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Signal Cross Referencing wire number and destination

11 REPLIES 11
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Message 1 of 12
geoff.hall
1108 Views, 11 Replies

Signal Cross Referencing wire number and destination

I am trying to set up a new signal cross reference, not just to show the page and line it connects to, but also the component CMP:PIN1 it connects to as well. I have used, Promis-e and E-Plan and this was a feature that was common in both of those packages.

 

I am unable to find the attribute to carry this information that I can assign to the signal cross reference arrow. Can someone tell me if this is an option. I am trying to stream line the process, our drawing sets are over 300 pages and an installation nightmare at this point.

 

Thank you for your assistance. I look forward to getting an answer.

 

Geoff Hall

Electrical Designer

AutoCAD Electrical 2013

 

 

11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
Icemanau
in reply to: geoff.hall

Bring up the electrical help system and do a search for 'Replacable Parameters'

 

This should bring up a list of options. Look for 'Use Replacable Parameters' and click on it.

 

This should give you all the replacable parameters available in your version of ACADE and some examples on their use.

 

Regards Brad



Icemanau (NNTP handle: Brad Coleman
AutoCAD Electrical User and IT Hardware Support

Message 3 of 12
geoff.hall
in reply to: Icemanau

I want to place this on the signal arrow and have it only on the signals, not for the project parameters. Currently the signal XREF, DESC1, WIRENO are displayed. Where can I place the %"letters" in order for them to be on the signals? What I would like to be able to see is signal XREF, WIRENO and instead of the DESC1 have an automatic field that pulls the information from the project, such as XXX-XXXX-01 (currently manual and constant errors). If I can break it down further, then I will do how it was done in IEC where signals are point to point. Example signal would contain XREF, WIRENO, CONNECTION (D.ID and Pin) and then Project info which is %D.

 

I hope this clears it up. I appreciate your help so far, just need the finishing touches, if it is possible.

 

Thank You,

 

Geoff

Message 4 of 12
Icemanau
in reply to: geoff.hall

The replacable parameters can be used in any automatic process. Wire Numbers, Cross Referencing, Tags and so on. They are not just for the project parameters. When you place the code in the wire number format for example, the system will pull the data from the appropriate place and insert it the wire number.

 

To set it up automatically you would have to set the cross reference format information in the project settings and then apply them to all the dwgs.

 

Problem with this is that it will also affect the component cross reference display.

 

 

Regards Brad



Icemanau (NNTP handle: Brad Coleman
AutoCAD Electrical User and IT Hardware Support

Message 5 of 12
geoff.hall
in reply to: Icemanau

Hello Brad,

 

Thank you for your help.

 

I am confused at your response, in one statement you say "They are not just for project parameters." but in the last statement you say "to do this automatically I have to set this in the project settings and apply it to the drawings."

 

From what I am understanding, this is not possible to do without changing the project parameters. I have inserted the replaceable codes inside of the signal references under almost every possible place I can think of and it will not pull the information from the project.

 

My hope was that this would not affect the project settings, because of all the other cross referencing. How do other people do it with various control boxes tied to one main power box? This is a time consuming process and riddled with errors when put in manually.

 

Can anyone tell me what they do to cross reference to different control boxes, to different points on a machine, or multi machines? Is this a manual function for you, or do you have a way of intellegantly telling the installers how to wire this?

 

This is not my first time using Electrical packages, I have been doing this for over 20 years.

 

Thank You,

 

Geoff Hall

Electrical Designer

Message 6 of 12
rhesusminus
in reply to: geoff.hall

Hi Geoff.

 

The signal source/destination symbols have an XREF-attribute. This attribute will show the information specified in the project properties (With the %SomeLetters specifying what to display).

The signal source/destination can have 2 optional attributes as well (you'l have to add them manually):

  1. SHEET - This will contain the sheet number (%S-value) from the "other side" of the signal
  2. DWGNAM - This will conatin the drawing number (%D-value) from the "other side" of the signal.

It is not possible to get the component/pin combination into the signal symbol using AutoCAD Electrical out-of-the-box.

 


Trond Hasse Lie
AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN expert
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Message 7 of 12
AScorgie
in reply to: geoff.hall

You may want to use the Schematic "From-To" report, that can show the wire#, CMP1, PIN1, CMP2, PIN2. That is as close as I have come to getting that information out of ACADE.

 

Also, a little more time consuming, you could creat a new signal style with only the signal description shown and then manually enter the component and pin connection as the description. The downside with this is that the description is the same on the signal and destination so on CMP1 the description would read "CMP2-PIN2" and on CMP2 the description would read "CMP2-PIN2"(somewhat misleading and redundant).

 

I too wish there was more flexibility with the signals and destinations.Smiley Frustrated  I create a majority of harnesses through the point to point schematics, and use signal/destinations when the drawing gets too busy.

Message 8 of 12
jmterlap
in reply to: geoff.hall

Thanks for the information on the DWGNAM, worked great.  I'm trying to get my section information from "the other side" of the source/dest arrows, but adding %A for section value to the Project/Drawing properties did not add anything to the XREF data.  I added this to the project settings and both drawings I'm trying to use this feature on.  Any ideas?

xref setup.JPG

Message 9 of 12
rhesusminus
in reply to: jmterlap

Works fine here, using your parameters for the cross-referencing.

 

Capture.PNG

 

Had to update the cross-references for the signals manually once, using the AEUPDATESIGREF command.

 

You are sure you have put something into the Section-field in drawing properties?

 


Trond Hasse Lie
AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN expert
Ctrl Alt El
Please select "Accept Solution" if this post answers your question. 'Likes' won't hurt either. 😉
Message 10 of 12
ccad2509
in reply to: geoff.hall

any movement on this problem as i want to do almost exactly the same just want the device tag that the arrow is going to sh9wn on a cross reference arrow

 

same frustration there is a setting in other packages why doest autodesk  offer the same  ?

Message 11 of 12
geoff.hall
in reply to: geoff.hall

I was unable to get a solution for the problem. People gave me ideas, but none seemed to work and so we have gone back to page line referencing.

 

With the page line referencing, I am able to create a spread sheet to show the interconnections between the wires.

 

There are many glitches in AutoCAD Electrical, but I believe if enough people bring it to their attention maybe something will be done to make it work more effectively.

 

 

Message 12 of 12
jmterlap
in reply to: geoff.hall

Thanks for checking this.  I found out that I corrupted my cross-reference block by adding/deleting items in it.  After I fixed it, everything worked fine.

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