Control Engineering

A custom advertising newsletter from Control Engineering & Autodesk| June 7, 2004

Need a way to design better quality products, reduce costs and accelerate development? Join Autodesk for National Manufacturing Solutions Day at any one of over 100 reseller locations, across the U.S. click here.

AutoCAD Electrical provides the following high-level benefits:

• Fast control schematic generation
  AutoCAD Electrical is an industry-specific version of the AutoCAD software application designed for an electrical engineer or designer who designs or documents industrial control systems. AutoCAD Electrical ships with a comprehensive set of JIC and IEC electrical symbols as well as a set of pneumatic symbols.
• Automatic wire numbering and component tagging
  AutoCAD Electrical automatically places sequential or reference-based numbers on all wires and components based on the chosen configuration. It also attaches a suffix to reference-based numbers and tags to ensure unique names (for example, 406, 406A, 406B). If AutoCAD Electrical determines that an inserted wire will interfere with another object, it searches for a clear spot to place the wire number and automatically draws a leader back to the wire, if necessary.
• Automatic creation of PLC I/O drawings from spreadsheets
  Automatically generate a complete set of PLC I/O drawings by defining a project's I/O assignments using any spreadsheet program. As AutoCAD Electrical works its way through the spreadsheet, it creates new drawings as required to accommodate the inserted modules. If a module doesn't fit in a column, AutoCAD Electrical automatically breaks it at the bottom of the ladder and continues it at the top of the next ladder column or in the next drawing.

• Smart panel layout drawings
  Once schematic creation is complete, AutoCAD Electrical extracts a list of schematic components for placement into panel layout drawings. The footprint representation of each schematic device is inserted into the layout at the engineer's selection point. A link is established between the schematic and panel representations of a device so that changes to one prompt for permission to update the other.
• Automatic reports
  Generate many different types of reports at any stage of the project, including:
  • Bill of materials (BOM) reports (tallied, purchase list format, or by tag ID)
  • From/to wire reports
  • Cable reports
  • Terminal reports
  • PLC I/O reports
  • Component reports
  • Connector plug/jack reports
  • Various exception and design rules check reports

  Reports can also be inserted into a drawing as a table or saved directly to Microsoft Excel or Access, XML, ASCII, or CSV format.

• Reuse existing drawings
  To reuse drawings from another project, just incorporate a copy of that drawing into the new project and AutoCAD Electrical takes care of the rest. Or, when reusing an entire drawing set for a new design, the Copy Project utility can be used.
• Real-time coil and contact cross-referencing
  AutoCAD Electrical sets up a parent/child relationship between the coil and contact and keeps track of how many contacts are assigned to any coil or multi-contact device. The software sends an alert when the limit has been reached.

• Share drawings and track changes
  AutoCAD Electrical drawings can be viewed and edited by any DWG-compatible program such as AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT software. When drawings are returned from outside sources, AutoCAD Electrical can create a report of what was changed. And when it's time for a drawing revision, AutoCAD Electrical can create a report of changes made since the last update.
• Web publishing
  AutoCAD Electrical automatically creates the HTML pages and links needed to post a design to the Web for collaboration. Users can drag these drawings directly from the Web into an AutoCAD session.
• Open and flexible API
  Two hundred programming entry points can be used to create powerful, custom applications such as automatic schematic generation or special drafting and design utilities. These applications can be written using AutoLISP, Visual LISP, Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, C, C++, or AutoCAD scripting.
• Cable and harness interface
  AutoCAD Electrical enables the creation of a from/to wire list that can be imported directly into Autodesk Inventor Professional for creating wire harness and cable designs. This list contains point-to-point connector and pin information.

To learn more about AutoCAD Electrical and see it demonstrated, be sure to register for and attend the Webcast on June 11or 25, by clicking here.