Custom Box.device on the fly

[jeff_bruinsma]

I am a controls engineer who deals with a variety of Instrumentation devices.  What is the best way to create symbols or blackboxes to represent the instrument without it taking a lot of time?

Thanks,

JeffB

[Anonymous]

Jeff,

It depends on what exactly you are trying to do. For schematic symbols I would create 1 symbol with the ability to hide any number of wire connections. I start with the most connections i would use and the use the visibility action in the symbol builder to hide each connection down to your minimum number of connections.

Attached is a air manifold that we use. It ranges from 2 stations up to 10 stations. You could create a similar symbol based on what you are looking for just like the one we use.

If you highlight the symbol you will see a small triangle, if you click on that you will see the visibility options available.

Hope this helps

Dennis

[Anonymous]

sorry wrong symbol try this one

[TRLitsey]

Hi there,

First of all use HELP to search for ABOUT SYMBOL NAMING CONVENTIONS. The whole topic is important, but for the down and dirty scroll to the bottom and pay attention to the predefined FAMILY TYPES and print that out if you can.  This is super important because the Family Type tells ACE what it is and how to deal with it.

So now that you have a list of Family Types you can use, more often than not, a smart symbol that came with ACE to make your new symbol. Let’s say you have a flow switch with a normally open contact and dial indicator on it.

You will select ACE predefined N.O. flow switch from the icon menu. Note the name HFS11.  If you read the Symbol Naming article you would know that name means Horizontal Flow Switch 1 contact Normally Open.  Insert this into a drawing in the active project.

Once you have it on the drawing, use the explode tool to disassemble the block. Add or change the graphics then run the ACE SYMBOL BUILDER tool (there is a tutorial for this in the ACE Tutorial that came with ACE install if you want to get fancy with the options).  The big thing time saver is that the important attributes for that Family Type are already present so the new smart symbol is almost done.  I should point out that you DO NOT use the Close Block Editor or everything will be lost.  You WILL click on DONE.  The next widow allows you to modify the name.  DO NOT CHANGE WHAT ACE HAS STARTED NAMING IT.  You can add anything you want to the end of the name but the first part of the name tells ACE what it is.  So your new symbol might be HFS11_my_first_flow_switch.  Again, Symbol Naming …

One you get the steps down it takes all of two minutes to create a very basic smart symbol.

Good luck

Hi there,

[jseefdrumr · Accepted solution]

Here are two ways to do what you want.

The first way is basically out-of-the box, using symbols that already exist. The second way is how I do it.

out of the box workflow:

*If you're using the NFPA library, go to Miscellaneous>Generic Boxes. See first image

*Select a box (2nd image) and insert it into your schematic.

*These generic boxes come in with a 'DV' tag. When you go to the catalog browser, you will probably be told that that family doesn't exist. That's OK. Tell it you want to create that family, you'lll then get the catalog browser with DV as a family, all set up and ready to go. No components to choose from, of course. That's also OK, we don't want any from that family. Use the pull-down to pick the actual family for your sensor, and then select your part number from the catalog.

*Change the tag to match the component's family and make it fixed.

*done

my way:

*draw a generic symbol with some room in the middle. mine has 4 connection points because we never use sensors with more than that.

*add whatever attributes you anticipate you'll need

*follow the symbol naming conventions, but since you want a one-size-fits-all solution, the actual family name in the tag isn't important. I used SN, and I also created a family for that. It's my home for weird homeless things like hygrometers.

*placing this symbol is the same as outlined above. You'll have to change the family, as explained. Plus there is one added step: after placement, add dumb graphics to the inside of the box that indicate what kind of sensor this is. For example, it could be a 4-wire prox, so draw a little prox symbol in there. Don't place an actual symbol, it will show up on your reports as an actual component. Or, if you do, use AEEXPLODE on it.

*third image shows my way

Hope this helps,

Jim

[Anonymous]

Thanks @jseefdrumr for sharing these 2 ways. I am also working on a small custom boxes project and it will really help me.