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Using SW2006 to make electrical schematic

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EngJW

EngJW

Mechanical
Feb 25, 2003
682
Our electrical schematics are drawn on Autocad. I'm trying to use SW instead, but it doesn't seem like it is going to work out.

The schematic is just a lot of lines and text. Since there is no part involved, I started a new drawing and loaded a sheet format. Then I used the regular drawing commands to draw on the sheet. After getting just a fraction of the way through, the commands are bogging down. For example you click a location to start a line and then wait and wait to click the next point. Same delay on trimming. Adding text takes no time at all.

The SW drawing is already up to 1.3Mb while the entire Autocad drawing is only 648Kb. My computer is not the latest but there has never been a problem making large and complex models. Also we can't upgrade as we are stuck with Windows 2000 for a while longer.

Is this the wrong way to use SW? I would hate to go back to Autocad. Thanks for your help.
 
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If you do not have Visio, get it. Then you can drawing your schematics in Visio and place them right in the SolidWorks drawing. Double click in the SolidWorks drawing of your schematic and Visio starts right up. I think you might have to have SolidWorks office.

Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP4.0
PDM Works, Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400
 
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I would make a library of electrical symbol blocks (and text favorites. Use the blocks to create your layout (diagram) in the drawing and then connect the dots with lines.

SW definately isn't the best tool for this :(

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative SW 2007 SP 2.0
 
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As Rob said, SW just isn't a tool for 2d schematic drawing. You can force it to generate them, but it's not easy. It's just like you can force Excel to generate something that looks like a business letter or a database, but it would be much easier and better to use Word or Access, respectively. That's why SW started including DWGeditor for free when you buy SW.
 
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Also,
If you INSERT/OBJECT, then create from file, you can insert your ACAD dwg and have it linked to it. Everytime the ACAD schematic changes, the SW dwg will update.
Warning, it works slow.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 4.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 04-21-07)
 
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I don't know what symbols come with Word or Office, but they include a flowchart function with various symbols. This is a simple version of Visio. Otherwise use Visio, as it should have the symbol library. The reason to use a flowcharting program is they keep the objects linked together even if you move them around or resize them. Otherwise attempting to draw them in AutoCAD or DWGeditor will be a hassle because it won't keep things linked.

You could also search for some of the free PCB layout programs that may have a limited circuit diagram feature.

Here's one I looked at briefly a long time ago.

 
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Actually, AutoCAD has a very strong electrical package in AutoCAD Electrical. We have one seat of AutoCAD Electrical 2008 for creating our schematics.

Give it a look, it is really a nice package.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
 
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