AutoCAD Electrical

Best Practices for Customizing the Catalog Database

The catalog database is supplied with many manufacturers and catalog records. However, you will still need to modify the database to add tables, add manufacturers, add records, edit records, and more.

But, some changes can stop AutoCAD Electrical from being able to use the catalog database. This is true of all releases of AutoCAD Electrical, but AutoCAD Electrical 2015 is a little stricter when checking the catalog database format. If the database doesn't meet the format requirements, you see this alert and the database will not be used.

Follow these guidelines to make sure your changes do not stop the program from using the catalog database.

Best Practices

• Add a catalog table. Use Add Catalog Table to Database to add a blank catalog table. 
• Add _PINLIST table. Use the edit mode of the Catalog Browser to add a blank pinlist table. When you enter a manufacturer value in a record, the _PINLIST table for that manufacturer is created if it doesn't exist.
• Add _TERMPROPS table. Use the edit mode of the Catalog Browser to edit the TRMS table. When you enter a manufacturer value in a record, the _TERMPROPS table for that manufacturer is created if it doesn't exist.
• Add records. Use the edit mode of the Catalog Browser to add records.
• Add pinlist values. Use the edit mode of the Catalog Browser to add pinlist values.
• Add terminal properties. Use the edit mode of the Catalog Browser to edit the TRMS table and add terminal properties.
• Remove a table. Use a database program, like Microsoft ®Access, to remove tables.
• Rename a table. Use a database program, like Microsoft ®Access, to rename tables. Make sure to follow the catalog table naming conventions.
• Add a column. Use a database program, like Microsoft ®Access, to add columns in a catalog table. Add columns right before the RECNUM column. If there is no RECNUM column, add new columns at the end of the table.
  Note: Data in the added columns is not assigned to components or included in reports.
• Edit column labels. Use a database program, like Microsoft ®Access, to edit the labels.

Prohibitions

• _FAMILY_DESCRIPTION table. Do not remove this table.
• Column Order. Do not change the column order.
• RECNUM column. Do not remove the RECNUM column.
• _PINLIST and _TERMPROPS tables. Do not add columns to these tables.
• Data Type. Do not change the data type; Text, Memo, AutoNumber, for existing columns.
• Field Size. Do not change the field size for existing columns.
• Allow Zero Length. Do not change the setting for existing columns. The value must be No, do not allow zero length values.

Remember, if you are going to make changes to the catalog database outside of AutoCAD Electrical, always make a backup copy of the catalog database. This way if your changes make the database invalid, you have a working catalog database to return to.

By Pat Murnen

 

 

Meet at Autodesk University

For those of you who will be attending Autodesk University in Las Vegas next week, I would like to invite you to attend the AutoCAD Electrical User social meeting on Wednesday at 5PM in the "South Pacific B" room. This is a great chance to meet some of the people behind the Electrical product, share your thoughts and meet your peers.

Light drinks and snacks will be provided. 

Eaton 2D and 3D Content

Over the past few months, we have worked closely with Eaton Corporation to update the electrical content in the catalog solution available as a shared library in AutoCAD Electrical 2015 and Autodesk Inventor 2015. Available now, is a complete refresh of parts information and both 2D footprints and 3D parts for the following Eaton families of components:

•          C25 & C65 (Non-Rev and Rev Definite Purpose Contactors)

•          CN15 & CN55 (Non-Rev and Rev NEMA Contactors)

•          XTCE & XTCR (Non-Rev and Rev Contactors)

•          XTMC & XTMR (Non-Rev and Rev Mini Contactors)

•          XTFC (B->C CMC Non-Rev Contactor)

•          XTSC (B->B and B->C Non-Rev MMC Non-Rev Contactor)

•          XTPE (B & D Electronic MMPs)

•          XTPR (B & D Rotary MMPs)

•          XTPB (B Pushbutton MMPs)

•          DA1, DC1, DG1, HMAX, MMAX, SVX-SPX and NFX Drives

•          C306, C440, XTOB, XTOT, XTOE and XTOM (Bi-metallic and Electronic Overloads - Direct and Separate Mount)

•          PSG Power Supplies

•          XTTR Timing Relay, XTRE & XTRM Control Relays

•          MTE-E6U & E6UFB CPTs

•          FD, EHD, FDB, HFD & FDC Molded Case Series C Breakers

This content is available online ready for installation into AutoCAD Electrical 2015 and Autodesk Inventor 2015.

- Lee

Help for New Users

The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD Electrical Basics, was recently added to the AutoCAD Electrical 2015 online Help. These 11 topics, designed for new users, provide a quick overview of the basic functionality in AutoCAD Electrical.

The topics follow a general workflow within AutoCAD Electrical. Use the links at the end of each topic to navigate the guide. Also at the end of each topic, are links to related topics, so you can quickly dive deeper into any of the features talked about.

It is best to view the guide from within AutoCAD Electrical. Click the Help button in the upper right of the AutoCAD Electrical window to open the Help.

Then click the link to the guide on the Help home page.

When a command is mentioned in a topic, the command's icon is shown but not its location on the ribbon. For example, you might see something like this –

Click the icon image, or the Find link next to it, to locate the command on the ribbon.

Happy Hiking!

By Pat Murnen

Drawing Properties Stored in the Project .WDP

When you add properties to your AutoCAD Electrical drawings most of these values are saved on the attributes on the drawing's WD_M block. However, when you add drawing description, section, or sub-section values they are not written to the drawing's WD_M block but are saved in the project's .wdp file.

Because these values are not saved on the drawing, when you want to reuse drawings from one project in another project, these values are not maintained. Say you are starting a new project that has some similarities to a couple of previous projects. So, you add the drawings you need from each of the previous projects in to your new project. But, because the drawing description, section, and sub-section values didn't come in with the drawings you have to re-enter them all. This is exactly the issue that was brought up in a recent discussion forum post. James Alger, our guest author (read about James below), and I decided to see if there was something that could be done to bring those values in, saving the time to re-enter all the information.

It turns out that when you enter the Drawing Properties, AutoCAD Electrical also saves this information to the AutoCAD Custom Properties. Use the AutoCAD DWGPROPS command to see the custom properties.

So we decided to see if a Lisp function could read the description, section, and sub-section values from the AutoCAD custom properties and write them to the project's .wdp file. Once they are in the .wdp file then AutoCAD Electrical sees them as Drawing Properties and can use them for the title block update, the Drawing List Report, etc. We also wanted something that could read the custom properties on each drawing whether the drawing was open or closed. And finally, we wanted it to work on AutoCAD Electrical 2013, 2014, or 2015.

What we came up with is a command that you run after you add the drawings to your project but before you edit any Drawing Properties. This way the custom properties are still there and can be read by our lisp command. To give it a try, follow these steps:

1. Download the.zip file at the end of this post.
2. Unzip the file to C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins. It creates a new folder, C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\Draw_Props.bundle.
3. Launch AutoCAD Electrical 2013, 2014 or 2015.
4. Activate the project that contains the drawings you added from other projects.
5. Type UPDWDPFROMDWG at the command line. (It should auto-complete saving you from typing the entire command name.)
   
6. Select which properties you want to update and whether to overwrite existing values in the project .wdp or update only blank ones.
7. Select the drawings to process.

The new command reads each drawing you selected and writes the description, section, and sub-section values to the project .wdp file. Once you run this, try using the AutoCAD Electrical Drawing Properties on any of the drawings processed and you'll see the values now.

This was a fun collaboration. I (Pat Murnen) wrote the initial lisp function. A special thanks to Lee Ambrosius, Principal Learning Content Developer at Autodesk, for helping with the ActiveX commands needed to make it work on the open or closed drawings. James tested it in AutoCAD Electrical 2013, 2014, and 2015 and provided feedback and suggestions. The first draft needed to be loaded manually and had some trouble working in 2013. I made some changes in the lisp function for 2013, Lee created the bundle so that it would load automatically in AutoCAD Electrical 2013, 2014, and 2015, and James tested it all again.

By the way, we did log on the AutoCAD Electrical IdeaStation that it would be nice if AutoCAD Electrical brought these values in automatically when drawings are added to a project. But, until that happens, use and modify the attached lisp function as needed. The lisp function is provided as "use at your own risk", not as an official AutoCAD Electrical command. It is provided with the source .lsp file in case you want to change it. Maybe you don't want to see the dialog, but want it to always update all non-blank values. You can set those defaults in the .lsp file and comment out the lines for the dialog. Or maybe you want to change the command name to something shorter. Even if you don't know much about Lisp, there are comments in the .lsp file indicating how to make these changes. We hope it saves you some time as you reuse drawings in other projects.

You can find out more about the WD_M block in the Help topic, About the WD_M Block, and more about the project .wdp file format in the Help topic, About the Project .WDP File.

About James Alger, our guest author and collaborator, in his own words: I work for an Autodesk Reseller in Canada (Redcage Solutions), where I provide Technical Support, Training, and consulting services. I have been working directly in the Autodesk Community for about 5 years now, prior to that I was a PLC programmer. I have done electrical schematics (For Automotive), Panel wiring, and of course programming (Robots and PLC's… no lisp sorry). I have used AutoCAD Electrical since 2009 (when I started in the re-seller channel), prior to that I did schematics in Plain AutoCAD… and I'll never go back! In addition to AutoCAD Electrical I also regularly work with Inventor, AutoCAD ("Vanilla" & Mechanical), and Vault.

Download Draw_Props.bundle

By Pat Murnen and James Alger

Customize a Report with a User Post File

Recently I had a few people ask me about a wiki site where I had posted some sample User Post files. That site is no longer available so I thought I would post something here about user posts and give an example.

Reports in AutoCAD Electrical are pretty flexible but sometimes you just need something that isn't available in the reports. Maybe you want to calculate a cost based on some fields in the report, or you want to include a field that is not available in the report, or you want to combine the data in multiple fields into one field. All this and more can be done with a custom user post file.

Each report has a specific User Post .lsp and .dcl file. You can find the file names in the Help topic, Report Generator Dialog Box, User Post section. It is called a user post file because it is up to the user to write the actual Lisp code. A few samples are supplied with AutoCAD Electrical and framework .lsp and .dcl files are supplied for each report. The files are in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Acade 2015\en-US\Support folder in a default stand-alone installation.

The .dcl file defines the options on the dialog that appears when you click the User Post button on the Report Generator dialog box.

You edit (using a text editor not a word processor) the .dcl file to change the option labels.

The .lsp file defines what happens for each option on the dialog. Here is part of what the framework .lsp looks like –

  ; Look for dcl file of same name, open if found.

  (if (AND (OR (not GBL_wd_postprocess) ; otherwise bypass dialog

               (AND (= user_1 "0") (= user_2 "0") (= user_3 "0")));if no option is pre-selected, also need to popup dialog

           (setq dclnam (c:ace_find_file "cbl.dcl" 16))) ; 16=display error dialog if file not found

    (progn

      (setq dcl_id (load_dialog dclnam))                

      (if (new_dialog "main_select" dcl_id)

        (progn

          (set_tile "user1" user_1) ; set toggles per defaults above

          (set_tile "user2" user_2)

          (set_tile "user3" user_3)

          (action_tile "user1" "(setq user_1 $value)")

          (action_tile "user2" "(setq user_2 $value)")

          (action_tile "user3" "(setq user_3 $value)")

          (action_tile "cancel" "(setq cancel 1)")

          (start_dialog)

          (unload_dialog dcl_id)

  ) ) ) )

  (if (AND wd_rdata (not cancel))

    (progn ; user didn't cancel out of dialog, okay to continue

      (if (= user_1 "1")

        (progn

          (princ

            (strcat "\n " (c:wd_msg "WLAY031" (list "1" "cbl.lsp") "Nothing defined for user%1 option (see %2)"))

      ) ) )

      (if (= user_2 "1")

        (progn

          (princ

            (strcat "\n " (c:wd_msg "WLAY031" (list "2" "cbl.lsp") "Nothing defined for user%1 option (see %2)"))

      ) ) )

      (if (= user_3 "1")

        (progn

          (princ

            (strcat "\n " (c:wd_msg "WLAY031" (list "3" "cbl.lsp") "Nothing defined for user%1 option (see %2)"))

      ) ) )

    )  

  )  

  (c:wd_rtrn_2wd rtrn) ; return post-processed list back to AutoCAD Electrical's report dialog

You edit the .lsp file to add the code to make some change to the report data.

You need to know the field and the field order so you can modify the appropriate values to get the results you want. Most of the user post .lsp files provide a list of the fields in the report data at the beginning of the file. If the sample .lsp file does not provide the list of fields, you can get the fields in the Help topic by searching on "Data Fields to Report" and looking for the report you are interested in. For example, look at the Help topic Cable Summary Data Fields to Report Dialog Box.

Example:

Let's say you wanted to customize the Cable Summary report by combining the DESC1, DESC2, and DESC3 values into in one field, separating each with a space. According to the Report Generator Dialog Box Help topic, the .lsp and .dcl file names are CBL.lsp and CBL.dcl.

So first, I edit the CBL.dcl file to indicate my new option. I change the text as highlighted:

:toggle{key="user1";

        label=/*cbl_dcl_006*/"Combine DESC1, DESC2, DESC";

        }

Now I am ready to edit the .lsp file. Looking at the CBL.lsp file supplied, I find the fields I am interested in:

0= cable marker tag-ID

1= cable marker - DESC1 description value assignment

2= cable marker - DESC2

3= cable marker - DESC3
			

4= cable marker - MFG part number assignment

5= cable marker - CAT part number assignment

6= cable marker - ASSYCODE part number assignment

So here is my code snippet that replaces the framework for the first user option:

      (if (= user_1 "1") ; picked first option on dialog to combine DESC1, DESC2, DESC3 and put in the DESC1 field

        (progn

          (setq rtrn '()) ; start a new blank list to add the modified data to

          (foreach data wd_rdata ; look at each line in the report

            ; pull out the 3 lines of description

            (setq desc1 (nth 1 data))

            (setq desc2 (nth 2 data))

            (setq desc3 (nth 3 data))

            ; string them together adding the space if non-blank

            (if (/= desc1 "")

              (if (/= desc2 "") (setq desc1 (strcat desc1 " " desc2)))

            ; else

              (setq desc1 desc2)

            )    

            (if (/= desc1 "")

              (if (/= desc3 "") (setq desc1 (strcat desc1 " " desc3)))

            ; else

              (setq desc1 desc3)

            )    

            ; plug this new value back in the DESC1 field using the supplied wd_nth_subst function

            (setq data (wd_nth_subst 1 desc1 data))

            ; add this line of data into my new list as the first element

            (setq rtrn (cons data rtrn))

          )

          ; need to reverse the list since built it by adding on at the front

          (setq rtrn (reverse rtrn))  

      ) ) 

Now it is ready to try. Here is my report before I run the User Post. I won't need the DESC2 and DESC3 fields once it is done, but I am just showing it here so you can see the values.

I run the Cable Summary report and I click User Post on the Report Generator dialog box. So far so good, since I see my new option.

As soon as I click OK, the program runs through my new option and returns to the report. And here is my updated report (I used the Change Report Format to remove the DESC2 and DESC3 fields).

And new in AutoCAD Electrical 2015, you can add a User Post option to your report format (.SET) files. This way the User Post option runs automatically before the report displays. Adding it to the format file also means a user post can be used when you run Automatic Reports.

By Pat Murnen

Your Ideas Matter. . .

. . . but unfortunately it is impossible for us to speak to every single customer. So to reach more users and creative minds, we have established an Idea Station where anyone can create, view, vote and comment on ideas for improving the AutoCAD Electrical product.

The Idea Station is monitored by our product team and subject matter experts, so we can have meaningful engagement with users and innovators that want to share their thoughts. It only takes a few minutes to create a post, or view and vote on the ideas of others. The more kudos an idea gets, the more we know it resonates with the AutoCAD Electrical user community.  

Simple ideas, big ideas, even wacky ideas, are all welcome. Why don't you jump on in?

Cheers,
Lee

 

Surfing on the AutoCAD Electrical app

Many electrical components have related references - a parent component could have several child components, a control relay shown in the schematic drawing has its associated panel drawing representation. The Surf function on AutoCAD Electrical allows you to effectively navigate these references to your intended panel layout drawing or a related peer/child component. This powerful feature is also present in the AutoCAD Electrical mobile app and can be useful when validating as-built installations against shop drawings that were commissioned.

 

On the desktop, the surf feature is powered by data residing on the project database. For the mobile app, the Autodesk Exchange plugin – Export Mobile Data generates the required files necessary in order to surf through the project. This plugin is shipped alongside AutoCAD Electrical 2015. For AutoCAD Electrical 2013 and 2014 users on subscription, it can be downloaded it from Autodesk Exchange directly.

 

With this plugin, a folder named 'EXPORTED_MOBILE_DATA' will be generated in the project directory. The generation process is automatic for users of AutoCAD Electrical 2015 upon the opening and activation of an AutoCAD Electrical project. Users of AutoCAD Electrical 2013 and 2014 may choose to click on the Mobile Data button in the Add-in tab of the ribbon or use the command AEMOBILEDATA to generate the 'EXPORTED_MOBILE_DATA' folder.

 

Once the project and EXPORTED_MOBILE_DATA folder have been uploaded, simply open an AutoCAD Electrical project drawing to start surfing. Activate the surf panel at the top right by tapping the surf icon once. Next, from the drawing, tap and select a component that you like to surf. The surf panel on the right will then populate with the corresponding reference data and components that you are able to surf to.

 

Tap your desired item to surf to that destination. Your target component will be highlighted in a green box.

 

Quick recap for surfing on the mobile app:

• Export Mobile Data Plugin is needed for mobile surfing
• Plugin can be downloaded from Autodesk Exchange; is installed with AutoCAD Electrical 2015 by default.
  
• Plugin generates 'EXPORTED_MOBILE_DATA' for active project
• Upload the entire 'EXPORTED_MOBILE_DATA' folder alongside your project to Autodesk 360 or other web cloud storage to access it on the app
  

 

Download the free AutoCAD Electrical app and try surfing on your own AutoCAD Electrical project drawings today. Quickly and effectively navigate through connected components or panel footprint layouts.

 

Cheers,

Anthony.

AutoCAD Electrical on Facebook

Hello fellow Electrical Bloggers,

Wanted to let you know that AutoCAD Electrical has a presence on Facebook as well:

https://www.facebook.com/AutoCADElectrical

The latest post talks about the availability of Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD Electrical 2015.

Check it out, and don't forget to "like" the page.

Ananda

Item Resequencing Technology Preview on Autodesk Labs

Autodesk Labs is a place where Autodesk explores and validates new ideas through a technology preview. And it's a chance for you to provide feedback on those ideas. AutoCAD Electrical currently has a labs project looking at Item Resequencing. The labs version uses a different approach than the released functionality to assign item numbers.

The labs version:

• Always processes the entire project
• Does not activate each drawing to process it, providing a performance improvement.
• Sorts catalog information based on Manufacturer and Catalog across the project, not on a per drawing basis.
• Assigns item numbers to schematic and panel devices.
• Ignores the project setting to reset for each drawing. Item numbers are accumulated project-wide.

The labs version can be installed on AutoCAD Electrical 2014 and AutoCAD Electrical 2015. Use the Downloads link on the labs page to get the appropriate installer. Installing the technology preview overrides the existing resequencing functionality. After it is installed, you run it using the same command (AERESEQUENCE) or ribbon icon, Panel tab → Edit Footprints panel → Resequence Item Numbers. You can tell for sure you have the technology preview version by the dialog. Labs is in the title, and there are only 2 options on it: the starting value and whether to process all or just the ones that are blank. To go back to the old way, uninstall the technology preview version using the regular Windows uninstaller.

Join the project and provide feedback through the User Forums. You can find the link on the left side of the labs page. You can also email your feedback directly to labs.acadelec.resequence@autodesk.com.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Make sure you check out Scott Sheppard's blog, It's Alive in the Lab, to hear about other labs projects.

By Pat Murnen