1-line Diagrams and linked MCC layouts: AutoCAD Electrical

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  Coinciding with the acquisition of VIA Development, Nate joined Autodesk in March of 2003 after a decade stint as an entrepreneur following a two-decade stint as a controls engineer and software applications developer at Owens-Corning. Nate is now the lead product architect for AutoCAD Electrical. He loves this stuff.

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  1-line Diagrams and linked MCC layouts: AutoCAD Electrical
  February 22, 2007, 08:36 PM Nate Holt

  A user wanted to create 1-line diagrams and Motor Control Center (MCC) layouts and somehow link them using AutoCAD Electrical. This was a recent posting on the AutoCAD Electrical section of the Autodesk Discussion Groups forum http://discussion.autodesk.com/index2.jspa?categoryID=13. It's a cool idea and the discussion group response is repeated below, but with a bit more detail.
  
  The "link" would minimally enable MCC unit annotation from a simple pick list of 1-line assignments, allow the MCC nameplate assignments to automatically update with changes on the one line diagram, provide "surfing" between the two types of drawings, and give a simple way to auto-generate a nameplate report.
  
  AutoCAD Electrical in not set up, out-of-the-box, to deal with 1-line diagrams and MCC unit assignments. But with some tweaking and a custom "child" library symbol, a minimum implementation is possible. Here's one way to do it...
  
  Step 1 : Each one-line circuit representation needs to have a "parent" symbol (example below, each motor symbol is a "parent" and each disconnect is a parent)
  
  
  
  ...but the MCC drawing can be just dumb lines and such at this point.
  
  
  
  Step 2: Create a generic "child" MCC unit-ID symbol. This is nothing more than a collection of attributes with some marked visible and others marked invisible. The visible attributes are positioned so that the symbol's insertion point will correspond to the upper left-hand corner of its MCC unit. We're re-using the AutoCAD Electrical "INST" attribute to be the MCC unit number. (If you are operating with the European IEC tagging mode, then you'll need to use some attribute other than "INST", maybe "RATING12" or some other unused attribute).
  
  
  
  
  Step 3: With both the 1-line drawings and the MCC layout drawing included in your active AutoCAD Electrical "project", make the MCC layout drawing active on your screen. Use the normal AutoCAD Electrical "Insert Component" command to insert the above unit-ID symbol at the corner of each unit in the MCC layout.
  
  Here we show inserting the first instance of this child symbol at the upper left-hand corner of the first MCC unit in the MCC's second section. It pops in with default "000" (this is what is set up as default on the child symbol's "INST" attribute definition).
  
  
  
  When the Edit dialog displays, pick the list "Project" to pick from the list of equipment depicted on the 1-line diagram. Since this unit-ID is a "child" symbol, we want to link it back to the selected parent on the 1-line diagram. This pick list makes it easy to do.
  
  
  
  When you pick on the 1-line reference in the list and hit OK, the data from the selected parent on the 1-line diagram gets transferred over to the child here on the MCC layout. Best of all, a smart link is now established between the 1-line symbol and the unit in the MCC (based upon a match on the TAG1/TAG2 attribute values).
  
  
  
  Repeat this process for each unit in this second MCC section: insert the child symbol, pick from the project list to get the one line parent, type in the unit ID into the "INST" edit box, and hit OK.
  
  
  
  That's about it. The link is established by the equipment TAG1 attribute value on the 1-line "parent" representation getting passed over to the TAG2 attribute on the "child" unit-ID symbol. With this in place, parent--> child updates, surfing, and reporting are all enabled.
  
  Bonus: Let's extract a report from our MCC layout that gives equipment tags, unit numbers and the three lines of nameplate label text for each unit in our MCC layout.
  
  Step 1: With the MCC layout drawing active, select the Schematic Reports command > Component report. Make sure you toggle ON the "Include children" option. Select "Active Drawing" and hit OK.
  
  Step 2: When the report displays, select "Change Report Format" and make sure you show INST, TAGNAME, and DESC1-3 fields to report. Hit OK. There it is!
  
  
  
  Select "Change Report Format" again and adjust the column labels. Change "INST" to "UNIT REF" and "TAGNAME" to "EQUIP NO.".
  
  
  
  You can even insert this report on the drawing as a table. Pretty neat.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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Comments

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  February 27, 2007 04:50 PM Renata Pfeifer

  Thank you so much for looking at this and being able to link them. My understanding was correct in that they could be link with using the parent child relationship due to the fact that he was using autocad electrical symbols. It was just a little complicated for me to figure out. Again, thank you. Renata