Partially HIDE some components in a customized symbol

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I created some customised symbols. I want to hide some components in the symbols. I know AutoCAD electrical allows me to hide the attribute names, but I really want to hide some of the components as well.

[alds02]

If the hiding only needs to be visual, maybe just use some wipeouts, behind the wire.

You might want to make a second symbol, that would be simpler.

Others have tried dynamic blocks but they aren't really compatible with AutoCAD Electrical. I think if you use the dynamic feature after a panel footprint is used, the connection between the schematic symbol and panel footprint will be broken.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for pointing out the wipeout command. I checked it out, but it's not compatible to my goal. I thought about making more symbols, but this is so tedious, cuz I would have to make 16 symbols, if I really wanted to be precise about it. (4 current transformers hide or unhide, so it's 2^4 = 16... smh)

sincerely,

Paul

[alds02 · Accepted solution]

Agreed, the wipeout would be a brute force workaround, it wouldn't move with the symbol either.

Could you make the current transformer part of the symbol into separate symbols which are child symbols? Add them as needed and point to the parent? Just keep the tag invisible.

It wouldn't take too long to edit the master symbol into 16 others - it would probably take longer to add them to the icon menu than to make the symbols!

Just don't go the route of dynamic blocks unless they are "dumb" without any need for being included in wiring,  reports, etc.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input. I am in a weird situation. I don't really mind any tedious work. My goal is to make symbols that serve people who need meticulous information, and also not too tedious to annoy and burden the drafting team. I am assigned to come up with a drafting standard.

[rhesusminus]

Is it information that needs to be seen by different people?

Maybe you can use layers.

"Workshop", "Engineers" etc?

[Anonymous]

Yes, you are right, Trond.

I need to show very meticulous details for my department but hide some components for other viewers. The problem with layers is that the components are no longer associated with each other. If I could make an independent symbol and hid some of the components, it retained the associations and attributes. Because I am expected to generate Excel reports, which indicates the association between connected symbols.

Again, I am hoping to find a way to hide symbol components just like hiding the attributes name.

sincerely,

Paul Chen

[rhesusminus]

So, some components shouldn't appear at all for some Excel reports, but again for other Excel reports.

I need more information 🙂

[Anonymous]

Trond,

Sure, let me try to do better.

For our department, we need to know the maximum current at which the circuit breaker would be tripped out. The problem is that sometimes the current transformers (CT) set the current threshold lower than the max capacity of the circuit breaker (CB). So we need to use the CT ratings to analyze the constraint current rather than the CB ratings. As you see in the screenshot, the symbol becomes very clustered and bulky when it has 4 CT’s with their attributes. These are irrelevant and distracting info for other departments who don’t care to know about the CT’s.

It's okay to show CT’s in the Excel sheets. People can easily filter out info. But we want to hide CT’s in the drawings, so it is more clean and pleasant for other departments to peruse the drawing itself. There are also situations where the CB only has 2 CT’s instead of 4, and we want the drawing to show that.

So, I wonder if I could build a symbol template that includes the CT’s, but I could choose to hide some of them?

Sincerely,

Paul

[alds02]

You could just add the current transformers as multiple catalog items, and use one of the description lines of the CB to note how many there are, without adding any visual symbol.

[Anonymous]

Hi Amy,

My boss is hoping I can visually display the CT symbols.

the solution I currently has is to create more attrubite entries as follows,

CT1: ratings...
CT2: ratings...
CT3: ratings...
CT4: ratings...

when I export the Excel reports, I can see the CT's affiliated to a specific breaker. However, this solution is without the visual components of the CT.

(btw, I don't understand what you mean by adding CT's as multiple catalog items. But that doesn't seem to help the visual display.)

sincerely,
Paul

[alds02]

Just FYI, this is what I mean by multiple catalog items:

I admit I'm confused about your situation, and when you want to see the CT, and when you want to hide the CT.

You probably should investigate what Trond said, turning layers on and off. And investigate the installation and location attributes because they help you to include and exclude components in reports. You could have two versions of the drawing - one with more details, one with less. Then be careful which one you include when running reports, or use the installation or location to help with that.

[Anonymous]

Amy,

I would think there could be 2 versions of the drawings as well. However, I am ordered to find a way to display all attributes and symbols in one drawing, then different departments can hide/unhide symbols as they see fit. The issue with layers is that the CT's are no longer affiliated with a specific breaker. What I need is, say, Breaker 155-555 has 4 exclusive CT's, and the Excel report should reflect that. I doubt layers could achieve that objective.

As for location and installation codes, I wonder if it is okay to use a CT symbol that doesn't have any connection terminals. Because the CT's are not connected to the circuits, they are wrapped around the wires to detect fault currents and then trip the breakers. If AutoCAD allows me to drop in CT symbols without connecting wires, just leave them dangling; then perhaps I could use the location and installation codes to associate the CT's with the specific breaker, by doing that the Excel report should reflect the CT's affiliated with a breaker.

As a matter of fact, we already have the drawings in plain AutoCAD with different layers. But none of the CT and breaker association would be shown if an Excel report is extracted from a plain AutoCAD. That's why I am converting the AutoCAD drawings into AutoCAD electrical, trying to link up the symbol association.

I know I probably not explain very well. I never dealt with high voltage stuff before. I used to only work on PLCs. Also, I am the ONLY AutoCAD electrical user in my company. So, I am on my own now💩.

sincerely,

Paul

[Anonymous]

Trond,

I just realized I cannot even use different layers. For AutoCAD electrical, all the symbols have to be on the default layer "SYMS". The trick to toggle layer visibility does not apply here.

sincerely,

Paul

Post in Reply to:

Is it information that needs to be seen by different people?

Maybe you can use layers.

"Workshop", "Engineers" etc?

[rhesusminus]

You can actually control this behaviour.

In drawing properties:

This setting will not move entities in a symbol that is located in some other layer than "0" to layer "0".

So, if you put things on an "Engineering" layer, it will stay there.