AutoCAD Electrical: Product Summary For more accurate

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AutoCAD Electrical: Product Summary

Reduce Complex or Repetitive Tasks

Electrical-Specifi c Drafting Features

Developed specifi cally for designing electricalcontrol systems, AutoCAD Electrical includes special-ized drafting features that help you reduce design time. Quickly trim wires, copy and delete components or circuits, and scoot and align components for easier drawing creation.

Terminal Strip Editor

The terminal strip editor is the easiest way tomanage and edit terminals throughout your project. With just a couple of mouse-clicks, you can make modifi cations such as reversing the left and right wir-ing information for a terminal. Ensure design accuracy and reduce tedious work with an intuitive interface that makes managing and editing terminal strip infor-mation a snap.

AutoCAD Data Migration

New data migration utilities make it easy to bring existing designs created in AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT® software into AutoCAD Electrical for further modifi ca-tion. With enhanced migration tools, you drastically reduce the time needed to convert native AutoCAD data into intelligent AutoCAD Electrical designs, so you can be more productive.

For more accurate electrical controls design,there’s a logical choice: AutoCAD Electrical.

If you design machines or products that move, electrical controls are probably akey component of your design requirements. But until now, design teams havehad to rely on generic applications to manually lay out electrical schematics. Well, not anymore. Built on the AutoCAD® platform, AutoCAD® Electrical is the leading application built specifi cally for designing electrical control systems. It helps you design 2D industrial control systems faster and more accurately and can shareelectrical schematic information with Autodesk Inventor® Professional. With tools that automate key control system design tasks, your organization can slash the chances of error, accelerate production, and dramatically improve product quality. With features like these, this innovative product is the logical choice for electrical controls design.

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PLC I/O Libraries

Quickly build intelligent PLC I/O drawings by simply selecting manufacturer-specifi c PLC I/O modules from the libraries included inthe software. AutoCAD Electrical provides more than 2,000 new PLC I/O modules from the industry’s most popular manufacturers.

Content Database Merge Utility

Use this powerful utility to easily merge existing manufacturer catalog databases, PLC I/O libraries, footprint lookup databases, and cor-responding footprint symbols with existing content. Now you can take full advantage of content additions in new releases without losing previous customizations to existing content libraries.

Symbol Conversion

Take advantage of the black box builder utility to convert standardAutoCAD symbols to intelligent AutoCAD Electrical symbols. The step-by-step wizard walks you through the process of applying the necessary attributes to existing symbols, making conversion fast and easy.

promis•e Data Migration

promis•e® software users can now eliminate hours of rework byeasily migrating designs into AutoCAD Electrical using the new promis•e data migration tools.

Ladders and Reference Line Numbers

Eliminate the redundancy of creating control drawings by quickly and eas-ily placing ladders into a drawing using AutoCAD Electrical’s fl exible ladder insertion functionality. Insert intelligent control ladders and reference line numbers into a drawing. Place ladders horizontally or vertically while maintaining complete control over all ladder characteristics, including rung spacing, number of rungs, width of the ladder, and more. Automatic placement of reference line numbers based on a predefi ned confi guration eliminates hours of tedious manual processes.

Revise Ladder

With AutoCAD Electrical you don’t have to start from scratch when you need to modify a ladder in your design. Use the Revise Ladder command to modify ladders already inserted into drawings. Without deleting and starting over again, you can modify most aspects of the ladder, including rung spacing, number of rungs, starting and ending reference numbers, and wire numbers. This single command saves hours of manual editing and helps ensure that your time is spent on high-value work.

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Insert Rungs

Build electrical control schematics faster by eliminating tedious tasks likeinserting rungs into an existing ladder. Click anywhere inside a ladderto automatically insert a new rung complete with wire connection dots.

Device Navigation

With AutoCAD Electrical you can easily view and navigate relationships between devices. Use the Surfer command on a component in the panel layout drawing to quickly “surf” to the corresponding schematic device—whether it’s across multiple drawings in a project or for devices with a parent/child relationship or auxiliary contacts. The result? No more tedious management of device relationships and more time to focus on design.

Swap Block Utility

Save hours of rework by quickly replacing each instance of a symbol throughout a project. Swap instances of a block or an individual symbol wherever it is used in a project. You can even swap symbols for an entire

project between two symbol libraries. For example, if you need to change the standard used in a project, you could run this command to automati-cally swap each JIC device out with its IEC equivalent.

Source and Destination Markers

Easily track wires from page to page within a project. When a wire starts on one drawing and continues onto another, you can connect them electroni-cally using the source and destination signals.

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Location Boxes and Markers

Quickly and easily associate groups of devices with a specifi c panel loca-tion using the Location Box command. Apply location markers on the schematic that represent the corresponding panel location. This capability makes it easy to identify locations for a device or group of devices, helping to ensure accuracy.

Insert Balloons on Panel Devices

Save time by automatically annotating control panel drawings with intel-ligent item balloons that coincide with the panel bill of materials (BOM).

Wire Gaps

Whenever two wires cross in an electrical design, AutoCAD Electricalautomatically indicates which wire passes through. You can choose from wire gaps, loops, or solid wires to show crossing wires. End result: crisp schematics with no extra eff ort.

Reduce Errors

Real-Time Coil and Contact Cross-Referencing

Assigning too many contacts to any relay is a costly mistake, but this fea-ture reduces that risk signifi cantly. You don’t even have to keep track of your coils and contacts, because AutoCAD Electrical sets up a parent/child relationship between the two and keeps track of how many contacts are assigned to any given coil or multicontact device. When you reach the limit, you get an alert.

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Another benefi t of this feature is its ability to assign the next availableset of terminal pin numbers to each inserted “child” contact, based onthe parent coil’s assigned part number. You can display real-timecross-referencing information in just about any format on the drawings, and you can run cross-referencing reports whenever you like.

Automatic Wire Numbering and Component Tagging

Spending long hours manually assigning wire numbers and component tags is now a thing of the past, as are the potential errors inherent in that process. AutoCAD Electrical automatically places sequential or reference-based numbers on all wires and components, based on the confi guration you choose, so you don’t have to do it manually. Reference-based numbers and tags automatically get a suffi x to ensure that names are unique, and the software can renumber the entities as the design or requirements change. This numbering convention is fl exible enough to meet nearly any design requirement.

In addition, if AutoCAD Electrical determines that an inserted wire number will “bump into” something, it automatically searches laterally along the wire for a clear spot to place the wire number. If that fails, it searches for a clear spot away from the wire. When it fi nds one, it places the number and automatically draws a leader back to the wire.

Smart Panel Layout Drawings

Using AutoCAD Electrical to create panel layout drawings provides a systematic means to check that no devices are missed, and makes an electronic link between the representation of the device in the schematic and panel drawings. Here’s how it works: once you have created a sche-matic, the software extracts a list of schematic components for placement in the panel layout drawings. All you have to do is pick a device from the list and drag it into place. The physical “footprint” representation of each schematic device is inserted into the layout at the point you select. Then the software creates an electronic link between the schematic and panel device representations. So when you change key data on one drawing, you get a prompt for permission to update the other. You can also add non-schematic items to the layout, such as wire duct and mounting hardware, and they will automatically combine into a “smart” panel BOM report.

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Automatic Report Generation

Reduce the time it takes to create reports, as well as the errors inherent in manually generated reports. This major improvement over what you can do in AutoCAD enables you to run several diff erent reports—including BOM, From/To wire lists, PLC I/O list with descriptions, terminal plans, cable summaries, cross-referencing, and more—at once using one command. Insert reports directly into a drawing or save them in one of several fi le formats for further manipulation. Customize reports to display important

information by sorting and fi ltering, and then save your customized report. Then run your reports against a current drawing, a collection of drawings, the entire project, or a specifi c location or panel in a project. Place saved reports into a drawing as a smart table object that can be easily updated at a later time or saved to a fi le. AutoCAD Electrical supports saving reports in ASCII, Microsoft® Excel, Microsoft Access, CSV, or XML formats.

Electrical Audit Report

Missing or incorrect wire numbers can cause major headaches. Theaudit report analyzes and reports such design anomalies so they can be corrected before they become an expensive problem. With an audit report you eliminate design errors before they reach the shop fl oor, saving time and money.

Visual Wiring Sequence Indicators

Effi cient communication of design intent helps eliminate costly wiring errors on the shop fl oor. With the wiring sequence indicators in AutoCAD Electrical, you can graphically indicate the proper wiring sequence of a circuit directly on the schematic.

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Reusing Circuits

Commonly used circuits once built can then be saved for reuse in future designs, helping to slash design time. When a saved circuit is placed into a new design, AutoCAD Electrical automatically renumbers the wires and devices in the circuit to match the confi guration of the current drawing or project in which they are placed.

Cable and Conductor Tracking

Manage cable and conductor usage in AutoCAD Electrical projects with easy-to-use tracking capabilities. Designate individual wires as belonging to a cable, and then generate reports based on cable usage for fabrication purposes. Similar to inserting components, when you assign manufacturer part number information to cables, AutoCAD Electrical automatically tracks and reports conductor usage based on that part number.

Retagging Components

Reduce design time and help eliminate errors by retagging all components in a project with a single command. This single command allows you to change the format of component tags during a project to accommodate customer changes on the fl y.

Fixing Wire Numbers and Component Tags

AutoCAD Electrical enables you to easily accommodate design modifi ca-tions late in the cycle without aff ecting previous work. When you change the status of wire numbers and component tags to a “fi xed” format, they remain unaff ected during a projectwide renumbering of wires or retag-ging of components. If changes are required after the shop fl oor has the designs, you can easily add new wire numbers and device components without aff ecting the existing wire numbers.

Increase Drafting Productivity

Insert Components from a Menu

The simple menu-driven system in AutoCAD Electrical makes it easy to insert electrical devices. From the menus, you can access a comprehensive symbol library that includes devices such as switches, sensors, lights, and much more. Simply select the device you want from the menu to quickly create electrical controls designs.

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Automatic Creation of Schematics from Spreadsheets

Generate a complete set of PLC I/O drawings simply by defi ning the project’s I/O assignments in a spreadsheet program. This can save you a tremendous amount of design time, because the need to create those drawings in an AutoCAD environment is virtually eliminated. Not only that—all the data remains consistent, since the descriptions on eachPLC I/O point can be extracted and imported into your PLC program to ensure consistency between the drawings and the PLC program.

AutoCAD Electrical reads the spreadsheet and draws the ladders according to the drawing confi guration, adds the I/O modules, inserts the addresses and description text, and even supplies component and terminal symbols connected to each I/O point as defi ned in the spreadsheet. As the software reads through the spreadsheet, it creates new drawings as required toaccommodate the inserted modules. If it comes across a module that doesn’t fi t in a column, it automatically breaks the module at the bottom of the ladder and continues it at the top of the next ladder column or on the next drawing.

Once the drawings are created, you can export the I/O information and descriptions to a format that most PLC programming software packages can read, thus eliminating the need for the PLC programmer to re-create addresses and their descriptions.

Open and Flexible API

Use the fl exible and open API (application programming interface) in AutoCAD Electrical to extend its power and functionality to meet your specifi c design and drafting needs. This built-in API consists of nearly 200 programming entry points into the software, so you can easily integrate AutoCAD Electrical with your existing business and engineering systems.

With some imagination and basic familiarity with application develop-ment, you can use the API to create powerful, custom applications such as special drafting and design utilities. You can write your applications using AutoLISP®, Visual LISP®, Visual Basic®, VBA, C, C++, or generic AutoCAD scripting. We include a sample program—AutoCAD Electrical Spreadsheet to PLC I/O drawing generator utility—in full source code format as a pro-gramming example. Some Autodesk customers have used the API to create a custom front-end interface that further automates the design process by automatically generating projects.

Extensive Manufacturers’ Catalog Content

Streamline the design process by using real manufacturer data from the comprehensive manufacturer catalog database that contains more than 45,000 components from industry’s most popular vendors. These com-ponents provide a full spectrum of input and output devices, including switches, sensors, lights, and more.

Graphical Terminal Strip Generator

Slash design time by automatically generating graphical terminal strip layouts based on schematic design information for use in panel layout drawings or terminal plans. You can choose to generate these terminal strips in a graphical or table format. Terminal strip layouts are automati-cally populated with the wiring information for each side of the strip as defi ned in the terminal strip editor.

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Starting Designs with a Panel Layout Drawing

AutoCAD Electrical provides a design environment that is more fl ex-ible than ever before. It works the way you want to work. You can now start your designs by creating the panel layout drawing and use those designs to drive the creation of the corresponding logical control schematics. This feature gives you the boost you need for tight turnaround times.

Multiuser Environment

The enhanced multiuser environment in AutoCAD Electrical makes it easier to share projects and collaborate more eff ectively. The software now provides drawing status indicators and better control of projectwide commands for increased productivity within a workgroup environment.

Add New PLC I/O Modules

The PLC database editing functionality makes it even easier for youto create PLC I/O drawings. If the module you want isn’t included in thecurrent library, you can easily add the ones you need through a new graphical interface.

Pneumatic Schematics

Quickly generate accurate pneumatic schematics using a comprehensive pneumatic symbol library that includes devices such as valves, operators, manifolds, meters, regulators, fi lters, and more.

Support for Multiple Design Standards

You are always in sync with your customers’ design standards whether itbe a JIC, IEC, JIS, or GB design. AutoCAD Electrical provides symbol librar-ies, cross-reference settings, wire and device tagging conventions, and much more to meet local design requirements.

Three-Phase Motor Control

Quickly design three-phase motor circuits using intelligent, built-insymbol libraries that include three-pole breakers, switches, motor con-tactors, and more. These symbols automatically adapt to the underlying three-phase rung spacing upon insertion, saving time and helping tokeep you productive.

Toggle Normally Open/Normally Closed

With a single mouse-click, switch the state of a device from normally open to normally closed and vice versa. If that device is part of a parent/child relationship such as a relay coil and contact, AutoCAD Electrical automati-cally updates the corresponding device.

Manage and Share Your Design Data More Eff ectively

Link to Cable and Harness Functionality ofAutodesk Inventor Professional

Pass electrical intent information for cables and conductors to Autodesk Inventor Professional to automatically create a 3D harness design. Smooth integration with the cable and harness functionality of Autodesk Inventor Professional saves you time and reduces errors associated with manual harness creation.

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Sharing Drawings and Tracking Changes

AutoCAD Electrical makes it easy to work with other AutoCAD users because anyone with a DWG-compatible program such as AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT can view and edit AutoCAD Electrical fi les. With the built-in AutoCAD Electrical revision tracking functionality, no matter how many people access your drawings, you can track all changes made to thedrawings since the last update.

Web Publishing of Designs

With AutoCAD Electrical, it’s easy to share your designs over the Internet by publishing either individual drawings or entire projects. AutoCAD Electrical creates the HTML pages and links needed to post your complete design to the web. As an option, you can allow customers or vendors to drag the drawings into a “live” AutoCAD session, and the drawings main-tain their complete AutoCAD Electrical intelligence.

Autodesk Vault Integration

Integrated with AutoCAD Electrical, Autodesk® Vault makes data management more effi cient by organizing your design data and protect-ing it from inadvertent changes. This easy-to-use data management tool makes work-in-progress data more accessible and reusable, while avoid-ing the versioning problems inherent in sharing fi les among workgroups. Most importantly, Autodesk Vault is tightly integrated with your Autodesk design applications, making data management much easier.

Project Interface

The redesigned project interface in AutoCAD Electrical makes it even easier to manage and navigate the many individual DWG fi les that make up an electrical controls project. The software’s intuitive fi le manage-ment features let you spend more time focusing on design and less on organizing fi les.

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Drawing Navigation

Use the Previous/Next buttons to quickly browse through each drawing in the project without having to open individual fi les. Because navigation is faster, you are more productive.

MDI Aware

AutoCAD Electrical fully supports the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) standard, which allows you to simultaneously view and edit multiple drawings within a single AutoCAD Electrical session.

Autodesk DWF

The Autodesk® DWF™ (Design Web Format™) format enablesall team members to easily and securely view 2D and 3D designs pub-lished directly from Autodesk manufacturing design applications. Use

Autodesk® DWF™ Composer to easily review, mark up, and print designs. And all extended team members can use the free Autodesk® DWF™ Viewerapplication to review and print designs.

Autodesk Gives You More

Autodesk Consulting off ers services that can help you streamline your business processes and get the best possible return on your investment in Autodesk technology. Visit us at www.autodesk.com/consulting.

Autodesk® Subscription is the easiest way to keep your design tools and learning up to date. For an annual fee you get the latest versions of your licensed Autodesk software, web support direct from Autodesk, self-paced training options, and a broad range of other technology and business ben-efi ts. For more information, contact your Autodesk Authorized Reseller or visit www.autodesk.com/subscription.

Purchase or Learn More

Purchase AutoCAD Electrical through your Autodesk Authorized Reseller. To locate the reseller nearest you, visit www.autodesk.com/reseller.

Design industrial control systems faster and more accuratelythan ever with AutoCAD Electrical. For more information, visit www.autodesk.com/autocadelectrical.

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Autodesk, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Autodesk Inventor, AutoLISP, Design Web Format, DWF,and Visual LISP are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. promise•e is a trademark of ECT International, Inc. All other brand names,product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Autodesk reserves the right to alter product off erings and specifi cations at any timewithout notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that mayappear in this document.

© 2005 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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AutoCAD Electrical: Product Summary For more accurate