Help linking PLCIO to a full PLC module.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

This is my first post here and I've been using Autocad Electrical now for about six months. I am wondering if it is possible to link a PLCIO to a full unit. The reason is I would prefer to bring a full unit out to a terminal then use the PLCIO functions through my drawings and have the full unit update with the wire number to the associated IO point. 

This is a quick example as I would normally show the full PLC on the last few sheets of each electrical package then use the PLCIO to XREF the wire numbers. The first data point was myself modifying a to/from function because it does give me the wire number and a cross reference, however I would have to reenter the descriptions. The ultimate goal would to be able to link the PLCIO block with the "2" terminal and carry the wire number. Any advice would be awesome or something similar I could work with. 

[rhesusminus]

You CAN connect them, as parent/child, but it seems like this is not what you're looking for.

Maybe if you insert it as a panel footprint you can display the wire numbers that's connected to the different pins??

[Anonymous]

I figured out how to link them however is there a way to add a XREF from the PLC module referencing back to the IO point? It does add the description to the IO point but not a XREF. I'm looking for a line number/wire number. 

I will continue to play with it! Thanks for the quick reply.

[rhesusminus · Accepted solution]

Yes. PLC Child symbols will appear in the XREF attribute for the PARENT PLC symbol, like I've done here:

[Anonymous]

How do you name the symbols to make them parent/child.  PLCIO doesn't utilize the 1/2 relationship.  Does that matter as long as I use the right attributes?  TAG1 vs TAG2??

[rhesusminus]

Yes, exactly. Use the TAG1/TAG2 attributes. You WILL get some error messages, indication that you've used duplicate tags... Just ignore it.

[acad4BWUTW]

Ciao Trond

In more than one of your posts, I've noticed that you manage Parent / Child PLCs in a way that I like aesthetically.

In particular I like that you managed to have the cross reference with indication of the position in the Parent of each single Child.

To do this, I have found no other way than to manage it through a lisp program which, however, I would have to adapt for my use (but I would like to avoid it at the moment).

Could you please explain how you managed to achieve this? Were you also able to solve the problem of updating DESCA attributes .. between Parent and Child?

Thanks

Stefano

[rhesusminus]

They are just "normal" blocks, with block names starting with PLCIO, as AcadE requires.

The trick is to name the tag attributes TAG1 at the parent symbol, and TAG2 on the distributed I/O-symbols.