Identification Tags

[Anonymous]

Good morning!

How does everyone implement identification tags into their AutoCAD electrical drawings? (Lamacoid tags, Brady cable tags, Murr cable tags).  Is anything automated, thus avoiding extra typing?

Thank you!

Pamela

[alds02]

Is your engraver or printer able to use .CSV or .XLS files at all?

If so, you could try using Panel Reports > Component and export it as .CSV or .XLS.

The only snag is limiting the character count in your descriptions/tags while you're doing the design to fit the printer or engraver's limits.

[jseefdrumr]

Do you mean, how do we account for the physical cable tags in the panel layout BOM?

Or do you mean how do we implement the tags in the schematic drawings?

Assuming you meant the first one, we print our own labels for cables and wires. These labels do not get included in our BOMs. The guys on the shop floor type them out as they need them.

However, we purchase certain pre-printed labels for the enclosures, such as arc flash warning, high voltage, etc. These don't require any typing on our part, they never change. These are included on the exterior layout BOM. We also purchase engraved button nameplates and identification tags, and these appear on the BOMs as well. The engraved items, which are usually few in number, just get manually typed at order time.

[Anonymous]

Jim,

Thanks for your response.  We have descriptions on our I/O cards that need physical tags on the machine for identification purposes.  Each machine has costume tags.  How do you extract that info and get the tags made by an outside company?

Pamela

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response.

Unfortunately, it will still take formatting, which i was trying to avoid.  But that is an option to consider.  Thank you!

[jseefdrumr]

Unfortunately, I don't see a fast and easy way to do this. I think that alds02's suggestion is probably going to take the least amount of work, given what needs to be done here. Manually typing I/O addresses is just opening yourself up to mistakes, and it's a lot of work besides. It seems to me that playing with the formatting is preferable to straight up data entry.

Also, there is a report in Schematic Reports that deals specifically with I/O addresses and descriptions. That on its own may take care of a lot of your formatting. However, the limitations of the printing equipment are a valid concern and you should know what they are before starting.

There may be a faster way to do this, but I don't know one. Hopefully someone who is more familiar with this will chime in. But so far, I think that alds02 is on the mark.

[Icemanau]

For the Warning labels and others that don't change, add them to your catalogue under the DV table.

Then make a footprint so you can add them to the panel layout with all the relevant catalogue information.

For labels that change, CB layouts for example, you will have to either do a dedicated dwg per panel/section or one dwg for the overall board. This will mean formatting the label layout each time, but it is possible to copy and paste the older labels before editing them to suit.

For indicators and pushbuttons, look into the accessories for the model you use. There may be labels that go on the lamp or pushbutton itself. If so, it's just a matter of adding them to the indicator/push button as a Multiple Catalogue item.

Regards Brad.

[rhesusminus]

Aren't anyone using nameplates and the nameplate report? Excellent, and looks good in the panel drawings.

Even in 3D:

You can create name plates in different sizes and connect them to components, so that they "inherit" the attribute values from DESC1-3 etc (or catalog number if you want)

Then, use the nameplate report to get the data out to some file format that your supplier can use.

For cable/wire marking, I always use the report generator to extract the data.

[alds02]

Trond's idea is also very useful and I've used it on pushbuttons, etc. I haven't figured out how to use that for field devices though, so I stuck with the method described in my previous post. 

[Anonymous]

Good morning Trond,

Thank you very much.  I will have to check it out using name plates and running the report.  Alds02  sounds like he hasn't had luck it with field tags.  Have you had any luck using it with field tags?  Any pointers you can share?