Autocad Mep Symbol Library

[Rut]

Heres a scenario: you create a drawing, say, with IEC symbol libraries, put symbols in it and save it. You then send it to a colleague who works with ANSI or GOST libraries. Is he then able to open and edit the drawing, and does he need the IEC symbol library to open it or does he only need it to add in more IEC symbols if required? Basically what I'm trying to get at is if you work across different regions, are you required to have all libraries installed to view/edit drawings or not.

I'm also wondering about creation of a custom symbol library (say for our company), and again how this would be affected for everyone (i.e. would everyone need an up-to-date copy of the library on their system).

A final part of the question to follow on from that - in relation to any answer to the above, how exactly does ACADE reference symbols etc., is it stored in the .wdp project file, in each individual .DWG...?

The drawings created with standards (in your case IEC) can be shared and opened by your colleague without any problem. Make sure you share entire project directory along with WDP file to open at your colleague's end. However if your colleague needs to modify / add the drawings will require libraries that you worked on. AutoCAD Electrical provides comprehensive standards libraries which are available in installer.

Every standard (IEC / JIC / NFPA etc) have a DAT file which helps to pick the right symbol from library folders. When you create a project, you specfy the symbol libraries dependending upon standard you select in project properties along with DAT file to be used for symbol insertion use.

Final quick question before I accept the solution - you're saying there's an in product feature. Is this the Icon Menu Wizard, then selecting the relevant .DAT and then adding the symbols in here using the toolbar at the top right of the popup window?

Icon menu wizard it is ! This is something which (i believe) is simpler way to integrate custom symbols in Icon Menu. Ofcourse if you very familier with symbol naming, then there is a browse button in Icon menu that also helps to insert a symbol in drawing. Some advanced user use editing of DAT files & customizing for their own made symbol use.

In short, if you are heavily going to create custom symbols or want to make a custom symbol library, you can consolidate your own category / combine with existing category etc. AutoCAD Electrical expects to have proper inclusion of paths in project properties / DAT files & correct use of standards which by which you can make use of custom symbols. Usually users will master the consolidation of symbol handling as they start working on it. Recommend to go through DAT file (it is a text file and can be opened on notepad / notepad++) to get a better understanding of mapping and use of symbols.

I am suggesting to have a look at the AutoCAD Electrical Demo set properties for understanding the mapping of standards libraries, inclusion of DAT files in project properties etc to have a general idea. This broadly will give you how you can work integrate the custom symbols & their paths etc to make use in the project.

Personally I agree with RobDraw. Create your own blocks. However, there are those who don't have the time, the inclination or just don't care what they use as long as it is free. In that case check out the CAD/BIM Blocks Library at the CAD Forum. Since the website caters mainly to people who utilize the metric system just make sure to check the units of any drawing you download in case it matters.

Basically what is the best way to do this, for example I start a new drawing, I want to be able to access a library of electrical symbols. I'm getting so many different answers, insert blocks, use DC.. I'm stuck?

I would save those symbol drawings somewhere that you and others, if needed, can access them. Perhaps on a server in a shared folder. Once there in ANY open drawing type ADC (autocad design center) and the Design Center window will open. Click on the folder icon on the top left to open one of these saved symbol drawings. Open it and then select block from the list under the drawing name. You should have a window full of blocks that can be clicked and dragged into your working drawing. Easy as can be.

I am a bit old fashioned so use menu's and the method of slides to pick common stuff. Very fast for the common pick stuff, then I would use DC for picking seldomly used. They can be multi paged for a lot of common blocks. You can have a menu with a class

Our electrical design team has been an offsite collaborator for a while now supporting a very large project that is in it's senior years. We have been using AutoCAD (their preferred tool) for all electrical designs system wide.

I have begun converting some existing wiring diagrams into a Creo design while doing so I have been creating and submitting aritfacts to a central catalog and it is this that has me thinking, "How can we use this tool the way it is meant to be used at this stage of the game?"

I guess I would like to get others opinions on can we use Schematics how it was meant to be used, with a Central Catalog consisting of datatables, datasets and artifacts reflect all of our components?

You're facing a daunting task to be sure. However, taking the long view, the work you're doing will be worth it in the end. Imagine a library of physical books... a very large one that contains books available nowhere else. Now imagine you've been given the task to SCAN each one into a computer database by hand. The purpose is that eventually you'll be able to search through the texts of those books using a computer (something not possible with a physical book). At the beginning, it seems like the process is more trouble than it's worth. But by the end, you'd look back and wonder how you ever got along without your database. You'd never be able to go back to using the library the old way. That's what you're facing with this transition to Creo Schematics.

Look at it this way... your 30,000-40,000 AutoCAD objects are never going to be any more intelligent than they are right now. They're essentially physical books in the library. By converting these to Creo Schematics, you're adding intelligence... you're adding capability... and you're building the "library of the future". You may not even be able to see the complete picture right now. You may not fully know how this intelligent library will eventually benefit your company. Creo Schematics is only gaining in power. Tools that can simulate circuits were just concepts only a few years back. Now those tools are becoming more mainstream. By developing your new library now, you're getting ahead of the game. Although it's a struggle, you'll be ahead of other companies which did not have the foresight to modernize their libraries. Your old library isn't going to be doing any fancy tricks for you... it'll just sit there for the next 20 years.

So how do you tackle such a huge job? I'd steal most of the geometry from your AutoCAD symbols to use as Creo Schematics artifacts. Start with the most common symbols first. Add in the intelligent features required by Creo Schematics. Build your datasets as you need them. But perhaps most important... train all of your people to create artifacts as they need them. If you have a team of 10 designers, that's 10 people making the artifacts they need. Have them check their work into common repository with a librarian (or "gatekeeper", data manager, etc) who verifies the new catalog submissions for completeness before uploading them to the master catalog. Many times you only need a simple artifact to create dozens of items. Datasets do much of the work of creating 'families' of components.

No doubt this is going to be a chore. But what I'm talking about is developing a workflow that includes making the necessary catalog components. For instance, what is your workflow now? Maybe you receive a sketch or markup from your Electrical Engineers, place symbols for rough space claim, route wires, fire off a check print, and await redlines from the EE's. In your new workflow, you'd receive the sketch/markup, place whatever symbols you have for space claim while identifying any missing symbols, create new artifacts for the missing symbols, route wires, fire off check print, etc.

If you make the act of creating new artifacts part of the design process, you'll quickly build up a library of the most often used items. At first, it'll be slow going... so maybe you (personally) want to build the first couple hundred or so components before you start using Creo Schematics in earnest. But then, once you make the switch, your team will rapidly begin to populate your new library. Within a few weeks, the common components will be created leaving only the rarer items to be dealt with during your normal workflow. The time you save using Creo Schematics will initially be lost as you work to populate your library. But within a few months at most you should begin to see positive gains. Your designers will be able to work more efficiently. Modifications to designs will come about more easily. And ultimately even if you don't see any productivity gains initially, your wiring diagrams now have an intelligence that they did not possess before. As I said, you may not even know the dividends this intelligence will pay in the future.

When I was about 10 years old, I watched a guy eat a full-sized bicycle on a TV show called That's Incredible. Ever since then, old jokes like "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" seem less funny and more like wise business advice. While recreating a large library seems impossible at the outset, if you hit the high points first, leverage your team, and methodically continue making progress, you'll see it's actually not so bad.

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