How draw electrical drawings?

Hope this is the right place for this questions:

1. When making drawings that use symbology such as
electrical schematics for PLC and control circuits.....
what SIZE should thee symbols be drawn at

2. Should the symbols be in model space and all text
labels be in pspace? Or everything in mspace?

3. Can one draw the WHOLE circuit in mspace and then
cut up the diagram to separate sheets using layouts in
pspace?

Bottom line.... what proper procedure for such symbolic
type drawings?

 

I usually put everyhting in model space and then all I have in paperspace is
the drawing title border, revisions list etc. Some firms insist on putting
all text in paper space for complex models but for electrical diagrams I
would ahve thought the text is an integral part of the drawing and not easy
to do separately.

 

So you put the text for symbol labels in mspace? But
put border, etc in pspace right?

 

That is what I do also. Use viewports to 'divide' the drawing into
sections for printing.

Use blocks for each component. Make your own blocks if you can't get
them elsewhere.

 

Yes thats generally how most but not everyone draws in AutoCAD:- You draw
your model in modelspace and border in paperspace. Sometimes these two
entities are completely different drawings. For example if the xref is a
floor plan that might be repeated for several drawings you can then xref it
into several paperspace drawings so that they all get updated whenever you
change the model. I actually xref every model I do into a paperspace drawing
even if it isnt going to be repeated elsewhere - means that all of your
model drawings are all together and have sensible names like first floor,
ground floor etc. Then your paperspace drawings are all together and have
proper drawing numbers (eg for architectural layout drawings AL(0)01,
AL(0)02 etc). I keep models and paperspace drawings in different folders.
Paperspace drawings only have borders, drawing titles, and revision notes on
them. Models have everything else - model, blocks, text, dims etc.

You can even xref models into other models for more complexity for example
if Im doing a ceiling plan I will often want to xref a floor plan into the
ceiling model drawing and draw on the ceiling info over the top in that
drawing, then I will xref that drawing (including the xrefed floor plan)
into the paperspace drg with the border etc. That way the ceiling drawing
never gets too big and still retains an up-to-date link to the floor plan.

Some people do model drawings as xrefs without text or dims etc to keep tham
as small as possible and then xref this base model into other models such as
ceiling plans, furniture plans etc and then put those into the paperspace
drawing with dimensions and text added in the paperspace drawing - this can
work quite well in keeping file sizes of base xrefs down which is important
for massively complex jobs.

However you do it all you have to watch is that everytime you issue the
paperspace drawing with any xrefs inside it you must always "bind in" the
xrefs so that they break their link to the original models. That way you can
email them etc and the reciever will always be able to view the drawing
model correctly. If you dont bind in the xrefs and then send just the
paperspace drawing all teh receiver will get is a blank border. The reciever
you would have to be sent all of the referenced models along with the
paperspace drawing everytime you email it if the xrefs wereent bound in.

Finally to archive the drawing once it has been issued you should copy the
paperspace drawing to an archive folder and then bind in the xrefs which
again breaks the link of all of the xrefs to their original models and
thereby essentially freezes the drawing in that issued state. This way you
can keep a series of archived drawings all with different revision letters
as a history of your past drawing issues. If you ever need to refer to an
old issue you will have it without the need for keeping a paper copy.
Binding in xrefs is very important whenever you want to email or freeze the
drawing in a certain state when you use xrefs.

Nats

 

You do above in mspace tho, right?

 

Now THAT is a great idea!

I hate breaking lines when inserting symbols.

The thing that abt electronic symbols is that I never
know how big to physically draw them in mspace. Since
they are "symbols" they have no physical dimensions so
how do you draw them 1:1? See what I mean?

 

No you insert the model into modelspace. Then swap to paperspace you create
a viewport, then change to tilemode 1, zoom extents to find your model, and
then scale it using zoom + "1/(scale)xp" for example to view a model at
1:100 scale you would type zoom and then 1/100xp whilst in the viewport.
Then if you want to you can create another viewport - for example you may
wish to show a zoomed up view of the model in another scale on the same
drawing - just create another viewport whilst in paperspace and tilemode 0,
then change to tilemode 1 and click in the viewport you want to use, zoom
extents as before and then zoom to scale. Using tilemode 1 you switch
between viewports by clicking in them with the mouse.

Essentailly see it as modelspace allowing you to make adjustments to the
model itself at a scale of 1:1. Paperspace allows you to make adjustments to
the border, drg title and viewport sizes and shapes again all at scale of
1:1. Tilemode 0 in paperspace keeps you at 1:1 in normal paperspace.
Tilemode 1 in paperspace allows you to zoom, scale and pan viewports showing
the model. Just mess around with paperspace, modelspace, tilemode 0 and 1
and creating viewports at different scales and you will get the idea.

 

I have just purchased and installed a Microsoft Wireless Mouse (Wireless
Intellimouse Explorer 2.0A) and I am using this with AutoCad 2004LT. The
problem is with the 'pan command'. I used to be able to press the wheel and
pan by moving the mouse. Everytime I now press the wheel my view moves
automatically to the right and disappears off the screen. I have tried
uninstalling and running set-up again, I have tried different drivers all to
no avail.

Anyone have any ideas as to what the problem may be?

Many thanks - Tony Cotgrove

 

fyi: typing "ms" or "ps" toggles the tilemode between paperspace & viewport
modelspace

 

Reset MBUTTONPAN.

 

Roy wrote "but MY ALL TIME FAVORITE TRICK is to make the outline of the
symbol a
REGION and give it a positive elevation. then I do not break the line
representing the wire, it hides when I plot. if you move, add or delete
a device you don't have to edit the wire....... """
*********************
Could you explain this further? I just tried your idea for me and it
did not work. I drew a pline over the block with lines underneath
(lines representing siding on a building elevation). Converted that
line to a region and tried to elevate the region in the Z direction. I
still see the lines underneath. Are you using the region to mask
(hide) the Lines underneath? Please elaborate. If I am correct in
thinking what you are doing, it would save us a lot of time in revising
an elevation.

Thanks Ted.

 

Yeah I tried it and wont work for me either.

Maybe he didn't mean a region but something else?

 

This might work for you instead. It did for Me. Found this on the
AUGI forums Page.

Use a Wipeout behind the block outline. Just make sure your block sits
on top of the geometery. The Augi thread made mention of a plotting
problem but so far I have not had any issues.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=31918
AUGI Forums > AEC > ADT (Architectural Desktop) > ADT 2005 > Mask
Blocks

 

Does your mouse wheel bend or tilt side to side? Most of the new mice
do this. If yours does this you will have to train your finger to press
up and down only, no tilting. Takes awhile to get used to, however I
really like the side to side pan that the tilting wheel offers.

J