For those of you who use SWE to design control panels, what is your method of communicating wiring to your production departments?
Do you provide wire listings, if so how are you sorting them?
Are you using the new wire label feature in 2014 that labels wire types directly in the schematic?
Do you identify every single wire and its specific connection? If do, how are you handling equipotentials with dozens of wires?
How are you using SWE to speed up the wiring time of your products?
I see, it looks like you use terminal blocks at your junctions, so you truely end up with no more than one wire at any point.
Do you just use 24VDC, COM, etc as your wire styles or do you specify gauge?
We have a different wire style for each gauge/color/temperature rating combo.
Ya, I don't have different wire types for gaugues and color. Just one DC wire type. My plan is to have the default be 22 for DC and 14 for AC, and only specify when it's different. Only installed 2014 yesterday, so I'll have to play with it to see how well this works. We almost always use 600V rated, 105 degree rated stuff as well.
Hi Daniel,
How you have mentioned wire number as 1010.01, 1010.02 ...etc??? Do we need to edit manually? or any set up that it starts from some default number?
I need to use similiar numberings.
So I have no interest in setting up any systems for wire numbers. That's all just wasted time to me. Takes a while to get right, and then when you make changes or add things later, it breaks. Especially after you have some things phyiscally wired already.
I personally start at 0001 for my wire numbers, and tell the program to automatically number them for me. Done. Easy.
If I were feeling fancy, I could set up some sort of base per location for the wire numbers: L1.0001, L1.0002,...
I could also set up 24V.001, 480V.001, or whatever.
Someone else at my company has tried to do what you are trying to do. It would require two different counters, and really more intelligence than the program has. I just checked with him, and he settled on the 480V.001 thing.
Typing them in manually is your best option if you are settled on the 1010.01 1010.02 system.
Hi Daniel,
Thank you very much. I will do as you did.
As you said, it breaks some time for me too. When we go like these numbering systems, manual will be best.
Sanjay
I haven't used the wire label feature yet, but I am planning to have the wire gauge show up on the schematic, but on a DO NOT PRINT layer so that when I turn it over to the customer, they don't see that clutter. I turn off the DO NOT PRINT layer when I give it to the person wiring so they do see it. I also have manufacturer and part number on the DO NOT PRINT layer, since they find it helpful.
The project I'm working on right now, the goal is to give the cabinet supplier our 3d model to have the backpanel pre-drilled, and then we're going to send it out immediately with a pallet of parts. Two weeks later we get a built up cabinet. Hopefully.
I have my project set up to do equipotential number not wire numbering. We kept losing the wire numbers when we were editing the schematic. Often we are editing schematics after some of the system has been wired, so losing numbers isn't acceptable.
When we do use a panel shop, we turn over a wiring list and schematic. I have the list sorted by location, and then by type. I specify 24V, 24V COM, some AC stuff, and then have a special type called jumpers. Jumpers are just used as logic lines, and I set the formula to be "", so that they won't be numbered.
I very rarely have two wires plugging into the same exact terminal. I have every symbol set up as disconnectable (including terminals) so that I don't have dozens of equipotentials. In the case of a big power distribution block, I don't draw it as one giant symbol with 12 ports or whatever, I draw 12 individual terminal symbols and connect them with my jumper wire type. Here's an example:
We have no interest in doing wire routing in 3d; it becomes much more challenging to do that when you have multiple terminal symbols.