Wire tool gone haywire

[vasiqshair]

I am trying to do the simplest of tasks: running a wire between two terminals. The goal is to start the wire at terminal 1 of strip TBC-A (bottom right in the drawing) and terminate on terminal 30 of the control module. However, ACADE won't let me terminate the wire on that terminal. The wire takes all sorts of twists and turns but will never land on terminal 30, as seen in the attached picture. This happens regardless of the grid/snap being on or off. I built the circuit using the 'circuit builder' and then did some modifications as is evident in the drawing.  The grid/snap isn't of much use here maybe because the ladder was built by the circuit builder and doesn't align with the grid. That's what I could think of. I tried a couple things that were suggested to me in my previous post: ran the DWG Audit and rebooted the PC. No difference. Is there something I am missing or is my ACADE gone haywire and needs to be "repaired"?

[dougmcalexander]

There are a couple of issues as I see it.  But the main problem is related to scale.  You have the Feature Scale Multiplier set to mm full size, in an inches environment.  This sets the wire trap distance at 0.635.  Yet your terminal symbols are inserted at 0.5 intervals.  This will cause issues with wire connections, tagging, and more.  I have included a screenshot from AutoCAD Electrical Help, concerning the Feature Scale Multiplier.

Consider changing your grid and snap settings as well.  They are set too coarse.  I changed the snap to 0.0625 in order to match the position of the terminals on the module.  That is still not enough.  The wire will not insert correctly until you change the FSM to the Inch option.

As a side note, I noticed that the module isn't actually a block, it is a series of terminal symbols inserted with a non-logical rectangle drawn around the.

[vasiqshair]

Doug, thank you for your feedback.  A few questions about the suggestions you made (and I am mainly asking these because I need to know the nuts and bolts of ACADE in order to get better at it)

Why would you say the drawing is in inches environment? When I created the drawing, ACADE never prompted me for units.  

I would like to know more about the wire trap distance. What it is and how it got set to 0.635. 

Regarding the snap, why 0.0625 specifically? And how would changing the snap to 0.0625 match the position of the terminals since the terminals are 0.5 apart. 

You are right about the module, it is not a block...yet. I literally just made an array of terminals and drew lines around them to make it look like the control module of a VFD. I plan on using the symbol builder later on to add the module to the library. What should I have done differently in drawing this module?

Sorry if my questions are too many or too annoying. I am just trying to learn as much as I can about ACADE in order to become a proficient user. Thank you for your time. 

[dougmcalexander · Accepted solution]

The wire trap distance is set automatically, according to the Feature Scale Multiplier (FSM) and the choices you make when you click the radio buttons below the FSM field.  I suspected that your drawing units were in inches when I saw that you were using ANSI symbols, either from the JIC or NFPA symbol library.  I then measured your drawing border and confirmed that it was nearly 34 inches wide and over 22 inches tall.  That is close to an ANSI D-size (34x22 inches) drawing size.  Furthermore, I looked at the snap and grid settings and noticed that your snap was set to 0.25 inches and your grid was set to 0.5 inches.  So your grid appears every half-inch and your cursor snaps once between each grid line.  I adjusted the snap down to 0.0625 only because I needed to in order to snap exactly to the wire connections on your module.  I never design off snap.  I might set my snap to 0.0625 (I prefer 0.125) but that I will not design without snap enabled.  There are various reasons, which I won't sidetrack you with here.

But the main issue you were experiencing was related to the FSM.  Since you spaced the terminals on your module 0.5 apart and the FSM was at 0.635, due to your inches drawing being set to mm full size, the software was seeing two possible wire connections within the same wire trap range.  Okay, so what is wire trap distance?  With competitive software you must connect each wire precisely at a wire connection, not one pixel too far or one pixel less.  AutoCAD Electrical allows you to get close to a wire connection and it will detect the presence of the wire and, almost like a Venus Flytrap, it pulls the wire to the wire connection. Those of you who have attended my training have heard me talk about the Venus Flytrap.

As for the module, I would suggest making it one symbol block, so it can receive a tag based upon the type of device it is (Annex E of NFPA-79 lists drives as using the letters DR) and so all of the wire connections are considered as part of the module, instead of separate terminal blocks in a terminal strip.  The terminal symbols you used are mostly there to represent individual terminals, like the ones you snap onto DIN rail.  The wire connections (a.k.a. terminals) for a component should all be embedded into the symbol block.  The Symbol Builder can assist you with that. 

I actually prefer to use the Symbol Builder to insert wire connections.  In fact, I prefer the original Symbol Builder, which can be started by typing WD_SYM_BUILD at the command prompt and pressing Enter.  Choose what kind of symbol it will be.  There is an option to call up AutoCAD's rectangle tool so you can draw a rectangle.  Or you can draw a shape before you start the Symbol Builder.  Don't select any wires when prompted to select the objects you wish to use to create a symbol.  Only select the box or circle that you drafted with plain AutoCAD - one of the exceptions when  you use vanilla AutoCAD.  Choose what the symbol will be (i.e. parent, child, etc.).  Click "Standard"  to insert the most common attributes.  Click "Back to Main Menu" and insert the wire connections.  When you click to insert a wire connection, a dialog pops up to allow you to choose the direction the wire will come from.  You can select the point where the wire touches the edge of your module (the rectangle you drafted) and the software will insert to attributes, one large and one small.  They work as a pair.  The small one is set to invisible.  It's main purpose is to trim the wire.  Its secondary purpose is to direct the wire from/to list generator where to find the designation for that wire connection (i.e. L1, T1, 13, 14, 1, 2), which is stored in the larger, visible, text.  You can add rating attributes (as many as you wish) and more and then Click "WBlock" to save your new symbol block to your disk.  I suggest saving custom symbols in a folder named Custom Symbols, inside of the Libs folder and parallel to the other symbol library folders.  By default, the software will save the symbols you make to a folder named User, on your local drive.  You can redirect this default location to your Custom Symbols folder by making a small entry into the wd.env file (Wiring Diagram Environment file).  If you aren't comfortable with editing that file, just use the default location.  When I provide startup assistance for my clients, I set everything up for network sharing and we make multiple edits to the wd.env file in support of data sharing.

Okay, I hope this helps.  It just takes some time and commitment and you can do well with AutoCAD Electrical.

[vasiqshair]

Thank you so much Doug. That helped me clarify a bunch of stuff.

Where can I find out more about the training classes you offer?

[dougmcalexander]

Glad I could assist you. You can send an email to ecadconsultant@gmail.com requesting information about training options.

[vasiqshair]

10-4.