project setup and configuring autocad® electrical

November 30 – December 3, 2004 ◊ Las Vegas, Nevada

Project Setup and Configuring AutoCAD® Electrical Randy Brunette - Brunette Technologies, LLC

MA31-2 Are you getting ready to implement AutoCAD Electrical 2005TM? This class will cover the basics of a company-wide installation of AutoCAD Electrical. From templates to title blocks, catalogs to symbols, menus to networks, we'll cover where they should go and what paths to take. This class is designed for anyone looking for a quick start to integrating AutoCAD Electrical into their company's environment. It will help if you have basic understanding of AutoCAD® software. Who Should Attend Users interested in implementing and integrating AutoCAD Electrical Topics Covered * Network installation recommendations * Custom symbols and footprints * Set up part catalog, pin list, and more * Project creation and settings * Template creation

About the Speaker: Randy is the owner of Brunette Technologies, L.L.C., and provides training, consulting, customization, and implementation services nationwide for AutoCAD® Electrical software. He has been using AutoCAD since 1984 and AutoCAD Electrical since 1996. He has created custom training curriculum and professional presentations on a variety of subjects and has been a top-rated instructor at three previous Autodesk University® conferences. Randy has held several CAD manager and project manager roles and his design experience covers a wide range of manufacturing industries and processes.

[email protected]

Project Setup and Configuring AutoCAD®® Electrical

Session Overview This class will cover some of the specific aspects of deploying AutoCAD Electrical company wide. This includes various capabilities of AutoCAD Electrical to share configurations, settings, and libraries. Functions such as title block and project line mapping, project settings, support directory paths, etc. will be covered.

Other than the sharing of symbol libraries, catalog databases, and support files, the installation is very similar to that of AutoCAD 2005.

AutoCAD Electrical Overview AutoCAD Electrical 2005 (AutoCAD Electrical) is an industry-specific version of AutoCAD software designed to meet the needs of electrical engineers designing industrial control systems. With AutoCAD Electrical 2005, you can create control schematic drawings significantly faster than using standard AutoCAD.

AutoCAD Electrical 2005 offers a familiar AutoCAD working environment along with an intuitive menu system that provides access to many industry-specific tools that automate the electrical control systems design process.

AutoCAD Electrical is not just compatible with AutoCAD, it is AutoCAD. The functionality of AutoCAD Electrical is the same functionality of AutoCAD, with some automated and enhanced commands added to specifically address the requirements of schematic drawings. Most commands in AutoCAD Electrical can be duplicated using combination of standard AutoCAD commands and functions.

The drawings created by AutoCAD Electrical are plain AutoCAD drawings. In fact, AutoCAD Electrical drawings can be editing by people using only AutoCAD, or even AutoCAD LT without corrupting or damaging the AutoCAD Electrical functionality.

Network Installation recommendations

Installation Directory Structure During a typical install AutoCAD Electrical installs the main executables and other static (typically not changed by the user) support files under the directory C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Acade 2005\. Under this directory, the Support subfolder carries several side library files and other static support files. The Support path must be included in those paths set up in the Support File Search Path section in the Options dialog box. (AutoCAD) It is recommended that these files are installed and remain on the local machine.

The C:\Program Files\... path also contains the \Libs\ subfolder which includes various AutoCAD Electrical schematic and panel layout symbol libraries. This folder should be copied and moved to a shared network drive when setting up a shared environment. After you move the \Libs\ folder you must modify the path in the Support File Search Path in the Options dialog box. (AutoCAD)

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Project Setup and Configuring AutoCAD® Electrical

Files that are modified by the user, such as databases, are installed under the directory C:\Documents and Settings\{user name}\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical 2005\R16.1\enu\Support\. This Application Data folder is normally marked as hidden within Windows Explorer.

The Support directory contains the AutoCAD Electrical .mnu files, icon menu .dat files, and the slide library .slb files referenced by the icon menus. This directory also contains two other directories you need to be aware of.

The AeData directory contains the default wd.env file and the Catalogs and PLC sub-directories. The Catalogs directory contains the part number catalog, footprint lookup, and other reference databases. The PLC directory contains the ACE_PLC.MDB database and the drawing files required for PLC parametric insertion in the drawings. In a typical shared environment, these files and directories would be shared with all users.

The Support directory also contains the User directory. The User directory can be located in a different location, but should not be shared with other users. AutoCAD Electrical uses this directory to store temporary files used during program execution such as lastsurf, report configurations, and the scratch database files. This directory is always in the AutoCAD Electrical search path and is the default location when saving several files including project files, and report set files.

Network Shared Files Below is a list of files/directories that ideally would be shared in a network environment:

…Documents and Settings\...\Support

…Documents and Settings\...\Support\AeData\Catalogs\

…Documents and Settings\...\Support\AeData\PLC\

…Documents and Settings\...\Support\AeData\Wd.env

...Program Files\Autodesk\Acade 2005\libs\

Network Installation Wizard The AutoCAD Electrical installation CD includes a Network Installation Utility. This allows you to create a customized AutoCAD Electrical installation image. When used to install the AutoCAD Esoftware, the image ensures consistency of the installation process for all users. The customimage can include shared directories for AutoCADElectrical files, installation paths, and other settings.

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For more details, see your AutoCAD Electrical installation CD. Reference the Network Installation Manager found under the Network Deployment tab on the opening dialog.

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WD.ENV Like other systems in AutoCAD Electrical, this environment file is the default starting point for settings. After loading AutoCAD Electrical, default project settings from wd.env are transferred into the project file. Whenever this project is re-opened, settings are read from the project file first. These settings include the symbol library paths, and icon menus.

Whenever changes are made to the wd.env file, be sure to exit and restart AutoCAD Electrical for the changes to take effect. This file is read only on the initial startup of AutoCAD Electrical.

In a network environment, this file should be in a shared directory.

Alternative wd.env AutoCAD Electrical also allows you to create a secondary or alternative wd.env file. When assigned to a project, the reference to the .ENV file name is saved in the .WDP project file. This project specific file can store customer specific settings, paths, libraries, and menus. These settings are restored whenever the project is selected.

The wd.env is set by opening the project dialog and picking the Settings button. When the Current Settings dialog opens, pick the Environment file button. The ’Optional “.env” file assignment for current project’ dialog opens allowing you to browse to an alternative file, or reset the default file for the project.

Project creation and settings

Project file The project file is an ASCII text file with a .WDP extension. This file contains a list of project information, project settings, drawing properties, and drawing file names. You can have as many projects as you want, but only one project can be active at a time.

The project information includes description fields that describe the project and can be used in reports or inserted into title block attributes. The number of lines has no practical limit.

The project settings stored in the project file are referenced when new drawings are created or added to the project. This is another tool used to ensure consistency through out the project drawings.

The drawing name information includes the path information. A single project file can have drawings located in many different directories. AutoCAD Electrical does not have a limit on the number of drawings in a project.

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Moving and Copying Projects Many times a new project is based on an existing one, usually by copying and renaming the drawings. AutoCAD Electrical utilities are provided to simplify this task too. Prompting you for a new location, AutoCAD Electrical will create the directory if it doesn’t exist. During the copying process you have options to accept the current drawing names (a different directory makes them unique), editing them individually, or doing global search and replaces.

Template creation Creating and using templates in AutoCAD is one of the easiest and fastest ways of configuring AutoCAD Electrical to best match your company standards. Templates in AutoCAD Electrical are similar in function and use, to the templates found in other windows programs, such as Word.

Simply open a drawing and use any command available in AutoCAD Electrical to configure your drawing. It is even recommended to create partial drawings completed to a level of detail that is fairly standard for your company, for example you might have a standard master control circuit, or a standard motor drive page.

Any information that a drawing might contain can be stored in a template including title block, layers, linetypes, etc. When a drawing has been created with the settings and/or entities you desire in it, save it as a template (.DWT extension) to be recalled for later use. By default, AutoCAD Electrical will open the template folder, but they can be stored anywhere.

When a new drawing is created using an existing template, AutoCAD Electrical opens the template as an unnamed drawing. After you make changes and save the file, AutoCAD Electrical automatically starts the Save As command preventing any changes to the template file.

Another idea for standard projects is to set up a “dummy” project with partially completed drawings contained within it. Use AutoCAD Electrical’s Copy Project command to copy this dummy project and rename the drawings.

Automatic Title Block Updates Title Block Setup Wizard

AutoCAD Electrical can be linked into your existing title block for automated, project-wide title block updates. This can be especially effective if your drawing title block consists of a block with attributes. Project-wide information lines and AutoCAD Electrical drawing values can be mapped into your existing title block.

The mapping can be accomplished in either of two methods, either by using any text editor to create an ASCII text file “default.wdt” or by using the TBlock Setup Wizard.

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The DEFAULT.WDT will have a single line defining each attribute mapping. The first line defines the block name where the attributes are found. For example:

BLOCK=TITLE PROJ_TITLE = LINE1 DRAW_TITLE = LINE2

You can also create project based .WDT files. As with most configuration files, AutoCAD Electrical searches first for a file that matches the current project name. If not found, the DEFAULT.WDT file is used.

Project LINEx Mapping

A project file in AutoCAD Electrical has line information values stored within it. An unlimited number of lines can be stored in the file. Working with the generic “LINEx” names, mapping them to title block attributes, including them in reports can be somewhat confusing. AutoCAD Electrical allows you to customize these description fields to match your drawing title block attributes, or to better describe its properties to the user.

AutoCAD Electrical allows a project based mapping, or a default mapping to be used. These files would be named PROJNAME_WDTITLE.WDT or DEFAULT_WDTITLE.WDT respectively. As usual, AutoCAD Electrical searches first for a file that matches the current project name. If not found, the DEFAULT_WDTITLE.WDT file is used.

The file must be created manually using any text editor. The file should contain one line per label in the format LINEx=label. The entries do not have to be in order and line numbers may be skipped. Here is an example:

LINE1 = Proj Title LINE2 = Dwg Title1 LINE6 = Date

Custom symbols and footprints

Black Box Wizard Creation of custom symbols and components is aided with the use of a utility called the Black Box Builder. Unlike AutoCAD where all attributes have to manually created and defined, in the Black Box Builder, standard attributes are pre-defined and presented to the user for easy placement. All tools necessary for the creation of AutoCAD Electrical symbols are located together in the dialog.

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PLC Wizard AutoCAD Electrical comes with many styles and manufactures of PLC modules built into it. If you need an additional style or brand of PLC module, AutoCAD Electrical includes a PLC Database File Editor to help create new PLC modules. As with symbols, these modules work just like the ones supplied with AutoCAD Electrical. The new modules are added automatically to the PLC I/O insertion utility.

PLC modules are built parametrically. That is, they are built per user input, allowing spacers between inputs and even breaks in the module for continuation in different locations or on different ladders. Just like all other symbols in AutoCAD Electrical, the final result is simply a block with attributes.

Arrow Styles Custom arrow styles can also be created for use in AutoCAD Electrical. The information for this step is located in the file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Acade 2005\Support\sig_slb.zip. Detailed instructions are included in this zip file in the SIG_READ.ME file.

(One quick note, you will need to copy the slidelib.exe file into the same directory as the rest of the signal slide library files, including the wdsig.bat file.)

Symbol Naming Conventions Although not required, AutoCAD Electrical depends on a specific naming convention for some of the automated processes to work correctly.

Some of the more commonly referenced naming conventions are listed below. Any characters not specified can be user defined to maintain unique symbol names.

Schematic Symbols, 32 character maximum

Char. 1 H or V, determines horizontal or vertical orientation Char. 2-3 Family type; For example PB for push button or CR for control relay. A “0”

in the third position indicates no wire change through symbol. Char. 4 (optional) 1 or 2; a “2” for child contacts, a “1” for everything else. Char. 5 (optional) 1 or 2; a “1” for normally open contacts, a “2” for normally closed

contacts.

Terminals

Char. 1-2 The first two characters are “HT” Char. 3 Wire number change through symbol; “0” if it does not change, “1” if it

does. Char. 4 Attributes to process; if symbol is “dumb” with no attributes to process, this

character is an underscore, “_”, otherwise they are defined by the user.

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Wire Number Symbols

WD_WNH Horizontal wire insertion WD_WNV Vertical wire insertion WD_WCH Wire number “copy” for horizontal wire WD_WCV Wire number “copy” for vertical wire

Source/Destination Arrows

Char. 1-4 HA?S for Source arrows HA?D for Destination arrows

Configuration and Ladder Master Line Reference Symbols

WD_M This block is inserted in every AutoCAD Electrical schematic drawing. It contains about 50 invisible attributes containing the drawings settings.

WD_PNLM Similar to the WD_M block, but for panel drawings. WD_MLRH This is the block containing the configuration information for ladders. This

includes, first line reference number, spacing, and length WD_MLRV Same as above, but for vertical ladders, (lay on its side).

Part Catalog When using AutoCAD Electrical to insert symbols, a special attribute editing dialog box appears to allow you to edit the attribute data on a symbol. The edit boxes in this dialog correspond to the edit boxes in AutoCAD’s attribute editing tools.

The difference is that AutoCAD Electrical has many editing aids built into the dialog, allowing the user to enter data easier and more accurately from lookup tables, or by accepting automatic formatting options available in AutoCAD Electrical.

One of the most important tools is the Catalog Data: Lookup function. This utility allows you to search through an Access part number database to add Bill of Material data to your symbol. Filters allow you to search through thousands of entries tfind the exact part you a looking for quickly and easily.

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AutoCAD Electrical has an underlying philosophy of eliminating the need to enter data manually more than once. This goal also has an underlying bof helping a company to standardize part and functional descriptions. For example, once the part number information is entered into the databyou won’t need to type it again to assign it to symbols, create BOM tables on the drawing, or to export it to Excel, ASCII, or Access reports.

Sub-Assemblies are also supported in AutoCAD Electrical through the use of an assembly code that ties together in the database all of the components in an assembly.

AutoCAD Electrical also provides an area to add hyperlinks to the part number information. The Weblink field allows the entry of local and internet based URL’s to information such as Material Safety Data sheets.

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The TextValue field is very useful for hard coded information, such as fuse ratings. It can also be used to insert data into non-standard attributes contained within an AutoCAD Electrical block.

Different catalogs may be set up and used for specific customers or projects. AutoCAD Electrical uses the databases in the following order:

<PROJECT NAME>_CAT.MDB located in the same directory as the project file

DEFAULT_CAT.MDB when it is located in the same directory as the project file

DEFAULT_CAT.MDB when it is located in the User directory

DEFAULT_CAT.MDB when it is located in the catalog directory

Catalog Database Merge utility AutoCAD Electrical has a new Catalog Database Merge utility that allows you to execute custom imports and changes when merging your old catalog database into the standard one supplied with AutoCAD Electrical. The utility uses the aceDbMergeUtil.map file found in: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Acade 2005\Acade\.

The .MAP file is an ASCII text file and contains documentation in the file itself.

You can find the utility under: Projects>Extras>Catalog Database Merge Utility

Note: A prefix or suffix is added to the table records to indicate which table they originally came from. This prevents duplicate assembly codes from being merged into the same table.

Pin lists AutoCAD Electrical can automatically track how many contacts have been assigned to a device like a relay or timer coil. Once again, data is entered only once in the Pinlist table (Access database). As you are entering parts that have pinlist information assigned, AutoCAD Electrical will automatically enter the pin list information for you. You can easily list the pin list information right from the editing dialog and manually assign contact information to the pins.

If you insert too many contacts, AutoCAD Electrical will alert you, warning you of the problem and prompting you to cancel or ignore the overage.

This functionality is not limited to just devices like relays that have contacts. Just about any device that has pins or terminals can be added to the pin list database. AutoCAD Electrical will find any part number matches to the pin list information and automatically fill in the appropriate data.

Whenever a part number is added or changed on the parent symbol, AutoCAD Electrical checks for matching MFG, CAT, and optional ASSYCODE values. If a match is found, AutoCAD Electrical will automatically update the pin information accordingly.

This database table, located within the parts catalog database, can be expanded as needed. You can edit this Access database table directly or use the AutoCAD Electrical editing dialog found at:

Components>Cross-Reference>Pin List Database Editor

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Foot Print Lookup Tables When creating panel layouts from the schematic information, AutoCAD Electrical provides several tools to increase productivity and accuracy.

AutoCAD Electrical will extract a list of components from the schematic and present it to you for insertion in the panel layout. AutoCAD Electrical keeps track of the items that have already been inserted to prevent duplicates.

When an item is selected for insertion, AutoCAD Electrical uses the MFG and AssyCodes, opens the appropriate table in the Footprint Lookup database and tries to find a match with the catalog number. If a match is found AutoCAD Electrical retrieves tfootprint block and inserts it into the drawing.

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Summary AutoCAD Electrical is fully functional in either a stand-a-lone or in a networked or shared environment. The level of sharing can easily be controlled by the installation configuration. In either configuration, program executables and other non-changing reference files should be located on the local drive for the best performance.

While it is easiest to use the Network Installation Wizard to create a custom installation image, the AutoCAD Electrical installation configuration is easily changeable at any time. Simply use the Windows Copy and Paste to move the directories, and changes the paths in the AutoCAD and AutoCAD Electrical search paths and configuration files.

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