Updating AutoCAD Electrical Catalog

[Anonymous]

Good Morning,

I am trying to ad a 1783-US16T item to my panel layout drawing. So, I click "Icon Menu".

There is no current category for Unmanaged Switches; is there a way to add a category?

Then I'd like to be able to click on that and, just like I do with PLC parts, select from the Catalog the information and then select which foot print drawing I want to use. I can't do that because there isn't a category on the Insert Footprint screen and there isn't a category under the Catalog itself either. Is there a way to ad a category to the catalog?

Third, when I do insert the footprint from the library drawing it comes in about five times bigger than it should. The units on the drawings are the same and if I simply copy/paste from one drawing to another, it looks fine. But then it doesn't link it to any catalog information. Is one of my settings wrong?

[jseefdrumr · Accepted solution]

The Icon Menu comes with certain symbols ready for you to use...but catalog info isn't part of its workflow until after you've made a selection. Once you choose the footprint and insert it into the drawing, at that time you'll be presented with a dialog asking for the catalog info. If you want to insert a component based on its catalog info, go through the Catalog Browser.

You can add icons to the Icon Menu using the wizard (Schematic>Other Tools>Icon Menu Wizard). See Help for more details.

You can also add/edit the catalog information. This can be done anytime you're inserting a component (select 'Lookup' to go to the catalog), or via the Catalog Browser. Again, review Help for more details. It's actually pretty informative for these things.

In your screenshot, you show that you are in category PLCIO. In that same selection field, there is family DN (Device Network). Not sure if it would work for you, but I put all components of this type in this category. In fact, lots of things end up in this category where I work: radios, sensor distribution blocks, touch screen HMI's, programming ports, routers, Ethernet switches, etc. It has become a sort of catch-all, but in general if something has Ethernet and we can't find a better spot to put it, it ends up in DN.

As for the size of the footprints, the most common thing among ACADE users is to show the footprints true-scale. So if you have, say, an 11x17 title block in model space, and start putting footprints next to it, of course they will seem big in comparison. Typically, the title block is scaled up so that it will encompass the entire layout, then it can be printed 'Extents' to make it fit on actual paper.

Be aware that some footprints are drawn metric, if so they will come in ~25.4 times too large. As for why yours are ~5 times too large, I'm not sure. There are several ways for this to happen. What's the insertion scale in the Icon Menu? What's the source of the footprint - download, drew it yourself? - because it could be drawin at the incorrect scale. We need more information on that one I think. Can you post your layout drawing?

Hope this helps,
Jim