How to Draw a Child in Autocad

When a child contact is placed close to the parent, many times it is shown as being linked directly using the dashed link lines. And yet, the cross-reference for this child was still shown at the parent.

You could trick AutoCAD Electrical into not showing it by adding the value NULL in the CONTACT attribute on the child. But, then it wasn't counted in the contact total. Or you could hide the cross-referencing totally on the parent. But, if there were children not linked directly, the cross-reference needed to be visible.

Now, in AutoCAD Electrical 2016, the references for the linked child contacts are no longer included at the parent.

You don't need to set any options for this. When the cross-reference is updated, these child references are just not included. They are still counted in the contact total for the parent. All the error checking to make sure you don't exceed the contact count for the parent still works as expected.

By Pat Murnen

AutoCAD Electrical 2016 and Autodesk Inventor 2016 boasts a new Electromechanical workflow to align designs definitions between Mechanical and Electrical Engineers. Following are some recommendations that will help you to use this workflow smoothly:

1. Electromechanical workflow only supports that you connect one Electrical project to the Inventor assemblies through one .emx file.

   

2. It is recommended that you store the EMX project files on a shared folder on the network. Both AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor should point to the same folder.
3. Once you have linked the projects it is helpful to divide the project using Installation and Location values. These Installation and Location values should be the same between AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor. You can assign Installation and Location values at the drawing or component level in AutoCAD Electrical and at the Assembly level in Inventor.
4. It is recommended to have atleast one schematic or Panel representation of a component in AutoCAD Electrical 2016 project to show them in Location view. As only components with either Schematic or Panel representations in AutoCAD Electrical 2016 are shown in EMX tree. Schematic Child and One-line components are ignored in EMX tree.
5. To view the latest AutoCAD Electrical data in the Location View, click the Refresh button. This updates your Location View to show any edits made to the project, either by you or another team member. Refresh updates the Component tree along with the data in the Details and Connections tabs. Based on the size of your project, the refresh can take a while to to complete.

   

6. To view the latest Inventor data in the Location View, click the Sync button or set up Automatic sync by clicking on the Sync settings on Location view tab.

   

7. For better performance, split a large project in to smaller projects.
8. In a multiple-user working scenario, before syncing ensure that all your drawings are saved and updated with latest changes from all users.
9. The only Inventor components that are included in the Location View are those with Electrical Properties (Installation, Location, Tag, Description 1, Description 2, Description 3, Catalog no, Manufacturer and Assembly code). To add Electrical Properties to Inventor components:
1. Right-click on an Inventor part and select Electrical Properties. This launches the Electrical Properties dialog.

   

   Electrical Property Dialog menu in Inventor 2016

   

   Electrical Property menu on Inventor 2016 Canvas

   

   Electrical Property Dialog in Inventor 2016

2. Assign Installation/Location values at the Assembly level so that all components added to Assembly inherit these values and are treated as Electrical Components.

   

   Set Installation/Location values at Assembly Level in Inventor 2016

   

   Installation and Location dialog in Inventor 2016

10. To keep the designs consistent between AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor, link all the components from AutoCAD Electrical to Components in Inventor and resolve their differences.

Stay tuned for more details on How to Reuse Electromechanical Project data.

By
Vikas Vaishnav

What is it?

Ideastation went online in June 2014 as an initiative to engage & empower the AutoCAD Electrical user community. Users can make the most of this platform by sharing their ideas for new features, or feature enhancements they would like implemented in the product.

How does it work?

You know how it works while posting an idea, but we wanted to tell you a little more about how we process the postings and how seriously we take your ideas. The AutoCAD Electrical Ideastation team gets together and reviews new ideas on a weekly basis. We rely on the number of kudos to initially decide the importance of the idea, i.e. the more kudos received, the more important the idea is for us, because it simply shows that many of you face the same problem. During the reviewing process, we categorize the ideas into these 8 buckets and provide feedback to the user in the form of comments.

An idea could go from one bucket to another. For example, if an idea needs more information, we ask the user for the information we need and place it in 'comments requested'. After receiving appropriate and adequate comments, the idea is pushed into 'under review' or 'future consideration' depending on its implementation feasibility. It could then go to the 'accepted' and lastly 'implemented' bucket. At any particular point in time, the idea will reside in only one bucket.

Up until now…

Since launching the Ideastation in June 2014, we have had over 8000 unique visitors and 258 ideas posted by users. As of March 2015, 4 ideas have been implemented and shipped into the market. Moreover, 16 other ideas have been taken up for design and implementation in future releases of the product. If you have posted on the Ideastation, you can check the status of your idea by checking which bucket it is placed in.

What's next?

We are currently in the process of implementing the next set of ideas, stay tuned for more information on their release.

Thank you for supporting the AutoCAD Electrical Ideastation community by posting your idea(s). This helps us realize what functionality matters to you, what your pain points are and what enhancements you would like to see in the product.

As we rely so heavily on kudos, please take a few minutes to review others' ideas and if you face the same or similar challenge, or you think it is a great idea, give their ideas a kudo!

Happy posting and kudo-ing!

Best Regards,

Rajeshree & Samreen

A wire number in AutoCAD Electrical is a block, where the WIRENO attribute contains the wire number. For quite a while the wire number blocks have contained other attributes, W01USER through W10USER. But, AutoCAD Electrical didn't really do anything with these attributes. Many of our customers asked that we make it easy to edit these attributes and include them in some key wire related reports. AutoCAD Electrical 2016 does just that.

When you edit a wire number, the dialog now lets you edit these 10 attributes.

The Edit Wire Number dialog behaves a little differently now that it includes these attributes. In previous releases, Fixed was checked by default because the main reason to edit a wire number was to change it to fixed. Now that the dialog has edit boxes for these 10 user attributes, Fixed is not checked by default. However, if you change the wire number value, Fixed is checked automatically.

The W01USER-W10USER attributes have been added as available fields in these reports:

• Wire From\To
• Component Wire List
• Connector Plug
• Terminal Plan
• Cable From\To

Because new fields have been added to these reports you shouldn't use report format files (.set) that you created in previous releases. You will need to create new report format files so the file is in sync with the actual fields available for the report.

Customize the Labels on the Edit Wire Number Dialog

For those of you who like to tweak things, you can customize the labels for the 10 user attributes on the Edit Wire Number dialog. So instead of seeing the generic W##USER label you could see something to indicate what you want to use each attribute for.

This requires making a change on the wire number library symbols.

1. Find your library folder, for example C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Acade 2016\Libs\iec-60617.
2. Open the horizontal wire number library symbol, wd_wnh.dwg.
3. Double-click the W##USER attribute you want to add a custom label for.
4. Add the value for the label in the Prompt field.
   
5. Repeat for each attribute.
6. Save the symbol.
7. Repeat for the vertical wire number symbol, wd_wnv.dwg

For new drawings, or drawings that have never had wire numbers, your changes can be seen as soon as you insert and edit a wire number. For drawings with wire numbers already inserted, you will need to run Swap Block using the Update a Block option to swap in this updated wire number block.

By Pat Murnen

When a wire network contains more than two devices, it is not always clear what the intended order or wire sequence should be. And this can be very important, especially in a Wire From\To report.

Up until now, defining the wire sequence on each wire network has been a manual task using the Edit Wire Sequence command.

This can be very time consuming and difficult on a complicated network.

AutoCAD Electrical 2016 now applies a default wire sequence based on the Tag/Wire Number/Wire Sequence Sort Order property. You can set it for the project so it applies to each drawing in the project.

You can override the project setting on a drawing by selecting a value other than No override in the drawing properties.

With this new feature, you no longer have to set the wire sequence on every network. You only need to define the wire sequence if it does not follow the default order.

By Pat Murnen

Apart from the AutoCAD Electrical Idea Station, we are always looking to engage with customers who are interested in shaping the future of AutoCAD Electrical. One way we do this, is to invite people to join our Customer Council.

The Customer Council is an online forum were participants get early access to product builds, and learn about about potential future enhancements, while we hear and respond to their experience and feedback. Sometimes, we reach out to a group of participants to do one on one calls to delve deeper into a particular problem, or proposed solution.

The time commitment is as much or as little as you want to contribute, though we do prefer having participants that want to engage. Joining is really easy. If this sounds like something you would like to explore, why not become a member now:

Join the AutoCAD Electrical Customer Council

Regards,
Lee

In my previous article, Linking Components between AutoCAD Electrical and Autodesk Inventor, I talked about how you can link components between AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor in the Location View. In this blog my focus will be on how you can view component and connectivity differences and resolve them.

Viewing Differences in the Location View

Once the Electrical symbol  and the Inventor part  are lined in the Location View they need to be merged into a single representation. The single representation may be Linked  , or Linked with Differences  depending on whether there is any difference between the properties of the component between Electrical and Inventor. Properties that are compared between Electrical and Inventor are Category, Catalog No, Manufacturer, Assembly Code, Tag, Installation, Location, Tag Strip, Terminal No, Rating 1, 2, Description 1, Description 2, and Description 3.

If there is a difference between the PINS of the linked components, we do not merge the pins in the grid but keep them in separate rows. However pins with the same name are merged to a single pin.

On linking, the properties that you define in AutoCAD Electrical are compared with the properties defined from Inventor, and the differences are shown in the Location view in the following ways:

On the Component Tree

Use the filter on the top of the Location view to filter the components with a specific status.

When you hover your cursor over an item in the component tree, the tooltip shows you the summary of differences between the components.

On Component Detail Tab

If the selected component has any differences between properties, you see an indicator on the top of the Component Detail tab.

The differences are shown with highlighted cells in the grid. Make sure you have turned on all columns so that you do not miss any differences.

On Connection Detail Tab

If the selected component has any differences in the way it is wired, you see an indicator on the top of the Connection Detail tab.

The connectivity differences are shown highlighted in the Grid.

Resolving Differences

When resolving differences, keep in mind:

• AutoCAD Electrical will not make changes to your Inventor assembly. So when you resolve differences from within AutoCAD Electrical, you are bringing the Inventor properties to your AutoCAD Electrical drawings.
• Inventor will not make changes to your AutoCAD Electrical drawings. So when you resolve differences from within Inventor, you are bringing the AutoCAD Electrical properties to your assembly.

On Component Detail Tab in AutoCAD Electrical

Select one or multiple differences of a single component on the Component detail grid and click Accept Inventor on the right top of the grid.

By doing that you are approving the design definitions added by the Inventor user and updating the Electrical component definitions. As you click on the accept differences, the standard insert/edit dialog pops up and Inventor properties are prepopulated on the dialog.

On pressing OK the component gets updated and the component status becomes linked.

You can also edit the component detail on the drawing and manually change the values of the component to match Inventor properties.  Sync the Location view to update the status of the component to Linked from Linked with differences.

On Connection Detail Tab

There is no automatic method to update differences on this grid. Since it shows the connection differences between Electrical and Inventor, the way to resolve this difference is to manually change connections in the drawings to match Inventor connection definitions. Once you change connections and press save and Refresh, you can view the status change of the component in Location tree.

At any point of time if you want to export the information on the grid in Microsoft Excel format, you can do so using the Export button on the top right of the grid. Once all the components are in Linked state you can use Export to get the consolidated list of components used in Electromechanical Project.

Stay tuned for more articles on the AutoCAD Electrical 2016 release features.

Vikas Vaishnav

In my previous article, New Electromechanical Link between AutoCAD Electrical and Autodesk Inventor, I talked about how you can link an AutoCAD Electrical project to an Inventor assembly. Once linked, the Location View tab on Project Manager provides a complete view of all the components.

You also see some extra buttons on the Location view:

 Filters the tree view by component link status.
Syncs the drawing tree with the Inventor data. The date and time of the last refresh displays next to the icon.
Opens the Sync Settings dialog box, which allows you to create your synchronization task. You can create synchronization schedule tasks to run at regular intervals.

And some different icons in front of the components:

 Indicates an AutoCAD Electrical component not linked to an Inventor component.
 Indicates an Inventor component not linked to an AutoCAD Electrical component.
 Indicates linked AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor components, with no mismatches in data.
 Indicates linked AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor components, but there is some mismatch between the data.
 Indicates an AutoCAD Electrical cable not linked to an Inventor cable.
 Indicates an Inventor cable not linked to an AutoCAD Electrical cable.
 Indicates linked AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor cables, with no mismatches in data.
 Indicates linked AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor cables, but there is some mismatch between the data.

Now you are ready to link (match) the Electrical components with Inventor Components. You can do this by:

• Linking an Inventor component to an existing component in an electrical drawing
• Inserting a new electrical component to link to the Inventor component

Linking an Inventor Component to an Existing Component in an Electrical Drawing.

Right-click on an Inventor Only component  in the Location View and select Assign to existing in Drawing.

Select the component you want to link.  Here, I am linking the Battery to an Inventor only component, battery:1.

Once linked, the icon in front of the component changes to a linked icon.

Inserting a New Electrical Component to Link to the Inventor Component.

You may also have a lot of components that are in the Inventor assembly but are not yet present in your Electrical Project.  To insert those components as well as link them, right-click on the Inventor only component and select Insert from Catalog Browser.

From here the catalog browser pops up.  If the Inventor component already has catalog data, the catalog browser will show you the exact search result so that you can straight away insert it in the drawing.

Once you insert the component, the standard Insert/Edit dialog comes up and it has properties pre-populated from the Inventor side.

By clicking "OK" your insert and link is finished and you can view the change in the component tree in Location view.

Using either of these methods you can link an Inventor Only component to an Electrical Component.  Once linked, the icon in front of the Inventor Only component changes to a linked icon.  The icon may be Linked , or Linked with Differences .  I will talk about differences and how to resolve them in my next article.

Stay tuned for our following blogs to understand how to resolve differences and to know some Best Practices for EMX.

• EMX: View and resolve differences between linked devices.
• Best Practices for Electromechanical workflow.

Vikas Vaishnav

AutoCAD Electrical 2016 masters the electromechanical workflow with enhanced information flow between AutoCAD Electrical and Inventor Projects.

You can establish a link between an Electrical Project and Inventor assemblies, and enjoy a seamless information sync between these projects helping the Electrical and Mechanical teams to work on a shared design. This "one design" integrates the logical controls design with the physical model. You are immediately aware of design changes and modifications, reducing costly design errors and facilitating design communication flow right inside the products.

The concept is simple, there is a single file that is accessible by both the Electrical and Inventor users which acts as a bridge for the information to flow between these products. Once the bridge (which is the Electromechanical Link) is set up, Electrical users would be able to see the designs definitions from Inventor and vice versa. This shared information is displayed in the new Location View available in each product.

Creating the electromechanical link (EMX) is simple. All you need is:

• An Active AutoCAD Electrical Project.
• At least one Inventor assembly file.
• Shared folder accessible by both Electrical and Inventor teams.  The EMX file in this shared folder acts as a bridge between two products to exchange information.

Steps to link your project as initiated from AutoCAD Electrical (you can also initiate the process from Autodesk Inventor):

Step 1: Click on the icon as shown below to open the Link setup dialog.

Ribbon with Electromechanical Tab

On the dialog, you  decide whether to create a new link or connect your project to an existing link. Assuming you wish to create a new link, click Create.

Electromechanical Link Setup before Linking

Step 2:  Enter the name of the link file and shared folder location.

Create Electromechanical Link Dialog

After filling in the appropriate details, click "Create" and an EMX file is created  in the shared folder.

Step 3: Once you click Create, your Electromechanical Link Setup dialog updates  with more details as shown below.  At any point during the course of the project you can click on the Electromechanical Link Setup icon in the ribbon to access this dialog.

Electromechanical Link Dialog post linking

Step 4: Now your mechanical team using Autodesk Inventor can open the assembly file you want to link. Click on the similar Electromechanical link setup Icon on the Electromechanical tab on ribbon and you will see the following dialog where you click the browse "Link" icon  to select the EMX file created in Step 2.

Electromechanical Link Setup Dialog in Inventor

The AutoCAD Electrical project and Inventor assembly  are linked and the information flow (sync) is automatically triggered.

 After linking the projects, the design changes flow between the products. New components, wires, and connection data appear in the Location view tree and their details can be seen in the Component and Connection detail views as shown in image below.

Location View with Inventor Components

In the next blog posting I will cover the basic data transfer workflows and how users interact with the design changes.

• EMX: Linking Components
• EMX: View and resolve differences between linked devices.

Vikas Vaishnav

I my previous post, Project Manager's New Tab, I introduced the new Location View tab that is part of AutoCAD Electrical 2016. I showed you that:

• the tree is organized by Installation, Location, and device tag
• you can hover over a device to see some details about that device
• you can right-click a device to surf
• you can filter the list based on Installation and Location

In this post I am going to talk about the Connections and Details tabs available on the Location View tab. Click the Display Details and Connections button.

If this is the first time displaying these tabs you may need to expand the size of the palette.

Click the same button to hide the Details and Connections tabs. Also, if you switch over to the Projects tab to see the list of projects and drawings, the palette reverts automatically to its size for that tab.

There are 2 tabs on this view:

Details. Displays component details in a table format.

Connections. Displays wiring and connection information in a table format.

The basic functionality for each tab is the same; you are just seeing different information. So let's go through the basics for working with the Details and Connections tabs.

Select a node in the tree view to control the amount of information displayed in the table. Here I have selected just the MCAB5 Location within the F1 Installation.

Right-click to surf to a component on the Details tab.

You can also surf to a wire number on the Connections tab.

Highlight any number of cells, right-click and select Copy to copy the data to the clipboard for pasting. In this image, I have selected all the wire numbers so I can copy and then paste them into a drawing or to another program.

Right-click on one of the column labels in the table to select which fields to include from the list of available fields. Select the More option to see all the fields that are available for that table.

You can also change the order of the fields by dragging the column label to the desired position in the table. Here I am dragging the Description 1 column to place it right after the Tag column.

Once you have displayed just the information you want to see, click Export to send the information to a comma-delimited file or an Excel spreadsheet. The data is exported just as it is shown in the table. Here I have just one cable marker selected in the tree view, and I dragged the wire number column right after the "From" fields.

And here is my spreadsheet.

Notice the first column doesn't look quite like the Connections tab. The icon in the tab is "translated" to words for the spreadsheet. This becomes an important column once you start linking your AutoCAD Electrical projects to Inventor assemblies. With this column you will be able to tell which components are Inventor only, AutoCAD Electrical only, or linked.

Which leads us into the next few blog articles about the Location View tab where we talk about how to:

• link AutoCAD Electrical components to parts in an Inventor assembly
• view and resolve differences between linked devices

By Pat Murnen

masonmotosed.blogspot.com

Source: https://autodesk.typepad.com/systemsdesign/page/3/

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