Ladder Orientation and Wire Sequence

This post is last in a series on wire sequencing in AutoCAD Electrical 2016.

My first article introduced this high level flow chart, and covered the first diamond: Edit Wire Sequence.

The second article talked about the second diamond: Angle Tees.

The third article covered the third and fourth diamonds: Wire Sequence Drawing and Project Properties.

So, if there is no wire sequence defined, angle tees aren't used, and the drawing and project properties have no default order, AutoCAD Electrical checks the drawing's default ladder setting. Even if there are no ladders inserted or your drawing is set for X-Y Grid or X-Zones, there is still a ladder default. Go to Drawing Properties > Drawing Format to see the default ladder orientation.

Looking at the same wire network used in an earlier post, 

here is how the wire sequence would be interpreted for a Wire From\To report depending on the drawing property for ladder orientation.

Horizontal Ladder Default – top to bottom, moving right

Vertical Ladder Default – left to right, moving down

This concludes the series covering wire sequencing in AutoCAD Electrical 2016.

-Pat Murnen