AutoCAD Electrical Ideas

cklattERCYQ · ‎04-01-2024

Hello, Need a tool or selection menu for "WIRE NUMBERS" with the ability to do FROM/TO wire numbers using the TAGS before and after as the numbers with a "/" slash between them. and or also PLC address numbering. for wire numbers. example: Wire labels shall be labeled based on device tag and destination. For example, for a wire where one end is connected to terminal block TBA1 and the other end is connected to LSHH-4001, the wire label at both ends would be LSHH4001/TBA1. This makes for easy tracing and troubleshooting for those unfamiliar with the system without prints. Is this easily possible to change this instead of having it do single wire numbers on each rung line label? how to set this up if possible? Or is this always a manually task to type it in on each wire/line for the wire number. WITHOUT using .lsp or LISP programming code, just make a button or selections or properties field with selectable drop downs for how you want numbering for wires in the Schematic tab and wire numbers tools. its time to catch up to SOLIDWORKS AND EPLAN. stop dragging your feet. MAKE THINGS LESS CLUNKY and streamlined. PLEASE get some major updating done! Get to it please!

Anonymous · ‎08-19-2019

Din Rail and Wire Way Lengths from the Din Rail dialog box, are not available in the BOM. Requesting an attribute be added that will populate the "Length" of the Din Rail or Wire Way, from the Din Rail dialog box. This would make the attribute available for collecting the lengths for the BOM Report. Include the "Length" attribute for the Report, instead of user having to create a WDA file for it. Provide an option in the BOM Report to collect both individual or total lengths, depending on the Tally and User Post options. Adding this feature will help the User know how much Din Rail or Wire Way is needed for the Project.

Ethan.sibio · ‎04-01-2022

Hi, I am an Automation Engineer, and have been using AutoCAD for roughly 5 years. Hands down, it is the LEAST INTUITIVE, MOST PROBLEMATIC, MOST DIFFICULT TO USE, Software suite in existance. It is absolutely disrespectful to continue allowing engineers to use this software, and had I made this product myself I would never in a million years be proud to say "I built this" The disgusting thing is, you dominate the market for wiring diagrams and panel design, and you have overcomplicated, and under-delivered on this software in a way that not only frustrates me but makes me sick to my stomach every time I open it. Why is it, that when you change the name of a drawing inside of a project, you have to click "refresh" for it to take effect? How could you make it any more complicated to make a block, than to draw an item, move to the insert tab, select "create block", then select a point on the block as the insertion point. but wait, if you want that block to have an annotated name above it, you need to reopen the block in the block editor and insert a Tag, and click save. but wait, the tag isn't actually there, you need to know to type in the "battman" command, find your block, and sync it. Is this product a joke to Autodesk developers? Want to add cells to an excel table you've imported? Sorry... you just can't do that. if you set it up with 4 cells, you get four cells. and if you want to make it five, you need to create a new table. Let's edit the title block, if you have never done it before, break out the instruction manual because we are going for a ride, right-click your project, and select descriptions. change whatever you want it to say, then click ok. Then you'll need to right-click the project again and click "title block update" but wait, it doesn't just update the title block to what you changed it to, because maybe you only wanted that on one page of your project. When, in history, did you not want all the title blocks the same? OK, well you need to select what you want to update. Once you have selected that you want to update everything so the drawing is consistent and professional, let's go ahead and click "OK, Project-wide" but wait... none of the title blocks updated other than the one that you had open. Oh yeah, you forget to check "Activate each drawing to process" well ****, now we have to go reselect that we want everything updated and do it again. My favorite part, waiting for each drawing in the project to open, and process. If you have a legend table on the front page, why does it not Auto-Update when you add or remove drawings from the project. It's not even a huge thing to ask for, but forget it. Its another 5-10 minute task to just make the legend match the drawings. This software is a joke that we are forced to endure. Why not pre-set a block database with all the CAD files from Pheonix, Automation Direct, Allen Bradley, Siemens Etc? Just click import block, select a manufacturer category, etc and import it. Even a link like fusion360 has to import Dwg files from their website would be better than nothing. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE for every electrical engineer that had to google how to do something that should be simple this week, PLEASE fix this Dumpster fire of software. Sincerely, Every Engineer born after 1990

Anonymous · ‎04-18-2018

As AutoCAD Electrical currently works, a wire that is shown on two drawings passes its wire number from the source dwg to the destination dwg using source/destination signal arrows. For some reason, the same doesn't happen with any Wire Number User Attribute values (W01USER, W02USER, etc, etc.) associated with that wire number. Please expand the API to allow Source/Destination arrows to pass along all wire number information between the wire segments, including WxxUSER attributes associated with the wire number. The way I see it, relative to AcadE wires, the wire number acts as a "TAG" and the WxxUSER attributes should act like "DESC" or "RATING" attributes. On both ends of the wire, the user may want to use these WxxUSER attributes as descriptions to show polarity, phasing, voltage rating or conductor color, (among other things), and may want to leverage this attribute relationship to do other things. Because wire numbers carry through signal arrows, this WxxUSER attribute value should update between Source and Destination, if changed. If the user doesn't want to show it on the destination-end, then the option to hide the attribute is always available, but they retain the ability to use the data. The more attribute data we can add/show/use/pass, the better.

Anonymous · ‎06-27-2019

I would like to see the hyperlinking/"surfing" functionality that comes from a published PDF of an AutoCAD Electrical (ACE) project... 1. Handle multiple footprint style symbols (Panel and Wiring Diagram) 2. Work with the Substation Design Suite DREF attribute In the utility/energy industry we often show 2 footprint style representations of a device, and right now, the hyperlinking in the PDF is a bit unpredictable for which one it would jump you to (Panel vs. Wiring Diagram). We also constructed other footprint style reference table symbols that are in the mix as well. A consistent order should be created in the code so it's predictable for the user to follow (i.e. the parent tag always jumps to a panel symbol first, then to a wiring diagram, then to a table - something like that.). Maybe the code or methodology just needs to be revealed so we understand this hyperlinking functionality more? Or maybe the code needs to be open-sourced and put up for the opportunity for customization? Another solution could be to develop some sort of Surf Dialog box that could pop up - using some sort of coding common to all PDF files. That way users could choose where they want to jump to. Regarding the DREF attribute, this is an attribute included with the Substation Design Suite plug-in for AutoCAD Electrical. DREF functions similar to XREF, but is more customizable and allows local/remote attribute value exchange. So I would assume since we can use hyperlinked XREF attributes to jump around the PDF with source/destination arrows, we should be able to provide similar or same functionality with this DREF attribute. Many in our industry use this feature. Contact Spatial Business Systems for information on their plug-in and work with them to provide this functionality.

Anonymous · ‎03-14-2020

In my opinion, if AutoCAD Electrical is truly aiming to beat the competitor's such as Eplan, something different is required. Firstly, the basics are required to be enabled to reduce work time - currently this is not close in my experience. Eplan utilises automatic connecting wires, Data Portal has an ever-growing up-to-date schematic, 3D model and information on 1000s of products. Most importantly, they're all recent products and accurate, unlike the AutoCAD Electrical library. For me, this is the single reason I originally moved from AutoCAD Electrical to Eplan, ease of use: parts are super easy to find and simply import with ALL the information available for schematic, 3D models, data sheets etc... The UI of auto connecting wires, cables are easy to assign, integrated 3D panel layout environment, reporting is far more powerful. If these were the same, I would never have moved originally. Secondly, for me a product differentiator needs to be present from Eplan to make the people decide that AutoCAD Electrical is now the power house in the ECAD market. When all of the points from item 1 are addressed, I would focus on doing the same as Eagle and Fusion 360 - integrate it into that platform. I think Fusion 360 and Eagle has been an amazing new differentiator and the same for AutoCAD Electrical would surely bring a whole host of new interest, I know I certainly would be! 1 environment where you design the mechanical, electrical and electronic design and it's fully fluid. I think that is a product nobody truly offers, and where they do (Solidworks to a degree with Altium and Solidworks Electrical), if the functionality was close to Eplan on the Electrical side - business would move. Everybody I have spoken to who has used Solidworks Electrical, AutoCAD Electrical and Eplan always says Eplan has by far the best UI, is the fastest and simply just works. BUT, AutoCAD has some GREAT features that Eplan doesn't in the sketching world - hence that integration to fusion would simply offer that start-to-finish M/E/ECAD solution which would be so powerful, I'm sure even diehard Eplan users would be looking to move over. Wrap-up: - 1. UI needs to be improved to match that similar of Eplan (wire connectivity, IEC standard structuring etc...) 2. Data Portal equivalent is a must, this is the largest time saver by far 3. Reporting needs to match that of Eplan - cable schedules, forms fully configurable, creating project templates for structures, reports, macros. Simple setup and re-use is key! 4. Integration into Fusion 360 would be Autodesk's product differentiator for real-time 3D cabinet and cable routing with a navigator to see what's been placed from the ECAD into the MCAD

JeffatPrimex · ‎02-07-2022

It would be nice if the retag process would look for and read the wd_fam.dat file for any changes prior to retagging devices.

Anonymous · ‎06-17-2016

In my experience as well as my research that I have done thus far, you would be helping hundreds if not thousands of customers by adding the unique identifier to data options in the data extraction command. When extracting data from a cad file, almost every useful piece of information is pulled for each object except the unique identifier or Handle. The only other options I have come across for handle extraction are ATTEXT and ATTOUT, however, both of these only pull the handles from blocks rather than each individual object. These commands also require that the blocks contain attributes which has limited me on every single occasion.

rhesusminus · ‎01-24-2015

Take a look at Autodesk exchange. How many apps for AcadE? How many for Inventor, AutoCAD and all the other adesk software with a descent API? I know it isn't done over night, but for every new function that you add to AcadE, you really should document and expose and API for your customers. Just imagine what your customers can do to automate AcadE! I've worked with a competing ecad software for more than 20 years, and it's number one success factor is the ability to answer "Yes, but it has to be a custom function", to every difficult "can-we-do-this-question". And no ccad2509, it's not ePlan or wscad

ronbotkin · ‎07-31-2020

In options you have the selection to turn on the file tabs. Right below that are buttons for "Colors" and "Fonts". I don't find any way to change the color of the active file tab and that would be helpful. My old eyes can't distinguish the difference between the active tab and inactive tabs. I would like to change the color for the active tab, both above the drawing on the list if open files and in the project manager list of drawings, to something bright like green so I can easily see which one I am working on.

Anonymous · ‎11-06-2019

ACADE 101, do not use AutoCAD native command COPY, however AutoDESK is forcing us to use this command by not providing a way to copy a drawing and give terminals a unique Handle or entity name at the same time. Because of this, components with unique tagnames come out ok in the BOM, but terminals do not. The "Copy Drawing To..." function located in the dropdown in project manager (next to drawing properties), copies the file but it does not create new entity names. You have to manually open the drawing and use COPYCIRCUIT to generate the new unique entity names. If AECIRCPASTE did not require a dialog box and was a script-able command such as -AECIRCPASTE, it would be possible to copy a drawing with terminal associations in-tacked and also assign new entity names with a script. Without this, COPY DRAWING TO... is just like using the COPY command, and bills of material counts do not come out correct for terminal editor items. Here is an example script that could be run after the drawing is copied, or run project wide, before using the terminal strip editor. OSMODE 0 model zoom all aecirccopyclip 0,0 all erase window -50000.00,-50000.00 50000.00,50000.00 aecircpaste (dialog box pops up here, no way around it - FIX THIS) A patch for all versions would be greatly appreciated.

dsnodgrass · ‎05-26-2015

Currently the API "c:wd_inplc_nd" function inserts a child portion of the PLC block with attributes added on the fly for "TAG_#, LOC, INST, ...". These attributes sometimes will end up on the border or plc break symbol. There is no control for the visibility, and there are no hooks for other attributes like "XREF". It would be better to have a similar function that would include a parameter for the name of a block to insert for these attributes and others, like "LINE1", "LINE2", or "FAMILY". The simplest thing would be to rewrite the "c:wd_inplc_nd" function to insert a pre-named block, if found in AutoCAD Electrical's search paths, and insert it at the child blocks insertion point. This is similar to the functionality of balloons and the block "wd_ptag_addattr_itemballoon.dwg". The "c:wd_inplc_nd" function is used in the wdio.lsp tool to insert the plc, so this change would also improve that tool as well. Thanks, DSnodgrass

Anonymous · ‎06-03-2016

When plotting a project using the plot project tool from the project nagivation pane... There is a character limit, for some strange reason. If one has a path that is longer than allowed, it is truncated. We have definite places we plot to, and they go deep into nested folders. What I would like to see is a BROWSE BUTTON!!!! Why I have to open windows explorer, copy a filepath, and paste it here, is just beyound me. A browse button would have been so easy to put in. I alter the lastplot.tmp file to accomplish a longer pathname, so I know a longer pathname works.I'll write a lisp function now to do this but a browse button would be so much cooler and user friendly.

Anonymous · ‎04-19-2018

While doing automation in AutoCAD electrical it is the harder factor to call any ACADE command from AutoLISP. but it is easy to call plane AutoCAD command from AutoLISP. ;EX. for Line (command "Line" (list 0 0 ) (list 10 10) "") but you can not call any electrical command like that ;if I need to insert Ballon it should be like that (AEBALLON (car (entsel)) (list 0 0 ) (list 10 10) "") ;for RESEQUENCE it should like that (AERESEQUENCE "PROJECT" 1 "") ;For Circuit Builder it should like that (AECIRCBUILDER "Circuit name" (optional XML file) (insertion point) "") If this done so it saves a lot of time of R&D. and make ACADE simple to automate.

JeffatPrimex · ‎04-16-2020

Instead of bloating ACE with new features that some people may never use, create a team collaboration site where people can share, test, develop their ideas in a format similar to https://git-scm.com/ and just add a link to the Load/unload Applications form or something. Best regards, Jeff

Anonymous · ‎08-19-2019

Requesting the Terminal Strip Editor display Jumpers for Left or Right, as columns for Tables. Display the Left and Right Jumpers on both the Tabular Terminal Strip (Table Object) and the Jumper Chart (Table Object).

avvari_jaswanth · ‎03-27-2023

I am looking for a feature to translate the text in drawing file to different languages. Do we have any inbuilt feature to do this.

paullimapa · ‎07-28-2022

There should be AutoLISP or Visual Lisp functions to substitute & modify in Model layout following Visual Styles in 333 associated list 2: Conceptual, Hidden, Realistic, Shaded, Shaded with Edges, Shades of Grey, SKetchy, X-Ray, Wireframe Currently the only option is to update Model layout's Shade Plot settings: (setq cmps (dictsearch (cdr (assoc -1 (dictsearch (namedobjdict) "ACAD_LAYOUT"))) "Model")) ;_dictsearch (setq cmps (subst (cons 76 new-value) (assoc 76 cmps) cmps)) ; substitute new Shade Plot option (setq cmps (subst (cons 77 new-value) (assoc 77 cmps) cmps)) ; substitute new Shade Plot resolution (entmod cmps) Shade Plot (76) values: 0 = As Displayed 1 = Wireframe Legacy (no Quality) 2 = Hidden Legacy (no Quality) 3 = Rendered -- this no longer used but Rendered is now under 5 4 = includes dxf group code 77 for Quality and with following Visual Styles in 333 associated list 2: Conceptual, Hidden, Realistic, Shaded, Shaded with Edges, Shades of Grey, SKetchy, X-Ray, Wireframe (no Quality setting during Plot) 5 = Rendered with following types in 333 associated list 1: Low, Medium or High Shade Plot Resolution (77) values: 0 = Draft = 0 DPI 1 = Preview = 50 DPI 2 = Normal = 100 DPI 3 = Presentation = 200 DPI 4 = Maximum = 300 DPI 5 = Custom = value between 100 to 300

RobinShou-Autodesk · ‎12-18-2019

Hello, We have released the Beta version for AutoCAD Electrical next release: AutoCAD Electrical Rogue Beta, please help to have a try with the new features in our new release, and give us feedback in the Beta Forum. Here is the step to join the AutoCAD Electrical Rogue Beta: 1. Create an account in Autodesk Beta website: https://beta.autodesk.com/ 2. Send an email to autocad.electrical.beta@autodesk.com to request for enrollment to the AutoCAD Electrical Rogue Beta 3. An invitation email with activation link will be sent to invite you to join the Beta 4. Once you have joined the Beta, you may login to the Beta site to download the Beta build and also participate in forum discussions For any AutoCAD Electrical Rogue Beta related discussion, please post into the Beta Forum after you join the Beta. You will need to sign Non-Disclosure Agreement to join Beta program. Please DO NOT discuss any information about the AutoCAD Electrical Rogue Beta in this discussion group. Thank you for your contribution. The AutoCAD Electrical Team

Anonymous · ‎06-12-2019

Y'all should have a function where the user can lasso empty space in a file and anything selected will be highlighted in the layer properties tab/window (even if they're frozen or turned off). This would be very helpful and time-saving for looking for many people when trying to find which layer fills an empty space (instead of having to look through up to hundreds of layers). Thanks!

Wire numbering FROM/TO tag to tag instead of unique numbers

Din Rail and Wire Way Length for BOM

How about an overhaul on this highly used software?

Pass WIRENO user attributes between wires with Signal Arrows

Surfing a Published PDF File

Fusion 360 & Workflow Improvements

wd_fam.dat update

Adding Handle to Command DATAEXTRACTION/EATTEXT

AcadE ned an API, not an "API"

Active file tab colors

Terminal Counts off - Here's the fix AutoDESK - forever problem....

"c:wd_inplc_nd" revision for "TAG_#, LOC, INST" attributes on child PLC blocks.

PLOT project: browse button?? !!!

Autocad Electical Command Can be call from Autolisp.

Create a GIT Site Electrical users

TSE Internal and External "Left and Right" Jumper Columns

Text Translation

Visual Lisp function/method to place Visual Style settings into Plot/Page Settings

AutoCAD Electrical Rogue Beta is released!

highlight selected layers from empty space selection where layers are frozn/invz

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