4-pole Terminal Block creation

[pqphillips]

Okay, the standard Weidmueller terminal blocks we use here at work have four points of connection, so ostensibly our connection points read "???TB??:01A" through "*:01D" and so forth.

In general, when we have a terminal, the source goes into :01A and goes out of :01D (with B & C used if there are multiple destinations and/or if we need to insert a jumperbar into the thing).

My issue is how to show this correctly in AutoCAD Electrical with a single terminal block.

Before, it was a matter of putting the individual points in as separate terminal blocks, but not only does this clutter up a drawing, it also does not accurately represent how the terminals are set up (an extraction will show at least twice as many terminal blocks as are actually present in a cabinet).

I've tried creating an all new terminal block to show all the information plus multiple connection points, but Symbol Builder only allows one wire connection per direction for terminals (i.e. you can only have one coming from the left, one from the right, one from the top, and one from the bottom).

I'm frustrated and at the end of my rope because my bosses want to show a point to point wiring with the ": ??A" through ": ??D" terminal format, yet are getting upset with the extra terminal blocks that are being created and the clutter it causes.

Please tell me that someone either knows of or has found a solution to this...

[electricman1]

Multiple wires can be added using the AE225WIRE, AE45WIRE,AE675WIRE wire commands.

[pqphillips]

Okay, in order to get this particular issue solved, I decided (with some sage advice) to create this as a normal component block with a parent and child configuration instead of as a terminal.

The attributes within the block are:

TBX = Value of X (The terminal number)
TERM01 = Default value of XJ (jumper bar connection)
TERM02 = Default value of XA (first point on terminal block)
TERM03 = Default value of XB (second point on terminal block)
TERM04 = Default value of XC (third point on terminal block)
TERM05 = Default value of XD (fourth point on terminal block)

The TERM01 through TERM05 are invisible attributes, meaning that on the drawing, what one sees is the TBX value, but the From/To report will show the specific connection point.

My question is twofold:

1) Is there a method I can utilize to incorporate an autonumbering sequence for the TBX value, much like the auto-numbering seen in terminals?

2) Is there a way I can set the default value of TERM01 through TERM05 to utilize the value of TBX followed by the letter designation? In other words, if the value of TBX is 6, then TERM01 will automatically become 6J, TERM02 will automatically become 6A, etc...

Any help would be highly appreciated.

[drathak]

I feel your pain.  We only use pre-made mult-point terminal blocks, similar to what I think you are referring to.  Have a look at this post and see if that sounds like it would work for you. (If so I'll do what I can to help.)  I considered the Parent/child route as well, but after some help from another user and AutoDesk I have the regular terminals working for me.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Electrical/Modeling-Terminal-Blocks-of-Predefined-Sizes-So-clo...

 After I posted this I realized you are dealing with a true multi-level terminal.  The program has built-in support for that.  For us, a four point board would have four individual terminals that are not electrically common.  In your case, all four points ARE electrically common, right?

[pqphillips]

Almost.

The issue with ours is that one single terminal block has four connection points (all of which are internally jumpered), which we call A, B, C, and D (the J designation mentioned above is so that we can use a jumper comb to connect multiple terminals together and have them using the same source voltage).

So in a single strip of five of these terminals (numbered terminals 1-5), we will have the following terminal points

1A 1B 1C 1D

2A 2B 2C 2D

3A 3B 3C 3D

4A 4B 4C 4D

5A 5B 5C 5D

The problem is that a standard terminal block only has a single TERMXX value, and you can't add any more to it. However, technically the terminal blocks we use would need five different TERMXX values in order to properly show the A, B, J, C, and D values. The only way to use actual terminal blocks is to put five of them in a row, each with the same TAGSTRIP value of XXX (or whatever) and a different TERM01 value for each one (XA, XB, XJ, XC, XD), make the first one into a five-level terminal and internally jumper the levels, associate the other four, then turn the whole thing into a circuit. The problem with that is you'd have to go in and modify the TAGSTRIP and TERM01 values every time you inserted a circuit, which is extremely time consuming and problematic.

This is why I decided to make it into a component block instead. I get the TERM01-TERM05 values like I want them (well, almost), and I don't have to worry about editing a TAGSTRIP every time. The only thing I have to do is a Find/Replace on the block and replace the letter X with whatever the value of TBX is supposed to be. What I am trying to do is automate it so that when I change TBX, the values of TERM01-TERM05 will update to reflect that.