AutoCAD^® Electrical 2008

Autodesk is getting ready to release the next version of AutoCAD Electrical. Hagerman & Company wants to prepare you for this next release by offering a sneak peak of the new technology being introduced in AutoCAD^® Electrical 2008.

For years, through AutoCAD Electrical, Autodesk has been helping electrical engineers build automated machinery by allowing them to concentrate on their electrical designs and not so much on the application itself. By using the integrated library menu in AutoCAD Electrical 2008, you are able to select industry standard symbols that range from push buttons, selector switches, pilot lights, relays, contacts, fuses, terminals and more. Also built in to AutoCAD Electrical is a library of more than 3,000 programmable logic controller modules to add to your schematics. Assign vendor part numbers to the symbols using the internal database that includes more than 350,000 standard catalog numbers that come directly from leading industry manufacturers. AutoCAD Electrical also allows you to run automatic report generation of BOMs, component lists, wire to and from, wire label and similar reports. As you can see, AutoCAD Electrical is the only logical choice for electrical controls design.

You might be asking yourself, what else can Autodesk add to an already matured product? Well, here’s what’s new in AutoCAD Electrical 2008.

Because AutoCAD Electrical is built on AutoCAD technology, you get all of the new and enhanced technology that is part of the new release of AutoCAD 2008. For example, here are only a few of the many new features in AutoCAD 2008:

• Consolidated help system through the new InfoCenter allowing you to search multiple help systems simultaneously.

• Improved Performance through 64-bit compatibility.

• Autodesk DWG Product Recognition that easily identifies which Autodesk product created the DWG.

Through community-focused development, Autodesk listens to you, the customer, and incorporates a lot of new technology and product enhancements based on your feedback and wish lists. Following is a brief list with some descriptions of what’s new in AutoCAD Electrical.

Installation
Starting from the installation process, you now have the ability to select which manufacturer catalogs to install. If you miss a manufacturer, don’t worry, you can always go back and install that manufacturer through add/remove programs.

Manufacturer Catalog Enhancements
AutoCAD Electrical 2008 ships with a manufacturer’s catalog database that contains more than 350,000 components from the industry’s most popular vendors. That is 305,000 more than what AutoCAD Electrical 2007 shipped with.

The most frequent question I am asked during an AutoCAD Electrical presentation is “Where can customers download updated information for the Manufacturer’s Catalog Database?” Until now, the only way to add information to the database was to enter it in manually. With AutoCAD Electrical 2008, Autodesk adds the benefit of downloading periodical catalog updates to all customers who have Autodesk Subscription with their AutoCAD Electrical product. Unsure if you have Autodesk Subscription? Contact your Hagerman & Company account representative to find out more.

Modern “Insert Component” Interface
AutoCAD Electrical 2008 provides a modern and simple menu-driven system for inserting electrical devices. This menu system gives access to a comprehensive symbol library that includes well over 2,000 electrical symbols.

Icon Menu Wizard Enhancements
The Icon Menu Wizard allows you to easily customize the icon menus. You can now copy and paste icons from one submenu into another, drag and drop icons to place those that are commonly used at the top of the Symbol Preview window and those that are used less frequently at the bottom of the window, and create new icons to use when inserting components.

Integrated PLC Programming Software
Through Autodesk’s strategic relationships, users can now exchange data bi-directionally between AutoCAD Electrical 2008 and Rockwell Automation’s PLC programming software as well as Schneider Electric’s Unity software products.

Other PLC enhancements include:

• PLC I/O Import/Export Enhancements.

• PLC I/O Libraries Enhancements.

• Spreadsheet to PLC I/O Utility Enhancements.

“Surfable” Reports
When reports are placed into a design as a table, AutoCAD Electrical 2008 users can click on various fields within the report to quickly find the corresponding devices within the schematic or panel layout drawings.

Visual Wiring Sequence Indicators
Once you define additional wire connection sequences, use the Show Wire Sequence tool to graphically show the new sequencing. When any changes are made to a wire sequence, the updated information is accurately reflected in the From/To Wire list report.

Terminals
There has been a lot of technology added or enhanced to make it easier to work with Terminals in AutoCAD Electrical 2008. Here’s a list of a few of the added or enhanced functionality…

• Multi-Level Terminals.

• Terminal jumpers support.

• Spare terminal support.

• Terminal Properties Database Editor.

• Terminal Strip Editor Enhancements.

• Direct-to-Terminal Wire Sequencing.

Pin List Data Management
Pin list data is now managed based on manufacturer. Use the Pin List Database Editor tool to select the pin list table to edit or create a new table.

Parametric Twisted Pair Symbol Enhancements
The icon menus are enhanced to include three new parametric twisted pair symbols.

Electronic User’s Guide
AutoCAD Electrical 2008 includes a full user’s guide in PDF format.

Now that you’ve seen this preview of AutoCAD Electrical 2008, Please contact your nearest Hagerman & Company office and schedule an onsite demo or a webex presentation so you can see it in action.

For more information, please review the Autodesk Technical What's New document for screenshots and more.