AutoCAD Electrical 2010: Going, going, green

Considering the worlds current economy and environmental concerns, youll be pleased to know that Autodesk is doing its part to help you design more cost effective and environmentally friendly products. Through this brief introduction, youll learn that you can now analyze energy efficiency, meet code requirements and make green engineering decisions, all in AutoCAD Electrical. Well also take a closer look at other new exciting enhancements, such as one-line diagrams and the AutoCAD-style command ribbon interface.

Circuit builder

AutoCAD Electrical 2010 facilitates the drafting of electrical circuits. It dynamically generates rules based controls circuits based on defined functional requirements such as components, wiring, ratings, and catalog data.

In the image below, you'll notice how the circuit builder displays parallel energy loss calculations for a range of conductor sizes against various installation and ambient factors.

Additional circuit builder features

Other Circuit Builder features designed to increase productivity include:

• Power Feed Support - Circuit Builder provides power-feed circuits for insertion into electrical controls design.

• Wire conductor sizing based on electrical code requirements.
• Support for split-parallel conductor sizingso you can substitute multiple smaller diameter conductors to meet equivalent ampacity requirements of a single large diameter conductor.
• Fuse, breaker, disconnect switch and overload calculations based on electrical code requirements.
• The ability to define motor description text, installation, location, and text description for individual circuit components.
• The ability to insert a new circuit and reference an existing circuittransferring the original values to the new circuit.
• An Electrical Standards Database Editor that lets you view, modify and expand the ace_electrical_standards.mdb file.

Motor control of one-line circuits

Use the new one-line symbol library to create intelligent motor control one-line diagrams that link back to other drawing types in a project drawing set. Access the library from the icon menu to build one-line circuits with component values and wire sizes that conform to a specific electrical code.

Sample of a one-line circuit and its detailed 3-phase circuit:

One-line components from the schematic symbols library:

One-line motor circuits from the circuit builder:

The AutoCAD-style ribbon interface

The ribbon houses task-based tools. Command buttons are displayed in a set of tabs, grouped according to task. File input/output operations such as New, Open and Save are accessed via the Menu Browser. The Menu Browser search lists the location of found files in the ribbon, helping you become comfortable with the new user interface.

Samples of the ribbon interface for AutoCAD Electrical commands:

Project

Schematic

Panel

Other AutoCAD Electrical 2010 enhancements include:

Workspaces

Choose a workspace that fits your environment and workflow. Its easy to switch between workspacessimply select the Workspace icon on the status bar. AutoCAD Electrical offers three workspaces:

• AutoCAD Electrical and 2D Drafting and Annotation provides AutoCAD Electrical tools and AutoCAD 2D drafting and annotation tools through the ribbon interface.
• AutoCAD Electrical and 3D Modeling provides AutoCAD Electrical and AutoCAD 3D modeling tools through the ribbon interface.
• AutoCAD Electrical Classic provides AutoCAD Electrical and AutoCAD tools via toolbars and pull-down menus.

No wire numbering for wire layers

Wire layers now have a no wire numbering option. These wires behave normally for inserting, breaking, and scooting components, and show up in the From/To report. They do not receive wire numbers during the Insert Wire Numbers process.

Electrical audit

View electrical audit results for just your active drawing. Simply run an electrical audit, and then click the Active Drawing button to display issues for that drawing. Open another drawing, and the display updates to show only results for the newly opened drawing.

Reporting

AutoCAD Electrical also includes new reporting functionality that lets you select whether a report contains one-line, schematic, hydraulic, pneumatic, or P&ID components.

Help updates

Reference topics that show command access have been updated to include command line and ribbon access. Change the location of a command, and ribbon and menu access for that command is automatically updated in the online Help system. (Note: This dynamic update works only when you use online Help within AutoCAD Electrical.)