IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

NEW Home for the IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

We truly enjoy writing blog posts and sharing them. But that’s not all we do. Our new blog site lives on the IMAGINiT Resource Center. 

The IMAGINiT Resource Center offers a searchable index of our older posts, on-demand webcasts, tips and tricks, case studies, whitepapers, and more.

Content from our amazing technical team will continue! We hope you’ll join us: https://resources.imaginit.com/manufacturing-solutions-blog

AutoCAD Palettes for the AutoCAD Electrical User

Typically, the first question I ask at the beginning of each AutoCAD Electrical (ACE) class is "Who knows AutoCAD?" and most hands typically shoot up.  Then the next statement is something like "Well, forget what you know about AutoCAD because this is ACE.".  Wait for it….but, there are times when using AutoCAD commands and methods can enhance the user expierance within ACE.  Recently I have had multiple students who love customizing the Tool Palette for AutoCAD.  So, why not do the same for ACE?  Lets take a look.

First thing to do is turn on the Tool Palette in ACE.  The easiest way of turning it on is to simply type "TP" into the command line and hit enter.  Adding Commands is as simple as it is in AutoCAD.  After creating a new tab for the ACE commands simply right click and select "Customize Commands".  Search for the desired command and drag into the palette.

In a true story I made up Company "A" uses 3 types of wires 90% of the time.  So, we will add 3 instances of the "Insert Wire" command, customizing each instance of to use a different wire type.

Right click on each of them individually and select "properties".  Change the layer to the appropriate wire type and rename the command to add the wire type.

When customizing the palette keep in mind that if you are adding blocks or changing layers (Like we are doing here.) you may want to do it from your companies template file.  Then you can be assured that the blocks and layers will exist in future designs.  If the wire layer you are trying to place doesn’t exist in the drawing you are working on ACE will automictically draw the wire on the default "WIRES" layer.  Which is not what we want.

When adding blocks by dragging onto the palette

1. Select the block
2. Left click and drag by NOT dragging on the blue grips.  By dragging using the blue grips you are essentially doing the AutoCAD "move" command.
3. Once over the palette just let go.

Again, make sure the source drawing that you are using is named and in a location that will not change.  If it does change then you will need to right click on the blocks and go into the properties and update the source file location.  If you add components such as, pushbuttons, lights, switches, etc, and want to place them into your drawings through the Tool Palette you must drag them off of the Tool Palette and drop them onto a wire for them to connect.  If you simply click and place them onto the wire.  A connection will not be made and you will have to use the "Move Component" command to get the wires to connect.

So, for those of you who only use a handful of commands and wires this could simplify things a bit.  Roll up the Ribbon and we now have a clean user interface for our need.

As a bonus, this is also a great way of gathering the database editing tools in one location.  Just create another palette tab and search for "database" and add all of the commands.

Remember, this is just a palette and it is controlled the same way as you would in AutoCAD.  So, if you decide that this may be beneficial for others in your organization you can place the Tool Palette files in a central location and map everyone to them through the Options dialog box (Type "OP" and hit Enter)  under the Files Tab. 

Hope this finds you well.  And back to Minesweeper!

http://minesweeperonline.com/

Adding Color Convention for New Cables in AutoCAD Electrical

In AutoCAD Electrical select Catalog Browser and select Table W0,

Select Edit Catalog Browser.

In Catalog Browser Edit Mode (background – Yellow), scroll to the bottom line and add new Cable, for this example I will add 4 Conductor Cable manufactured by Alpha Wire, Part Number: 6352 SL005, size: 24AWG, Conductor Colors: WHT, BLK, RED, GRN.

Scroll to the right until you see column “CONDUCTORLIST”, by default it set to “UNDEFINED” – select “…” to define cable color convention.

Fill in colors and select "OK".

Status of CONDUCTORLIST Changed to DEFINED.

Select “Accept Changes” to save changes to the Data Base.

In AutoCAD Electrical drawing insert Cable and using “Lookup” option select created cable. When select “Project” in “Wire Color/ID” dialog box quadrant, it will have created color convention and when placed on the wires, colors will apply automatically to parent wire and all children wires.

Creating a Detail View in AutoCAD

During my last AutoCAD Electrical Tips and Tricks presentation, I was asked how to create an enlarged detail view in AutoCAD.

Here is a quick overview of the process to creating scale detail view. Below is a 1/4 scale viewport in paper space. I drew a circle in model space of my detail circle. It will be deleted later. Once the viewport is properly scaled, create another circle in paper space referencing the circle in model space.
  

I’m assuming you already know how to create viewports and their proper use. If not, here are a few other articles about creating viewports.
http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/2015/10/using-revision-clouds-for-autocad-paper-space-viewports.html
http://www.cadalyst.com/cad/autocad/create-speedy-autocad-paper-space-viewports-%E2%80%94-right-way-34524

Copy the circle in paper space and position it where the new circular view port will live. Then scale it properly. I want to go from 1/4  to 1/1 so I scaled the circle up 4 times. Finally I turned the scaled up circle into a viewport. Once the viewport is positioned properly in paper space, Draw the connecting line if needed by snapping to center of the two circles.

To center the circular viewport, enter the viewport and then use the ZOOM command with the ‘Object’ option. Select the circle in model space and the viewport will zoom to, and center, around the circle. Now set the viewport scale to the proper scale. It should be pretty close as it is but not exact. After locking the viewport, switch to model space and delete the original circle.

There you have it. A detail view that is exactly to scale of it’s call-out circle.

AutoCAD Electrical 2017/2018 SQL _W0_CBLWIRES database customization to add wire colors for new cables

When you need to create custom cables and add colors for cable wires, we used to change Microsoft Access “default_cat.mdb” file - _W0_CBLWIRES table. Once migrated to Microsoft SQL, following is the procedure of adding wire colors for cables, using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio console.

        1. To add new Cables - use AutoCAD Electrical Cable Component Edit and select lookup, or in the Catalog Browser, select W0 table and add new Cable.

        2. To add cable wires colors: Open Microsoft SQL instance used for AutoCAD Electrical BOM Database using Microsoft SQL management Studio

        3. Go to Tools > Options. In the tree on the left, select SQL Server Object Explorer. Set the option "Value for Edit Top Rows command" to 0. It'll now allow you to view and edit the entire table from the context menu.

        4. Expand Default_cat – Database and select _W0_CBLWIRES

        5. Right Mouse click on the Database table and select “Edit All Rows”

        6. You are ready to customize Database _W0_CBLWIRES and add more cables colors. Every row is responsible for one cable wire color. Scroll to the bottom empty row and add Catalog, Manufacture, Color and Gauge.

Share Your Best Product Design & Manufacturing Collection Tip for the Chance to Win $500

If you’re an Autodesk Product Design & Manufacturing Collection pro, it’s time to share your wisdom! The Product Design & Manufacturing Collection (PDMC) Skills Challenge has begun. To enter this video contest, submit a one-minute tip for using one of the products in the collection. Here’s an example of a YouTube quick tip created by Inventor Luke.

The first place entry will win $500, second place will win $300, third place will win $200, and the fourth through tenth place entries will win $100.

Ready to enter?! Here are the details:

• Download the latest version of the Autodesk product you want to use, if you haven’t installed it already.
• Record your tip in a 60 second video. If you need a recording tool, you can download Autodesk Screencast for free.
• Submit your video on IMAGINiT's Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn page. Include the hashtag #MyPDMCTip in the description.
• Enter by October 11^th.

All entries will be judged by a panel of experts and the winner will be contacted via social media. Remember, you can submit more than one tip to share your expertise with the PDMC community!

Drawings in Windows Explorer: Inventor or AutoCAD?

Almost a decade ago Autodesk reintroduced the DWG format to Autodesk Inventor in order to facilitate a greater collaborative effort between AutoCAD and Inventor.  New benefits such as adding Inventor views to AutoCAD layouts, creating a format any AutoCAD version 2007 and newer can open, using AutoCAD blocks in Inventor drawings, and opening AutoCAD files in Inventor has opened more available workflows for customers.  With these new features a new type of confusion arose as well.

What program created the DWG???

Since the authoring program of the DWG has to be one that edits the native geometry of the DWG, a user has to know the correct program in which to open the file and make the edits.  For instance an Inventor DWG that contains modeling data will not be able to be exploded in AutoCAD because Inventor contains the modeling and assembly feature data.  Likewise an AutoCAD drawing containing vector geometry should be edited in AutoCAD so that the entities are properly modified or adjusted.

Companies will approach this issue a couple of different ways.  One way is to segregate the geometry into different folders called AutoCAD and Inventor and maintain those files in those folders.  Other methods are not to use Inventor DWGs at all due to this issue of identification thus eliminating the potential benefits of the DWG extension.  The only real ways to discern an AutoCAD DWG file from an Inventor DWG file is to right click on it and see if it shows the Inventor iProperties option through the Windows shell integration or use the Provider field in Autodesk Vault to see the creator of the program.

I know right?  There has to be an easier way!

Well, thanks to a new enhancement to a tool I have used for a long time, we can now see what program created the DWG directly in Windows Explorer and our Autodesk open windows.  This tool will show all kinds of information about DWGs in Windows Explorer such as which version of AutoCAD the file is saved in and a lot of the DWGPROPs in the file.  It will even tell if the file is AutoCAD Mechanical, Electrical, or another vertical of the software.  But most important is the new field to the tool called DWG Created By which will show if a file is an Inventor DWG or and AutoCAD DWG!

What is this tool?  Well, its the same tool created by the company that created many great tools for Autodesk products including an improved license reporting tool for Network Licensing among other productivity tools.  This company is JTB World and you can find this particular set of tools in the Autodesk App Store or from their website directly.  This tool comes in three flavors...Free, Trial, and Paid.  Free will get you only the DWG version and not what we are primarily concerned about in this discussion, the Trial will get you full feature for 30 days, and the Paid version will get you whole ball of wax for all your DWG information needs.

Free: Autodesk App Store Free Version

Trial: Autodesk App Store Trial Version (30 days)

Paid: Autodesk App Store Paid Version

Detailed Info on Company Page: JTB World DWG Columns

This is a must for any company with mixed AutoCAD and Inventor DWG files in legacy or production use around the company.  If you are looking for a large amount of seats there is even a volume discount for your engineering teams.  Go check it out and see the other things it can do as well.  Even for a single seat it is really inexpensive to increase your sanity and productivity.

Creating a custom PLC style in AutoCAD Electrical

There are 5 predefined PLC styles provided with AutoCAD Electrical, numbered 1 through 5. If none of the 5 work for you they are not that difficult to modify.
 


Default Style


Modified Style
 
There are about 3 dozen symbols associated with each style. They are located in the jic1 and jic125 folders. They carry the file name "HP?*.dwg" where "?" is the style number.

·  Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\\Autodesk\Acade{version}\libs\{library}\

·  Windows Vista, Windows 7: \Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Acade{version}\libs\{library}\

I started mapping out the naming convention but figured this image would just be easier.


“Each Parametric PLC symbol is a building block with a different arrangement of attributes and wire connection points. AutoCAD Electrical selects the appropriate symbols to use, stacks them together in the order defined by the parametric data file, and produces a completed I/O module. AutoCAD Electrical inserts the symbols based upon the rung spacing of the underlying ladder, explodes them, draws a rectangular box around the entire assembly, creates a single block out of the collection, and annotates the attributes of the new module.” 
Copied from Electrical's help

Make sure to copy the new blocks into your custom symbol library before modifying them. If you want to create an entire new library rename all of the numbers to 6, 7, 8, or 9 and then modify them as needed.
I’m only referencing three types of blocks to start. First I modified HP1WA-DL as the top input. I also copied the wire connection point to the additional wires. (Note: When placing this PLC into a ladder on the one rung per block will be recognized. The other wires can be manually wired later.)



Then I used HP1WA-DR which is a secondary left input for off situations like this. 



The third block was the standard HP1WA-D or normal input from left.



So now to test it... Here is my Acme 123-456 PLC card. After the top input I am staggering the two left inputs. Also I changed the size of the box that is drawn around the terminals to make sure they fit inside.



And here it is…



Taking it to the next level lets add some custom outputs on the bottom of this card.
For the first output we want some headers on it. So I will use the secondary HP1D-AWQ or Output to right with right option.



And then this is the standard output to right HP1D-AW



So after modifying the Acme PLC I have this. Note the two in the Spacing Factor. Between the bottom input and top output I need a bit more room or the two blocks will overlap. The two adds an extra rungs distance between the two blocks.




If you want to update the thumbnails that go with the style they are listed here.              
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\My Documents\Acade {version}\AeData\Plc
Windows Vista, Windows 7:C:\Users\{username}\Documents\Acade {version}\AeData\Plc

“The icon menu graphic that displays for the various PLC styles are bitmap files saved to \Program Files\Autodesk\Acade {version}\Acade\ This is where the Insert PLC and Drawing/Project Properties dialogs access them.
1. Create the style in AutoCAD. 
2. Zoom in to the new PLC style. 
3. Save the file as a bitmap using the following name definition: 

For the Drawing Properties dialog box: the graphic must have the name P_STYLExH.bmp or P_STYLExV.bmp where 'x' is the PLC style number (1-9) and H or V indicate the module orientation
(horizontal or vertical)
For the Insert PLC dialog box: the file name must be STYLExH.bmp or STYLExV.bmp where 'x' is the PLC style number (1-9) and H or V indicate the module orientation (horizontal or vertical)”
Copied from Electrical's help
 

Creating a Table of Contents or Drawing List Report – AutoCAD Electrical

AutoCAD Electrical has a built in Drawing List Report that can report any of the drawing properties within the active project. 

It’s a little unusual in that its nowhere to be found in the reporting tools. Instead its on the active project’s right click menu.

  So first of all a project file is needed. Simply create a new project file. Save it in the same location as the drawing files. This will make it the active project automatically. In this example I’m assuming you are all ready using the Title Block Update utility. In that case the drawing properties are already filled out. If not, right click on any of the drawings and choose Drawings/Drawing Properties from the menu. The Drawing Property dialog is shown to the right. Any of these properties as well as file name, last modified date and time and more can be pushed to a table or exported. 

Creating a Drawing List Report
After all drawing have been added to the project and all properties have been filled in, right click on the active project and choose Drawing List Report. Press New Report.


Like every other '”project wide” tool, there is an option to choose what drawings are to be included in the report. Simply press ‘Do All’. This pushes all of the drawings down into the process side. Then press OK.

The following is a quick preview of what fields are currently selected, the order they will report, and they column headings. Each of these will be explained below. Pressing ‘Put on Drawing’ will take us to the Table Generation
Setup dialog.

Here column widths, text heights, table layer, as well as a number of other table settings are specified. Pressing OK closes all dialogs and allows table placement on the drawing. 



The table can be manipulated as needed and future updates of drawing properties will not update the existing table. For example: I would like the TIME column slightly narrower. That change can happen using normal AutoCAD methods.
As drawings are added or removed simply rerunning the Drawing List Report will update THIS tables values. It does not delete this table and place a new one.


The Options
From the Report Generator dialog there are a number of options. ‘Change Report Format’ not only all drawing properties and a number of file properties, it also shows all attributes of the active title block! The order of the selected fields determines the order they will be displayed in the table. Use the ‘Move Up’ and ‘Move Down’ buttons to change the order.
Each columns header can be modified here as well. Note the arrows. 

 
Modifying the ‘Sort’ order is another option. Select any field from one of the ‘Sort Columns’ and the table will update accordingly. 


‘User Post’ options are customizable scripts that can be run on the report data outside of the generator dialog. One script is included to get you started and it’s actually a pretty useful one. It adds in additional rows to the table if there are any gaps in the sheet numbers. See row nine below. 
Modifying or adding new post processing utilities is a another post for another day. 
 

And finally when using the ‘Save to File’ button here are the available export types. 
   

The only real option that should be pointed out on the Table Generation Setup dialog is the ‘Column Widths’ option. Using this defines column widths before actually placing the table on the drawing. 


Drawing List Template
Rather than setup a settings file and constantly placing new tables, why not place a Drawing List table and customize as needed? Shading, borders, font, colors, ect are all set using AutoCAD’s Table Styles. The table style being used is ACE_TABLE_1.  
Save the drawing as a template (.dwt) and then insert it whenever a drawing list is needed. Rerun the report and when placing the table ‘Use Existing’ will automatically be selected. The table from the template will update. 

Overview of Reports in AutoCAD Electrical

There are three types of reports in AutoCAD Electrical. Schematic, Panel, and the Drawing List report. 

Schematic reports only pull values from schematic symbols on the drawings in the project. Panel reports only pull values from the panel footprints. However the Panel report has an option (Full) that will include all values from ALL components. The Drawing List report uses the data stored in the project descriptions and drawing properties. Of course a few other types could be added to the list if the audits and export options were included.

Reports are broken down into the following categories. Each of the categories come with their own options, sorting, and reportable properties list. 


The Basics

All of the reports allow project wide as well as active drawing wide reporting. Project wide isn't necessarily all drawings. A separate drawing selection dialog opens to allow selection of individual drawings as needed. Most of the reports also have an option for a manual selection (pick) of components to report on. 

    
Note: If “Active drawing” is not available it is more than likely because the drawing is not a part of the active project. Any Project report, in this case, will be from the active project and NOT the project the active drawing is from.

Filtering by Installation or Location Code can further limit the components being reported on. This filtering is far more powerful than single values. See the blog post about wild cards to see how to include/exclude multiple values. 
INST & LOC Codes Honor Wildcards When Searching


Typically there are a number of report type specific options in the middle of the Reports dialog. 


All of the report types have a Format button. Pressing this button opens a new dialog that allows the user to select a report settings (.set) file. The .set files store formatting and selection options. These are created from the Report Format Setup command.


The Report Generator 


The Report Generator shows a preview of what records will be reported and what data about each record will be included. Here header information can be added, sorting and grouping can take place, and columns can be added or removed from the table. The User Post button allows scripts to run on the data. Typically there are one or two scripts already provided under User Post for the different types of reports.

Finally either Put on Drawing or Save to File is pressed. Put on Drawing brings up a table wizard that allows control of the report table formatting. Save to File gives the following file types as exports.


Updating Existing Reports

Currently reports are not updated automatically as changes are made to the schematic. Simply rerun the report and then choose Place on Drawing. If that report was already placed somewhere in the project, the Table Generation Setup will default to Update Existing. Simply press OK and any changes will update in the existing table. 


When saving the report out to a file, saving a new report export can save over the old export. (Electrical will prompt stating a file will be overwrote) Just be aware of this because any changes made to the original export will be lost as the new file completely saves over it.