This is directly from the AutoCAD Electrical Advanced Courseware that I created.
(had to spell check it though!...lol)
Template Setup
In AutoCAD Electrical its important to to setup a Standard Template that you can use instead of continuously setting up a project and the title blocks. There are 2 pieces for the AutoCAD Electrical Templates, the first part is the Project, the second part is a Template Drawing. You need to configure the Drawing to work with the project, to have the best results.
What is required to make a useful Template? Lets look at this for Projects and Drawings.
Project Template
Note: Its best to Start a new project (Name it Template) and copy the settings from WDDEMO.wdp
- Project Settings
- Project paths
- Component Tag setup
- Wire Tag setup
- Cross Reference setup
- Set the Reference style (Rung Ref, Xzone, x-y zone)
- Titleblock Mapping File (WDT) or Title block Attribute File on the Drawing
- Project Description Label File (WDL)
- Any other Secondary Files (WDD, WDR, LOC, INST, etc.)
Drawing Template
Note: Its best to Start a new drawing from the template “ACAD.dwt” that way you don't have anything extra on the drawing, then name it something like; Company_Template.dwt or title block.dwt.
- Drawing Settings
- Drawing Tray options (Ortho, Polar, Infer constraints, Grid, Grid spacing, etc)
- Drawing units (Insertion Units)
- Layer / Wire layer Setup
- Title block (make sure you have all of the attributes you want to map)
- Extra Geometry (like ladders or Pre - drawn Circuits)
Process
- Create The Project (Don't setup anything yet, just need a place to drop our Drawing into)
- Create the Drawing, and Apply and Drawing Settings that are required.
- Create the Titleblock on the drawing
- Map attributes of the Titleblock in the Template Project ( the Drawing Must be part of the Template Project)
- Test the Title block Mapping (Fill-in Descriptions, then run the Title block update)
- If its ok then add the Layers and wire layer to the drawing.
- Now Setup any project settings that you need including paths.
- Next add any ladders of Circuits that you want to have in the Drawing.
- Purge out any old title blocks or blocks that you created during this process.
- Save the Drawing as a Template.
- Test the Template in the project to make sure the Mapping and the settings work properly.
- Add any customization files that would benefit your work flow.
- Remove Excess Drawing Files.
- Save the Template Project.
I hope this helps,
James
James Alger
(I'm on several hundred posts as "algerj")
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