Terminal Strip Editor for Multiple Identical Terminals

[Kelly_Shuman]

In ACADE 2015.  

I have a schematic that has muliple instances of power and ground terminal blocks, each with a single terminal number repeated.  

In the panel layout, the terminal strip editor does not allow me to combine the wire connections to the fewest possible terminal blocks.

 

I am also having difficulty making two wire connections into external connections on the same terminal block.  

I cannot associate some terminals to terminals that clearly have a free spot available. 

I know these issues exist with the TSE.  

Does anyone have an alternative tool for showing terminal blocks and wire connections? 

Or, Is there ways to set up schematic terminal blocks to trick the TSE, i.e. a seperate terminal block symbol for bus wiring. 

[Kelly_Shuman]

To make matters more difficult.  It seems that terminals that are automatically added to fullfil the connection requirements (because I need all cables to be external connections), jumpers cannot be added to connect the terminal blocks that were added to the ones they came from.

[Icemanau]

First problem you mentioned, reducing the number of terminals to the lowest number of connections.

The TSE will show at a minimum, ALL the terminals that have symbols in the schematic. To reduce the number of terminals, you need to remove the schematic symbol as well.

Second Problem, The section you highlighted shows as TWO SEPERATE terminals. The TSE is not designed to move wires from terminl to terminal.

To change this, you need to edit the schematic.

ASSOCIATE is used to indicate multi level terminals, not to indicate that the terminals are being used as a bus.

To have terminals used as a bus, you need to use the JUMPER tool and select the terminals that way.

You can always set up a wire layer named JUMPER to connect the terminals with as well.

Check the terminal you have specified. If the terminal only allows one connection per side, then the TSE will add extra terminals as required to fulfill the connections accordingly.

You problem with the Jumper error is that the terminal is assigned as a multi level terminal and the TSE is looking for another level to link to and not another terminal.

Regards Brad

[Kelly_Shuman]

Thank you for the terminal block run down.  The only terminal blocks I've ever used are 2 or 3 level with everything jumpered, so some of the TSE concepts are foreign to me.  I was hoping there was an alternative tool that was more flexible in the manner terminals and connections are associated.  

I'm still trying to determine the best way to show schematics.  From my logical point of view, I have come up with the scheme as shown in the picture.  

* All bussed terminal blocks are connected using the JUMPER wire layer. 

* All rungs start with a terminal block to promote a wire number change.  

* Sources and Destinations are on JUMPER wire layer, and go to a terminal block to promote a wire number change...I wish the JUMPER layer never got wire numbers assigned to begin with.  

I don't see ladders drawn this way, but it makes sense to me from an electrical point of view. 

I think I need to compromise with what I want.  TSE works great for 90% of the time.  I'm having some major difficulty with terminal block busses.

[Icemanau]

You can set the Jumper layer to not have wire numbers.

Go to the Create/Edit Wire Type tool and find the layer you use for jumpers.

There should be a column after the layer name titled Wire Numbering. Click on the 'YES' and you can change that to 'NO'.

Then Click on OK to save and exit.

Regards Brad

[Kelly_Shuman]

That is great news!  I thought the jumper wire no. rule only applied to reports.

Thank you!

If only there was an invisible wire no. change block that operated on each ladder rung without adding a component, my schematic will be completeish!  

On account of the fact I would like each rung to start a new wire number different from the source....

Regards, 

Kelly

[Icemanau · Accepted solution]

For that, there are two ways to go about it...

Method 1

Run a feed down the left and have the terminals 5mm out from the feed with rungs connecting to it.

The feed should be on the jumper layer...

Method 2

Copy the block you use for the connection between the feed and the rung and rename it. Make sure to keep within the naming conventions of ACADE when renaming the copy...

Open the block dwg and change the connection attributes X2, X4 & X8 so that they have the same number (X2TERM01, X4TERM01 & X8TERM01 for example).

Make sure the X1 attribute has a different number (X1TERM02 for example).

Save the dwg and test in a blank dwg

This will pass the number from the through the left and vertically but force a change on the horizontal connection heading right.

I have something similar for power bus wiring between panels where the bus has a zone suffix but the panel wiring is just the normal number.

You can also add this block to the icon menu for ease of use.

Regards Brad

[Kelly_Shuman]

Thank you Brad!

Before I got a chance to read this, I went another way.  I think method 2 is what I'm really after.  

Just to add what I learned, here are the rules I followed this last time when drawing a schematic. 

* Connections to schematic terminal blocks represent connections to real individual terminal blocks.  (2 connections per 1 level is better than 1 connection per 2 levels, if you want flexibility in assigning internal and external connections.)

* JUMPER layer and WIRE layer may be mixed interchangeably to balance terminial block connections to terminals. ***Uncheck "Apply to all wire(s) in the network" when executing AEWIRETYPE***...or WC as I alias. 

*Source connections should always be made to WIRES

*Destination connections can be made to JUMPER or WIRES.

* Plan the internal and external connections when creating schematic