CADgneto

Bend Wires in AutoCAD Electrical 2007

AutoCAD Electrical came out with a nice enhancement tool in 2007, called bend wires. The tool is design to redirect a wire. Sometime we have wires overlapping each other and we would like to redirect it; with the bend wire tool you can, see picture below.

Bend wire is under the wire toolbar. You must select 2 wires on the same network (In other word it must be the same wire). You select the wire before the wire gaps, hence you need 2 selections, and it will bend the wire, as seen on picture above. The selection can be done anywhere but base on the picture above we must select before the wire gap.

Bend it like ACADe,

CADgneto

Choosing the right wire layer

Inserting a wire on its proper layer has improved greatly in AutoCAD Electrical 2007. It’s simple and easy. Here are the 3 easy steps.

1. Select the inset wire Icon

2. Type T for Wire type

3. Select the Wire needed

Like I said simple

Happy Canada Day,

CADgneto

The famous error 1406

If you are in the technical support business and using Autodesk product I am sure you have experienced “Error 1406”. It is not only Autodesk product that are affected by this error, but in my business it is a big issue. There are many options on how to resolve this issue, if you look at my partner, Area 31 , he has posted a couple of solutions, for you the user. I have even used his solutions myself a time or two.

Regarding this issue I have a new solution to add to the mix. I’ve asked Autodesk if there is a magic button, but unfortunately it doesn’t exist. They have directed me to the adobe website for the removal of Macromedia Flash. I would like to offer you this option too.

Remove Macromedia Flash

Now once the installation of your Autodesk Product is complete you can Re-install Macromedia Flash. They say with the new Macromedia Flash you should not run into any problems, but as you well know nothing is perfect and I have run into some problems as well.

P.S. During a network installation you might get a 1603 error, usually “Error 1603” is linked to a Windows permission issue but also can be linked to a 1406. (I ran into this issue while installing our network license at the office) If you cannot install the network license, the computer your installing it on could also be affected by the Macromedia flash.

Happy solving,

CADgneto

Wire layer control

I got my first article on the new feature of AutoCAD Electrical 2007. I believe it’s important for you, the user, to understand this new feature. In the past we had to use the drawing configuration for the setting of our wire layer. Now a new tool has come out in 2007 regarding the wire layer, Create/Edit wire Type.

As you can see the picture under reveals the new tool to create wire layer. This table contains “Wire Color”=%C, “Size”=%S, followed by 20 user define table which table 1 through 5 are equal to %1-%5. These %* are used to help you create a standard name for your wires. As you can see bellow you have a section for layer name format, and that will automatically update the layer name table.

This tool simplify the creation of layer for your wires in less step, then 2006 or older, and also it’s easier to control. One thing that make this tool great, compare to the older version of AutoCAD Electrical, it offer you the option to choose which layer should be the default wire.

Keep your wires colored,

CADgneto

Multi-level Bill of Material

Here is a quick tip regarding Autodesk Inventor and parts list. We have the option of Structure and Parts only; I would like to get both of the worlds, but still have the live update. Here is the solution to make it possible.

In Bill of Material, also know as Global BOM, select the structure tab. Right click on the tab and select “View Property”. In the view property box, you have two options, First Level or All Level. To get the structure of assembly with parts and/or sub-assembly, you must select All Level. View picture above to get a better visual.

Get the real BOM

CADgneto

What’s new in 2007 Acade…

Finally I’ve got some little time. I promised some news on AutoCAD electrical 2007 and now is the time. Many articles will follow this one but I want to share some of the new feature in AutoCAD Electrical. Many improvements have been put into this release and I’ll be happy to share this information with you. Many of you might of visited the Autodesk website but I thought that I might share info on most feature with there own blog post.

Here is a list of existing post that will be coming in the near future, with other post in between of course.

- Wire layer control
- Wire tool enhancement
- The Connector Generator (Brand new tool)
- Editing tool enhancement
- Real time error check
- Enhance on the drawing properties
- Multiple wire bus
- And more to add to this list.

Here are some links to the Autodesk “What’s new” website:

Autodesk What’s New
Autodesk What’s New PDF

More to Come,

CADgneto

Autodesk 2006 Boot Camp

It’s been a while since my last post on my blog, but a lot has happen in the last couple of month. Besides putting a new engine in my little Geo Metro it was Autodesk new product launch. I just got back from the Autodesk 2006 Boot Camp, where we’ve be drilled with all the new product of 2007 plus the what’s new. I was in the Mechanical Division, and I learned about, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Productstream and my new passion AutoCAD Electrical.

They are many wonderful tools that have been introduced for the 2007 release, in the vertical division. This has been one of my best boot camp so far. Kudos to Autodesk, they have finally made a great learning environment for all the reseller of North America. I got lots of positive during this Boot Camp and I hope to help you understand some of the new tools in ACADe.

My next articles that will follow this post will be base on some of the new feature in AutoCAD Electrical 2007. I believe that they are many good reasons to upgrade your previous version to 2007.

I would like to give many thanks to Autodesk for a great Boot Camp, and many thanks to Hilton Anatole (Dallas, TX) for there great service.

Back from a hectic month,

CADgneto

Redefine Isometric in Inventor

Lately I’ve been getting some interest from client in redefining Isometric view in part and assembly file. I’ve just though since the Autodesk Blog, In the Machine talk about some viewing tips, I’d would add redefine isometric view.

Here are the step we must follow to change the isometric view.

1. Select the rotate Icon.

2. Hit space bar or Right click and select “Common View”.

3. Once the common view cube has appeared we must select the view we would like to have as an isometric view. (Only a corner of the cube can be set as an iso view)

4. Once the view is selected, right click and select “Redefine Isometric”. (This will not redefine your X, Y, Z coordinate but will save the view that you would like to see as an isometric view)

Happy viewing,

CADgneto

P.S. for those who don’t know the key stroke to active Isometric View is F6

AutoCAD Electrical Title Block Link

In AutoCAD Electrical we have the power to update title block of a drawing or project with a click of a button. Unfortunately some setting must be done for all this to be possible, but we do it once and that’s it, unless more then one title block is used. Below represent the different setting that are possible in our “Title Block Link Method”. Before I explain to you what the method are I must let you know the file that controls the title block update has the extension WDT. In this WDT file, which can be read and edited as a text file in notepad, it contains the block attribute and what are they link to in ACADe.

This “Title Block Link Method”, found in the drop down menu “Projects” under the name of “Title Block Setup”, shows us 2 methods. Method 2 is actually an attribute inside of your title block containing your links, which for me I found harder to control and editing on the fly, also your attribute name must be named WD_TB. Method 1, which I use religiously and find it easier to control, offers us 3 options.

Option 1, this option is project specific, in other word you need to have a WDT file with the same name as your project i.e. Project = DEMO.wdp, Title Block Link = DEMO.wdt.

Option 2, this option is kind of project specific also, the only difference, you have a WDT file named default.wdt in the project folder. If you have more then one project in a folder, they would all share the same default unless you created a specific project WDT.

Option 3, this option is more Title Block specific, what do I mean by that? If your company uses the same title block over and over, with little changes over the year, this is the option for you. You would name a default.dwt file in your support folder of ACADe. That way if the title block update doesn’t find a project.wdt, or a default.dwt in the project folder, then it would look in the “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Acade 2006\Support”. Instead of having different DWT per project, which you are using the same title block over and over, then option 3 is your best bet.

In the “Title Block Link Method”, if you choose to use Method 1, the one that you have selected doesn’t really matter, why? Because ACADe searches for all of them but in the order of, project.dwt, then default.dwt in project folder, followed by default.dwt in the support folder and if none of these are found, it will go to method 2 which is the WD_TB attribute.

I hope this is useful information for you to start setting up your company WDT standard, but also this work for your WDL extension.

Good luck with you Title Block Update,

CADgneto

Creating a Circuit in ACADe

In AutoCAD Electrical you can create component by using the Black Box Builder, but when it come to creating a circuit, we can definitely say the Black Box Builder doesn’t help. They’re some tools that our offered by ACADe, Copy Circuit, Move Circuit, Save Circuit to Icon Menu, Insert Saved Circuit and Insert WBlocked Circuit. My goal is to show you the concept on how to create a circuit with out the tools.

To begin, let’s start with a new drawing on the acad.dwt standard. Think of the Coordinate 0,0 (X,Y), as your insertion point. In your new drawing you will design your circuit, with the proper wire layer and component. Once the circuit created, make sure that your insertion point of your circuit is moved to the 0,0 coordinate. Then save your drawing file (DWG) to your hard drive. Now you have 2 locations possible that will make your life easier, you can save it in the user folder of AutoCAD Electrical or in the symbol folder that contains all the other component of ACADe. I’m offering you these 2 folders because the support file search path are already setup by ACADe, but you can put it anywhere as long you add you folder support search path (Drop down menu, Tools, Options… or type OP in command line). When you save this file the name convention does not come into consideration, You can name it what ever you want but to keep my circuit organize I always start with Circuit_*.dwg, that way I know that my DWG is a circuit and not a component.

Once all of these steps are done, you are ready to bring your new circuit in your drawing. I will show you in another post later on how to insert, the circuit, in the component menu with the Icon wizard, but for now let’s concentrate on inserting our circuit in our drawing. Use the command Insert WBlocked Circuit from the drop down menu of ACADe, Components, or you can also use the Icon too. Once selected browse to your circuit and select open.

A Circuit Scale window wills pop-up and all you need is to fill in the requirement needed to you circuit. Once all your requirements are selected, click OK and now all you need is to insert it in the desired location. As you can see you 0,0 in your original drawing is now your insertion point.

Why must we use the Insert WBlocked Circuit over the component insert? If you select insert component you are inserting a Block filled with other block inside. So Electrical will not be able to read those inside component individually. When you use the Insert WBlocked Circuit, you are actually inserting the circuit as an exploded block. That is why you can edit the component individually.

Enjoy your circuitry,

CADgneto