Does anyone have a list of all variables available to use in the Wire Style Equipotential Formula Manager. I've searched through the help files and tried to contact my supplier but noone has any information on anything. I'm thinking there might be more variables available but they're just not listed.
Specifically I'm looking for the individual component function tag. I can access the function tag for the whole page but I'd like the component one if possible.
Thanks in advance.
Marc,
Have You any progress with "Tips and Tricks" book?
Sergey
Sergey,
Documentation is constantly under review for improvement. I am sorry that I am unable to comment on Marcs' book but can tell you that in SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2015 over 40 more variables have been made available. Many of these have been added to numbering for wires and equipotentials in order to allow concatonated data such as Color, Gauge, Voltage... to be included in the automatically applied marks.
Also the Formula Managers UI has been updated to include more information about the variable type, String, Integer etc. plus the addition of Recent formulas.
If there are any specific formulas you would like help with, please feel free to post them and I'll try to explain the creation process.
Ok, this has me excited! So, I work in the aviation industry. Industry standard wire marks are structured like this:
VID10A20
The first three spaces are a three letter designator for which system we are marking. In this case it is a VIDeo system. If it were radio, we would likely use RAD.
The next two spaces are the wire number. We always use 10 for power wires and then go up from there with no "intelligence" to the number. Only 10 is reserved for power.
The capitol letter A is the wire segment. So, the first segment is A, then if the wire passes through a connector, it goes to B, and if goes through another connector it goes to C and so on.
the 2 digits at the end are the wire gauge. So, in my example, it would be a 20AWG wire.
Then, for any ground wire, we put the capitol N at the end (example: VID11A20N).
How do I go about creating the equation to do this automatically?
You would create a wire for every gage and system using the wire manager.
Then just pick whatever wire you need for your design.
You can find in this forum how to create custom formulas for your wires. If not, we can help.
Alex
So I would need to create wire for every system? Even if many systems are using the same gauge wire and same P/N wire?
Create all your wires in a project, then save it as a template.
I don't see any other way. Hopefully someone else has a better idea. Somebody mentioned that 2015 version will have more attributes available in wire style manager.
The real difficulty for me is creating the equation. I'm not sure how to go about this/what attributes to include and how to structure the equation....?
Hi Phil,
You can do this, it will require some manual input currently but there's no problem I can see. The way I set it up is as follows.
Create a new wire style for each type that you use, one for Video another for Radio etc. You could also apply the full names to these so you can easily identify the signal type you want to draw.
Next I switched to use Wires rather than Equipotentials through the Wire Style Manager.
The Wire formula I used is this: "VID"+WIR_NO+USR_DAT_0+ WIR_DIA
"VID" is fixed and relates to this wire style only, there's another way to do it but I think this makes the most sense.
WIR_NO is simply your wire incremental counter
USR_DAT_0 in SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2014 and higher you can right click on any wire and access it's individual properties, this is beyond the general wire style properties, so that a single Style could have variations applied to ever single wire that's drawn in the project. In this dialog you can apply a section A, B, C in User data 1 field, (you can also change the prompt in the dialog if you'd like).
WIR_DIA using the same Wire properties dialog you can set a Diameter, 20, 14...whatever you need.
Currently I am looking at two wires drawn in the same style on screen reading VID1A20 and another VID2A14, (I know the change in gauge is rather drastic).
If you would like to know more please let me know. I should add that the previous comments are correct, but not all may be required in your case. It is a very good idea to set up all the styles you need and then save that project as your template, also there are some very important things you need to consider if you opt to use this system. If you do, once again let me know and I will clarify.
Finally there is a way to automatically have A, B, C applied by switching out the wire number for a letter, but this might not work in all instances so I opted to recommend the manual input which allows you greater flexibility.
Edited to correct typos.
Great! Thanks for the help! Where in the wire manager did you switch to use wires instead of equipotentials?
So when I create the formula, the three letter acronym I put in front inside " " is always red. As in, SWE doesn't recognize the formula. Also, I cannot find the formula WIRE_DIA to add to the equation...?
Red is OK. Look for other syntax errors.
I don't think WIRE_DIA exists in SWE 2014, at least I don't see it either.
Ok, thanks. Once 2015 is available for download, I'm going to see if all the new variables will let me create the equation I need. I'm optimistic that it will finally provide the flexibility and power that I need from my application.
Anything put into " " quotes is automatically regarded as a fixed string, or text.
The main item you need to look for when creating a formula is when the yellow panel beneath the formula, (you can just see this in Alexanders' screenshot), flashes up "Wrong formula" in red, this also deactivates the OK button, so the formula needs fixing to be used.
Regarding the number of variables available in SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2014 compared to 2015, there are over 40 new variables in the latest release, added based on customer feedback.
Over 40 new variables is very good news! I'm sure I'll be able to create the exact sequence I need very "cleanly" once I download 2015. On a positive note, thanks to everybodys help here, I was able to set up wire styles and my equation and I have my wire marks working fairly well! This is a huge help for me, as it was one of the final missing "automatic" power features I needed to understand and get working. There are still some aspects of wire marks that I need to manually enter, but most of it is automatic which will speed up schematic creation and lower the risk of error. And it will of course generate the correct wire list and wire mark list, so we can send wires out to get laser marked.
Thanks everybody, especially to Sebastian!
Chris,
Not to worry. I am currently working on a book to present all the variables, functions, tricks and tips regarding formulae.
Regarding what you are looking for, you'll have to use the wire_no system instead of equ_no system. any piece of wire will be connected to TWO components. You need to know which one to use, the one on the source side of the wire or the destination.
Using the WIR_NO formula, you can use COR_TAG or CDE_TAG for origin component tag or destination component tag.
Marc