conduit tools-conversion tools

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Conduit Tools

Overview of conduit toolsAutoCAD Electrical provides a set of utilities to help you label, size, and report

on conduits. A conduit can be represented by a line or a poly line and by itself

does not carry any intelligence. However, you may insert a conduit marker

symbol and associate it to a conduit. The conduit marker symbol then carries

wire information intelligence pulled from the AutoCAD Electrical drawings.

The first time (per AutoCAD session) that you insert a conduit marker, instruct

AutoCAD Electrical to read the wire information. You can read the wire

information from multiple drawings within the project, the current drawing,

or read the existing WFRM2ALL table in the scratch database.

The conduit marker is a block inserted to add intelligence to a line or pline

representing a conduit on a layout drawing. There are four blocks, called

WWAYT, WWAYB, WWAYL, and WWAYR. The blocks are identical except for

the insert point, T=top, B=bottom, L=left, R=right. The program picks which

block based on the leader drawn.

Conduit Marker Intelligence

Each marker receives a unique tag number. Use Setup to define

the next tag.

C_TAG

Conduit size, that is, 3/4"C_SIZE

Optional description line 1DESC1

Optional description line 2DESC2

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Wire information for each wire included in the conduit. Wire# ;

Wire Layer ; Wire Description ; Wire Size

WIREINFO#

Spare wires defined. Wire Description ; CountW_SPARES#

Insert conduit markers

Use the Conduit Marker (Pick) tool

1 Click Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Conduit Markers drop-down

Insert Marker.2 Type S and press Enter to set up the conduit marker.

3 Specify the text for the marker tag and the scale for the marker block.

Click OK.

4 Select the line that represents the conduit for the marker on the drawing.

5 Click points to define the leader and press Enter.

6 Select the conduit tag and press Enter.

7 Specify the conduit tag, catalog information, conduit size, description,

or included wires in the Insert or Edit Conduit/WirewayLabel dialog box.

The conduit marker symbol carries wire information intelligence pulled

from the AutoCAD Electrical drawings.

8 Click OK.

Use the Conduit Marker (From/To List) tool

1 Click Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Conduit Markers drop-down

Insert From List.2 Select the line that represents the conduit for the marker on the drawing.

3 Click points to define the leader and click Enter or the right mouse button.

4 Select the location codes for the conduit marker and click OK. These build

the From/To combination for the Wire Run From/To Report.

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5 Specify the conduit tag, catalog information, conduit size, description,

or included wires in the Insert or Edit Conduit/WirewayLabel dialog box.

The conduit marker symbol carries wire information intelligence pulled

from the AutoCAD Electrical drawings.

6 Click OK.

Edit all conduit marker information

Once you insert the conduit marker, you may need to supply some additional

information for the marker. You can add the information at the time you

insert the marker or select Edit Conduit Marker after it is inserted.

1 Click Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Edit Marker.2 Pick the conduit to edit.

3 Change the conduit tag, catalog information, conduit size, description,

or included wires in the Insert or Edit Conduit/Wireway Label dialog box.

4 Click OK.

Insert or edit conduit/wire way label

There are three ways to insert a conduit marker depending on where you want

to pick the wire information from. You can get the wire information from an

actual device on your drawing represented by either a schematic symbol or a

panel layout footprint symbol. You may also pull the wire information out

of a wire from/to report based on your schematics. Finally, you can extractthe information from multiple conduit markers to combine together into a

separate conduit marker.

Conduit Marker (Pick)

Ribbon: Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Conduit Markers drop-down

Insert Marker.

Toolbar: Conduit Markers

Menu: Panel Layout Conduit Marker Tools Conduit Marker (Pick)

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Command entry: AECONDUITMARKER

Select the line that represents the conduit, click to define the leader, and thenselect layout devices or branching conduit markers and press Enter.

Conduit Marker (From/To List)


Insert From List.


Menu: Panel Layout Conduit Marker Tools Conduit Marker(From/To List)

Command entry: AECONDUITMARKERLIST

Select the line that represents the conduit, click to define the leader.

Edit Conduit Marker

Ribbon: Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Edit Marker.


Menu: Panel Layout Conduit Marker Tools Edit Conduit MarkerCommand entry: AEEDITCONDUITMARKER

Select an existing conduit marker.

Conduit Tag

AutoCAD Electrical selects a default conduit tag which can be overridden at

any time. Click Drawing to use a tag used for similar conduits in the active

drawing or click Project to use a tag used for similar conduits in the project.

See Conduit Marker Setup on page 1631 to define the default format for the

conduit tags.



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Size

The conduit size can be selected from the list of available sizes or entered inthe box. To make it a little easier, AutoCAD Electrical can calculate the

percentage full for each conduit size available. To do this AutoCAD Electrical

needs 2 support files on page 1632 containing wire size information and conduit

size information. If there is not a .WW1 file or if the wire sizes are not in the

file, the calculations are not made.

Catalog Area

Assign catalog information to the conduit that will be extracted into a bill of

materials report. You can do a drawing-wide or project-wide listing of similar

conduits with their catalog assignments.

Lists the manufacturer number for the component. Enter a value or

select one from the Catalog lookup.

Manufacturer

Lists the catalog number for the component. Enter a value or select

one from the Catalog lookup.

Catalog

Lists the assembly code for the component. The Assembly code is

used to link multiple part numbers together.

Assembly

Specifies a unique identifier assigned to each component. The tag

value can be manually typed in the edit box.

Item

Scans each drawing for the target conduit type and returns a list of

what was found. You can make your catalog assignment by selecting

from the list.

Find

Opens the catalog database of the conduit from which you can

manually enter or select the Manufacturer or Catalog values. Search

Lookup

the database for a specific catalog item to assign to the selected

conduit.

Scans the previous project to find an instance of the selected conduit

and returns the conduit values. You can then make your catalog as-

signment by picking from the dialog box list.

Previous

Lists the part numbers used for similar conduits in the current drawing.Drawing



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Lists the part numbers used for similar conduits in the project. You

can search in the active project, another project, or in an external

file.

Project

Active project: All of the drawings in the current project are

scanned and the results are listed in a sub-dialog box. Select from

the list to assign your new conduit with a catalog number that

is consistent with other similar conduits in the project.

Other project: Scans each listed drawing in a previous project

for the target component type and returns the catalog information

in a sub-dialog box. Make your catalog assignment by picking

from the dialog box list.

External file: You can pull catalog assignments from a generic

ASCII file created by a word processor or output from a spread-

sheet or database program. A dialog box displays the contents

of the selected text file. Find and highlight the desired entry.AutoCAD Electrical reads the line of text from the file and breaks

it into its component parts. They are displayed in the left-hand

dialog box list. For each relevant item, highlight it and then pick

the appropriate category button in the center column. The

highlighted item transfers to the corresponding category (and

then to the Insert/Edit dialog box once OK is clicked).

Inserts or edits extra catalog part numbers onto the selected conduit.

You can add up to ten part numbers to any conduit. These multiple

Multiple Catalog

BOM part numbers appear as subassembly part numbers to the main

catalog part number in the various BOM and conduit reports.

Displays what the selected item looks like in a Bill of Material template.Catalog Check

Description

Optional description lines.

Wires to include in conduit/wireway

Define which wires to include in this conduit. Select from the available list

in the upper box and add to the included list in the lower box. At any time

you can pick from a from/to list by clicking Add Wires from List, or you can

add wires from additional devices by clicking Pick Devices.

Adds wires by picking from a from/to list.Add Wires from List



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Adds wires from additional devices.Pick Devices

Defines the spares to include in the conduit.Spares

Sorts the list of conduit wires using an alphanumeric sort.Sort

Report/Print

Opens the Report Generator dialog box for running a Conduit marker report.

Conduit marker setup

The conduit marker is a block inserted to add intelligence to a line or pline

representing a conduit on a layout drawing. There are four blocks, called

WWAYT, WWAYB, WWAYL, and WWAYR. The blocks are identical except

for the insert point, T=top, B=bottom, L=left, R=right. The program picks

which block based on the leader drawn.


Insert Marker.


Menu: Panel Layout Conduit Marker Tools Conduit Marker (Pick)Command entry: AECONDUITMARKER

Type S and press Enter.

Specifies the marker tag. Each conduit marker receives a unique tag.

Enter the text for the next tag. Each successive tag is incremented

from the previous tag.

Conduit tag

Defines the scale to insert the conduit marker block.Scale

Add spare wires

Defines the spare wires to include in your conduit.


Insert Marker.



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Menu: Panel Layout Conduit Marker Tools Conduit Marker (Pick)Command entry: AECONDUITMARKER

Click the Spares button on the Insert/Edit Conduit/Wireway Label dialog box.

Lists the spare wires that can be added to the conduit. The

list is built from the .WDW support file.

Select wires from

If the wire type is not listed, type your spare wire description

in the edit box.

Type it

Lists the wires that to add to the conduit.Wires to Add

Specifies the number of wires to add to the conduit. Adjust

your quantity by typing the number or by selecting the

buttons.

Count

If you type the quantity, select this button to see the new

quantity in the list.

Update Quantity

Overview of conduit marker support filesAutoCAD Electrical has a couple of support files containing wire size

information and conduit size information: the .wdw file and the .ww1 file.

These files are simple text files that can be edited with any text editor such asWordPad.

.WDW file

The .WDW file contains the wire information. You may have a different file

for each project. Create a projname.wdw file and put in the same directory as

your project file (.WDP). To use the same file for all projects, create or modify

the DEFAULT.WDW file in the USER folder. In the Project Manager, right-click

the project name and select Settings to find the full path.

There should be a separate line in the file for each AutoCAD Electrical wire

layer. The line has three fields, each field separated by a semi-colon.The first

field is the actual wire layer name used on the drawing. The second field is

the wire layer description. This description is used in the AutoCAD Electrical

Wire Color/Gauge Label tool. The third field is the wire size.



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For example, if you have a wire layer called 14_RED_THHN and you want the

wire color/gauge label to read #14AWG RED for this layer, and the wire itself

has a wire diameter of 0.0087, the line in the .WDW file would read:

14_RED_THHN;#14AWGRED;0.0087

.WW1 file

The .WW1 file contains the conduit information. You may have a different

file for each project. Simply create a projname.ww1 file and put in the same

directory as your project file (.WDP). If you want to use the same file for all

projects, then create or modify the DEFAULT.WW1 file in the USER folder (in

the Project Manager, right-click the project name and select Settings to find

the full path).

There should be a separate line in the file for each conduit. Each line has two

fields. The first field is the conduit size that is shown in the Conduit Marker

dialog box. The second field is the conduit size (the inner cross-sectional area

of the conduit) so AutoCAD Electrical can determine how full the conduit is

once you add up all the wire diameter sizes from the wires (pulled from the

.WDW file). For example, if you have a 1-inch conduit with an inner diameter

of 0.8 resulting in a cross-sectional area of 0.5024, the line in the .WW1 file

reads:

1";0.5024

NOTE If you create a .WW1 file AutoCAD Electrical shows only the conduits listed

in this file in the Conduit Marker dialog box.

Generate a conduit marker reportGenerate a conduit marker report

You must have at least one conduit marker with wire connections on your

drawing in order to run this report.

1 Click Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Conduit Reports drop-down

Conduit Report.2 Specify whether to run the report across selected drawings from the

project, the current drawing, or selected conduit markers.

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You can specify to display the last report run from this dialog box instead

of running a new report by clicking the Redisplay Last Run button.

3 Click OK.

4 Select the drawings or conduit markers to process (depending on whether

the report is run across the projector selected markers).

5 In the Report Generator dialog box, change the report format. You can

specify to add the time and date, title line, project lines, column labels,

page numbers, and blank spaces between report entities.

6 (Optional) Click Edit Mode to edit the report.

7 If the report is formatted correctly, specify to print the report, put it on

the drawing, or save the report to a file.

Conduit marker reportThis utility extracts conduit marker information into a report. Extractable

conduit marker symbols are named "WWAY*". A conduit can be represented

by a line or a polyline and by itself does not carry any intelligence. However,

you can insert a conduit marker symbol and associate it to a conduit. The

conduit marker symbol then carries wire information intelligence pulled from

the AutoCAD Electrical drawings.

Ribbon: Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Conduit Reports drop-down

Conduit Report.

Toolbar: Conduit Reports

Menu: Panel Layout Conduit Marker Tools Conduit Marker ReportCommand entry: AECONDUITMARKERRPT

Decide if you want to run the report across selected drawings from the project,

the active drawing, or selected conduit markers.



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Generate a conduit routing report

Generate a conduit routing report

You must have at least one conduit marker with wire connections on your

drawing in order to run this report.

1 Click Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Conduit Reports drop-down

Routing Report.2 Specify whether to run the report across selected drawings from the

project, the current drawing, or selected conduit markers.

You can specify to display the last report run from this dialog box instead

of running a new report by clicking the Redisplay Last Run button.

3 Click OK.

4 Select the drawings or conduit markers to process (depending on whether

the report is run across the projector selected markers).

5 In the Report Generator dialog box, change the report format. You can

specify to add the time and date, title line, project lines, column labels,

page numbers, and blank spaces between report entities.

6 (Optional) Click Edit Mode to edit the report.

7 If the report is formatted correctly, specify to print the report, put it on

the drawing, or save the report to a file.

Wire/conduit routing report

AutoCAD Electrical provides a set of utilities to help you label, size, and report

on conduits. A conduit can be represented by a line or a poly line and by itself

does not carry any intelligence. However, you can insert a conduit marker

symbol and associate it to a conduit. The conduit marker symbol then carries

wire information intelligence pulled from the AutoCAD Electrical drawings.

Ribbon: Panel tab Conduit Tools panel Conduit Reports drop-down

Routing Report.

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Toolbar: Conduit Reports

Menu: Panel Layout Conduit Marker Tools Wire/Conduit RoutingReport

Command entry: AEROUTINGREPORT

Decide if you want to run the report across selected drawings from the project,

the active drawing, or selected conduit markers.


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