Working with parent-child component relationships

[vasiqshair]

Hello, AutoDesk community. This is my first post on this forum but I am sure there will be many more as I have recently started using AutoCAD Electrical and find myself stuck often.

As part of a project that I am working on, I am drawing ten 2-pole selector switches, each on a separate rung of a ladder. See attached picture. SS2 is a "3 position NO Return from both" selector switch (parent) and the NO contact in the rung below it (child) represents the second pole of the switch (again, SS2 is a 3 position selector switch so it has two sets of contacts). I used the parent-child relationship feature but it doesn't offer any visual cue (besides the same name) to tell the reader that these two contacts belong to the same switch. An image I found browsing through the forum pages (see "forum image") shows a dotted line connecting the two contacts to represent the parent-child relationship. Do I have to draw the dotted line using the regular line tool in AutoCAD or is there some way I can do this through the parent-child feature? Please advise. Also, what does 4/A and 4/B mean? Thanks in advance. 

[TRLitsey · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

For symbols that can be linked such as parent/child (children are denoted by the +2) you will use this tool.  Think about how you have them position when you link them.  They will keep the same relative position if you scoot one of the entities.

Another feature of parent/child is that all entities will have a cross reference.  So if the pieces end up across a few pages they will be pointing to one another like any other cross ref.  You may have to un-hide the reference but it is there, the parent will point to each child and each child will have a pointer to the parent.  I typically use sheet-line for my reference.

Please mark as a solution if this works for you, kudos are always welcome  -  thank you

Good luck, welcome to the group

[vasiqshair]

That did it! Thank you so much!

[TRLitsey]

 Missed this part, I can not see the references on the sides but I think the 4/B on the parent is pointing to the child on sheet 4 line referee B.  The 4/A on the child might be pointing to the parent on sheet 4 line reference A.

[Icemanau]

There is also a tool which will insert the dotted link line between components.

When used, it will hide a lot of the attributes on the child components while showing them on the parent.

I use this tool when I have a group of switches lined up on the same dwg.

It's found on the Schematic Tab in the Insert Components section.

Second Row of the smaller icons on the right hand side.

Regards Brad