AutoCAD Electrical

[#1]

To All,
I have been researching Electrical Design packages for about 10 years. I have used some of the software that is still available today. My biggest problem is finding one that can handle a design of standard equipment which has anywhere from 50 to 5000 selectable options for the customer to choose from. The main issue I am running into is that I need to have multiple selectable options stacked on top of each other on the schematic. By using intelligent software, it doesn't like stacking of wires and components in a schematic. I could create drawing for each and every option and then do a block insert based on customer selections but this would be a maintenance nightmare. If anyone has experience with this type of situation, I would appreciate any suggestions you have.

Thanks,
Eric

[#2]

Eric, The approach you'd like to take is to put each option on its own layer and then selectively freeze/thaw to get the specific set of customer options to display, right? Nate. "EricElectric" wrote in message news:24028774.1078928734722.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum1... > To All, > I have been researching Electrical Design packages for about 10 years. I have used some of the software that is still available today. My biggest problem is finding one that can handle a design of standard equipment which has anywhere from 50 to 5000 selectable options for the customer to choose from. The main issue I am running into is that I need to have multiple selectable options stacked on top of each other on the schematic. By using intelligent software, it doesn't like stacking of wires and components in a schematic. I could create drawing for each and every option and then do a block insert based on customer selections but this would be a maintenance nightmare. If anyone has experience with this type of situation, I would appreciate any suggestions you have. > > Thanks, > Eric

[#3]

Nate,
That is what I am doing today with straight ACAD. The problems I encountered with the available Electrical software is that it doesn't like items/layers on top of each other. It would be great to have the ability to use the intelligence of the software and be able to have this type of schematic also.

Eric

[#4]

Eric, How about if you stick with your basic approach but alter slightly?... Step 1 - copy your master multi-layer/multi-option dwg to the new, target drawing file name. Step 2 - open dwg and turn on all the layers needed to meet the specific set of options for that drawing Step 3 - run a little AutoLISP or VBA utility to blow away all entities on all remaining frozen layers. This a) "locks" the design, avoiding potential catastrophy of user messing around with freezing/thawing layers after the design is fixed and b) allows AcadE to work correctly because there won't be hidden wiring and components on frozen layers but still in the drawing database. If you wanted to get fancier, you could write an AutoLISP or VBA "front end" to prompt for options selection via dialog picks. Then, when you hit OK, it automatically runs the three steps above to create the finished design. Nate. "EricElectric" wrote in message news:14073493.1079026325523.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... > Nate, > That is what I am doing today with straight ACAD. The problems I encountered with the available Electrical software is that it doesn't like items/layers on top of each other. It would be great to have the ability to use the intelligence of the software and be able to have this type of schematic also. > > Eric