Improving Panel Layouts

[drew_dewit]

Team,

I am looking for help in improving our panel layouts. Currently we do a 1:1 panel layout in model space then do our plotting in paper space. We have two issues I am looking to address.

Tagging panels/enclosures. our panels and enclosures are only present in our layout drawings and no where else in our prints. I want these to have a tag that is driven and partly intelligent. How do others handle this? I can enter a value into P_TAG1 but that is not going to be generated consistent and is up to the engineer to follow a consistent process. I can use TAG1 but then i have to force it to do an update plus our drawings have nothing but page number to drive the component tag. Looking to see how others handle tagging these and holding catalog info.

Our panels can vary in size from a small J-Box to a multi door free standing enclosure. This means scaling them to various sizes in paper space to show an overall layout. After that I may be able to read the tag values and I may not. does anyone have a good methodology for showing these but still identifying what you are looking at? Currently our guys manually adjust the attribute height to make it viewable. Also looking to see how others do this.

[JeffatPrimex]

We use model space for all drawings and just scale up the border for panel and mechanical drawings. Using this method we reduce the amount of setup time by having most of the enclosure drawings setup as template drawings all ready scaled. We use schematic tag blocks that show the part information on the templates and these blocks are on a data layer that is visible but not plotted. 

Best regards,
Jeff

[jseefdrumr]

We do our panel layouts just like you: 1:1 in model space, plotted from paperspace. However, we don't tag enclosures at all. At best, they are named things like MCP, RCP, OP, etc.

As for scaling, ACADE has tools available for this at Panel>Other Tools>Configuration. Here, you can set the text height for all footprints that you insert. The drawback to this is, you need to know what size you'll need before you start inserting footprints. So, for panel tags, you'd have to make these determinations before ever inserting a panel into a drawing.

Our panel template comes with a premade 11x17 rectangle to support this workflow. We open the panel drawing, insert the panel, then scale up the included rectangle to surround the enclosure. This is how we determine the scale factor. No footprints other than the panel itself are inserted until the configuration step is done, because configuration information only affects new objects. Changing configuration numbers won't affect any existing footprints. (It will, however, affect existing balloons.)

IMHO, having to manually deal with the enclosure tags shouldn't be a big deal. It's not likely that you have to worry about more than one in any single drawing, so manually adjusting the attributes on an individual basis wouldn't exactly take a long time. If the problem is consistency among several users, your best bet may be to outline a process for making those adjustments - it will be less work than pre-determining the scale factor and then setting some numbers in Panel Configuration.

[testsubject]

It is definitely possible to have your Panels/Enclosures include a tag. You need to setup what family they belong to and then tag will be added when you insert it as a footprint. This tag would then appear on BOM/reports.

I do things a little different when it comes to drawings. I use 1:1 in model space and print in paperspace. I take it one step further though for detail prints: I use a separate drawing for each detail view and xref the main panel drawing into it in model space. In Paperspace, I then zoom into the view I want from with a viewport that is the size of the titleblock.

This allows me to only edit one drawing but have multiple detail view drawings.

All these drawings then become a part of the project with their own drawing number and descriptions.

I have been doing it this way for over 20 years now and it has worked well for me.

[jseefdrumr]

External References (XREF) are definitely underused in ACADE. I think this is because we all tend to caution new users to stay away from 'vanilla' commands, and there is no Electrical equivalent for this. So the end result is, people who don't use vanilla ACAD tend to forget this command even exists.

This command makes detail drawings so much easier. I create detail sheets for terminal blocks, and I even use them in schematic drawings: Right before a new rack of I/O, I put in a drawing that shows a detail of that rack, with annotations for each device.

Another 'forgotten' command that I make frequent use of is the Express Tool ALIGNSPACE - perfect for lining up your viewports at plot time.