So, it’s been quite a while since I first looked into this conversion.

Special projects get more of a back seat. Well, project work gets first priority here, as you can imagine. By using the same software for both schematics, they can be linked in a single project and tag numbers on the P&ID can be associated to tags on the electrical diagrams. Meanwhile, I learned that AcadE can also be used to create P&ID’s…. We’ve gotten pretty proficient at using the AcadE to create our ladder diagrams and panel layout drawings, but I know I have a long way to go toward leveraging the real power behind the software. This was mainly due to the fact that it was added to our Product Design Suite. In Autocad we have several palettes that contain our symbol libraries for both electrical and flow diagram schematics.Ī little over a year a go, we made the decision to switch our electrical schematics to AutoCAD ® Electrical. Take a look on the Autodesk ® University website, there are several online classes from past AU’s that are available for download. if you have not looked into all that tool palettes can do for you, I highly recommend you do. These days my preferred method for inserting blocks is the tool palette. Plot it off, tape it down and off you went. You could edit the menu file, and there was a drawing of this tablet screen where you could add or delete or move things around. It may even go all the way back to having all of my symbols right in front of me on one of those massive tablets we used to use back in the day.Īnyone remember these? They could be configured to include custom commands or symbols pretty much anywhere on the tablet, but primarily in the empty top section. Of course, it may just be that this is not the way I am used to doing things, coming from so many years of using plain AutoCAD ® for all of our schematics. Lots of flexibility there, but not the most user friendly interface, in my humble opinion.

This is also manageable through the Icon Menu Wizard tool. These symbols are all accessible through an Icon Menu that has multiple screens and nested menus. you can add to them, subtract from them and even modify the existing symbols through the Symbol Builder tool in the program. All of these libraries are fully customizable. It also contains a huge library out of the box of electrical panel footprint symbols, for creating physical panel layouts. AutoCAD ® Electrical has a massive symbol library of schematic symbols for electrical, hydraulic/pneumatic and for P&ID’s.

Some of you may not know what I’m talking about, so here is some background. Then a few more hours of testing turned up some show stopping problems and I pulled the teaser… dejected and frustrated. I posted a teaser a few weeks ago thinking I had the question answered, and all I had to do was write the post.

Autocad residential electrical symbols