How to use shielded cable symbol on left and right side conductors of devices

[tcoppens84SWP]

Hello all,

I've been playing around with cable markers and wire to/from reports, and I'd like to start using them where we can at my company. Before we switched to ACADE, we did our shield symbols like this:

In the above image, the ground symbol is tied to a footprint, but the two ellipses and the lines connecting them are not intelligent. I'd like for ACADE to recognize that the wires on either side of the device belong to a single 2-conductor shielded cable. The default shielded cable symbols don't play nice when I try to put them on just one wire. Any suggestions? (Bonus points if I can connect a wire to the shield symbol)

[jseefdrumr · Accepted solution]

Well, ACADE doesn't have any intelligence to its shield symbols. These symbols also expect the wires in a shielded cable to be on the same side of the component instead of opposite sides. This lack of flexibility in drawing shields has bothered me before.

That being said, there is a way to do what you want, it's just not with any of the shield symbols. Assuming that you're using the NFPA symbols, you want to go to Icon Menu>Miscellaneous>Cable Markers>Cable Markers with Shields. From there, it's a 2-step process. First you insert the parent marker, then you go back to the Icon Menu and insert a 2+ marker. (2+, or 'second plus', is a child symbol. The 'second plus' moniker is to indicate that there could be more than just one child.) In my first screenshot, the parent symbol is marked with a yellow arrow and the child is marked with the blue arrow. When you insert the second and/or subsequent marker symbols, it's done just like any other parent-child relationship. Just select the correct parent symbol in the dialog box, in this case the first marker you inserted, and ACADE will match their tags and write the information to the database like normal. Then, draw your shield wire and terminate it on your ground symbol just like you did before. My second screenshot shows this, with basic symbols, but it should be pretty clear. Post back if not and I'll get you the rest of the way together.

Note that I can't really speak to how well this plays with any of the reports. Usually I use 'dumb' shields, which by definition don't appear in any reports. However, cable markers do and I have no reason to expect that the cable markers with shields would behave any differently.

Hope this helps!

[tcoppens84SWP]

Thank you! I wasn't thinking that would be the symbol I'd need to use.