Backwards tagging from child to parent - AutoCAD Electrical

Posted July 22, 2008

by Nate Holt

This is opposite the expected workflow for AutoCAD Electrical - normally it is the parent coils go in first, receive their unique tag-ID values, and then you associate the child contacts to various parents. As you do this, the parent's tag-ID comes across to each child along with any description text you've tied to the parent.

In this reverse workflow, you insert children before the parent tag-IDs are known. So, how to do it? Can it work with AutoCAD Electrical? Yes. Here's how.

Step 1: insert child contacts into your control schematic logic. Assign a temporary "code" to each, perhaps the first line of description text that will eventually be assigned to the parent. In the example here, we've inserted  a N.C. contact and manually entered a tag-ID value of 52R_P1_UNDER_VOLT.

Continue with this process, inserting child contacts and assigning codes that reference back to as-yet-to-be-inserted parent coils.

Step 2: Now our child-contact logic design is complete. We're ready to start inserting enough parent coil symbols to support all our children... Insert relay coil symbol. The normal Insert/Edit Component dialog appears.

Step 3 (above): But instead of going with the automatically assigned tag-ID, we need to temporarily make the parent's tag-ID match the child's temporary tag-ID. So select the "Tags Used: / Schematic" button shown above.

Step 4 (below): This brings up the "CR Tags in Use" subdialog shown below. Pick on the "Show child references" toggle to list only child contact tags.

Step 5 (below): Find the desired child by looking at the tag name "codes". Here we pick on the 52R_P1_UNDER_VOLT child entry. Hit OK and let AutoCAD Electrical temporarily push this child's tag-ID on to the parent relay coil.

Step 6 (below): If you don't want to lose this "code" value, copy the text from the left-hand Component Tag edit box over to the right-hand "Line 1" edit box. Hit OK to dismiss the dialog.

 Here's where we are now (below). We have a relay coil with tag-ID 52R_P1_UNDER_VOLT which matches up with one or more child contacts that have the same tag-ID.

Step 7: Now right click on the coil and select "Retag/Update".

... and let it retag the parent coil and also go across the project and update the tag-ID on the children for this coil.

... and here is the original child contact, now proudly carrying the tag-ID of the parent. Repeat the process for these other adoptable child contacts. Done!

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