Hi SWE team,
trying to download few parts from ECP site. example a connector. After it was associated to a symbol on line diagram and a cable connected, noticed that circuit information was not there. I could not connect the cable core to the connector terminals. anything missed? or i downloaded a wrong library from ECP?
I'm fresh on SWE, thanks for helping with this .
best
Roland
Hi Evan,
Really appreciate your detailed instruction. it is absolutely a big help.
my question is about the purpose of the ECP libraries. I thought that the purpose of the libraries is to help designers to reduce the their workload. everything is setup, for example the circuit. the designer just need associate that part to the symbol. Then everything is ready to go. it seems that is not the case, the designer still need add all these circuit or terminal pins manually. it will even cause more concerns to me how these library will be managed on the way.
thanks for sharing. would like to hear your experience on this.
cheers,
Roland
Many of the parts should have circuits, but looks like you came across a run that do not. Results may vary, it's a crowd-sourced feature.
Hi Evan,
that is what i thought. unfortunately, i tried few, all same. no circuit from these parts. I even suspect if i did whole thing correctly. let me take example to show what i did.
- PN: 1838274-3
- search it on ECP.
There is nothing came up from 'Series' tab, there are few from 'Reference' tab.
then i just select the first one.
- from the pull down menu, i picked 'SOLIDWORKS ELECTRICAL 2D', and download.
After it is imported to SWE, there is no circuit available. is it the proper way to use ECP? anything missed.
Thank you for all comment.
Regards,
I also tried to download one of ABB library on ECP. after checking few parts, they look alright. these few i checked come with circuit information.
It seems individual part doesn't work? it it works in different way?
Have a good weekend,
Roland
The first thing we do at my company whenever we get updates to the software is delete out all symbols and parts from the included libraries. You're much much better off making your own parts. This allows you to be sure dimensions, descriptions, and other important metadata are accurate. It is easier to search the database for a part when it has only the 2000 or so parts you will actually use, compared to 10 million parts you'll never use. It also ensures the circuits of your parts will match the symbols that you have drawn.
It's a large undertaking, but when done properly, the upfront time invested will save every future user weeks of work per project.
Hi Daniel,
appreciate your sharing. that is what i tried to avoid too, making our own part. i would prefer to leave it to SWE.
unfortunately, it is not the case. user has to modify the parts. for example adding the circuit or pins. to my understanding from electrical design perspective, the ECP is helping with nothing. feel bad to say it in that way. but what electrical design is looking for are missing from the library.
thanks for reply and looking forward to hearing more from community.
cheers,
Roland
Roland, let's back up a bit...are you trying to download the 3D (SOLIDWORKS) parts for these? Or the SOLIDWORKS Electrical Manufacturer part?
sorry for confusion. the electrical manufacturer part, for Electrical design on SWE. when the part added to drawing, i'm expecting all circuits/terminals are ready to go.
all best
When you are looking for parts, you want to see the lightning bolt icon, that is an SWE part archive that has a series of parts that will have more of the information you are looking for. The screenshots you showed indicate you were downloading SOLIDWORKS part files, and those won't aid in creating parts in your SWE schematic library. Note that when you download these, they will have a bunch of parts in that series. And watch for the SILVER vs the GOLD icons, the GOLD ribbon parts can only be gotten if you've maintained your subscription, so be sure you hit "update subscription" in the SWE parts tab (shown in picture 2)
Hi Evan,
Thank you so much for your help. so helpful.
that part your mentioned worked fine for me. i could download the lightning bolt file and imported to SWE. checked few part, the circuit information are there. if we think of this in the other way around, not sure if it could be fulfilled. let's say, i have a part reference number, 1838274-3, it is M12 connector. I'd like to get the manufacturer part information for SWE design. Then i just follow the step mentioned early to do a search on ECP. it seems just like what you said. these files showed up are Solidworks part, not part for electrical design.
Can i say the way i did is correct, just the part for electrical design is just not available on ECP? or the way i was doing is wrong.
BTW, what is the different between the gold and silver downloads there? I assume gold one come with more details part information?
Thanks for all information. have a good weekend,
Roland
Roland, correct, it would appear the part you were searching for simply was not available for SWE schematic. So you did everything correct, but with the billions of parts in the world, inevitably some will be missing from the portal.
As for silver vs. Gold, the only difference is that to download GOLD archives, you must be a current subscriber to SWE, and you can click "update subscription" in SWE so the portal knows you are a current subscriber. See the screenshot in my post as a reminder. Good luck, sir!
Hi Evan, that is really good news for a new ECP user.:) cheers, thank you so much for your help.
Roland
Hi Evan,
I've tried the update subscription but can only download silver parts (which generally don't contain 2d footprints and symbols, just part numbers!). Presumably I am not a Gold member but where do i find out what type of membership i have? I'm sure we pay a lot of annual fees to Solidworks so am surprised if we're not Gold??
Wayne, if you are up to date on your annual subscription you have access to Gold. In this case, if hitting the "update subscription" button within the SWE manufacturer parts section doesn't do the trick, reach out to your reseller and have them contact SW, they can help get you manually added to the portal back end so you can get those gold archives as well. I've had to help people with this a few times, so it's not unheard of, it may take a few days but they'll get you handled if you are up to date on subs.
Nearly every part downloaded from the portal will need some kind of adjustment whether it be adding an Article number (your part number for the manufacturer part), adding terminals as you see here etc. It's up to you what's in the end useful information for your projects and process, but often times I recommend reviewing and tuning up what is downloaded from the portal. In this case, go ahead and practice by adding the circuits and naming the terminals on the connector! See the screenshots for help:
1) Go to your library, and find the connector you wanted to use, go to the Circuits, Terminals tab on the part's properties
Click on the "add multiple" button, and set up the circuit count/type
When you hit OK, you will see all of the circuits listed, select them all and you'll see their terminals in the window below, click in the Mark column area to give each terminal it's Mark as you'd like to appear on your drawings and WIRE to/from lists etc.