Automatic Wire Sequencing in AutoCAD Electrical

IMAGINiT Tricks Tutorial: Manually creating a report to designate the exact sequence for connecting wires and pins takes extra time, which is always in short supply. Fortunately, AutoCAD Electrical software can perform these tasks automatically.

Editor's note: This tutorial courtesy of IMAGINiT Technologies.

Wire tees are a very common component of ladder logic schematics created using AutoCAD Electrical software. However, since they are not true wiring diagrams, these ladder logic schematics leave it up to the builder to decide exactly where physical wires get placed — or in other words, the sequence of the wiring. Electrically it is all a single node, so to some degree, it does not matter exactly how it is wired.

In the following example, the four components and their respective pins are all connected via wire number 213B: PB213A (Pin B), CR213 (Pin K1), CR207 (Pin A2Y), and M215 (Pin A1).



However, when the assembler attempts to build the physical unit attaching the wires to the pins, what would be the best sequential approach? Should the individual install a single wire from PB213A (Pin B) to CR213 (Pin K1) first, then another wire going from CR213 (Pin K1) to CR207 (Pin A2Y), and a third and final wire from CR207 (Pin A2Y) to M215 (Pin A1)? Or should the first wire go from PB213A (Pin B) straight to M215 (Pin A1) first, then to the pins of the other two components?

To put it another way:

• PB213A (Pin B) - CR213 (Pin K1)
• CR213 (Pin K1) - CR207 (Pin A2Y)
• CR207 (Pin A2Y) - M215 (Pin A1)

Or:

• PB213A (Pin B) - M215 (Pin A1)
• M215 (Pin A1) - CR213 (Pin K1)
• CR213 (Pin K1) - CR207 (Pin A2Y)

Electrically, either sequence (or any other combination) could work. But for various reasons, including ease of assembly and minimal wire length, the engineer of the circuit may want a specific sequence.

Therefore, the engineer could attempt to draw the circuit exactly how he wants it to be physically wired. But this approach leads to drawings that are less clean-looking than desired, as shown below.



Or



Therefore, most engineers choose to have tidier drawings done as ladder logic, and then they also create a Wire From/To List report to designate to the builder the exact sequence to physically wire it. Completing this process manually, however, can take additional time and effort. Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical software can perform these tasks automatically with its wire sequence capability.

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