One mfg product with many (100+) options. How to create the drawings

[Anonymous]

How to deal with "Options"

Both my last company and my current company had the same problem (Besides a lazy employee):). They make one machine with lots of options. How do I create one base drawing with some type of excel spread sheet to mark the options that will be included in a particualr machine? It needs to be so easy the SALES guys can use it! Ya I know that is a tall order.

If I place the options in Layers then all the options apear on the BOM. There is also the problem of placing wires in "option" layers

Other companies must have this same problem. I refuse to believe that this is that rare of a situation and figured there must be a elegant solution somewhere. I woul really appreciate ANY input on this. Thank you.

I am just starting a conversion to AutoCAD Electrical and would like to set it up the right way the first time!

Marty

[dougmcalexander]

Marty, what you have is a configurable product line. AcadE has just what you need. I have used it since 1997 when it was called Toolbox/WD, and I worked at a company doing the exact same thing you seek.

You need to make use of the Location codes. Possibly even the Installation codes. You can assign your option circuits to a particular location code. For example, I have a machine that might include up to 14 motor drives, 32 heat zones, pressure monitoring, level control, etc., but it is up to the customer exactly which features they want. The schematic includes all options, but I designate each option using a location code. For exampe I have a location code of DRV1, DRV2, DRV3, etc. for each motor drive circuit, PRS1, PRS2, PRS3, etc. for pressure monitoring circuits and so forth and so on. When I create my parts list or BOM, I filter to the location code I need and place this report on its own unique drawing with its own document number. I do the same for the wire list. I do this for all possible options. The panel layout shows all possible options, but again the wire list and parts list control what actually gets installed.

I recently completed a project for a customer of mine that was over 200 pages, doing exactly what I described above. I started out designing for a German company so I do DIN/IEC style drawings, where each page has its own Installation and Location code. AcadE allows you to declare the INST and LOC code on a per sheet basis so all components on the page are automatically assigned to this INST and LOC. For anything on the page that is from a different INST and/or LOC I insert an intelligent location box using AcadE and this box designates all components within it as being from a different INST and/or LOC than the rest of the components on the page.

AcadE is well-equipped to handle your situation. I travel the world teaching custom and advanced classes on AutoCAD Electrical implementation. You can reach me at ECADConsultant@aol.com.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for taking the time to reply I really appreicate any thoughts on this.

I am not exactly sure that Location codes really solves the options problem for me. Yes, using the location code as a "Option Code" would make it possible to sort or the bill of materials and then include that as a page in the drawings. The end product would be saved as a new project with the work order for that customer.

Two problems seam apparent to me if I understand your implementation of how to deal with "options" correctly. I can only ask for your patients as my understanding is limited and I do appreciate your help a great deal.

First, the schematics that would be sent to our customer would show all the options for our product (162 currently) even if the customer only ordered say 5 of the most common options. The customer would be receiving about 50 extra pages of prints that do not apply to equipment they actually bought and I might also be giving away the technology has to how certain options are added.

Second, the panel builder would be receiving prints that would show items NOT included in the job. Seams like that would be asking for trouble. Should one of our vendors fail to send a component the panel builder won't know if it shouldn't be there with this set of options or if our component vendor missed it.

When our customer calls for field service I would pull up a set of prints that would include every possible option so its a bit hard to know which options they actually have say a VFD instead of a contactor or some other option without constantly going to the BOM page on the drawing.

In my dream world we would have a MASTER PROJECT with all options. This project would be used to create Work Order Projects that include, schematics, BOM, and panel layouts that apply to that job without anything extra. And the whole process of going from MASTER PROJECT to Work Order Project would simply require selecting options on a spread sheet or window that created everything in under five minutes. I know I am dreaming...but without goals...whats the point.

I am learning and trying and can not overstate my appreciation for everyone who has tried to help me with this!

Thank you

[dougmcalexander]

Do it the European way. I have a customer in Wisconsin whom I trained on AutoCAD Electrical to do it a similar fashion. I did two weeks of training and implementation support and we have a nice system in place for them. The Europeans (DIN/IEC) typically use one page per function. For example motor controls are divided up so that each page is the circuit for controlling one motor. The master schematic has all options. You use Copy Project to create a work order from the master. You can use Section, Sub-section, and the three unique description lines for each drawing to "cherry pick" the pages you need to copy to the new project to fulfill the work order. I have a special WD_TB code for the border that works in conjunction with a lisp routine so that when I perform the title block update, I get a previous and next page number as well as sheet and sheet total. This way it is clear to the reader that pages are not missing, but simply not part of this particular configuration. This way all component tags and wire numbers can remain the same. If they are not needed they are just skipped. So I might have page 15 and the next page is 20 because pages 16-19 were for an option that is not part of this work order. Page 20 would have a previous page of 15 showing in its title block, while page 15 would show page 20 as its next page. You don't have to do this but it allows for total flexibility without changing page numbers and component tags according to which pages you selected to copy from the master project. In fact my customer in Wisconsin has more than one main power page, each as sheet 1, but there is one for 240V 3PH, 240V 1PH, and 480V 3PH. Whichever is applicable is the one you choose from the master project.

As far as having a spreadsheet do all the work, there is already some degree of that in AcadE. It worries me. One day we will be replaced by some front office geek or a sales person who knows Excel very well. I prefer to keep my job. I am careful what I ask for. Autodesk just may do it.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I had training from Doug in the past in Paris. We are implementing AutoCAD Electrical at customers in Europe.
The question you have sounds very similar at what we hear at customers. We are selling and implementing a tool named Typical Manager (TM). With TM you can generate your machines automatically depending on the options you have choosen. In this way you always have the correct schematics. CAD Drawings, I/o lists.
Also you can have link with Siemens and Schneider PLC software so this is generated as well.


Another way of working which some of our customers do is the following:
They have a standard machine without options.
Then if the customer decides to take options they add those drawings to the project.
Each option has different drawing/sheetnames. On a indexsheet the installed options are marked. So the customer knows which drawings he should have.

Regards,

Gerald te Wierik

[Anonymous]

Interesting solution but i would find it much easier to have the options on layers.  For example if your plc input module schematic drawing had optional photo-eyes for some functions it would be much easiers to just enable the particular option layer on an input module drawing rather than 10-15 drawings for each posibble input.