Circuit Builder
The Circuit Builder feature comes with many predefined motor control circuits. Insert a circuit by picking from the list of motors and selecting the location on your drawing. AutoCAD Electrical builds the selected circuit on-the-fly, matching the rung spacing, adding wiring between components, and annotating the circuit based on motor horsepower and industry standards. Inserting a custom motor control circuit can also be as easy as a few mouse clicks. Select the options to define the circuit, such as breaker type, control circuitry and motor horsepower. Select the location for the circuit and a custom circuit is built based on the selected options.
You can customize the Circuit Builder feature to build your custom circuits. The feature uses a spreadsheet and drawing templates. The spreadsheet defines the available options for the circuit and the defaults for each option. The drawing template defines the placement for the individual components and the wiring.
Terminal Strip Editor
Enhancements to the Terminal Strip Editor make it a more comprehensive utility.
Symbol Builder
The Symbol Builder now takes advantage of the block editor environment. All the block editor features are available along with AutoCAD Electrical dialog boxes. It is easy to adjust the graphics of the component and add the necessary attributes for each type of AutoCAD Electrical component.
Start with a template supplied with attributes for the specific component type you want to create. All necessary attributes are immediately available for insertion along with any optional attributes. Drag them from the dialog box into your symbol.
When your symbol is ready, save it using the suggested symbol name following the AutoCAD Electrical naming standards, or enter your own symbol name. Audit your symbol to see any potential issues with your symbol.
Migration Utility
The Migration utility replaces the Merge utility which dealt exclusively with the catalog database. The Migration utility lets you merge the catalog database and supports other files types and settings, including the environment file, icon menu files, lookup database files, table styles drawing, user circuits, recent projects, and so on. Some file types allow you to merge the default AutoCAD Electrical file and your custom file. Other file types allow you to keep your custom file or overwrite it with the default AutoCAD Electrical file.
Select to migrate from a specific AutoCAD Electrical release. The existing files are found and listed for migration selection. Select which files to migrate, define the migration options, and your files from a previous release are ready for the latest AutoCAD Electrical release. Save the migration settings to use at a later time or to repeat the migration for another user or computer.
Item Numbering
You can now assign an item number on a per part basis. Each multiple catalog assignment can receive its own item number. Set the item numbering options for a project:
Note: An item number can be assigned to the main catalog entry and any multiple catalog entries. It cannot be assigned to a catalog entry based on an assembly code.
The Insert Balloon feature supports multiple balloons per component. If a component carries multiple item number assignments, multiple balloons are inserted automatically. When an item number is modified or removed, the item balloon is updated or deleted.
Surfing
The ability to surf on an item number was added. Right-click an item balloon and select surf, or type the item number in the Surf dialog box. You can also surf on an item number in a report table. Run the Surf command and click the item number text in the report table.
Cross-referencing
The graphics used to represent each contact type in the table cross-reference style are now customizable. A graphic drawing (.dwg) file is assigned to a specific contact block file name through a new cross-reference mapping table in the catalog lookup database. The assigned graphic drawing file is inserted as a block in the table cell in the TYPE column.
Spreadsheet to PLC/IO
You can now direct the Spreadsheet to PLC/IO utility to start a new drawing before generating the next module. Enter the keyword, NEW_DWG, in the CODE column of the spreadsheet at the point where you want to start a new drawing. AutoCAD Electrical creates the drawing before generating the next module in the spreadsheet.
You can now predefine other attributes on the module like the inline device fields. For example, you want a module to have a Rack value of "2", an Installation value of "MACH1", and a Rating2 value of "Hazardous Duty". In the spreadsheet, in the RACK column, enter "2;INST=MACH1;RATING2=HAZARDOUS DUTY". When this module is generated these extra attribute values are assigned.
Vault - Title Block Update
The project description values in Vault can now be written back to AutoCAD Electrical drawings. Assign these values to the AutoCAD Electrical project description values. Project descriptions can be used in the AutoCAD Electrical title block update and the drawing list report. If the project descriptions are out of date when these features are used, you are prompted to import the Vault values in to the project descriptions.
3-Phase Wiring
Connecting the 3-phase wiring to the motor symbol is now automatic. When you insert a motor symbo,l and 3-phase wiring is already present, place the symbol on or near the wires. The wires are angled and trimmed to meet the motor symbol.
Note: For pre-2009 symbols, add a default attribute prompt value "X0STRETCH" to the X0TERMxx attributes.
Flip Component
When you use the Flip Component feature, existing dashed link lines are recalculated and reinserted if necessary.
Project Manager
You can now right-click the active project and select Close. The active project is closed, removed from the list, and the next project becomes the active project.
Toggle Wire Number
When you toggle a wire number from above or below the wire to an in-line wire number, the number keeps its original center point, rather than centering it on the wire.
Trim Wire
You can now use the dynamic pan and zoom while using the Trim Wire command. Start the command and select the Fence option. Select the first fence point and pan the drawing to select the next fence point. All wires are trimmed that cross the fence rather than just the wires on the screen.
Edit Wire Sequence
The Edit Wire Sequence command remains active until you choose to exit the command by not selecting a wire. This feature makes it more efficient to assign a wire sequence to multiple wire networks.
Cable Conductor Table
Adding a cable with many conductors is more efficient with the Alt+A hot key. Once you type in the conductor color, press Alt+A to add the conductor to the list.
COPYTAG for Terminals
Terminals now support the COPYTAG attribute. COPYTAG is the optional TAG copy attribute. When AutoCAD Electrical updates a TAGSTRIP attribute, it also looks for and updates any COPYTAG attributes present on the symbol with a copy of the TAGSTRIP text. A special replaceable parameter, "%T", can be encoded onto the prompt value of the COPYTAG attribute definition. This replaceable parameter allows for adding a suffix and/or prefix to the TAGSTRIP text. If you need more than one extra TAGSTRIP copy on a symbol, name the attributes COPYTAG01, COPYTAG02, and so on.
Stand-alone Cross Reference
The DESC1 attribute is now supported on stand-alone cross-reference symbols. You can add a value to this attribute in the Insert/Edit Stand-alone Signal/Destination dialog boxes. The description field is an available field in the Stand-alone cross reference report.
Export to Spreadsheet
The option to export information from parent components only was added.
Catalog Content Updates
Pneumatic catalog content was added to the catalog database of over 350,000 components from the most popular vendors of the industry. Additional catalog content for terminal blocks, PLC, and limit switches, was added.
Help Updates
The New Features Workshop provides an outline and graphical view of new features this release.
A symbol library preview guide lists the library symbols supplied with AutoCAD Electrical.
For More Information
Toolbar Tooltips
Some of the commonly used AutoCAD Electrical commands now provide an additional level of information in the tooltip. Pause the mouse over the command icon. The first level of information for that command is displayed. Continue to pause the mouse over the command icon and the next level of information is displayed in the tooltip. For more information about any command, press the F1 key while the tooltip is displayed.