CADgneto

Plot Project

AutoCAD Electrical offers us the option of printing our entire project with a click of a button. The only thing is, it seams we must set up every single pages with the proper setting of printer and pages. One of the reasons that offer this confusion, is because when we fall to the generic list of paper sizes by ACADe we get an option of 17 pages, which half of them we never heard of. With this article I will show you how to plot a project.

As an Application Engineer I’ve notice that most company’s design in model space and plot to fit. These steps are design for if you have everything in model space and have not set up your printer yet.

In the “Batch Plotting Option and Order” a pick list is offered for the layout tabs that are available in the active drawing. If your project is setup in different tab you will see this tool is not the best for you. Since we did set up any page format or plotter will use the Model tab.

The plotter need to be selected, I would suggest that you have a pc3 file of your plotter before you proceed to these step.

To make sure everything is plotted to your likings, you will need to modify your configuration of our plot. Select the Detailed Plot Configuration mode.

One thing to keep in mind when we are selecting the orientation, plot Area and plot to scale, all the pages will have that same setting. If you have half of the sheet drawn in portrait and the other half in landscape I would suggest 2 plot projects, with the selection of the proper sheet. The orientation default is landscape.

Paper size, this is where the generic list is important. The previous article show’s you how to update your list of paper size. Once you select the “Pick from generic list” select your paper size.

If you created a Pen style I would strongly suggested that you use it, because you didn’t create a layer standard for nothing.

Once all your settings are to your liking, select ON. Once back to the “Batch Plotting Option and Order” you will see next to the Detailed Plot Configuration mode ON or OFF. If it reads OFF, that means you haven’t selected ON.

Then you have the option to plot in normal sequence or in reverse order.

Congratulations you’ve plotted your entire project.

If you are interested in doing the same but to create individual DWF file format in “Batch Plotting Option and Order” select the plot to file and type in the folder location or leave it blank for default folder drawing. One thing you will notice is that the DWF will have an extension pc3.dwf but at least then won’t overwrite each other as they get created.

Have a safe plotting,

CADgneto

Generic paper sizes

When it comes to plotting an entire project in AutoCAD Electrical I must say it is a nice feature, but the list of page size is very “Passer”. It is using sheet size from an HP LaserJet 5, that’s why we can not find a B, C, D or E size sheet that we want to use. I don’t know if that stop you from using it, but here is how this article will help you to improve it.

Where is the file that ACADe reads? If you have done the generic install of AutoCAD Electrical you will find it in the following folder, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Acade 2006\Support\generic_papersizes.txt, if you do not have 2006 it will be in the Acade 2005 or 2004. If you have modified your install it’s in the Support folder of Acade 2006, Acade 2005 or Acade 2004.

Once you have that file open you will see the explanation of what you need to do to modify this file. It’s says “Paper size names below must exactly match what is defined in the plot driver!” In other word the name of the paper that your PC3 or plotter driver reads should be added to this list with the proper spelling, one thing is, I am not sure if it’s case sensitive but why risk it type it the way you see it.

I have done some modification to my generic list and I want to share it with you, I added the “DWF6 ePlot”, “PublishToWeb JPG” and some generic size’s grab from different printer.

generic_papersizes.txt

Happy Plotting,

CADgneto

Block name convention for AutoCAD Electrical

AutoCAD Electrical offer different feature of automation, one of the major role player of the automation are the block component. For the component a major factor to the automation is the name of the block, even thus it’s not mandatory. I want to explain to you what we need to look for when you name a block for AutoCAD Electrical. The following will explain how the naming convention works. The picture below is a name of an AutoCAD block for electrical.

To start, the first 5 character are what control the automation of an AutoCAD Electrical block. The first characters have 2 options the letter H or V. H represent the horizontal block, as for V its vertical block. And those are related to the wire it’s being inserted on; a component is always defaulted to horizontal, with exception.

The second and third character is said to be related to the family type i.e. PB (Push Button), SS (Selector Switch), CR (Control Relays). In reality those 2 characters are link to the database. When you look at the default_cat.mdb of AutoCAD Electrical you will see every table of each component. In other word the 2 following characters are what define your database table.

The forth character is link to be the type of component and you have the option of 1 or 2. 1 represents the parent component and 2 is the child.

The fifth character is optional; from here you can type any name you want unless it’s needed. The fifth represents the N.O. or N.C. connector. Usually the character 1 is connected to N.O. and 2 for N.C. This is design to work with the Toggle NO/NC command. Save a lot of time if you inserted the wrong contact.

I hope this makes more sense on how AutoCAD Electrical works for the block name convention and database. One thing to keep in mind, if you create a Horizontal block, the name of the Vertical component would be exactly the same except for the first character which would be “V”.  Also it you use the fifth character the two blocks would have the exact same name except for the fifth character “1” or “2”.

Enjoy,

CADgneto

AutoCAD Electrical

What is AutoCAD Electrical?

AutoCAD Electrical is an Autodesk Product (Creator's of AutoCAD) which was added to their family of products in 2003 (If memory serve's me right) and came AutoCAD Electrical 2004, It has mature to the release of 2006. Originally it was a product by itself, Via Wire Diagram, which you would add to your AutoCAD. Through acquisition now we are looking at AutoCAD Electrical. Electrical is a nice CAD tool to help you standardize your drawing, reduce design error, and automatically generate a report. With this tool you'll be able to design industrial control systems. AutoCAD Electrical is linked to a database of component information of different vendor i.e. Allen-Bradley, Square D, GE, Eaton and many more.

Here is the Autodesk overview of AutoCAD Electrical.

Through this Blog you will see me add some information, tips and tricks on AutoCAD Electrical and other products. If you have comments or Ideas of what this Blog should contain please fell free to let me know. I am designing this for the AutoCAD Electrical user.