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Specify different connectors on user-defined part

Question asked by Wesley Ramm on Dec 6, 2018
Latest reply on Dec 7, 2018 by Marc Wilson

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Hello,

I'm able to successfully create a user defined part, but for instance I have a single terminal block which has "control" and "feedback" D-SUB connectors for multiple axes.

So I have Axis 1 Control, Axis 1 Feedback, Axis 2 Control, Axis 2 Feedback, etc.

When I do the terminal "marking" in the "circuits" wizard, is there a good way to name these different connectors?

Initially I've adopted the following convention for the "marking", but it is a bit cumbersome. Is there a better way?

Ax1CtrlAO+

Ax1CtrlAO-

Ax1FBEncA+

Ax1FBEncA-

etc.

Is there a better way to do the naming, or is there a way to specify sub-connectors on a device?

I'm happy to RTFM if someone can point me to an article, etc, but none of the tutorials or guides I have seen have mentioned this particular issue.

Thanks!

Wes

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Evan Stanek Dec 6, 2018 9:30 AM
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Wes, this is a great example of using "GROUP" to subdivide portions of a part. I name the terminals based solely on their part mark, and name the subdivided circuit GROUPS. When you add a group, it can be shown on a symbol that reflects that sub-group.
So for your example name the terminal AO+ and AO-, and give them the same "group" of Ax1Ctrl
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Marc Wilson Dec 7, 2018 1:29 AM
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Evan's use of the GROUP is a good start, but there are hazards with this approach. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HAVE CIRCUITS FROM DIFFERENT GROUPS ON THE SAME SYMBOL. The GROUP name will show up as part of the component tag. So, if your COMPONENT name is DSUB1, your first 1 to 3 symbols will be tagged DSUB1.Ax1Ctl. Then the connection point marks on the symbol. the Ax1Ctl comes from the first circuit on the symbol and whatever it's group was. You can easily have an additional group accidentally included in your symbol.

Now, DSUB are usually marked as pin1, pin2, pin3, etc. Your guys building this thing are not going to know what is what.
How you take care of this is to change the MARK for each terminal to 1 through how many pins your DSUB has. After this, you have a choice. If this were a specific VFD drive, you could use the Mnemonic column for each terminal and THERE you would place your AO+, AO- there. NOTE: This is for a SPECIFIC PART that never changes. If you are detailing the DSUB built into your controller, then you can do this here and your symbol should get MFG PART MNEMONIC field added. You'd now have a properly detailed dsub by pin number with functional mnemonic etching for the device. I'm certain you've seen things like TB1 and TB3 on a drive with terminals 1 through 8 or so and then a label, or maybe just a manual, telling you which are R, S, T, COM, V+, etc.

NOW The bad news. This MAY not be where you wish to place this.
IF you are detailing a generic DSUB connector, that you might use for several different things in your project, you would want to keep your pin numbers labelled with their number and simply assign the part to the component.
Once the symbol and part circuits are matched up (look green in the circuits window) you may simply RIGHT CLICK one or more circuits and select EDIT TERMINAL. Now, you will see a Mnemonic AND Utilization columns. If you are using a generic DSUB, here is where you could use the Mnemonic OR the utilization field for your AO+ AO-, etc. But more to the point, you can use them together. You could have Mnemonic = AO+ then Untilization be "Ax1Ctrl for fixture A". You can give a deeper description. NOTE: These are unique to the COMPONENT, NOT THE PART NUMBERS.

You may use both the PART Mnemonic and COMPONENT Utilization together. As an example, a VFD will often have a terminal strip TBx with terminal numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, and has PART Mnemonics DI1, DI2, DI3, DI4, DO1, DO2 as that's how their labelled. HOWEVER, DI# and DO# are CONFIGURABLE INPUTS. Once your VFD symbol has the part assigned, the DI/DOs will show up on the schematic. You may then go into the component and EDIT TERMINALS and edit the circuits UTILIZATION based on how you set up your VFD. DI1 utilization may be "RUN ENABLE", DI2="STOP INPUT", DI3="FWD SPD1", DI4="FWD SPD2", DO1 utilization set to "Drive Ready". (NOTE, your mnemonic fields in the component are blank, we are using the fixed mnemonic field of the PART selected.) This would be my approach to keep a VFD properly detailed in the library and giving me a way to describe each connection point based on how it's used (UTILIZATION)
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Specify different connectors on user-defined part

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