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
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