2008

Table Of Contents
Determine symbol block names
The default symbol subdirectory, jic1, and a companion 0.125 uniform text
height library, jic125, each contain hundreds of component symbols in
standard AutoCAD ".dwg" file format. These are referenced by AutoCAD
Electrical and its icon menuing system and are inserted as standard AutoCAD
blocks with attributes. There are two ways to determine the block name of an
existing symbol:
METHOD A
Insert the symbol from the AutoCAD Electrical icon menu and then use the
AutoCAD LIST command to display the block name. Add /Program
Files/Autodesk/Electrical/libs/jic1/ as a prefix to this block name to obtain the
path to the symbol's ".dwg" file (or /Program
Files/Autodesk/Electrical/libs/jic125/ as a prefix for the uniform 0.125 unit
text height version).
METHOD B
The file WD_MENU.dat lists the symbol descriptions and file names of all
components referenced in the AutoCAD Electrical icon menuing system. You
can pick the symbol names from this file. Here is an example of how the data
looks in this file.
"On delay coil | S2(SHTD1N) | HTD1N".
The "|" characters divide the entry into three sections. The first piece is the
description that appears in the menu's side bar, the second in a slide-library
reference, and the third is the actual symbol file name. In this example, the
file name of the library symbol is htd1n.dwg. The vertical version of this
symbol is vtd1n.dwg.
You can select a different name for a component family by creating or editing
the WD_FAM.dat file. For example, if you want limit switches to be tagged
"LIM" instead of "LS" and you want pilot lights to be "PL" instead of "LT", you
would add the following two lines to the file (or create the file if it does not
exist):
LS,LIM
LT,PL
The change takes effect when you exit and reload AutoCAD Electrical. New
limit switch components you insert will receive the "LIM" family code
annotation instead of the library default of "LS," and pilot lights will be tagged
162 | Chapter 4 Symbol Libraries