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Updating Wire Data to Match User Entries

12 REPLIES 12
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Message 1 of 13
AutoNub
664 Views, 12 Replies

Updating Wire Data to Match User Entries

I have AutoCAD Electrical 2009 and I've essentially been teaching myself through a very time consuming process of trial and error. Before anyone suggests it, I don't have the means to take any courses yet, but I'm here in the hope someone might be willing to provide some helpful instructions.

 

My ultimate goal is to design a wiring harness with complete lists of wiring information including To/From connections, wire colors, wire gauges, wire lengths, etc...  So far I've managed (to the best of my knowledge) to complete a wiring diagram in AutoCAD Electrical. I had every wire color coded, with wire names and gauges. When I tried to export to Autodesk Inventor, I kept getting exclamation marks at each wire connection, and after a bit of research I determined the problem was because the Layer Names I assigned for each wire in AutoCAD Electrical didn't match the available library names in Autodesk Inventor. So I went back and spent some time renaming my wires from Layer Names I made up (by going to Wires>Create/Edit Wire Type), to layer names with matching colors and gauges as already defined in the generic wires category of the Inventor library. For example, I renamed "RED_20AWG" to "20AWG-RED" as "RED_20AWG" is NOT already in Autodesk Inventor library and "20AWG-RED" IS already in Autodesk Inventor library.

 

However, despite going back and renaming the layer names to appropriate ones matching the Inventor library, whenever I attempt to export (projects>reports>Autodesk Inventor Professional Export), it just gives me the original names I made up. In other words, despite having updated everything, none of my changes seem to be taking effect. To make matters even worse, I tried "Project-Wide Update/Retag" in the hopes it would update my wires to reflect their newly defined names, but that just made it so my block titles no longer show up in my exports. Every component in my AutoCAD Electrical wiring diagram has a unique and logical component tag which matches the corresponding components RefDes (reference designation) in Autodesk Inventor.

 

 

Also, this may or may not be helpful to know, but I simply inserted connectors to represent each pin terminal for each component in my wiring schematic. For example, for my potentiometer, I created a 3 pin connector to use for connecting wires to its corresponding pins. I'm assuming, based on all of the reading I've done and the youtube tutorials I've viewed, this is the correct way of constructing a wiring schematic with the intention of exporting to Autodesk Inventor for a wiring harness. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The main issue is that I can't seem to get any of my reports or exports to reflect the data I've manually entered (component names and wire layer names). The component names used to produce what I wanted but I apparently messed that up when trying to update things to make the wire layer names update. To be more specific, a generated wire to/from report with the default excel file name: "WIREFRM2" shows the following:

 

WIRENOLOC1CMP1PIN1LOC2CMP2PIN2WLAY1
 ? PJ?A4 PJ?F-VWHT_18AWG

 

...when it should show the following instead:

 

 

WIRENOLOC1CMP1PIN1LOC2CMP2PIN2WLAY1
 1 POT4 POWER SUPPLY 2-V18AWG-WHT

 

I would highly appreciate any instructions or assistance you can provide. Please be as detailed and specific as possible. Please also note that I already have printed user manuals and tutorials at my disposal. These are not helpful to me in this situation.

 

Thank you!

12 REPLIES 12
Message 2 of 13
rhesusminus
in reply to: AutoNub

Hello AutoNub.

 

1. How did you rename the wire layers? Layer manager? Or by right-clicking the layer name in "Create/Edit Wire Type" dialog, and selecting "Rename Layer"?

 

2. Do a Compare Settings on your drawing(s) to check that the valid wire layers include the "correct wildcards".

 

3. You CAN use a 3-pin plug in the schematics, to "emlulate" your potmeter. But you can also create a new symbol for your potmeter. Just make sure the tag and the pin-numbers match whatever you use in Inventor.

 

4. Congratulations on working with the AcadE/Inventor stuff! Not many people do this. Please post some 3D images here when you get it to work! 🙂

 

THL


Trond Hasse Lie
AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN expert
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Please select "Accept Solution" if this post answers your question. 'Likes' won't hurt either. 😉
Message 3 of 13
AutoNub
in reply to: rhesusminus

1. I renamed the wires by right clicking layer name and selecting rename layer.

 

2. I selected "Settings Compare" under Projects, and it says "Drawing file not found in any open project." It says this even though I'm looking right at the full wiring schematic, which is currently open. The DWG wiring schematic (for harness design) is only saved locally (on my C drive) rather than on the company network. I'll look into it more, but I suspect it isn't detecting it as being open because it isn't in the correct directory.

 

3. Yeah, creating custom components is an unnecessary hastle for this application though. My only objective with this AutoCAD Electrical schematic is to get everything wired properly, so I can export to Inventor and have the entire system automatically generate its wire connections. I already assigned RefDes (AI = Autodesk Inventor) values matching with custom component tags (AE = AutoCAD Electrical). However, now my exports are no longer recognizing my component tags. I also put pins in appropriate locations on every component in AI, and made certain to name them matching name to AE.

 

 

It is quite the learning curve. I taught myself pretty much everything I know in the past three weeks. Thanks so much for taking the time to offer assistance.

Message 4 of 13
AutoNub
in reply to: AutoNub

I figured out why the wire names and component names weren't matching with what I was seeing with my own eyes. It was because the file I was opening and working with was saved on my desktop, so even though it shared the exact same name, the directory was the issue. The desktop version of my harness DWG file was not part of the project file the software (EA) was executing from, thus what I was seeing was not what the software interface was giving me control over. I was essentially driving blind without even realizing it, which is why I was so confused.

Message 5 of 13
rhesusminus
in reply to: AutoNub

Okidoki.

 

A little hint then.. in the project manager, the active project is highlighted with bold font.

This is also true for the open drawing. IF the open drawing is avalibale somewhere in the project manger, it is highlighted with a bold font.

 

THL


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 6 of 13
AutoNub
in reply to: rhesusminus

I have a new question. When importing my wire harness data from AE to AI, I find a mysterious component with no name and unrecognizable pins. It is the one in the screenshot below with the exclamation mark next to it and pins "I-02J" and "8-06P."

 

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? How do I find out where it is located in my AE drawing? Since it is literally nameless, it is especially difficult to figure out where it is located and delete it. I've zoomed in and out and searched all over my schematic and don't see any rogue components or component fragments anywhere. Any suggestions or ideas?

 

Mysterious Component.JPG

Message 7 of 13
AutoNub
in reply to: AutoNub

I figured it out again. Don't mind me... I'm just contributing to the community knowledge base...

 

If you have a wire that isn't quite connected, for whatever reason, even if the split is so small you can't see it by visual inspection, it'll automatically be interpreted as being connected to an unspecified component. So for future reference, if any of you have a nameless component with strange pins, it probably means your wire is disconnected from itself somewhere. Just figure out which wire it is by going down to Wires, and opening the pin connections until you find the two wires listed as being connected to the oddly named pins (which don't really exist). It doesn't make a lot of sense why it happenes, but there's the solution nonetheless.

Message 8 of 13
rhesusminus
in reply to: AutoNub

You could always run the Electrical Audit (In the reports tab) to check for wires that are not connected to anything and/or components with pins that are not connected to anything.

 

But... why exactly are you doing this in Electrical first, just to get the connections into Inventor? Can't you just connect the stuff together inside Inventor, and if you need to have the schematics also, just use the "Insert Connector (from list)" function in AcadE?

 

THL


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 9 of 13
AutoNub
in reply to: rhesusminus

I am using the insert connector function in AE. That is how my components are represented. I'm using AE first because I'm assuming it is easier this way. I only need to create connectors with the right number of pins, then export. Otherwise, I have to draw each wire individually in Inventor which would be a bigger hastle (especially in big enclosure systems comprised of 1000s of pins at varying angles).

 

A mechanical drafter designs the AutoCAD Mechanical diagrams. I just look at his diagrams and create a quick representation in AE based on the number of components, their corresponding pins, their relative positions inside the enclosure, and their wire connections (without any nonessential obstacles making this already time consuming task even more time consuming), then export into Inventor. This way, the only thing I have to do in Inventor is import the wire harness data and define wire arrangements so everything is neatly organized in the harness, then export a final report to send out for another company to create the harness for us, thereby saving us labor costs.

Message 10 of 13
rhesusminus
in reply to: AutoNub

Ok. You should of course do it the easiest way 🙂

 

Just wanted to make sure that you knew of the "Insert Connector (from list)" function in AcadE. It both creates the Connectors (with the correct number of pins, and the correct pin names) and the wiring, based on an export from Inventor.

 

For external wiring, it might be just as easy to wire the thing directly in Inventor, rather than creating all the components manually, and then wire them in AcadE, before exporting everything back to Inventor.

 

For internal wiring (within an enclosure), Inventor isn't the solution... yet.

 

 

THL


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 11 of 13
AutoNub
in reply to: rhesusminus

Yeah, I just recently realized how unforgiving Inventor can be when attempting to build wiring inside an enclosure (wires going through components without openings, inability to flip open to see both sides of the cabinet simultenously, etc...). Then again, I do have a 2009 version, so perhaps the later versions are more advanced.

Message 12 of 13
rhesusminus
in reply to: AutoNub

Sorry to disappoint you. Nothing has happened with the Cable & Harness module 😞

 

THL 


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 13 of 13

The functionality of IWL components part list seems very far from GOST (Description/Name should be unique and PartNumber has point in the middle). Do you have similar problems with your national standards?

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