Community
AutoCAD MEP Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s AutoCAD MEP Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular AutoCAD MEP topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Circuiting woes

3 REPLIES 3
Reply
Message 1 of 4
MuirEng
373 Views, 3 Replies

Circuiting woes

Circuit manager is driving me nuts this morning. I am trying to add circuits into a partly full panel but I am wasting a lot of time manually renumbering them. I'm also finding the process of assigning circuits slow and cumbersome. I almost miss doing it all manually with tags and tables...

Okay, I admit I MEP is a vast imrprovement over manual methods and worth the extra effort. I just wish the "extra effort" was actually "less effort"!

 

I would like to request that circuit manager be overhauled in a future release including these features:

 

1) provide the ability to select the starting number and breaker rating for new circuits in the "add circuit tool.

2) provide a means for batch renumbering of circuits (perhaps the root problem is that CM is set up to support circuit "names" instead of circuit numbers. I think pretty much everyone wants numbers here, to match the panel board slot#. 

3) Drop downs that display lists of circuit numbers also include the circuit description. (e.g. the drop down in the assign circuit tool under electrical properties of a device)

4) That the filter for panels available in the assign circuit tool be persistent, such that it is not necessary to reselect this each and every time we want to circuit a device.

 

My take on the electrical features of MEP is that there is a lot of power here, but if the designer would sit down with an electrical engineer/technician who uses the software to design buildings they will find some relatively easy ways to vastly improve the usability.

 

How about a tool just like LAYCUR, but for circuits. Works like so:

- open circuit manager, doubleclick circuit to highlight

- execute CCTCUR and select devices. Enter.

- doubleclick new circuit in CM and repeat

- get to happy hour early.

 

I would appreciate someone from AutoDesk noting that the feature requests are received. I assume this an official channel for feature requests?

If someone wants to develop CCTCUR as an add on post back. I'd contribute a few bucks to that effort.

If anyone has any suggestions/workaround to help me speed up this process I will really appreciate having your input.

 

 

thanks

 

 

 

 

-

 

Brian Muir, P.Eng, Muir Engineering
__________________________________________
Please vote up these ideas
Declutter Family Browser,
Electrical Panel Name Handling,
Dedicated Sub Forum For Electrical
Thanks!
3 REPLIES 3
Message 2 of 4
VitalyF
in reply to: MuirEng

This is a big and complex issue...

Together we can try to understand this... 

 

I suggest some video clips...

 

Presentation CS MEP_2.gif

 

 

 

Presentation CS MEP_3.gif

 

 

 

Presentation CS MEP_4.gif

 

Message 3 of 4
MuirEng
in reply to: VitalyF

Vitaly,

Thanks for the reply. Some of this is not relevant. I do not assign wires, cables, or ducts in my drawings. I simply assign devices to circuits using circuit manager and the device electrical properties. This works, but it is more cumbersome than in needs to be. I have experiemented with the wiring tools hoping that this could indirectly help me speed up circuiting but it is not the case.

 

I do not have the same options in my software as you show in the last clip. Is this renumber tool an add on? That could be a bit useful.

 

Try this experiment. Lay down thirty receptacles in a drawing. It doesn't matter where. Put six panel boards down and call then A,B,C,D,E,F. 

In each create 20 single pole circuits. Now assign each group of five receptacles to a different circuit in panel E.

Did you have fun? Was it quick and easy? Or did you make a whole lot of extra clicks and selections?

Can you imagine doing this with 2000 devices and light fixtures?

 

Too bad Autodesk is not involved in these forums and not interested in participating in discussions of this nature with their users. Are there other forums that AutoDesk participates in? Are there other forums more active than this one? It seems a bit dead here... Has everyone shifted to Revit MEP?

 

 

 

Brian Muir, P.Eng, Muir Engineering
__________________________________________
Please vote up these ideas
Declutter Family Browser,
Electrical Panel Name Handling,
Dedicated Sub Forum For Electrical
Thanks!
Message 4 of 4
VitalyF
in reply to: MuirEng

1) provide the ability to select the starting number and breaker rating for new circuits in the "add circuit tool.

 

Provided of course! You can customize the panel according to the specifications and put them on the palette.

Same with devices

 

2) provide a means for batch renumbering of circuits ... 

 

Group operations are provided as well...  Plus user utilities, see the attached file

 

 

... the rest will answer later...

 

Vitaly

 

 

 

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report

”Boost