Manufacturer's component insert?

[deckerdj]

Dear sirs,

I have been trying to find a way to insert drives, power supplies etc. for some time now.  The components menu is lacking these two items.  I do know though that after inserting say a motor, i can do a look up and change the component to a siemens drive but it will keep the motor schematic image...  How do i insert a siemens drive that i know is in a library somewhere but is not in the icon menu?? Terribly sorry if this is some simple thing introduced in a beginners video, my company does not have the latest flash player, and it was hard enough acquiring ACE. Greatly appreciate any input,

Cheers

[Icemanau]

Down towards the bottom of the Icon menu, there should be a BROWSE button. This will allow you to navigate to the block you want.

Remember to add all the appropriate ACADE attributes to the block so that ACADE will see it as intelligent rather than a dumb block. This will also allow ACADE to include it in reports.

Regards Brad

[Tee.Dee]

You can also add your symbols to the icon menu by using the Icon Menu Wizard from the ribbon or typing AEMENUWIZ in the command line.

[drathak]

Actually, combining the two above suggestions is pretty much how we are doing it.  If there isn't a block for what I need, I create it first and insert an instance of it into a drawing, then use the Icon Menu Wizard to make it available to me easier the next time as well as make it available to everyone else.  (We use a shared menu & catalog system.)

[deckerdj]

Thank you Brad, I have noticed this before and finally located the correct files (...Acade 2014\Libs\panel_mm\ABB\DR).  In the drives folder I had assumed to find the smart blocks already configured based on the particular model I wanted to draw... Wishful thinking I know.  What was there for example was ABB_DR_410_926, which I admit is an unfamiliar name to me.  In the look up table it contains catalog numbers and such, is there any way to search using the catalog numbers? i.e. ACS550-04-....

What I have done up to this point is simply make a new component in symbol builder, and add smart attributes, then name it via look up.  So I would like to know what are the advantages to delving into the library and finding a block I need to do pretty much the same process on as before?  

Cheers

[deckerdj]

Thank you Tee.Dee,  I had yet to discover this.  This means you can modify the insert components library then, without delving too deep into ACE? 

Cheers

[Tee.Dee]

Yep its pretty straight forward.

Probably a good idea to make a backup of the original symbol library you are using because in some cases you might want to modifiy the original symbol blocks instead of making copys of them.

If you cant find a symbol its pretty easy to make a new one, either from scratch or by using an existing symbol as a starting point.  (Let me know if you need any help with this).

Once you have created your symbol you can add it to the icon menu and place it in any of the sub menus or even create your own sub menus.  For example you might want to create a sub menu called custom symbols and then break things down into categories from there.

It is also possible to create entire circuits that can be added to the Icon menu.  For example I have a few different motor starter arrangements (circuit breakers, contactors, vsd, isolator, motor) that can be inserted at once without having to draw each wire and add the components individually.