You have recently purchased the AutoCAD with Toolsets and are wondering if it is worth it installing AutoCAD Electrical instead of utilising the vanilla AutoCAD that you are familiar with and love.
What is the difference you might ask? If you have ever done single line schematic diagrams with a panel design, there are many different drawings that can be created with links between the different wires that are running all over. These links are difficult to manage and if the design changes and a TAG or wire number is updated in a schematic drawing, you need to make sure that you update the corresponding panel drawings otherwise you will find yourself in a bit of a mess later on in the design process not knowing what is connected to what.
With Vanilla AutoCAD, creating a wire diagram consists of drawing up lines and inserting block symbols. With each block if there is TAG info or NO/NC information that needs to be attached to the sybols it can be done with attributes but getting that information out into a form that is useful for downstram processes can be tedious and sometimes manual.
With AutoCAD Electrical, you have access to a full library of schematic symbols which are attached to an Access or SQL database whih allows you to populate your symbol with the relavnt data like TAG or CATALOG information. This is infromation can be easily modified just by double clicking on the symbol and editing the properties through the handy dialog box that pops up.
Another handy tool that AutoCAD Electrical comes with is the automated wire numbering feature. This will run through all your drawings and just create your wire numbers. no question no fuss. AutoCAD Electrical analyses the drawing and will assign the wire number where appropriate.
If you add wires and they are not numbered, to re-number is as easy as selecting all the drawings and re-running the wire number process. If you hve specific numbers that should not change then you can lock those numbers and AutoCAD Electrical will leave them be and change all the other wire numbers.
If the symbols that you use are not present in the symbol catalog you can very easily create your own on the fly (once off) or create a symbol that will be utilised at that point and into the future as well.
AutoCAD Electrical has a very robust Reporting tool. You are able to create Bill of Materials, From/To lists, PLC I/O addresses and Descriptions and Terminal Numbers just to name a few. The Bill of Materials can also be run for either a schematic design or a panel design that has been created.
For the Panel design, you are able to create your panel footprint with components, nameplates and tags which will correspond with the schematic component. With this workflow if a component’s tag is changed either in the panel or schematic drawing, AutoCAD Electrical will check your project and make sure that the corresponding schematic or panel component tag is updated accordingly.
These are just a few of the differences that you will find in AutoCAD Electrical from Vanilla AutoCAD. You have the software available to you when purchasing AutoCAD with Toolsets. Why not install and try it out. If you need any training Micrographics is able to faciltate training at your offices, ours or remotely online.
Still looking for answers? Start a discussion with other professionals in your industry!