Insert Component Icon Menu

[aalterio]

When I open the Insert Component menu I am given a list of "IEC: Schematic Symbols."  I have not been having luck finding all the components that I need, such as a Form 2 Circuit Breaker with thermal overload device (3P). I noticed that if I go to the Icon Menu Wizard I am prompted to select a menu file, with ACE_IEC_Menu.Dat as the default location.  In that dialogue box there is an option to select [Panel] with the default for that being "ace_panel_menu.dat.  I went into that file and saw that it had some of the icons I am looking for.  The only thing is, is that I can not seem to access this file from the Insert Component Icon Menu end of things to actually insert it in the drawing.  Is there a way to add additional data files to the Insert Component Icon Menu?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Icemanau]

First of, the icon menu wizard allows you to make changes to the icon menus. Be very careful with this tool.

Secondly, the panel menu is for inserting footprints and similar into layouts. This is accessed from the Panel Layout tan.

To find a thermal CB, go to the Breakers/Disconnects menu in the Icon Menu.

Select the number of poles required for the circuit breaker (or disconnect).

The Icon Menu will now display a selection of 3 pole Cb's. The second one displayed is a Thermal CB. The third is a Current liimit/Thermal CB and here are a couple of other thermal CB's in the display.

Just click on the one you require and insert it into the dwg.

If the CB you want is not available, you will have to draw the poles yourself and save them as seperate blocks.

If you go this route, you will only need to do single pole parent and child (vertical and horizontal orientations). ACADE uses a special command to insert three seperate blocks to make up a 3 pole device from the Icon menu.

Regards Brad

[drathak]

Brad gave you some good advice.  Here's another bit of wisdome; learn how to make your own blocks.  Understanding how the symbols are built and what the different attributes can do for you is a key part of making the most out of ACADE.  That combined with adding data to the parts catalog if something you use isn't there are great ways to get a better understanding of how it all works together to make a model of your system.

Almost nothing we use (power utility) was available in the included libraries.  And now, looking at it from this side of my first big project, I'm sort of glad.  I learned a lot I might not have if everything was ready made for me.

YMMV.

[aalterio]

Thank Brad and Drathhak!  I'm fairly new to AutoCAD Electrical so any help I can get is great! 

Now Brad, you mentioned that AutoCAD has a special command that allows you to create a single pole symbol but make it 3 pole upon insertion.  What is this command?  I know that if I insert a pre-loaded 3-pole symbol I will be given a prompt to build it left or right.  So far, for the blocks that I have created, I have been just making seperate single, two and three pole blocks.

Thank you again for the help.

[dougmcalexander]

Brad is down under so let me see if I can help you in his absence.  The command Brad is referring to is the wd_3unit trigger.  If you open Icon Menu Wizard and look at the properties of one of the 3-pole devices you will see the wd_3unit trigger.  For example a 3 pole disconnect will have this line:

wd_3unit HDS11

HDS11 is a horizontally wired disconnect switch, parent, normally-open.  The wd_3unit trigger directs the software to insert the parent HDS11 and then 2 child HDS21 symbols.  You do not need to define the children in the command trigger field.

If you are creating new symbols be sure to create both parent and child devices.  The parent will have a "1" as the 4th character of the symbol filename.  The child must have a "2".  Be sure to add link attributes so the software knows where to connect the dashed link line between the symbols.

Hint: If you do define the children one at a time you can insert more than 2 children automatically.  For example, the string below will insert one parent disconnect switch and 3 children to create a 4-pole disconnect.

wd_3unit HDS11 HDS21 HDS21 HDS21

This is getting sort of advanced I know, but just in case you ever have the need it works.  I recommend attending a instructor led course for AutoCAD Electrical.  It will save you much time and frustration.

[aalterio]

Thank you for the explanation on that Doug! 

Now I've run into one more question with creating the component/symbols myself.  I am making them through Symbol Builder, Choosing Vertical/Horizontal, Child/Parent, Type and assigning Wire Connections/Pins. When I insert the symbol the Insert/Edit Component dialogue box comes up.  I am finding that, just for symbols that I have created, that I can not put pin values in through the dialogue box (the pin section is "greyed" out).  I've looked through the pin/wire connection options in Symbol Builder and can not figure out how to make the pin number editable upon insertion from the dialogue box. 

I'm attaching screen shots of the dialogue boxes.  Thank you in advance!

[dougmcalexander]

If you properly inserted wire connection attributes the field for adding pin assignments should not be grayed out.

[drathak]

Doug is probably right.  If there are no pins defined in the block (TERM## & X?TERM## attributes) then there is no place for the pin numbers to go.  Use the section shown in the attached image to add wire connections to your block.  (The direction is to indicate which direction wires will be entering/leaving the device.)

These will add two attributes.  One is TERM## and the other the X?TERM##.  The TERM## attribute holds the pin numbers, the X?TERM## is invisible and it's insertion point is where the wire will terminate. So you could have wire connections, but delete the TERM## and end up with what you have happening.

[aalterio]

Thank you Doug and Joe! I see what I was doing wrong now.  I did not realize that the Wire Connection Attribute tag name was important and had changed it from "TERM01" to "CN1". 

[drathak]

Yeah...all of the symbol attributes need to stay exactly as they are.  You can add extra ones, and not all of them are required for each symbol, but their names are important.

[sniktun]

Ah guys you may be able to help me. I have been creating componants with all the attributes i want working fine including child parts etc.

However for some reason my created componants only work in the project i created them in. How can i make them work across every project i make? as in i want it to become a permenant part of the icon menu. i presumed this would happen automatically but apprently not.

This brings me to my second question of can i save my project properties so i can just click a button and they will load into my next project. it is very tedious filling out everything everytime i start a new project

thanks guys!

James

[aalterio]

James-

I can help you out with your first question:

To add your components to the Icon Menu you should use the Icon Menu Wizard (Schematic Tab --> Other Tools).  Once in there I would suggest making  your own submenu; go to 'Add' and choose 'New Submenu'.  Once you have your submenu created go into it and use the 'Add' command to add your components. For your components you will then set the file location for your component, a name and an image for it. 

I'm not sure about your second question.

[sniktun]

Hello

Yes i have done all of that following tutorials and parts i found out myself. i created a new sub-menu for just my componants, gave them names and file locations. they then work perfectly in the project i created them in.

Howerver when i then open a new project all of it dissapears in the icon menu. 

Example;

say i create a contactor in a project called 'part1'. i save it in the icon menu and it works fine in the project called part1.

now say i create a new project called 'part2', when i open the icon menu my contactor that i created is no longer there. i can open up the project part1 and see it still exists but literally any other project and it is no longer there.

any ideas?

James

[dougmcalexander]

When you create a new project be sure to set the "Copy Settings From Project File" field to a project that works as you prefer. This sets the library and menu paths and also the project properties.

[drathak]

As Doug pointed out, Icon menues, symbol libraries and parts catalogs are project specific.  Which is great if you do work for several companies and each have their own symbols and standards.  For a one shop installation, you need to make sure each project points to the same set.  Using the "Copy Settings" option Doug mentions when creating a project is the easiest way to achieve this.

For reference, here is where they are located in the Project Properties.  (See attached.)

[Icemanau]

Unless ACADE has changed the way it works in a major way, the Icon menu, Symbol Libraries and Catalog Databases are not project specific.

I started a new project with no settings apart from what is set in ACAD itself. The Icon menu came up with all the changes I have added to it, all my non standard components are there and so is all the catalog info I have added to the catalog.

Doug's post only stated how to copy project setttings from another project which answered on of the OP's questions. Nothing was mentioned about menu's and other items being project specific.

You can set up a project specific catalog, but that requires specific steps to do so. Out of the box, ACADE does not work that way.

I'm not aware of any reason why the Icon menu is not holding the changes between projects.

Regards Brad

[dougmcalexander]

The library assignments, both schematic and panel can be assigned on a per project basis, under project properties. Below the schematic section in project properties you define which schematic icon menu to use for the project. Below the panel library section, you define the panel icon menu for the project. (see attached image)

You could use the IEC schematic menu but assign the JIC library and you would get JIC symbols, even though you picked an IEC style icon. Yes, you can do the reverse of this as well. It is a huge advantage if you need to use symbols from a different library than the one you are familiar with. Americans can set their menu to NFPA and the library assignments to IEC and design with IEC symbols, even though they might not be familiar with IEC symbols.

When you install AutoCAD Electrical, whichever design standard you choose as your primary standard will dictate the default library and menu paths, the ones you get when you click on Schematic Libraries and click Default, Schematic Icon Menu and click Default button, etc. (see attached image)

[sniktun]

I can't thank you enough guys, im still relatively new to autocad (only about 6 weeks experience). Doug what you said worked straight away, i think it would not work automatically because i have created new location files for all my projects so i can organize them properly on my computer.

You effectively killed two birds with one stone because this also answered my second question of how to save entire project properties as filling out the same thing every time is quite tedious. I think i may save this thread to a pdf haha.

nice one lads

James

[drathak]

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@Icemanau wrote:

Unless ACADE has changed the way it works in a major way, the Icon menu, Symbol Libraries and Catalog Databases are not project specific.

Regards Brad

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Ack!  You're right.  That's what I get for speaking from memory.  Yesterday was a long day.

We have our menus on a shared network location and the path for it is near the top of the "Support File Search Path" in Options. Everyone sees the same menu.  But it always comes back.  I can't imagine why changes wouldn't stick either.