Simplified and complete version of a component symbol

[pwk]

Hi,

I am using ACE 2009. I am trying to force myself to create custom symbols (using Symbol Builder) for all the components I use. This way, I hope to be able to produce good Bill of Material reports from my drawing set. Up until now, I have simply been drawing alot of these components with lines and text so they do not appear on reports.

For certain components, I usually draw the component in two locations. For example, for a SCR power controller, I draw a simplified version of the controller on my power distribution page that only shows the power connections. Then, I draw a more complete version of the controller on another page that shows all of the IO wiring required by this controller (there is too much of this for me to feasibly fit it on my power distribution page).

I am just wondering if there is a preferred way for me to create a symbol for both my "simplified" version and my "complete" version of this controller, but to have them show up on reports as one and the same rather than two separate components.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

[sgsawdy]

We do the same thing. The "complete" symbol is the parent symbol and carries the attribute TAG1 with all of the part information associated with it. The "simplified" symbol is the child (some of our symbols have multiple child symbols) and it carries the TAG2 attribute. The symbols are referenced with XREF's as needed and linked so that it shows up in our BOM as a single instance.

Hope that helps you out.

Scott

[pwk]

Hi Scott,
That makes alot of sense. I will give it a try. Thanks for your help.

Paul

[sgsawdy]

Your welcome.

Scott

[pwk]

Hi Scott,

I have created a "complete" parent symbol of my SCR controller that has all ofthe required IO wiring. I have created a simplified child symbol that only has the power connections. I ihave inserted the child symbol on my power distribution page along with my heater. I have also drawn the power wires from the SCR to the heater.

Next, I inserted the parent symbol on a different drawing and I have drawn all of the necessary IO wires. The only thing that confuses me is that normally I would draw short stubs of the power wires here referencing my power distribution page. I don't think I can use source/destination signal arrows because these power wires are drawn in their entirety on the power distribution page.

I think what I really want is to create duplicates of the power wires, and to duplicate the power connection terminals on both my child symbol and my parent symbol. I was wondering if you had a recommended way that you handle this sort of thing. Is there a problem with drawing the same wire in two places? Is there a problem if I put the SCR power connection terminals on both the parent symbol and the child symbol?

Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
Paul

[sgsawdy]

If I understand what you are saying correctly, you are showing the power wiring being terminated on the same device and terminals in two separate places. The Parent symbol and the child symbol. Is that correct?

We do not do that because it shows the wire twice when we run wire chart reports. I show just the power contacts in a child symbol. I do not put the power terminals on the parent symbol, just the xref to the child.

If you are going to have the same terminal and wire show up in two different places, you will get confilcts in your reports. The only time I do this is for reference and I change the wires and terminals so they do not reside on the standard layers. In other words, I make them dumb symbols on the duplicate. It is a pain because every time something changes, I have to remember to go back and manually change the dubplicate to match.

Scott

[pwk]

That makes sense. I guess there no real reason for me to put redundant information in two places as long as I have the XREF's. I will try to give up doing this and see how it works out.

Thanks again,
Paul

[crocket_isle]

I was wondering if either of you could post pictures of the component symbols you created for an SCR power controller. I'm trying to do the same thing and I'm both new to ACADE and creating electrical schematics so I'm not really sure where to begin. Any help you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Dave