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Re: Center contactor on rail
Look at the insertion points of the symbols for rail and your contractor.
Place a rail in your layout.
Now, place your contractor, but click on the rail. It will put the insertion point of the contractor on the imaginary line from the rail insertion point going horizontally (works in the vertical too and the symbol will auto-rotate.
Regards,
Marc
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Re: Center contactor on rail
Marc,
I don't use SWE. I am the CAD Admin with a mechanical background. I just want to make sure I understand you correctly. I read that if the insertion point is in the correct spot for the rail and contactor (and other rail components) the component will snap on the rail centered vertically? This is for 2D.
What version are you using? We are just starting on 2017 and not seeing this functionality.
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Re: Center contactor on rail
Marc, I'm going to try that! I'd just added a dashed center line on the rail that I'd Object Snap Nearest to when inserting or moving the footprints. That's a nifty trick if I can master it.
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Re: Center contactor on rail
Marc, I do see that it auto-rotates, but I don't see that it makes the jump to align with the Rail's Insertion point horizontal extension, is there some kind of snap setting to get this extended horizontal line assumption active?
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Re: Center contactor on rail
In 3D, it does this based on the specific mates. In 2D, it does placement and alignment based on the extents within the symbol and places the insertion point along the center of the rail automagically. Thus, all devices/symbols on the rail will have their insertion points in a straight line (if memory serves me on all this, can check later.) I believe it works even if at an ANGLE in 2D as well.
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Re: Center contactor on rail
With snap and osnap turned off, I can easily get the components misaligned along the rail. I just use the align blocks command to line up the centers, which was introduced in 2018.
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Re: Center contactor on rail
That's a great tip, and I think answer the original question. I still couldn't get the "automatic" behavior Marc was mentioning to work, but this is close enough.
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Re: Center contactor on rail
is this in 2D? I believe you must place it directly on the rail object for it to work.
There may be issues if you have SNAP turned on. I've seen stuff come and go with that in the software.
ALSO, you mentioned a dashed line. While this is okay for rails, it's rather important that you don't use a LOT of dashed/hidden lines in your 2D objects.Dashed/hidden lines are EXTREMELY taxing on any line cad engine. If you download a complex Hoffman panel, change all lines to hidden lines and move things around. Now change all lines to solid lines, you'll see a MASSIVE improvement.
I often need the lines for entities inside the panel so I don't put a button over document holder, etc. What I do is move all the hidden lines to a non-printing layer, change their color and make them solid lines. Works much better.
Marc
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Re: Center contactor on rail
Mark, that sounds helpful, I've noticed sluggish panel layout behavior frequently, and I often go in and take out TEXTS or circles that get treated as hundreds of individual lines, replacing them with the actual texts or plain circles etc. Unfortunately I'm not exactly following what you mean by "hidden lines and move things around, now change all lines to solid lines". I assume you're referring to on the 2D footprint symbol of that Hoffman panel (or any other 2D footprint symbol) to improve their responsiveness, just not clear on the lingo you used to get there, thanks for any clarifications you can offer!
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