Electrical Diagrams in Solidworks 3

[Nate101]

Has anyone done electrical diagrams in Solidworks or know of any threads discussing this? Right now I've started the diagram on a Drawing file and using blocks to move and copy. Creating some of the blocks in a Part file. This is cumbersome. The company is using version 2001+. Any Ideas or thoughts would be helpful.
Thanks,
Nate

 

[ctopher]

Do a search in this forum. There are plenty of threads that cover this. MS Visio will do the trick.

 

[Nate101]

Thanks Ctopher, but I'm stuck with Solidworks. It would be nice to use other software more suited for this application. I'm still searching for other Forums.

 

[SBaugh]

At one time SW gave visio away for free - I think that was in Jan. of 2001. I still have my copy.

Maybe you can talk to SW about this or search there website regarding information about this.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[ctopher]

You can in the dwg: RMB, lock sheet focus, then draw your schem sketch. Unlock sht focus to go back to editing the views. Is also cumbersome.

 

[Nate101]

I logged onto SW site and had no luck with the Visio download. I'll have to check the company I work for and the help on this. Visio works pretty good for diagrams/ flow charts. I'm going to play with creating the symbols as a part and drawing a tube as my wire in an assembly drawing. A lot of work still but easier to manipulate.
Thanks both of you for the ideas.
Nate

 

[J-C]

It would help if you could upgrade to 2004. Blocks work alot better and snap better to other geometry or blocks.

Jason Capriotti
ThyssenKrupp Elevator

 

[ctopher]

Just a thought, does anyone have any electrical symbols created to share with rest of us? Either as blocks or created from Visio?

 

[Nate101]

Jason,
This isn't an option at the present time. They've had a real slow rebuild since 9-11. Now my real job, we're at 2004 SP2.1. I'm waiting for more reviews on SP3 before loading.
Ctopher,
Great question. I'm probably re-inventing the wheel!

 

[Mandrake22]

Our previous cad software was Cadkey and we still use it for 2D things like schematics. When we need to incorporate a schematic onto an assembly drawing we create it in Cadkey and then import via DXF. We may (or may not) then make a block of the schematic for ease of placement.
"Freestanding" schematics are still purely Cadkey. While I would surely like to see Solidworks improve the 2D tools to the point we could use it as our only tool we seem to have become comfortable with this dual tool approach.
I haven't been able to force myself to devote enough time to get comfortable with Visio.

 

[meintsi]

What kind of electrical symbols are you looking for?



Remember...
"If you don't use your head,
your going to have to use your feet."

 

[ElectroMatt]

I have found that after 9 years of CAD, that attempting to do any complex 2D schematic work in Visio is painful at best. Lines that automatically jump over each other is a neat feature, but when they "automatically" route themselves, you may find a readable schematic turn into a rats nest REALLY easily.

Don't get me wrong, visio has some nice features for the advanced Microsoft office crowd, but for those of us doing serious CAD, it's pretty flimsy.

My current setup is Solidworks 2004 for 3d; AutoCad 2004 for all 2D (especially for anything with wires and circuitry); and Adobe Illustrator for anything that needs to look pretty. I would consider Visio to the the slightly disabled child of AutoCad and Illustrator.

I hope this is helpful, and that Mr. Gates doesn't send some goons out to deal with my insubordination.

 

[Nate101]

Motors, solenoids, fuses, terminal blocks, gages, switches, curcuit breakers, etc. Right now I've been creating them with a part file and bringing them into an assembly drawing and connecting the features with a sweep. A little cumbersome, but easy to manipulate. Looks cool, too in isometric view.

Like I implied before, Solidworks is the only software at my disposal at this facility.

Cadkey is one of my favorites. Did a lot of tubes for turbine engines with it and fixture design, but it and Autocad won't do me any good here.

Visio I use for outlining my manufacturing processes on more complicated assemblies, some of the management can interpret this easier, but the line jumping can be a pain if you're in a hurry.

 

[ctopher]

I was thinking of ANY elect symbols.

 

[Nate101]

I'll look around. I know there's a ton of dwg's and dxf's for Autocad. Maybe I can do something with them.

 

[sirmick]

Even buying a copy of some cheap 2d software like AutoCad LT or something similar will save you and your company a lot of time. Talk your employer into a $200 purchase.

 

[SBaugh]

Found this doing a search on Yahoo. I used this as my search Text - "Solidworks - Schematics"

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/news/viewrelease.html?prid=4

http://www.tenlinks.com/CAD/PRODUCTS/electrical.htm

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[testy]

I have electrical and fluid power symbol libraries that I have ammassed.
However, they are about 8 meg each so they may be difficult to email. Perhaps someone out there has a website they could be uploaded to?

Ray Havermahl
Independent Engineering Labs

http://www.ielinc.com

 

[Nate101]

That's cool. Try zip'ing them and see how big the files are.
Nate

 

[ctopher]

Yes, thank you. If you can zip them, I am interested. I do not have a web site right now.