advanced Productivity home page, and find out more about additional Autodesk products.

2 Click Getting Started Manual on the AutoCAD Electrical Launchpad.

Overview of projects

A project is a set of interrelated wiring diagram drawings. An ASCII text file, called the project file, lists the AutoCAD drawing file names that make up the wiring diagram set. You can have as many projects as you wish, but only one project can be active at a time.

An AutoCAD Electrical project file:

■ Is an ASCII text file with any path and any name followed by the .WDP

extension.

■ Lists the complete path to each wiring diagram drawing included in the

project.

■ Carries default settings that can be referenced when new drawings are

created and added to the project.

NOTE A project file is not needed if the project consists of a single wiring diagram drawing.

Project files default to the directory pointed to by your project subdirectory (given by the WD_PROJ setting in your environment file). This is not mandatory. When you create a project file, you can save it to any subdirectory. In some cases you may want to store them in client-specific subdirectories to take advantage of the AutoCAD Electrical ability to access client-specific catalog files and library symbols.

Use recently opened projects

The Project Manager displays a list of recently opened projects so you can easily select another project to open without having to browse for it. The project list is dynamic with the last project you worked on appearing at the

Overview of projects | 29

top of the list. The list of recent projects is saved in a text file called lastproj.fil in the user subdirectory (\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\User).

Each line in this file gives the information for one project. The last piece of data in the line identifies what the project state will be when AutoCAD Electrical is started: "2"=Active, "1"=listed as Open, "0"= not listed in window but available from the Recent Projects dialog box. If you adjust this file, either manually with a text editor or programmatically (see the AutoCAD Electrical API Help), you can control what project will be active when AutoCAD Electrical starts up and what other projects will be shown in the Project Manager window.

Work with projects

Use the Project Manager to create a new project, access an existing project, add drawings to a project, or modify existing information associated with a project.

30 | Chapter 2 Project Management

Create a new project

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 On the Project Manager, click the New Project button.

NOTE You can also create a new project by right-clicking at the

bottom of the tree inside the Project Manager and selecting New Project or by clicking the arrow on the Project Selection menu and selecting New Project.

3 In the Create New Project dialog box, enter the name for the

new project. The .WDP extension is automatically added to the filename.

4 Select or create the directory where you want to save the pro-

ject.

5 (Optional) Specify the an existing project file (WDP) to use.

Use the default or click Browse to select a previously-defined project definition file.

6 (Optional) Click Descriptions to enter descriptions for the

project. You can enter up to 12 description lines per page. You can also select the checkboxes for the information to be included in reports generated for the project.

7 (Optional) Click OK-Properties to modify your project default

settings for project settings, components, wire numbering, cross-references, styles, and drawing formats. All information defined in these tabs is saved to the project definition file as project and drawing defaults.

8 Click OK.

Add a new drawing to the current project

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

Overview of projects | 31

2 On the Project Manager, click the New Drawing button.

3 Create a new drawing (page 63) and click OK.

4 In the Project Manager, right-click the project name and select

Add Active Drawing. The drawing is added to the end of the existing list.

Add existing drawings to the current project

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, right-click the project name, and select

Add Drawings.

3 In the Select Files to Add dialog box, select the drawings to be

added to the current project. You can select multiple drawings using the Shift or Control keyboard keys.

NOTE The order in which you select drawings determine how they will be listed in the project drawing list.

4 Click Add.

The drawings are added to end of the project drawing list.

Copy a project

Copy a project file and create copies of one or more drawings in the project.

1 Click the arrow on the Project Manager tool to access the Copy

Project tool.

2 Click the Copy Project tool.

32 | Chapter 2 Project Management

Enter the name of the project to copy.

NOTE All drawings must be closed before they can be copied to

a new project.

■ Click Copy active project to copy the current project.

■ Click Browse to select a project to copy.

4 Click OK.

5 Select the directory where you want to save the new project.

6 Enter the name for the new project. The .WDP extension is

automatically added to the filename.

7 Click Save.

8 Select one or more drawings to copy to the new project.

Do All: Selects all drawings from the project drawing list to be copied

■

to the new project.

■ Process: Selects one or more drawings from the project drawing list to be copied to the new project.

■ Reset: Moves all selected drawings back to the project drawing list.

■ Un-select: Moves one or more drawings back to the project drawing

list.

■ by Section/sub-section: Selects drawings by sections and subsections.

9 Click OK.

10 Enter the directory path where the new project will be saved.

If the directory does not exist, it will be created.

11 Select the project-related files to be copied. (see list below)

12 Click OK.

13 Modify the new drawing file names if necessary.

14 Click OK. The new project becomes the current project.

Overview of projects | 33

Project-related files to be copied

On the Copy Project: Step 4 -- Enter Base Path for Project Drawings dialog box you can select the project-related files to be copied to the new path. Options include:

■ Title block setup (.wdt)

■ Project line labels (.wdl)

■ Component description defaults (.wdd)

■ Catalog lookup database (cat.mdb)

■ Footprint lookup database (lookup.mdb)

■ Family code mapping (wd_fam.dat)

■ Wire color/gauge label (.wdw)

■ Schematic lookup database (schematic_lookup.mdb)

■ Location codes (.loc)

■ Installation codes (.inst)

■ Ratings defaults (.wdr)

■ Component tagging (.wdx)

■ Spreadsheet PLC I/O Utility settings (.wdi)

■ RSLogix import mapping (.wdf)

■ User defined attributes (.wda)

■ Terminal audit filter (.wdn)

Work with project drawings

Use the Project Manager to access an existing project and modify its associated information.

Group drawings within a project

You can create groups of drawings within your project list by assigning sections and subsection codes to each drawing. The AutoCAD Electrical project-wide tagging, cross-referencing, and reporting functions can then operate on the

34 | Chapter 2 Project Management

whole project (default) or, using this section/subsection coding, on just a portion of the drawing set.

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, right-click the drawing name, and se-

lect Properties ➤ Drawing Properties.

3 In the Drawing Properties dialog box, click the Settings (page

114)tab.

4 In the Sheet Values section, enter a section or subsection code

for the drawing.

5 Click OK.

Repeat for each drawing you want to group together, making sure to assign the same section or subsection code to each.

Change the order of drawings in the project

The order in which drawings appear in the project's drawing list is the order in which AutoCAD Electrical processes them in project-wide tagging and

Overview of projects | 35

cross-referencing operations. You can change the drawing order using the Reorder Drawings tool.

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, right-click the project name, and select

Reorder Drawings.

3 Find and highlight the drawing you want to move in the list.

4 Click Move Up or Move Down repeatedly until the drawing

moves to the appropriate position in the list.

5 Click OK.

Remove a drawing from the active project

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, right-click the drawing name, and se-

lect Remove.

The drawing is instantly removed from the project but it is not deleted.

NOTE You can remove all drawings from a project by right-clicking the project name in the Project Manager, and selecting Remove Drawings. Select the drawings to remove from the Select Drawings to Process dialog box, and click OK.

Assign a description to each drawing

You can assign a 3-line description to each drawing listed in your project. You can then toggle the project drawing list back and forth between drawing preview and drawing details. Flipping the drawing list to display the drawing

36 | Chapter 2 Project Management

details can make it easier to find a specific drawing among dozens or hundreds in a project file.

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, right-click the drawing name, and se-

lect Properties ➤ Drawing Properties.

3 In the Drawing Properties ➤ Settings (page 114) dialog box,

enter a description for the drawing.

Select from a list of predefined descriptions from the active project by clicking the arrow.

4 Click OK.

TIP These descriptions can be linked to an attribute in the title block for automatic

update.

Preview a drawing

You can preview a drawing from the Project Manager.

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, select a drawing from the list.

3 In the Details pane, click Preview.

An image of the highlighted drawing displays. Once selected, the preview remains on. Each time you highlight another drawing in the project list the display updates with an image of the selected drawing.

4 Click Details to return to the drawing description for the

drawings.

Pick a different project

AutoCAD Electrical displays a list of recently opened projects so you can easily select another project to open without having to browse for it. The project list is dynamic with the last project you worked on appearing at the top of

Overview of projects | 37

the list. The list of recent projects is saved in a text file called lastproj.fil in the user subdirectory.

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, click the arrow on the Project Selection

menu, and select Recent.

3 In the Recent Projects dialog box, select the project from the

list.

4 Click Drawings to see a list of the drawings in the selected

project.

In the Project Drawings dialog box, double-click a drawing name to see a preview of that drawing. Click Pick Project, Open Drawing to make the selected project the active project and open the selected drawing or click Back to return to the Recent Projects dialog box.

5 (Optional) Click Remove to remove a project from the project

list.

6 Click OK.

The selected project becomes the active project.

NOTE If you know the drawing name but you aren't sure what project the drawing is in, click Find in the Recent Projects dialog box. In the Find Drawing in Recent Projects dialog box, enter the name of the drawing (wildcards are accepted) and click Find. Once a list of possible projects is presented, select the project name and click Drawing List to see a list of the drawings contained in the project. Double-click the drawing name in the list to preview the drawing. Click Pick Project, Open Drawing to activate the project and open the selected drawing.

Project manager

This tool lists the drawing files associated with each open project. Use it to add new drawings, reorder drawing files, and change project settings. You cannot have two projects open in the Project Manager with the same project name.

You can dock the Project Manager into a specific location on the screen or hide it until you want to use the project tools. Right-click the properties icon

38 | Chapter 2 Project Management

Access:

to display options to move, size, close, dock, hide, or set the transparency for the Project Manager.

Click the Project Manager tool.

Click Projects ➤ Project ➤ Project Manager.

Right-click menu

You can right-click in empty space in the Project Manager to display the following options:

New Project

New Drawing

Recent

New Project

Open Project

Creates a new project. Once created, the new project automatically becomes the active project.

Creates a new drawing file and adds it to the active project. The new drawing displays at the bottom of the project drawing list for the active project.

Project Selection menu

You can default to a predefined directory by adding an entry to your .env file. Exit AutoCAD and open the .env file with any generic text editor (such as Wordpad). Add this line:

WD_PICKPRJDLG, n:/{your directory}/, AutoCAD Electrical default pick proj

Opens a different project from a list of recent projects or from a file selection dialog box.

Creates a new project. Once created, the new project automatically becomes the active project.

Opens a different project from a file selection dialog box. In the Select Project File dialog box, navigate to the project to open and select it.

Overview of projects | 39

Open Project from Vault

Buttons

(you must be logged into the vault) Allows you to browse to the vault to open a project and make it active inside of the Project Manager. In the Select Project dialog box, navigate to the project to open and select it. Click the arrow next to the Open button and select one of the following options: Open (Check Out), Open (Check Out All), or Open Read-Only.

New Project

New Drawing

Refresh

Project Task List

Creates a new project. Once created, the new project automatically becomes the active project.

Creates a new drawing file and adds it to the active project.

Refreshes the drawing list inside of the Project Manager. For Vault: Checks for changes in external file references and updates the Vault icons in the Project Manager. Files that have changed and are currently checked out to you are not updated. Files that are checked out to another user are updated to their current version. Files that are checked out to another user are updated to their current version on your local drive. If the Vault version is newer, then the Vault icon indicates that the file needs reloading (the Vault icon turns red).

Performs pending updates on any drawing files inside of the active project that have been modified.

40 | Chapter 2 Project Management

Project-Wide Update/Retag

Updates the related line reference numbers, cross-reference text, device tagging, and signal reference updates on the selected drawing files inside of the active project.

Drawing List Display Configuration

Publish/Plot

Configures the display options. There are 10 values that can be associated with the drawings listed so you can display the information based on your requirements.

Batch plots one or more drawings in the active project.

Projects

Displays all the open projects in a list. You can have as many projects open as you need, but only one project can be active at a time. The active project appears in bold text and is always found at the top of the list. Right-click the project name to display the following project editing options:

Descriptions

Title Block Update

Drawing List Report

Edits the existing project descriptions. Displays unlimited lines describing the project. Descriptions can then be included in report headers and title blocks.

Automates updating title block information for the active drawing or for the entire project drawing set.

Generates a report that lists project drawing information from the title blocks such as drawing descriptions, section, and file names. On the Drawing List Report dialog box, select to run a new report, redisplay the previously-run report or select a format .set file to use for the report.

Add Drawings

Creates a new drawing file and adds it to the active project.New Drawing

Adds one or more drawings to the active project. When prompted, specify whether to apply the project default values to the drawing settings (in the WD_M block definition).

Overview of projects | 41

Add Active Drawing

Adds an active drawing to the active project. The new drawing appears at the end of the project drawing list. When prompted, specify whether to apply the project default values to the drawing settings (in the WD_M block definition).

Reorder Drawings

Task List

Publish

Settings

Exception List

Properties

Moves drawings up or down in the project's drawing list. The order determines how the drawings are processed for project-wide tagging and cross-referencing operations.

Removes one or more drawings from the current project.Remove Drawings

NOTE The drawing file is not deleted, just the reference to the drawing.

Performs pending updates on any drawing files inside of the active project that have been modified.

Launches dialog boxes to plot the project, publish to the Web, publish to DWF, or create a zip file of the project.

Displays the project's settings and information about the AutoCAD Electrical environment.

Displays a list of drawing file(s) that have different settings from the project definition file (*.WDP). If all drawing files match the .wdp, the dialog box indicates that there are no exceptions. You can then use the Settings Compare tool to display the differences.

Controls project-wide settings including tagging, component crossreferencing options, and catalog lookup file preferences.

Activate

Makes an open project the active project in the AutoCAD Electrical session. This also sends the project list to the top of the dialog.

Closes an open project.Close

NOTE You cannot close the active project; you must first activate another project in the list.

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Vault

You must be logged into the vault to see this menu in the Project Manager. The status of the selected object determines which vault commands are available for selection.

Check In All

Check Out All

Check In

Adds the project definition file (*.wdp) along with its drawing files to the vault. You can vault just the project file using the Project Check In command or you can vault the project file along with its drawing files using the project Check In All command.

NOTE Files used to support the project (such as *.wdl and *.wdt) appear in the Vault Check In All dialog box if they share the same file name as the project.

Reserves and locks the project definition file along with the associated drawing files listed in the Project Manager. If the project definition file is unavailable for check out, you can still check out the drawings available for editing.

Adds the project definition file to the vault and creates a new version of the file. Use this if you want to check in only the project definition file and none of its drawing file dependencies; otherwise use Check In All.

NOTE Files used to support the project (such as *.wdl and *.wdt) will appear in the Vault Check In dialog box if they share the same file name as the project.

Check Out

Reserves and locks the master project definition file. Retrieves an updated copy, if necessary. Use this if you want

Overview of projects | 43

to check out only the project definition file and none of its drawing file dependencies; otherwise use Check Out All.

Undo Check Out/Undo Check Out All

Get Latest/Get Latest All

Removes the reservation/lock from the master project definition file. The master file is now available for others to check out. Any modifications made to the local copy are not checked back into the vault. Undo Check Out All removes the lock from all of the checked out drawing files and project definition file listed inside of the Project Manager for the selected project.

Retrieves the latest master copy from the vault and copies it into your working folder. Older files are indicated by the status indicator displaying a red background.

Project Drawing List

Displays the drawings associated with a project. You can select multiple drawings from the project list to open, close, remove, apply project defaults, or paste properties all at once. You cannot select multiple drawings from two or more projects. The active drawing appears in bold text in the list. By default, the selected drawing highlights in the project drawing list regardless if the Project Manager is active or not. You can turn this off by clicking the Drawing List Display Configuration button and selecting Show selection highlight only when active.

Indicates that the file is a drawing file.

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Indicates that a drawing file is a reference drawing. To make a drawing a reference drawing, right-click on the drawing

name and select Properties ➤ Drawing Properties.

Right-click the drawing name to display the following drawing editing options:

Open

Copy To

Replace

Drawing Properties

Opens the selected drawing in a new window. You can also double-click a drawing name or select a drawing name and press Enter to open the drawing.

Closes the selected drawing.Close

Copies the selected drawing into the same or another open project. Select the folder to copy the drawing to, enter a new file name and select the project to save the drawing to. When prompted, specify whether to apply the project default values to the drawing settings (in the WD_M block definition).

Removes the selected drawing from the current project.Remove

Replaces the selected drawing with one that you select from a file selection dialog box.

Renames the selected drawing directly in the drawing list.Rename

Assigns, edits, and removes section and subsection coding for a drawing. Assigns drawing descriptions to the drawing files.

Apply Project Defaults

Copy

Applies project settings to new drawing files where the project default settings for the drawing(s) were not applied at creation time.

Copies the drawing settings and options from one drawing to be applied to one or more drawing(s).

Overview of projects | 45

NOTE Drawing-specific information (found on the Drawing

Properties ➤ Drawing Settings tab) cannot be copied from one drawing to another.

Paste

Settings Compare

Check In

Check Out

Undo Check Out

Get Latest

Applies the copied drawing settings and options from one drawing to the selected drawing(s).

Displays differences between all drawing settings and their associated defaults in the project definition file.

(you must be logged into the vault) Adds a file to the vault and creates a new version of the file. For a first time check in of a drawing file, the project definition file is forced to be checked in at the same time since it needs to be vaulted first to establish a location in the Vault database.

(you must be logged into the vault) Reserves and locks the master drawing file. Retrieves an updated copy, if necessary. Checks out the drawing files when the project file is under Vault control.

(you must be logged into the vault) Removes the reservation/lock from the master drawing file. The master file is now available for others to check out. Any modifications made to the local copy are not checked back into the vault.

(you must be logged into the vault) Retrieves the latest master copy from the vault and copies it into your working folder. Older files are indicated by the status indicator displaying a red background.

NOTE Two projects can reference the same drawing file, however doing so can lead to conflicts if both projects try to modify the same drawing with a project-wide tagging or cross-referencing function.

Details

Switches between displaying drawing previews and drawing descriptions. The drawing details are updated when you highlight a drawing file and remain

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visible until a new drawing file is selected. Use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to switch drawings.

Details

Preview

Displays project and drawing detail based on what is highlighted in the Project pane. Information that is listed includes the status, file name, file location, file size, last saved date, and the name of the last user who modified the file.

Displays the last saved thumbnail view for the highlighted drawing in the drawing list.

Vault Status Icons

(you must be logged into the vault) The Vault Status Icons indicate the status of your local copy of the files as compared against the master copy of those same files in the vault.

The Vault Status indicate when the local copy is in sync with the master and when it's not. The tooltips help guide you to the next logical steps - especially when the local copy is no longer in sync with the master. These icons are crucial to the overall understanding of how to work in a vaulted environment.

MeaningIcon

File is not in the vault.

File is in the vault in a checked-in state, and the version you are working on is the same as in the vault. Also referred to as the Latest Version.

File is in the vault in a checked-in state, but the version you are working on is newer than the master file in the vault. This typically means that your local file was changed without checking it out. The blank icon indicates that the master file is available for check out. If you want to save these changes, check the file out, and then select the Don't get local copy option.

File is in the vault in a checked-in state, but the version you are working on is older than the latest version in the vault. This typically means that another user made changes since your last update. Use Reload to update to the latest available version.

Overview of projects | 47

The master file is checked out to you and the version you are working on is the same as in the vault.

File is checked out to you, but the version you are working on is newer than the latest version in the vault. This typically means that you made changes to the model since the last time you checked out the file, but have not checked it back in.

File is checked out to you, but the version you are working on is older than the master file in the vault. This typically means that you started with a version for the vault that was older than the latest, and checked it out to promote it to the latest.

File is checked out to another user, and the version you are working on is the same as in the vault. Also referred to as the Latest Version. This typically happens if the other user did not check changes back into the vault.

File is checked out to another user, and the version you are working on is newer than the file in the vault. This typically happens if the user checked in changes to the vault, but kept the file checked out. Use Refresh from Vault to update to the latest available version.

File is checked out to another user, but the version you are working on is older than the latest version in the vault, and another user checked out this file. Use Refresh from Vault to update to the latest available version.

File is locked and the local copy of the file is the same as the master file in the vault.

File is locked and the local copy of the file is newer than the master file in the vault.

File is locked and the local copy of the file is older than the master file in the vault.

Create new project

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Access:

Use this to define the minimum requirements to create an AutoCAD Electrical project definition file (WDP), the folder in which the project is maintained, and the settings and options defined within the project.

On the Project Manager, click the New Project button or select New Project from the Project Selection menu.

From the Projects menu, select Project ➤ Project Manager. Click the New Project button or select New Project from the Project Selection menu.

NOTE You can also create a new project by right-clicking at the bottom of the tree inside the Project Manager, and selecting New Project.

Name

Location

Create Folder with Project Name

Copy Settings from Project File

Specifies the name for the new project. A name must be entered in order to define any of the project properties.

NOTE The .wdp extension is not required in the edit box.

Specifies the location for a project definition file and folder definition. If left blank, the project definition file is created at the WD.ENV project location. Click Browse to pick a folder where the new project file/folder will be created.

NOTE You cannot have duplicate project names in the same location.

Creates a folder with the same name as the project where the drawing files and project definition are stored. The folder is created following the path defined in the project location edit box.

Specifies the project settings. You can select a previously-defined project setting and apply it to your new project definition file. Click Browse to select a previously defined project definition file to copy over and apply settings to the new project being created.

Overview of projects | 49

Descriptions

Specifies the project descriptions. Descriptions can be included in report headers and title blocks

OK-Properties

Access:

Creates the project definition file in the specified location before opening the Project Properties dialog box where you can define default settings and options for your project which are saved in the project definition file.

Copy project: step 1 - select existing project to copy

Click the arrow on the Project Manager tool to access the Copy Project tool.

From the Projects menu, select Project ➤ Copy Project.

NOTE If the active drawing is one of those to be copied to a new project, cancel out of the dialog box, open a new drawing, and then restart the Copy Project command.

Copies the active project.Copy Active Project

Selects another project to copy.Browse

About collaborative design

In a collaborative design environment, several people can work on a project at the same time. The project file (.WDP) lists all the drawings that are part of a project. You can use Autodesk Vault with AutoCAD Electrical for drawing management, version control, and revision labeling.

You must install Autodesk Vault to vault projects. Autodesk Vault prevents engineers from working on the original version of a project in the vault. To maintain the relationship between the drawing files that are defined in the project file, you must check out all files specified in a project file when you need to modify one or more files. When edits are complete, the project can be checked back into the vault.

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AutoCAD Vault ARX adds vaulting functionality to the Project Manager. Upon initial start-up of AutoCAD Electrical you are not logged into the vault. You must log into Autodesk Vault using the File ➤ Vault menu to vault projects. The vault commands are available by right-clicking a project or drawing within the AutoCAD Electrical Project Manager. You can use the Project Manager to:

■ Check projects in and out of the vault

The most basic requirement of the vault is that you never work directly on a file in the vault. The projects in the vault are the Masters and cannot be edited. You must check out the project to the working folder on your local drive to edit it. When you finish working on the project, you must check the project back into the vault.

TIP If you want others to view updates you made to a project and you want to continue modifying the project, select the Keep Checked Out option on the Check In dialog box. This checks in the updates you made to the project and keeps the project checked out to you.

NOTE You must have all references of a project file downloaded to your working folder to edit the project file.

■ View the status of files in a design.

Vault status icons indicate the status of your local copy of the files as compared against the master copy of those same files in the vault. The vault status icons indicate when the local copy is in sync with the master and when it is not. Tooltips provide descriptions of the icons. Pause the cursor over a status icon to see a detailed description. The tooltips also help guide you to the next logical steps, especially when the local copy is no longer in sync with the master. The vault status icons are crucial to the overall understanding of how to work in a vaulted environment.

NOTE The vault status icons are only available in the list view and only appear when you are logged into the vault.

Key Concepts

■ The master files are stored and maintained in the file store on the Vault

server. The vault database is also located on the server. It can be on the same or a different server from where the file store is located. The database maintains the metadata for the files in the file store and the relationships between those files.

About collaborative design | 51

■ The vault is referred to as the virtual location of the files. Users do not

work directly on the master files. A file must be checked out from the virtual location in the vault to a physical location in the working folder before it can be modified.

■ Each user must have a physical location on their disk mapped to the

corresponding vault location. A folder that has been mapped to the root folder ("$") in a vault is called a working folder. Each Vault user can optionally set a local working folder (physical location on disk) for the root of the vault or just rely on the default one (C:\My Documents\Vault) provided by Vault. Setting up a working folder creates a user-define virtual-to-physical mapping that is maintained for as long as the user works with the vault. The working folder can be changed, but the mapping itself cannot be removed.

■ When you check out a project, that project is copied from the virtual

location in the vault to the physical location in the working folder. When you are ready to check the project back in, the mapping tells the vault where to check the files in from.

■ Opening a project from the vault checks all files out to the working folder

of the Vault user. In addition, you can open a file in a checked-in state as read-only.

The essential rules to remember when working with AutoCAD Electrical Vault ARX are:

■ The projects in the vault are the masters.

■ You can check a project or a single drawing out of the vault to modify it.

■ To check out a project for editing you must set up a working folder on the

disk.

Refer to the Managing Your Data book for more information on AutoCAD Electrical Vault ARX.

Project manager

You can dock the Project Manager into a specific location on the screen or hide it until you want to use the project tools. Right-click the properties icon

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Access:

to display options to move, size, close, dock, hide, or set the transparency for the Project Manager.

Click the Project Manager tool.

Click Projects ➤ Project ➤ Project Manager.

Right-click menu

You can right-click in empty space in the Project Manager to display the following options:

New Project

New Drawing

Recent

New Project

Open Project

Creates a new project. Once created, the new project automatically becomes the active project.

Creates a new drawing file and adds it to the active project. The new drawing displays at the bottom of the project drawing list for the active project.

Project Selection menu

You can default to a predefined directory by adding an entry to your .env file. Exit AutoCAD and open the .env file with any generic text editor (such as Wordpad). Add this line:

WD_PICKPRJDLG, n:/{your directory}/, AutoCAD Electrical default pick proj

Opens a different project from a list of recent projects or from a file selection dialog box.

Creates a new project. Once created, the new project automatically becomes the active project.

Opens a different project from a file selection dialog box. In the Select Project File dialog box, navigate to the project to open and select it.

About collaborative design | 53

Open Project from Vault

Buttons

New Project

New Drawing

Refresh

Project Task List

Creates a new project. Once created, the new project automatically becomes the active project.

Creates a new drawing file and adds it to the active project.

Performs pending updates on any drawing files inside of the active project that have been modified.

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Project-Wide Update/Retag

Updates the related line reference numbers, cross-reference text, device tagging, and signal reference updates on the selected drawing files inside of the active project.

Drawing List Display Configuration

Publish/Plot

Configures the display options. There are 10 values that can be associated with the drawings listed so you can display the information based on your requirements.

Batch plots one or more drawings in the active project.

Projects

Descriptions

Title Block Update

Drawing List Report

Edits the existing project descriptions. Displays unlimited lines describing the project. Descriptions can then be included in report headers and title blocks.

Automates updating title block information for the active drawing or for the entire project drawing set.

Add Drawings

Creates a new drawing file and adds it to the active project.New Drawing

Adds one or more drawings to the active project. When prompted, specify whether to apply the project default values to the drawing settings (in the WD_M block definition).

About collaborative design | 55

Add Active Drawing

Reorder Drawings

Task List

Publish

Settings

Exception List

Properties

Moves drawings up or down in the project's drawing list. The order determines how the drawings are processed for project-wide tagging and cross-referencing operations.

Removes one or more drawings from the current project.Remove Drawings

NOTE The drawing file is not deleted, just the reference to the drawing.

Performs pending updates on any drawing files inside of the active project that have been modified.

Launches dialog boxes to plot the project, publish to the Web, publish to DWF, or create a zip file of the project.

Displays the project's settings and information about the AutoCAD Electrical environment.

Controls project-wide settings including tagging, component crossreferencing options, and catalog lookup file preferences.

Activate

Makes an open project the active project in the AutoCAD Electrical session. This also sends the project list to the top of the dialog.

Closes an open project.Close

NOTE You cannot close the active project; you must first activate another project in the list.

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Vault

You must be logged into the vault to see this menu in the Project Manager. The status of the selected object determines which vault commands are available for selection.

Check In All

Check Out All

Check In

NOTE Files used to support the project (such as *.wdl and *.wdt) appear in the Vault Check In All dialog box if they share the same file name as the project.

NOTE Files used to support the project (such as *.wdl and *.wdt) will appear in the Vault Check In dialog box if they share the same file name as the project.

Check Out

Reserves and locks the master project definition file. Retrieves an updated copy, if necessary. Use this if you want

About collaborative design | 57

to check out only the project definition file and none of its drawing file dependencies; otherwise use Check Out All.

Undo Check Out/Undo Check Out All

Get Latest/Get Latest All

Retrieves the latest master copy from the vault and copies it into your working folder. Older files are indicated by the status indicator displaying a red background.

Project Drawing List

Indicates that the file is a drawing file.

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Indicates that a drawing file is a reference drawing. To make a drawing a reference drawing, right-click on the drawing

name and select Properties ➤ Drawing Properties.

Right-click the drawing name to display the following drawing editing options:

Open

Copy To

Replace

Drawing Properties

Opens the selected drawing in a new window. You can also double-click a drawing name or select a drawing name and press Enter to open the drawing.

Closes the selected drawing.Close

Removes the selected drawing from the current project.Remove

Replaces the selected drawing with one that you select from a file selection dialog box.

Renames the selected drawing directly in the drawing list.Rename

Assigns, edits, and removes section and subsection coding for a drawing. Assigns drawing descriptions to the drawing files.

Apply Project Defaults

Copy

Applies project settings to new drawing files where the project default settings for the drawing(s) were not applied at creation time.

Copies the drawing settings and options from one drawing to be applied to one or more drawing(s).

About collaborative design | 59

NOTE Drawing-specific information (found on the Drawing

Properties ➤ Drawing Settings tab) cannot be copied from one drawing to another.

Paste

Settings Compare

Check In

Check Out

Undo Check Out

Get Latest

Applies the copied drawing settings and options from one drawing to the selected drawing(s).

Displays differences between all drawing settings and their associated defaults in the project definition file.

(you must be logged into the vault) Reserves and locks the master drawing file. Retrieves an updated copy, if necessary. Checks out the drawing files when the project file is under Vault control.

Details

Switches between displaying drawing previews and drawing descriptions. The drawing details are updated when you highlight a drawing file and remain

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visible until a new drawing file is selected. Use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to switch drawings.

Details

Preview

Displays the last saved thumbnail view for the highlighted drawing in the drawing list.

Vault Status Icons

(you must be logged into the vault) The Vault Status Icons indicate the status of your local copy of the files as compared against the master copy of those same files in the vault.

MeaningIcon

File is not in the vault.

File is in the vault in a checked-in state, and the version you are working on is the same as in the vault. Also referred to as the Latest Version.

About collaborative design | 61

The master file is checked out to you and the version you are working on is the same as in the vault.

File is locked and the local copy of the file is the same as the master file in the vault.

File is locked and the local copy of the file is newer than the master file in the vault.

File is locked and the local copy of the file is older than the master file in the vault.

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Create a new drawing

Use the Project Manager to create a new drawing.

1 Click the Project Manager tool.

2 In the Project Manager, click the New Drawing tool.

NOTE You can also create a new drawing by right-clicking at the

bottom of the tree inside the Project Manager and selecting New Drawing or by right-clicking on the active project name and selecting New Drawing.

3 In the Create New Drawing dialog box, enter the name for the

new drawing. The .dwg extension is automatically added to the file name.

4 Specify the template drawing to use for the creation of the

drawing file. If left blank, the default ACAD.DWT file is used. Click Browse to select a template drawing or enter the path and name of a template in the box.

5 Select or create the directory where you want to save the

drawing.

6 (Optional) Enter descriptions for the drawing. You can enter

up to 3 description lines for the drawing file. The description displays in title block updates, custom drawing properties, and drawing list reports. Select from a list of predefined descriptions from the active project by clicking the arrow.

7 (Optional) Specify the IEC default values for the project, install-

ation, and location fields.

8 (Optional) Specify the sheet and drawing number value for

the WD_M block definition. Additionally, you can specify the values to use for a section or subsection.

Create a new drawing | 63

Access:

9 (Optional) Click OK-Properties to define settings and options

for your drawing. Changes you make through the Drawing Properties dialog box are saved as attribute values on the drawing's invisible WD_M block.

10 Click OK.

Create new drawing

Use this to create a drawing file to add to the active project.

On the Project Manager, click the New Drawing button.

Click Projects ➤ Project ➤ Project Manager. On the Project Manager, click the New Drawing button.

NOTE You can also create a new drawing by right-clicking at the bottom of the tree inside the Project Manager and selecting New Drawing or by right-clicking on the active project name and selecting New Drawing.

Drawing File

Name

Template

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Specifies the file name for the new drawing. A file name must be entered to define any of the drawing properties or to create a new drawing.

NOTE The .dwg extension is not required in the edit box.

Specifies the path and filename for an AutoCAD Electrical template drawing (.dwt) to use for the creation of a new drawing file. If left blank, the default ACAD.DWT file is used. Click Browse to select a template drawing or type in the path and name of a template.

NOTE The previously used drawing template is retained in the dialog box.

For Reference Only

Indicates that the drawing should not be included in tagging, cross-referencing, and reporting functions. If selected, the drawing is included in projectwide plotting and title block operations.

Location

Description 1-3

Specifies the location for a drawing file. You can override the default location for the drawing file and create additional folders. If left blank, the drawing file is created at the same location as the active project's definition file. Click Browse to pick a folder where the new drawing will be created.

NOTE You cannot have duplicate drawings in the same location.

Specifies up to 3 lines of description text for the drawing file. The description displays in title block updates and custom drawing properties. Select from a list of predefined descriptions from the active project by clicking the arrow.

NOTE Drawing descriptions are disabled when you are modifying the properties of a drawing that is not in a project or if the project file is unavailable for edit.

IEC-Style Designators

Specifies IEC default values for the drawing, such as Project (%P), Installation (%I), and Location (%L) fields. When you insert a component, the %I and %L default values are used if the Installation and/or Location values would normally be blank.

Project Code

Installation Code

Specifies a project code for the drawing settings on all WD_M blocks. This value can be used as the replaceable parameter %P.

Specifies the Installation code for the WD_M block definition. This value can be used as the replaceable parameter %I.

Create a new drawing | 65

Location Code

Specifies the Location code for the WD_M block definition. This value can be used as the replaceable parameter %L.

Drawing

Project

Sheet

Drawing

Section

Displays a list of Installation or Location codes to select from the active drawing.

Displays a list of previously defined Installation or Location codes to select from the active project or from the Default.INST or Default.LOC file.

Sheet Values

Component, wire, and cross-reference tagging use replaceable parameters in their format. If you reference the drawing's sheet number or drawing number in any of your tagging formats, then specify a default drawing-wide value to use.

Specifies the sheet number value for the drawing settings. This value can be used as the replaceable parameter %S.

Specifies the drawing number value for the drawing settings. This value can be used as the replaceable parameter %D.

Specifies the section value for the drawing file saved in the project definition file (.wdp). This value can be used as the replaceable parameter %A.

Sub-Section

Specifies the subsection value for the drawing file saved in the project definition file (.wdp). This value can be used as the replaceable parameter %B.

OK-Properties

Creates the drawing file in the specified location before opening the Drawing Properties dialog box where you can define settings and options for your drawing. Changes you make through this dialog box are saved as attribute values on the drawing's invisible WD_M block. If your current drawing does not have this required block present when any AutoCAD Electrical schematic

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command is invoked, AutoCAD Electrical automatically inserts this block at 0,0.

Create a new drawing | 67

Change drawing display options

You can use the Drawing List Display Configuration tool to change the way your drawings are listed in the Project Manager. By default drawings are identified by the drawing file name in the Project Drawing List.

1 On the Project Manager, click the Drawing List Display Con-

figuration tool.

2 Determine which display options to show in the drawing list.

Options include:

■ Installation Code (%I)

■ Location Code (%L)

■ Section

■ Sub Section

■ Sheet Number (%S)

■ Drawing Number (%D)

■ Drawing Description 1-3

■ File Name

3 Select the display option from the Display Options list and

click the >> button or add all of the options by clicking the All >> button.

The display option you selected moves to the Current Display Order list. To rearrange this list, select an option and click Move Up or Move Down. To remove an option from the list, select the option and click the << button.

4 (Optional) Change the character to use between the values in

the listing. The default separator value is a dash (-).

5 (Optional) Change the way the selection highlights in the

listing depending on whether the Project Manager is active or not. By default the drawing file you select in the drawing list is highlighted at all times; you can select to only highlight your selection when the Project Manager drawing list is active.

6 Click OK.

The Project Drawing List automatically updates in the Project

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Access:

Manager.

Drawing List Display Example

In this example, Sheet Number (%S) and Drawing Description 1 were selected as the display options and the separator value is a dash.

Drawing List AfterDrawing List Before

1 - Flow and Interconnection diagram, I/O listdemo01.dwg 2 - 3-phase motor control, Control circuitdemo02.dwg 3 - Power supplies, I/O module feedsdemo03.dwg

Drawing list display configuration

Configures the display options. There are 10 values that can be associated with a drawing listed and this allows you to display the information based on your requirements.

On the Project Manager, click the Drawing List Display Configuration tool.

From the Projects menu, select Project ➤ Project Manager. On the Project Manager, click the Drawing List Display Configuration tool.

Arrow keys

Current Display Order

Lists the values that you can associate to a drawing.Display Options

Moves the selected display option into or from the Current Display Order. To add an option to the list, select the display option from the Display Options list and click the >> button or add all of the options by clicking the All >> button. To remove an option from the list, select the option and click the << button.

Lists the values to display in the listing. You must have one entry specified.

Change drawing display options | 69

Separator Value

Specifies which character to use between the values in the listing. Type the character in the input box or use the default (-).

Always show selection highlight/Show selection highlight only when active

Move Up

Move Down

Changes the way the selection highlights in the listing depending on whether the Project Manager is active or not. By default the drawing file you select in the drawing list is highlighted at all times; you can select to only highlight your selection when the Project Manager drawing list is active.

Moves the selected display option up one spot in the Current Display Order list.

Moves the selected display option down one spot in the Current Display Order list.

Overview of project related files

There are a number of optional project related files that AutoCAD Electrical supports. These files provide various functions such as keeping a project consistent, helping update custom title blocks across a project, or providing custom settings for various tools such as the PLC I/O module insertion tool.

Optional AutoCAD Electrical project related files include:

Catalog lookup

Database for choosing catalog part number assignments. It is also referenced when automatically generating various bill of materials reports. This is an Access-format MDB file that is named <project>_cat.mdb (project-specific version of a catalog lookup file) or DEFAULT_CAT.MDB (default catalog lookup file). If the project-specific .mdb file is used, it needs to be in the same folder where the <project>.wdp file is located. If a project-specific version is not found, then the DEFAULT_CAT.MDB is searched for in the same folder as the active project file, and then in the paths defined in subdirectory search sequence "C" below.

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Description defaults

Lists various standard component description selections, accessible by clicking Defaults on the Insert/Edit Component and Panel Insert/Edit Component dialog boxes. This file can be a family-specific ASCII text file with a .wdd extension (for example, "PB.WDD" for family “PB” pushbuttons). If the family-specific file is not found, then it searches for a file with the same path and name as the active project with a .wdd extension (<project>.wdd). If neither a familyspecific or project-specific file is found, it defaults to searching for a general description file WD_DESC.WDD in the various AutoCAD Electrical search paths and AutoCAD support paths (subdirectory search sequence “A” below). If none are found, it prompts for browsing to a .wdd description file. When you click Defaults on the Insert/Edit Component or Panel Insert/Edit Component dialog box the contents of the ASCII text file display in a dialog box where you can select a line of text to use as the description text. The selected text, up to a “;” comment delimiter if any, then displays in the description edit box on the Insert/Edit dialog box. If the selected text has one or more “|” characters, it is interpreted as having line breaks so the 2nd and 3rd description lines fill in as well.

External component

Component tagging pick list data carried in an external text file, accessed when you click External List on the Insert/Edit dialog box for schematic or panel layouts. The data in this file can be comma-delimited or space-delimited and can be in any order. When accessed, the contents of the file display in a dialog box so you can select a line of data. It is broken down and displays in a dialog box for mapping to various attributes carried by the schematic component or panel footprint symbol being edited. The elements in the selected line of file data can be mapped to the edited schematic or footprint symbol's attributes such as tag, description, location, and catalog part number. This text file can have a .txt, .csv or .wdx extension. If you do not browse to and select a specific file, AutoCAD Electrical searches for a file with the same path and name as the project’s .wdp file but with a .wdx extension. On subsequent command invocations, AutoCAD Electrical defaults to the previously selected file name.

Overview of project related files | 71

Family tag code map

Overrides the family tag code of the library symbols by mapping the codes to new values. The tag code of a symbol is used in generating the tag-ID of inserted components, like the "PB" of tag-ID "PB101" or the "K" of tag-ID "-K25." The file WD_FAM.DAT is searched for in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below. This is an ASCII text file in the format of <old>, <new>. For example, the default family tag code for a JIC library pilot light is “LT” and generates tags such as “LT101.” To override this tag code and substitute a family code of “LITE” without editing the library symbols, add this line to the wd_fam.dat: “LT, LITE.”

Footprint lookup

Schematic lookup

Installation codes

Database for graphical footprint assignments based on the catalog part number assignments. A file with the same path and name as the project but with a “_FOOTPRINT_LOOKUP.MDB” suffix and extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the default FOOTPRINT_LOOKUP.MDB file is searched for in the same directory as the project file and then in the subdirectory search sequence "B" below.

Database for schematic components inserted from panel footprints. A file with the same path and name as the project but with a “_SCHEMATIC_LOOKUP.MDB” suffix and extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the default SCHEMATIC_LOOKUP.MDB file is searched for in the same directory as the project file and then in the subdirectory search sequence "B" below.

Lists the default installation codes for selections found in the Insert/Edit Component and Panel Insert/Edit Component dialog boxes (select Include external list from the installation's Project list subdialog box). A file with the same path and name as the project with an .inst extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the DEFAULT.INST file is searched for in the same directory as the project file and then in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below.

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Location codes

Lists the default location codes for selections found in the Insert/Edit Component and Panel Insert/Edit Component dialog boxes (select Include external list from the location's Project list subdialog box). A file with the same path and name as the project with a .loc extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the DEFAULT.LOC file is searched for in the same directory as the project file and then in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below.

Group codes

Mount codes

Project labels

Lists the default group codes for selections found in the Panel Insert/Edit Component dialog box (select Include external list from the location's Project list subdialog box). A file with the same path and name as the project with a .grp extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the DEFAULT.GRP file is searched for in the same directory as the project file and then in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below.

Lists the default mount codes for selections found in the Panel Insert/Edit Component dialog boxes (select Include external list from the location's Project list subdialog box). A file with the same path and name as the project with a .mnt extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the DEFAULT.MNT file is searched for in the same directory as the project file and then in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below.

Customizes the generic LINEx labels in the various title block and project information dialog boxes. A file with the same path and name as the project with a .wdl extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the DEFAULT_WDTITLE.WDL file is searched for in the same directory as the project file and then in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below.

Rating defaults

Lists the default rating values found in the Insert/Edit Component and Panel Insert/Edit Component dialog boxes. The contents of this ASCII text file display in a dialog box. The "|" character can be used to delimit consecutive RATINGx value assignments. For example, picking an entry

Overview of project related files | 73

"30A|60A" would put "30A" into the first RATINGx attribute and "60A" into the RATING(x+1) attribute. A file with the same path and name as the project but with a .wdr extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the default WD_RATINGS.WDR file is searched for in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below. Alternately, a family-specific file can be accessed (for example, PS.WDR for pressure switches).

Real time error checking

RSLogix import

Spreadsheet to PLC tool

The .wdn file is a text file used specifically for auditing. Terminal numbers listed in the .wdn file are not checked for terminal number duplication. You can use wildcards to exclude a range of terminals for duplication checking such as all terminals with a tag name starting with "T" and with terminal number "1." AutoCAD Electrical searches for the <project_name>.wdn file in the same folder as the project definition file (*.wdp). If <project_name>.wdn is not found, AutoCAD Electrical looks for the DEFAULT.WDN file in the project folder (C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\My Documents\Acade {version}\AeData\Proj). The default .wdn file contains the terminal number filers GND, PE, and E. These are ignored when checking for duplication and will not be listed in the Electrical Audit report. Edit this file with an ASCII text editor, such as WordPad.

Defines the optional mapping of RSLogix codes to AutoCAD Electrical symbol block names for an RSLogix file import. A file with the same path and name as the project but with a .wdf extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the file DEFAULT_RSLOGIX.WDF file is searched for in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below and, if not found, file _DEFAULT_RSLOGIX.WDF is then searched for.

Defines the settings for the AutoCAD Electrical Spreadsheet to PLC I/O Utility. You are prompted to browse to a file with a .wdi extension. The default settings file is DEMOPLC.WDI.

Title block

The attribute name mapping support file for the AutoCAD Electrical title block update tool.

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A file with the same path and name as the project but with a .wdt extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the DEFAULT.WDT file is searched for in the same directory as the project file. If the file is not found, then the file is searched for in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below.

User defined attributes

Wire color and gauge labels

Subdirectory search sequence "A"

1 Full path (if full path name given)

2 User subdirectory (C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application

Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\User\)

An attribute text file of user-defined attributes defined on AutoCAD Electrical blocks. The User Defined Attribute List is used by report tools to determine which additional attributes are listed in a report. The list file name can be the same as the active project or named Default to be used by the entire system. The DEFAULT.WDA file is saved in the base project folder, while the <project_name>.wda file is saved in the same folder as the project definition file (*.wdp).

Maps color and gauge wire descriptions based on wire layers. A file with the same path and name as the project but with a .wdw extension is searched for first. If the file is not found, then the DEFAULT.WDW file is searched for in the same directory as the project file. If the file is not found, then the file is searched for in the subdirectory search sequence "A" below.

3 Active project's .wdp file subdirectory

4 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Documents and

Settings\{username}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\AeData\)

5 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Documents and

Settings\{username}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\)

Overview of project related files | 75

6 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Autodesk\Acade

{version}\Support\)

7 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Autodesk\Acade

{version}\)

8 All paths defined under AutoCAD Options ➤ Files ➤ Support Files

Search Path

Subdirectory search sequence "B"

1 Full path (if full path name given)

2 User subdirectory (C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application

Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\User\)

3 Catalog lookup subdirectory (C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\My

Documents\Acade {version}\AeData\Catalogs\)

4 Panel footprint library base subdirectory (C:\Program Files

[(x86)]\autodesk\Acade {version}\Libs\panel\)

5 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Documents and

Settings\{username}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\AeData\)

6 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Documents and

Settings\{username}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\)

7 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Autodesk\Acade

{version}\Support\)

8 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Autodesk\Acade

{version}\)

9 All paths defined under AutoCAD Options ➤ Files ➤ Support Files

Search Path

Subdirectory search sequence "C"

1 Full path (if full path name given)

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2 User subdirectory (C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application

Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release number}\{country code}\Support\User\)

3 Catalog lookup subdirectory (C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\My

Documents\Acade {version}\AeData\Catalogs\)

4 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Documents and

Settings\{username}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\AeData\)

5 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Documents and

Settings\{username}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical\{release #}\{country code}\Support\)

6 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Autodesk\Acade

{version}\Support\)

7 AutoCAD Electrical support (C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Autodesk\Acade

{version}\)

8 All paths defined under AutoCAD Options ➤ Files ➤ Support Files

Search Path

NOTE If the environment file (wd.env) has setting WD_ACADPATHFIRST uncommented and set to 1, then the last search item, the Options paths, are searched between steps 1 and 2 above instead of at the very end.

NOTE If the environment file (wd.env) has setting WD_SUP_ALT uncommented and set to a valid subdirectory path, then it is inserted into the search sequence just after User.

Overview of the project file format

A “.wdp" project file is a text file that lists the drawing files that are to be treated as a multi-drawing wiring diagram. AutoCAD Electrical manages this file automatically. Here is a general breakdown of the .wdp file format:

Project description

All lines of text marked with "*[n]" in columns 1-4 followed by the line of project data (n=1 to xxx)

Overview of the project file format | 77

Project default settings

About 75 entries marked with "?[n]" in columns 1-4. Most of these values are mirrored on attributes carried by each drawing's invisible WD_M block.

NOTE This current project "copy" of the drawing properties settings can migrate to each new AutoCAD Electrical drawing and overwrite the defaults carried on the WD_M.dwg library symbol as it inserts. When the WD_M block alert box pops up for permission to insert into a new or non-AutoCAD Electrical drawing, the dialog's toggle setting determines whether the drawing's settings are the defaults carried on the WD_M.dwg library symbol (switch OFF), or be overwritten to match the "?[n]" settings listed here in the current project's ".wdp" file (switch ON).

For example, you have an active project that is set up for a one-of-a-kind wire tagging format that is different from all of your other projects and different from the default carried on the symbol library’s WD_M.dwg block insert. When you start a new drawing for the project, you want to have this switch turned on so that the special settings of your active project update the values on the inserted WD_M block insert and cause it to match the project’s special settings. This eliminates the need to go back into a new drawing’s properties and adjust the wire tagging format setting to match the drawing.

Default schematic library path

Schematic icon menu file

Default panel library path

Marked with "+[1]" in columns 1-4 followed by path or semicolon delimited paths. If multiple paths, the search for a given library symbol file name includes the sequence of the paths listed here in the order given.

Marked with "+[2]" in columns 1-4 followed by file. This can be a full path or just the icon menu file name itself (such as ACE_JIC_MENU.DAT or ACE_IEC_MENU.DAT).

Marked with "+[3]" in columns 1-4 followed by base panel library path or semicolon delimited base paths. If multiple paths, the search for a given footprint library symbol includes the sequence of paths listed here in the order given.

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Panel icon menu file

Marked with "+[4]" in columns 1-4 followed by file. This can be a full path or just the icon menu file name itself (such as ACE_PANEL_MENU.DAT).

Real-time inter-drawing update

Use MISC_CAT table

LINEx entries for reports

Combined Installation/Location/Tag

DESC case mode

Wire network mode

Marked with "+[5]" followed by 1= automatic/real-time, 0= cross-reference command must be explicitly invoked.

Marked with "+[6]" followed by 1=always use MISC_CAT for catalog lookup, 2= use MISC_CAT if component specific table not found, 0 or entry omitted = use component-specific only.

Marked with "+[9]" followed by comma-delimited list. This

gives a list of project properties ➤ description entries that are included as a header for generated reports.

Marked with "+[10]" followed by 0= Combined Installation/Location component tag mode is “off”, 1= mode is “on”, 3= mode is “on” and include Installation/Location as a tag prefix.

Marked with "+[11]" followed by 0= allow entered DESC1DESC3 to be upper/lower case, missing or 1= force all entered DESC1-DESC3 values to uppercase.

Marked with "+[13]" followed by 0 or missing= wire tagging normal mode (wires combined into one wire number assignment), 1=per wire basis mode (each connected wire gets its own wire number assignment).

IEC style Installation/Location tag

Auto-fill Installation/Location

Marked with "+[14]" followed by 0 or missing= add prefix to TAG when output to reports, 1=suppress adding the prefix to TAG for reports, 3=suppress Installation/Location tag prefix when match drawing-wide Installation/Location default values for reports. This option is only used when +[10] above is set to 1 or 3.

Marked with "+[15]" followed by 1= component insert to auto-fill Installation/Location attributes with drawing de-

Overview of the project file format | 79

faults, 0 or missing= normal mode (don't auto-fill attribute values).

Schematic- ➤ Panel wire format

Auto-hide wire number

Wire number offset

Alternate WD.ENV

Wire number by layer

Marked with "+[16]" for the format that is to deal with wire connection entries when there is no existing terminal pin number text on the panel wiring diagram device footprint, meaning annotation ends up formatted into an Mtext entity, and "+[17]" for format of data written onto target TERMxx/WIRENOxx attributes carried on the panel wiring diagram device footprint.

Marked with "+[18]" followed by 1= auto-hide a wire number on a wire network when a wire number terminal is present on the network (so that the same wire number does not display twice on the single wire network), 0= normal mode (do not hide any wire number text).

Marked with "+[19]" followed by wire number offset value, 0 or blank or missing= normal centering of wire numbers on the wire segment, value= offset from left or upper end of wire segment.

Marked with "+[20]" followed by the file name. If this alternative .env file does not exist or cannot be found, the default wd.env file is used.

Marked with "+[21]" followed by 0= wire number by layer mode is “off”, 1= mode is “on”, and "+[22]" holds the layer setup. Format of layer setup is semicolon delimited in repeating groups of four elements per layer definition. <layer name>;<tag format>;<starting wire number>;<suffix list>;...

Alternate catalog lookup

Exclude wire number range

Marked with "+[23]" followed by 0= alternate catalog file not defined, 1=defined and "+[24]" holds the alternate catalog lookup file name.

Marked with "+[27]" followed by the wire number ranges to exclude for sequential wire numbering. (blank or missing= no wire numbers excluded) For example, “100199,500-699.”

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Wire number terminal override

Marked with "+[29]" followed by 0= normal wire numbering mode or 1=calculate reference-based wire number based on the location not the first terminal in the wire network (or revert to normal wire numbering mode if no terminal in the network).

Calculation of the "CLEN" column

Tag/Wire number order

Real-time error checking

Grid column headers

Suppress dash

Project drawing list

Marked with "+[30]" and set as a global variable (default is 0.0) to aid in the calculation of the "CLEN" column (calculated wire length) in a from/to report that is able to map schematic wire connections to panel physical layouts. This value is the extra amount to add to each end of a calculated wire segment for connection purposes.

Marked with "+[31]" and set in the Project Properties dialog box. The value can be blank (no sort order override) or 07 for the various horizontal/vertical sort orders listed in the dialog box.

Marked with "+[32]" followed by 0= real-time error checking mode is “off”, 1= mode is “on.”

Marked with "+[33]" to indicate a string of column names used in grid column headers in the Wire Type commands.

Marked with "+[34]" to suppress the dash (-) if it is the first character of a tag when the Combined installation/location component tag mode is “on.” See the [+10} entry.

All remaining entries give time relative path (relative to the location of the project’s .wdp file itself) to each drawing that is part of the project. The drawing name is given first. Then, if special assignments or descriptions are defined for the drawing, this information follows the drawing name in subsequent lines. Each line is prefixed with a code. If special "sec/sub" groupings are defined, then a drawing's "sec" is preceded by a "=" entry and "sub" by a "==" entry. If one to three lines of description are defined, each is preceded by a "===" entry. If a drawing is marked "Ref only", it is preceded by a "====REF" entry.

Overview of the project file format | 81

NOTE The following options are no longer valid since they are now drawing settings: Cross-reference fill format (+[7]), Cross-reference text between (+[8]) and Cross-reference order (+[28]). Additionally Project scratch database (+[12]) has been replaced by the PDS.

Archive a project

The zip utility creates a zip file of the current project's .wdp file and one or more drawing files it references. The zip file can optionally include a copy of the project's temporary database file to eliminate the need to rebuild the database when the project is unzipped at a later date.

For the zip utility to function, a zip application must be installed on the system running AutoCAD Electrical.

Initial Configuration

1 Edit the .env file to point to the zip utility.

2 Create an entry for the utility labeled WD_ZIP followed by a comma and

then the full path name to the executable zip program. For example, WD_ZIP,c:\Program Files [(x86)]\winzip\winzip32.exe.

NOTE All drawings to be included in the zipped file must be closed prior to running the zip utility.

This utility can also be accessed from within a number of AutoCAD Electrical routines that access and modify multiple drawings.

Archive a drawing set

1 Select Projects ➤ Zip Project.

2 Select the drawings to process and click OK.

3 In the AutoCAD Electrical Project Zip dialog box, enter the zip name of

the file to create or update.

4 Indicate whether to include the project database.

5 Click OK.

This utility can also be accessed from within a number of AutoCAD Electrical routines that access and modify multiple drawings.

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Access:

Project zip

Creates a framework for zipping and archiving the current project's drawing set. Your zip program may generate an error message if the active drawing is one of the drawings to zip.

On the Project Manager, click the arrow on the Publish/Plot tool and select Zip Project. Select the projects to zip and click OK. From the Projects menu, select Zip Project. Select the projects to zip and click OK. Additionally, the utility can be accessed from within a number of AutoCAD Electrical routines that access and modify multiple drawings.

Enter zip file name to create/update

Include project database file

Lists the name and location for the zip file to create. If you want to update a file, browse to the zip file.

Specifies to include the project database file (.mdb) in the zip file.

Overview of set up for multiple clients

You can set up AutoCAD Electrical to deal with multiple clients, each with its own title block and library requirements. Client-specific drawing borders, title blocks, parts libraries, and part number lookup files can be set up to be automatically selected by AutoCAD Electrical when working on a specific client's project.

Client subdirectory structure

Set up a subdirectory structure where each client is assigned their own subdirectory. For example, it might look like this:

n:\campbell.nap\

n:\j-m\

Work with Multiple Clients | 83

n:\jeep_toledo\

Set up title block mapping files for clients

Use the AutoCAD Electrical Title block setup tool to create a default.wdt file for each client's title block. Store this default.wdt in the client's base subdirectory. For example:

n:\campbell.nap\default.wdt

One way to do this:

1 Use AutoCAD Electrical to create a project in the client's base subdirectory

(ex: n:\campbell.nap\dummy.wdp).

2 Open the client's drawing border drawing or any existing drawing that

contains the client's title block (block with attributes).

3 Select Project ➤ Title Block Setup.

4 In the Title block link method dialog box, select the middle option listed

under "Method 1" -- the DEFAULT.WDT file for any project found in subdirectory n:\campbell.nap.

5 Click OK.

6 Follow the dialog boxes and pick options to build the default.wdt file.

Customize labels for title blocks

Several title block-related dialog boxes in AutoCAD Electrical display generic labels like "LINE1", "LINE2", and so on. You can change these labels so that they match up with the actual link to the client's title block. For example, in the ".wdt" mapping file, you might have linked the AutoCAD Electrical data "LINE10" value to the "DRAWN_BY" attribute on the client's title block. What you want to see when AutoCAD Electrical displays a title block-related dialog box is not "LINE10" but "Drawn by."

1 Create a file called default_wdtitle.wdl in the client's subdirectory where

you store the project (.wdp) files. Use any generic text editor like the Windows Notepad or Wordpad.

2 Edit the file as necessary.

The file should contain 1 line per label in the format LINEx=label. The entries do not have to be in order and line numbers may be skipped.

3 Save and exit.

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Try updating the Title Block from the Project Manager. Notice all of the updated labels.

Specify client-specific library symbols

If the client has special symbols or text size settings that are different from the default libraries provided with the AutoCAD Electrical product, create and maintain a client-specific symbol library subdirectory with smart AutoCAD Electrical symbols that have been adjusted to meet that client's standards. When you start a new project for this client, set the AutoCAD Electrical Symbol Library path to point at the client's library.

1 In the Project Manager, right-click the project name, and select Properties.

2 In the Project Properties ➤ Project Settings dialog box, click the plus

sign (+) next to Schematic Libraries. Click Add and enter the library's path into the edit box. Make it the first or only path listed.

This causes AutoCAD Electrical to look in the client-specific symbol library first before going to a default AutoCAD Electrical symbol library.

3 Click OK.

NOTE Make sure you also update the Panel Footprint Library path.

Start a project for a client

1 Create and save the AutoCAD Electrical project .wdp file to the client's

base subdirectory where the client's default.wdt and wdtitle.wdl files are stored. Make sure that the new project also points at the client's symbol library.

The actual drawings for the project can be stored anywhere but you might want to store them in some kind of "job number" subdirectory under the base client subdirectory. For example, let's say that for client "Campbell" you have a new project, 12345. Under the N:\campbell.nap network drive subdirectory, create subdirectory n:\campbell.nap\12345. This is where to save the drawings for that project.

2 Create a new project and save it to the base subdirectory.

For example, create project P12345.wdp and save it to n:\campbell.nap\P12345.wdp (along with any other Campbell projects you've already created - they are all grouped together in this base subdirectory but their drawing sets are isolated into unique job number subdirectories).

Overview of set up for multiple clients | 85

With the above setup, anytime you work on a Campbell project (project file ".wdp" stored in the n:\campbell.nap directory), AutoCAD Electrical automatically uses the client-specific title block mapping file (n:\campbell.nap\default.wdt) and the client-specific dialog box label file (n:\campbell.nap\wdtitle.wdl).

Miscellaneous Reference files

Add new table to MDB

Access:

From the Projects menu, select Extras ➤ Add Table to Catalog Database. Select the database to use and click Open.

MDB file to modify

Add new table

Project database table data -- project drawing files update

AutoCAD Electrical maintains a scratch database for a project, stored in Microsoft Access format that is used to speed up certain project-wide operations. This file is for scratch use only; it is not part of the intelligence

Specifies the file name of the Catalog Database file to modify.

Lists the existing tables found in the file.Existing tables

Specifies the name of new table to add to the selected catalog database. The new, blank table inserts with the default fields defined (for example, the fields needed for the catalog lookup function).

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Access:

stored in an AutoCAD Electrical project. If the scratch database file is missing or corrupted, it is automatically generated from the project's drawing set. The project's scratch database file can be used to write back to text data carried on symbols on the drawings. With some care (described below), you can edit the database directly and then import the information back to the drawings.

The file name is <project>.mdb where <project> matches the current project's .wdp file name.

Click Projects ➤ Export to Spreadsheet ➤ Update from Project Scratch Database.

Select the database table to update then select the drawings to process. Any changes are written back to the appropriate objects. Alternately, save the scratch database file with a new name, edit, and then reference this file when the command starts.

Cautionary Note

AutoCAD Electrical 2006 and later introduced an automatic scratch database "freshen" function, Project Database Service (PDS), which complicates use of this command over previous versions of AutoCAD Electrical. The PDS automatically updates the scratch project database without your intervention (and without your knowledge). If you edit the scratch database with all of the changes you want to write back to your project set, there is a chance that the PDS will come in, without warning, and remove all of these edits (to match the current state of the unmodified dwgs) before you have a chance to run the command to update the drawings.

Even if you are careful not to update the drawings while doing the mdb edit (so that the PDS will not update anything), you can still lose all your edits when you launch the Update from Project Scratch Database command. This is because the command, just before it begins the update, may ask you if it is OK to Qsave the active drawing. If you select OK, then the PDS sees a change and updates the database (for example, erases changes for current drawing), just as the command is getting ready to process.

To prevent this, do not update the drawings while editing the scratch database file and answer "NO" to the Qsave prompt when invoking the actual update command.

Project database table data -- project drawing files update | 87

Access:

Edit report

From the Projects menu, select Extras ➤ Settings List Utility. Click Edit Mode.

If you edit the information in the Configuration Report, you will have an option to update the project and drawings with the new information. Re-order the lines with the Move Up, Move Down, Move to Top, and Move to Bottom buttons. If you re-order the lines, the order of the drawing list in the project file (.WDP) can be updated to match.

Move Up

Move Down

Move to Bottom

SEC

SUBSEC

Moves the currently selected line(s) up one place in the report.

Moves the currently selected line(s) down one place in the report.

Moves the currently selected line(s) to the top of the report.Move to Top

Moves the currently selected line(s) to the bottom of the report.

Edit

Edits the values of the currently selected line. Double click any line to go directly into edit.

Specifies the drawing name.DWGNAM

If you change any of the Sec data, the Section data held in the project file (.WDP) can be updated to match.

If you change any of the Sub-Sec data, the Sub-Section data held in the project file (.WDP) can be updated to match.

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Autodesk AutoCAD AutoCAD Electrical - 2008 User’s Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

AutoCAD Electrical What's New

What's New in AutoCAD Electrical 2008

What's New in Previous Releases

What's New in 2005 Release

What's New in 2006 Release

What's New in 2007 Release

Project Management

Overview of AutoCAD Electrical Help

Use AutoCAD Electrical Help

Overview of projects

Use recently opened projects

Work with projects

Create a new project

Add a new drawing to the current project

Add existing drawings to the current project

Copy a project

Group drawings within a project

Change the order of drawings in the project

Remove a drawing from the active project

Assign a description to each drawing

Preview a drawing

Pick a different project

About collaborative design

Create a new drawing

Change drawing display options

Overview of project related files

Overview of the project file format

Archive a project

Archive a drawing set

Overview of set up for multiple clients

Set up title block mapping files for clients

Customize labels for title blocks

Specify client-specific library symbols

Start a project for a client