Default Schematic Library

[Anonymous]

I have just upgraded AutoCad Electrical from 2017 to 2018. When I create a new project and look at the properties the schematic library is still pointing to 2017. Is there a way to make the default the new 2018 library?

[TRLitsey]

Hi there,

Right click on your active project.  Select Properties.  Set the path for all of the menus and libraries [screen shot is example for one library, you need to do them all]  to what you want to use for schematics a panels.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I did that for this project. Was wondering if there was a way to set the default so each time I create a new project it would already be there without me having do go through this each time.

[TRLitsey]

Hi again,

There is probably a better way but I will typically start a example project with just the framework.  Set text styles, load line types, load wire types, load layers I always use, set menu and library paths, snaps / grids yada yada yada.  Essencially, take a couple of hours and setup a blank project with everything you might want to use in your drawing package and use the Copy Project tool to use that example as the base to start each of your projects.  All of the settings will carry into the new project.  NOTE!!  this is using the Copy Project tool NOT the New Project tool.  If you use the New Project tool you will have to go through the setup every time.

There are ways to copy properties from one project to another but that is a different question.  You can use ACE Help to read up on that.

Good luck

[TRLitsey]

By the way, I should mention that you can do a lot of the pre-defined setup for font, line type, layers etc. in your schematic and panel templates as well.  You can search this form for 'intelligent title block' topic.

Good luck

[rhesusminus · Accepted solution]

You can do this a little bit easier by editing the WD.ENV file:

WD_LIB for schematic libraries
WD_PNL for panel libraries

Consider changing WD_MENU and WD_PMENU (remove asterix in the beginning of the line) to your defaults as well.

With this is place, its quite easy to set the defaults in old projects and projects you've gotten from someone else.

Just open the Project properties, select the 4 "root nodes" and press the default button on each of them.

Here's a screencast showing the procedure:

[rhesusminus]

It's also a good idea to use the %SL_DIR% variable. This will make the project point to the symbol library location for this version of AutoCAD, so it should update automatically when opening in a newer release.