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Table Of Contents
Overview of panel layouts
Panel Layout tools create intelligent mechanical / panel layout drawings. Here
are the key features:
Layouts can be driven from information carried on the AutoCAD Electrical
schematic wiring diagram drawings or they can be constructed
independently of schematics.
AutoCAD Electrical places no requirements on special naming or attribute
requirements on mechanical footprint symbols. This means that vendor
supplied footprint symbols, in AutoCAD format, can be used as is with
AutoCAD Electrical.
Bi-directional update capabilities allow certain schematic wiring diagram
edits to automatically update the panel drawings and vice versa.
Wire number, wire color/gauge information, and connection sequencing
data can be extracted directly from the schematics and annotated on to
the panel footprint representations.
AutoCAD Electrical extracts various reports from these smart panel layout
drawings including panel BOM, panel component/item lists, nameplate
reports, and schematic versus panel exception reports.
Automatic schematic/panel update
AutoCAD Electrical allows limited bi-directional updating between schematic
components and the associated footprint blocks. The link is through the
common tag identifier - for example, relay coil CR104 schematic symbol links
to the panel layout footprint that carries a CR104 attribute value or extended
entity data value. Forcing the coil's name to CR104A triggers AutoCAD
Electrical to update not only the coil's child contacts but also update the panel
footprint's data. If a nameplate is tied to the footprint, its text updates as well.
Access panel layout tools
You access the AutoCAD Electrical panel layout command set from either the
main Panel Layout option on the Electrical pull-down menu or from a
panel-specific toolbar.
1022 | Chapter 15 Panel Layout