AutoCAD to AutoCAD Electrical Transition Guide

To complete a schematic control system diagram, you work through a sequence of manual operations.

Many AutoCAD Electrical functions are powerful AutoCAD macros, and other functions use AutoCAD programming languages to create electrical industry-specific commands. It automates the drawing process.

Note: You can edit AutoCAD Electrical drawings with AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT without corrupting AutoCAD Electrical functionality.

Symbol libraries are created by using AutoCAD blocks and attributes.

AutoCAD Electrical schematic blocks or symbols are standard AutoCAD blocks using a combination of attributes and xdata to enhance the intelligence of the block.

Schematic blocks are referred to as symbols and panel layout blocks are referred to as footprints. Both symbols and footprints are referred to as components.

In AutoCAD Electrical, there are two sizes of JIC and IEC symbols and one size of GB and JIS symbols. It also includes pneumatic, hydraulic, and P&ID symbols.

The Line command creates wires in AutoCAD.

A wire in AutoCAD Electrical is an AutoCAD line entity on an AutoCAD Electrical-defined wire layer. There are unlimited wire layers available in AutoCAD Electrical.

Note: In AutoCAD Electrical, polylines cannot be used as wires.

In AutoCAD, the working search path for drawing support files lists paths that are valid and exist in the current system directory structure (including system network mapping). These options improve performance when the files are loaded.

AutoCAD Electrical uses a longer search path than AutoCAD, inserting its own search paths in front of the standard AutoCAD search paths. When inserting a symbol, AutoCAD Electrical checks the drawing file itself for a copy of the symbol:

1. It checks for specific file name, using the full path name, if provided.
2. It checks for the symbol in the AutoCAD Electrical library subdirectory, defined in wd.env file in the local directory. For Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Autodesk\Acade {version}\Libs. For Windows Vista, Windows 7: C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Autodesk\Acade {version}\Libs.
3. It checks in the subdirectory of the project where the WDP project file of the active project is located.
4. It checks for the symbol in the library selected for the current project. If no project is current, the library is the one pointed to by the WD_LIB setting in the wd.env file.
5. It checks for AutoCAD Electrical support file folder.
6. It checks the current directory. It checks the AutoCAD file support paths.
7. It displays an AutoCAD alert message.

For a network installation, you can install the program to workstations with the files and registry entries that allow the program to communicate with the Network License Manager. Workstations running AutoCAD based on a network installation do not require individual activation. Licensing of AutoCAD is managed by at least one license server.

Like an AutoCAD network installation in that the software and menu support files should be installed locally. The symbol libraries, project files, and catalog database files (as well as other shared files) should be installed on network drives.

You can extract the databases from the library block attributes to a separate text file in either comma-delimited format (CDF), space-delimited format (SDF) or drawing interchange format (DXF) for use with database software (for example, DBASE IV).

AutoCAD Electrical uses part catalog databases for symbol libraries and panel footprint databases for footprints. With AutoCAD Electrical standard Microsoft Windows interface, you can store data, print reports, and edit files using Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and ASCII text files.

The part catalog databases, which stores bill-of-material (BOM) information for components, has 16 fields for storing of information. All databases are in Microsoft Access MDB file format, allowing any compatible editor to open and edit the database files. A schematic symbol is used to represent many manufacturers for schematic drawing.

Panel footprint databases are also stored in Microsoft Access MDB file format. The footprint database contains each manufacturer with different size and shape for a component in a panel layout drawing.

You work with one file type: DWG. You cannot separate your project file name, document, and database from within the DWG file.

You work with a minimum of four file types. AutoCAD Electrical uses ASCII text files as reference files for different purposes.

File extensions:

1. WDP - Project files used by AutoCAD Electrical for organizing project drawings. You can have unlimited number of projects but only one project can be active each time.
2. WDD - Project specific description file for components (for example, wd_desc.wdd is the project description default).
3. WDL - Project descriptive line information files. Typically, these files are changed to match the attribute values of the drawing title.
4. WDT - Project-based title block mapping files. With most configuration files, AutoCAD Electrical first searches for the first matching project name, for example *.WDT. If the WDT file with the project name is not found, AutoCAD Electrical uses the default.wdt file.