AutoCAD Electrical DIN rail slot geometry

[glennm]

I am using ACADE 2012 and noticed the ability to insert DIN rail from the Panel tab.  We use Weidmuller brand DIN rail, which was not in the dropdown list.  After some research, I was able to find enough information about modifying wddinrl.xls to put in my preferred part numbers.  However--and maybe this isn't a big deal--there doesn't seem to be columns within wddinrl.xls for complete slot geometry definition.  My part has 25mm long slots spaced at 36mm center-to-center intervals.  The slots are drawn correctly in terms of length and spacing.  The minor issue I have is that the WDSLOT routine uses an elipse at each end of the slot.  That would be fine if major and minor axes were closer to a ratio of 1 (a circle) but they aren't.  My slots are 25mm long, but the two parallel lines connecting the ellipses are only about 13.88mm long.  I think these lines should be more like 20mm long, which would look more like the actual slot, which is about 5mm wide, BTW.  Anyway, I would be interested to know if there is a way to get my DIN rail slots more realistic using this method from the Panel | Icon Menu.

Thanks!

Glenn

[Icemanau]

Look for columns labelled SLOTOFS, SLOTCEN2CEN, SLOTLEN & SLOTWID...

SLOTOFS is the distance from the end of the rail that the first slot appears.

SLOTCEN2CEN is the distance between slots

SLOTLEN is the length of the slot overall

SLOTWID is of course the slot width.

Please note that these are from a 2008 version of WDDINRL.xls

For more information on any changes between versions do a search in the ELECTRICAL HELP for Din Rails and go to the Overview of Din rails and select Concept.

Regards Brad

[glennm]

Thanks Brad for the speedy response.  Unfortunately, those columns don't affect how the slot is drawn with respect to how the ellipses are configured.  I have edited the wddinrl.xls to give me the correct slot length, width, and offset from the edge.  The slots I get are probably good enough to be fair representations for NC hole location.  They just look like someone drew a stretched out football rather than a slot.

[Icemanau]

Have you tried modifying one of the existing din rail entries to see if it's something in the way you have the table filled out?

Have also added and filled in the worksheet that matches the catalogue number? That usually just has the distance between the mounting screws. It may affect how the slots are shown though.

Regards Brad

[glennm]

I copied my new entry from the one for the first item (AB 199-DR1) and yes, I did make a worksheet for it named exactly like the Catalog number.  That worksheet, BTW, is a lookup for where to put the mounting holes.  The columns labeled ORG_LIST are for the slot number (from the left end of rail) in which to place screw holes.

I'm fairly confident I haven't made an error in the way I filled out the columns for my new part.  I inserted the AB 199-DR1 rail and found that the algorithm that drew the slot made it with similar construct.  In other words, the slot ends are ellipses, not circles.  Furthermore, the major axis is longer than the minor axis, but not enough to really notice.  Now, I realize that DIN rail is formed in a press and the slots are punched, not machined.  But when a slot is provided, it would be counterproductive to form it such that the slotted material would not be able to adjust fully to each end of the slot.

My suspicion is that the algorithm that draws the slot makes some erroneous assumptions.  Either that or I'm missing where I should enter the parameters for slot.  I referenced this help file: http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Customer_Pages/Pat_Murnen's_AutoCAD_Electrical_page/Din_Rail_Spreadshee...

For my new Wiedmuller DIN rail, I entered the SLOTOFS, SLOTLEN, SLOTWID, and SLOTCEN2CEN parameters to wddinrl.xls and obtained the correct results according to those dimensions.  My complaint is that the geometry is incorrect.  Granted, I am being picky.  A PDF file is attached showing some DIN rails I inserted on the left side of sheet 25 of the IECDEMO example project.  I know AutoDesk probably gets a lot of wish list items.  There's hardly anything more common to designing panels than drawing DIN rails or wire ducts, so I would think this would be an important feature to many.  Functionally, I think it works well.  I'm simply after a better aesthetic result.