How to specify wire connection position on terminal block

[kwj]

This should be pretty straightforward, but I can't find it in the help or the forums, so my apologies if this is obvious.

How do you specify what position on the terminal block a wire is connected to? For instance, if I have terminal block 20 in my panel, I would like to identify a connection point as 20T or 20-1 or something like that for the Top terminal (or terminal 1). However, when I put a 1T and a 1B in the terminal number, I get two terminal blocks in my BOM instead of just one.

Thanks.

[kwj]

I guess a better question is: can you have the same terminal block represented twice on the schematic? Or if I have a 4-point terminal block, do I have to bring all four wires back to that single terminal block symbol?

[Icemanau · Accepted solution]

At this stage, you can only have one instance of a terminal. You need to bring all wires that connect to it to the actual block.

I'm in the position of having to ignore half of the terminals in some of my projects due to this problem.

We do large HV distribution board made up of multiple panels that need to be connected to one another with bus wiring.

These panels also can be arranged into multiple arrangements depending on the clients needs.

I have the normal terminals in the schematics, but we also have bus wiring diagrams which also show terminals.

I get around showing terminals twice by using the INST/LOC fields and in the bus wiring diagrams, having BW in the INST.

When doing a terminal layout, I ignore any with a location of BW.

As for what direction a wire enters a terminal, there are a couple of handy little tools that set this.

These mark the INTERNAL and EXTERNAL wiring directions.

In a vertical strip, the Internal connects from the left while the External connects from the right.

When you insert a Horizontal (90 degree rotation) strip, the External now connects to the top of the terminal and the Internal the bottom.

You can also set this using the Terminal Strip Editor. This tool also allows you to add extra's like end clamps, end plates and other accessories.

It will also insert a graphical representation of the terminal strip onto your dwg.

Regards Brad

[kwj]

Thank you very much. That is really unfortunate. We use a lot of 4-point terminal blocks to break out DC power. Which means I'm going to have to somehow bring 4 wire back to each terminal symbol. That's pretty silly.

How do you cope with incorrect counts in your BOM?

[dougmcalexander · Accepted solution]

I do not have incorrect quantities in my BOM.  But you have to follow the way the software functions.  In plain AutoCAD, you can do all sorts of things and assume that another person can interpret what you did (i.e. showing same terminal twice).  When software is interpreting data to compile lists and output report data, it has to follow some rules.

I only show the same terminal once in my schematic.  If I need to connect to a circuit on another page, I use source and destination arrows.  That is actually one of their main purposes.  

If I want to specify top or bottom (or left to right), I use one of the terminal block symbols that force a wire number change.  When I insert the strip using Terminal Strip Editor, I use the Toggle Terminal option to determine which side gets which wire number.  You have to ignore the Internal/External prompts in the dialog.  Just follow the arrows for left or right.  Internal or external is relative to where you place the strip and what orientation you choose.  If you rotate 90 degrees the left side of the terminal will be on the bottom, thus be aware of this when you select which side you want which wire number to appear next to.

[kwj]

Thanks for the input Doug. FYI, your video (here) was immensely helpful in solving some issues I was having jumpering terminal blocks. I didn't know autocad ignored wire layers with the word jumper in them. I haven't been able to find that info in the help docs either so I'm not sure I would have ever figured that out without that video.

[dougmcalexander]

Glad to help.   I picked up these tricks along the way while using the software for my own designs since 1997.  I include these kind of tips and tricks in my training classes; stuff you can't just read in a book.  You will find others on this forum who have developed their own bag of tricks. It's part f the fun of using this program.  Autodesk gives us an infrastructure to build on.

[Icemanau]

Simply put, ACADE see's the Bus Wiring terminals as seperate from the panel terminals. ACADE does this due to the fact that I use the IEC/AS standard, and format the INST & LOC codes into the TAG or TAGSTRIP attributes. By marking the INST as BW, ACADE counts them as seperate.

It also helps that the Bus Wiring is generally a seperate dwg from the panel schematic.

When it comes time to do the BOM, I just select the dwgs for the main schematics and skip the Bus Wiring dwgs. This means that ACADE does not count the terminals in the Bus Wiring dwgs.

For the odd dwg where the Bus Wiring is part of the main schematic dwg, I manually adjust the counts after the BOM is finished.

Regards Brad