Let's take a look at SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics in 2019.
Here I've got a standard project of mine.
It's a cabinet layout and I've got my main panel.
I've got a motor powering a conveyor and this cable that
connects between the cabinet down here and the motor is going
through the floor tray to meet it.
This is just screenshots from SOLIDWORKS but really useful
just to help picture what the project is all about.
I've also got a drawing list or contents page and this will
update based on the documents I have in the project.
So you're not doing this as a manual task yourselves.
It will update based and the contents.
We've also got the ability to do single line diagrams within
SOLIDWORKS Electrical.
What this enables us to do is to plan out a job so we could
actually place down standard blocks from a standard library,
connect them up to things like terminal blocks and the lines
that connect them are actually cables.
So if I click on this one here you can see I've got a four core
cable and if I click on the connections it shows you very
clearly where things are connected from and to. The
system is all geared around and SQL database.
That database contains parts, it contains cables.
We've also got libraries for symbols as well.
So all standard IEC symbols are included with the software.
These are DWG files though, so you can actually add to the
library and configure new content if you so wished.
We also have the ability to draw pneumatic and hydraulics
circuits to a basic level making use of all of the standard
symbols in the library. We can also draw multi line schematics.
So here I'm going to very quickly draw in a three phase
circuit, I'm also going to draw in a spur coming down the page.
It's very quick and easy to draw wires onto a schematic.
The library supplied is fully customizable as well.
So if I was to look into that.
This is something we can easily change to suit a customer's
requirements.
One of the main areas I like to focus on is the formulas.
So for each type of wire you can set up a formula.
This could be a numerical formula.
It could be maybe making use of the section of the wire or maybe
what it's connected to was part of that formula, but this is
great,
it's fully customizable and it means that you're no longer
manually numbering your wires on your schematic.
We can just click a button and it updates automatically.
I can also make use of existing symbols and I can drag and drop
these onto my drawing.
And these are actually linked to parts already, which I'll show
you in a second. So it's very quick and easy just to drag and
drop, place items onto the sheet and build the circuit that I
want to use. These particular components have been placed once
and just dragged back into a library.
So I could have a library of standard breakers, contactors,
motors, all different types of parts could be drawn once and
then dragged and dropped into a pallet, which really speeds up
design reuse when drawing up a schematic.
We've also got some great terminal strip tools.
So this motor is actually plugging into a terminal block,
which I can add in in a few clicks. Within the settings of
this terminal strip
I can actually start to manipulate -
okay -
well what parts actually are these. I could link into my
database which is SQL based.
I can choose things like manufacturer.
So these are going to be you go terminals like can I be searched
by the number of circuits I can maybe search by the number of
terminals or the technical values as well even the part
number if I knew that I could search by was found this gets
added onto my project, and this will now update in my bill of
materials in SOLIDWORKS Electrical. I could also say that
rather than individual wires this is going to be a cable and
again we have another standard database applied full of cables.
I can search by standard items so maybe, section, number of cores
select a suitable cable,
and finally just select the cores I want to use. This all
updates within the terminal strip dialogue it also updates
on my schematic. I can even publish a drawing sheet which
shows me all the connections in a graphical format.
This is great for wiremen to follow and gives them all the
information they need to be able to wire up this on a physical
prototype. Again, in the software it's really quick and easy to
reuse parts of a circuit I can simply box select items copy
them and paste them and this gives me brand new components
I've got even got four new terminals on the same table to
block a new cable a motor and I can very simply update my
terminal block drawing to represent the new connections on
that terminal strip. Again, the click of a button the documents
updated. The same also applies to reports.
So are some design in this or those materials is updating.
I've got various components motors, breakers, terminals, all
updating in the background so it's no longer a separate task
to have to produce your Excel spreadsheets all of the Bills of
Materials or parts lists, as you may know them as is updated in
the background of the project.
Also all my wirelist and connections is updated. All fully
hyperlinks.
So if I had a complex project with multiple documents I could
actually click on these and it would take me straight to where
the connection is within the project. There you can see the hyperlink
in action.
We've also got cable lists and also cable call lists which all
updates in the background.
There's many many more reports I'm shown a small subset of them
here.
We can also produce tag reports for wires and components and PLC
outputs and inputs as well on a report.
These can all be published as a sheet within the project or
perhaps exported to other formats.
Now, it's been produced
let's take a look at some of those documents.
So I've got my bill of materials, all updated.
We can change the formatting on all of these reports very easily
change columns change sizes have a continuous report rather than
a broken report and the reports even come with hyperlinks as
well. Which also carries through to the PDF output which we can
do which is great for people that haven't got the software.
Maybe for managers to approve documentation or maybe for
people that are out in the field servicing equipment. The
hyperlinks are access at the click of a button which means
that the document is fully navigable by using those
clicks just to show the output.
As I'm talking about it if, I quickly do a PDF off to my desktop
you'll see all those hope links come through.
It prompted me as well to update my reports at the same time.
It it's very difficult to actually publish a document
which isn't up to date.
You can actually see that everything is up to date in the
project.
I've got my wires, I've got components, where there's wire
links across sheets.
These can be clicked on too, and navigated between.
We can also represent PLCs with a standard configuration
for PLC it can be represented on a schematic
drawing we can also click on to symbols and it takes us to where
they exist in the project so I can see all elements of the PLC
at the click of a button give out to my schematic.
I can also make use of all the macros so macro could also be
part of a circuit not just a component on its own.
So this is great.
If you have any bits of standard circuitry within your designs
you just draw it once, save it into a library pallet and drag and drop
to reuse it and it will always be the correct marks included
the macros are clever enough to realize what's already in the
project what's being used to always get unique marks within
your design. We can alsolink across sheets as I showed you on that
PDF.
We've got a tool whereby we can actually click onto one of the
wires click onto a second sheets and we get the connectivity
coming through throughout the project.
These have a form in reply to automatically showing sheet
column and row that bi directional and can be clicked on to
to show where the captions are going from and to. We can also number
the project, I talked earlier about the formulas that are used
we can just click a button it reads and all those formulas and
gives everything a unique id in the project. Phase 1 to 3 you
can see have their own prefix our L1 L2 L3 whereas otherwise
are maybe just nu merical. The numbering continues across the
project and is all synchronized really well within the package.
So it's saving you a lot of time and effort a lot of the manual
tasks that you may be used to in packages like AutoCAD and draft
site or all automated in SOLIDWORKS electrical schematics.
Talking of automation.
We've also got some great tools when it comes to connectors but
also PLCs as well.
So if I create a new document and throw down a connector, I can
place down any connector from my library.
I'm going to go with a molex nine pin, we could also search for
crimps and additional accessories all from our standard
library. We ca place it down on the page and just copy and paste to
give myself a few more.
We can also rotate and invert symbols on the right click,
attributes can all be moved,
we can also hide them away to ensure a tidy graphic is
achieved. Copy and paste again,
so let's just do a simple loom here so it's not just cabinet
design we can do within the package.
We can also generate designs for looms. If I now connect
with some wires.
Just pick one of one standard wire styles, choose a number of
wires that you want.
I can very easily just connect them up between the two. Like so.
And again numbering. The drawing process is really quick and
easy.
It's very simple to produce looms like this within SOLIDWORKS
Electrical. Also for PLCS.
As a final point I can come into my PLC manager, search my
database as well which is up to date with all of my PLCs.
I'm interested in so for me it Siemens, Rockwell and also on one
of Mitsubishi that I've downloaded the libraries from
the central website. You can log into which is managed by
SOLIDWORKS which supplies up to date information from PLC
manufacturers.
Let's pick one of these Siemens PLCs and locate it on my
drawings.
I can literally just say generally drawing sheets.
Okay.
And it all comes through onto my schematic sheet. So taking a look
at what's happened then I'll get back to my project.
I've now got sheets 19 through to 23.
You can see here it's produced that Pelosi will be generated.
I've even got my document watermarked because I haven't
yet approved my documentation.
It all comes through and it's broken down into five separate
sheets for me so I can now begin to connect up the connections on
this particular PLC. So regardless of what PRC it is the
standard configuration will reside based on the information
from that particular supplier.
Within SOLIDWORKS Electrical schematics we also have the
capability of doing panel layouts.
So based on what's within the project you can actually work
through a list of components from the project and insert them
on a 2D drawing sheet which is scaled. So I can place on my back
plate, on my door.
I can place down some ducting as well.
Even typing at an exact length or just doing it by I could do
vertical ducts as well.
But for simplicity of is copy and paste the horizontal
information and each component from the project has its own
footprint.
So we've got another standard library supplied of standard
footprints which we can manage.
We can download footprints from manufacturers as well
If you so wished. But supplied as standard are generic blocks
which we can make use of which are intuitive format they will
always be the right size.
As long as the dimensions within the parts are correct.
So in the library it will use these dimensions to scale the
block that is inserted so you can accurately size up a cabinet
before you even need a physical prototype.
We can always insert items in a group as well, so I could select
all of these breakers and the transformer place him down on
the schematic and specify spacing for them.
I could also very easily place down my terminal block as per
what I did on the schematic so I hope you found that useful that's
SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics.
Please look at our YouTube channel for further videos on
the product.