© 2011 Autodesk MA AutoCAD® Electrical Power Tools for Power Users Robert Stein Autodesk – Technical Consultant

© 2011 Autodesk Audience Participation  How long have you used AutoCAD?  How long have you used AutoCAD Electrical?  How many would consider yourself an expert in AutoCAD?  How many would consider yourself an expert in AutoCAD Electrical?

© 2011 Autodesk MA5826 – About this Course  Are you an AutoCAD Electrical power user looking for commands you're certain exist but can't seem to find? During this session, we'll discuss several of the lesser-known AutoCAD Electrical features, including wiring information for panel drawings and using the power of Excel® to update and manipulate your drawings. We'll take a look at setting up Pin Lists to automatically assign pins to your components based on catalog information.

© 2011 Autodesk Speaker Bio Based in Novi, Michigan, Robert works as a technical consultant for Autodesk focusing on data management. Prior to working for Autodesk, Robert worked in varying roles over the years as a designer, CAD manager and consultant at a variety of companies. Robert has worked on a number of large scale implementations and custom programming projects with Autodesk® Manufacturing products such as Inventor®, AutoCAD® Electrical, Vault family, and AutoCAD Mechanical. Robert is in his seventh year as a presenter at Autodesk University.

© 2011 Autodesk About the Presenter (Professional)  Using Autodesk products for 15 years.  Mechanical and Controls designer for 8 + years.  Consultant for 6 + Years  Software Development Engineer for 2+ years  Currently back in industry developing custom tools.  Multiple years presenting and attending AU.

© 2011 Autodesk About the Presenter (Personal)  Live in Warren, MI  Enjoy time with the family  Hobbies:  Ice Hockey with my kids  Camping  Riding my Motorcycle  Married with twin 7 year old boys, a 4 year old boy and a 2 year old girl.

© 2011 Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical Terms  A component is an AutoCAD block containing attributes that AutoCAD Electrical recognizes making it into an intelligent electrical component.  A wire is a line on a valid wire layer. (Note: I wire can NOT be a circle, arc or polyline.)  A Wiring Diagram is a block typically containing wiring information but is represented on a panel style layout.  A Pin List is an automated way of assigning pins to your devices.

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams  Many people may have different definitions of what Wiring Diagrams are; however when talking AutoCAD Electrical© there is one specific definition I am talking about. A wiring diagram in my world would be a page in my dataset that would have duplicated schematic information (wiring information) displayed on a semi panel looking layout. This is typically used to help build the panels and reduce the amount of work that has to be done to “read” the prints.

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams Cont…  Why aren’t people doing this in AutoCAD?  Manual Process  Error Prone  Time Consuming  Etc…  Why are people doing this in AutoCAD Electrical?  Semi-Automated  Accurate  Automatic Update with Changes

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams Cont…  Workflow?  User inserts Schematic Symbols during design.  User runs Insert Panel Symbol from Schematic List.  User inserts Panel Components representing Schematic Devices.  User inserts “Wiring Diagram” symbol.  User runs “Wire Annotation of Panel Footprint”

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams Cont…  How does it work?  User chooses to insert Wiring Diagram Symbol  AutoCAD Electrical looks at footprint_lookup.mdb  AutoCAD Electrical looks at mfg_WD table  Finds part number  Inserts associated block.  User runs Wire Annotation tool  AutoCAD Electrical extracts wiring information from scratch database.  OR  AutoCAD Electrical places information into Wiring Diagram symbol attributes or MTEXT.

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams Cont…  Overview

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams Cont…  WIRENOXX – shows the wire number connecting to that pin number.  TERMXX – This shows the pin number from the schematic symbol.  P_TAG1 – This links to the schematic symbol and shows the device ID

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams Cont…  Lookup Database (Footprint_lookup.mdb)  C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\My Documents\Acade 2010\AeData\Catalogs  Catalog Number (wild cards allowed)  * = match any characters  ? = match any single character  # = match any single numeric digit = match any single alphabetic character  Assembly Code (optional)  Footprint Block Name (dwg name, geometry definition or icon menu call)  Description (optional)

© 2011 Autodesk Wiring Diagrams Cont…  Note: Be thoughtful in how you define your block name and path. For example if you set it up correctly under maybe a custom folder in the “Panel” symbol library you will only need to show the delta path. Such as \WD\WD_symbol.dwg instead of I:\CAD_Standards\Electrical_Symbols\Panel\WD\WD_symbol.dwg.

© 2011 Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical© and Microsoft Excel©  What can you use for AutoCAD Electrical and Microsoft Excel for?  Update Layers  Swapping Components  Updating Installation / Location Codes

© 2011 Autodesk Pin Lists  What is a Pin List?  Coil pins are the two values assigned to the parent symbols first two terminals.  COILPIN = “K1,K2”; this means that TERM01 and TERM02 will be populated with K1 and K2 respectively.  Pin List Field.

© 2011 Autodesk Pin Lists Cont…  Pin List Field  In the database the pin list column specifies the contact type and the pin numbers. The format that is used for two contact types is “contact type”, “terminal pin”, “terminal pin”. Each pinlist value can be 256 characters or less.  Contact Type is a value 0 – 5:  0 = convertible contact  1 = N.O.  2 = N.C.  3 = Form-C (NO/NC Pair)  4 = Multiple-pole terminal strips or undefined type  5 = Multiple-pin or stacked terminals  If you set PINLIST = "0,13,14;0,23,24" then 0= contact type, 13 (or 23)= TERM01, and 14 (or 24)= TERM02.  If you set PINLIST = "0,13,14,*prompt," "*prompt" adds a description label. This optional label is always the last element of the list and is preceded by an asterisk character (if the asterisk is left out, the comment is interpreted as another pin number).

© 2011 Autodesk Fix Me  Do you ever:  Need symbols created but want to layout the design now?  Know you are going to need a symbol or a circuit but don’t have the time to define it all at that moment?  Want to draw attention back to an area of the drawing at a later time?  We can utilize this next method.  Create a block called Fix_Me.dwg and place it in an ACE search path.  Create a lisp called fix_me.lsp and place it in an ACE search path.  Open your WD.ENV file and make the appropriate changes.

© 2011 Autodesk Fix Me Cont… (Lisp Info)  (defun c:fix_me ( / ss en ed xy)  (setq ss (ssget "_X" '((-4. " "))))  (if (/= ss nil)  (progn  (setq en (ssname ss 0))  (setq ss nil)  (setq ed (entget en))  (setq xy (cdr (assoc 10 ed)))  (alert "You have a Fix Me block to Fix.")  ;(command "ZOOM" "CENTER" xy 2.0)  (princ "\nThis needs attention!!!\n")  ))  (princ)  )

© 2011 Autodesk Fix Me Cont… (Block Info)  The block can be created however you want.  Some of my tips are:  Have it break your wires (keeps wire numbering correct)  Include description lines (these can be used to remind you of what you need to fix, or put the actual description in of the device you will use.)  Include Catalog and MFG fields. (you can define catalog information)  Make the symbol a rectangle, with a bold polyline. (Helps to make it stand out.)

© 2011 Autodesk Fix Me Cont… (wd.env Info)  Locate the WD_Open line of your ENV file.  Uncomment the line (remove the “*”)  Add the following information to the line.  (if(not c:fix_me)(if(setq x(findfile "fix_me.lsp"))(load x)))(if c:fix_me (c:fix_me))  This will find the lisp file (if it is in a search path, then load it if it is not already in the drawing. Also this will be ran every time you use the next or previous drawing buttons.  Note: You could the surf tool to find Fix_me blocks project wide. To do this you would start the surf command, hit enter, then fill in some criteria.

© 2011 Autodesk Automagic Wire Types  Demo

© 2011 Autodesk Get Zipped with AutoCAD Electrical  Right click on the active project and click on “Settings”.  In the “Current Settings” dialog, locate the “AutoCAD Electrical environment settings file” entry and note the value.  Using windows explorer navigate to the location found in step 2 and edit the ENV file using notepad or Wordpad. (Note: make a backup copy)  In the WD.ENV file locate the WD_ZIP line in the list. Edit the line to look something like the following. (Note: Your zip utility location may be different than the example. Also you will want to ensure you remove the “*” from the beginning of the line as that comments out the line so it is not processed.)  WD_ZIP,C:/Program Files (x86)/WinRAR/WinRAR.exe, full path/name for alternate zipping utility

© 2011 Autodesk Wrapping Up…  Please remember to complete your survey’s.  My address  Thank you for attending….

© 2011 Autodesk Autodesk, AutoCAD* [*if/when mentioned in the pertinent material, followed by an alphabetical list of all other trademarks mentioned in the material] are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2011 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.