Autodesk AUTOCAD ELECTRICAL 2010 User manual

Technical What’s New
Electrical 2010
AutoCAD®

AutoCAD®Electrical is AutoCAD® software
specifically designed to help controls designers
quickly create and modify electrical control systems.
It contains all the functionality of AutoCAD, plus
a comprehensive set of electric-specific tools for
automating tedious tasks such as building circuits,
numbering wires, and creating highly accurate bills
of material (BOMs) and from-to wire lists. AutoCAD
Electrical provides a library of more than 650,000
electrical symbols and components, includes real-
time error checking, and integrates closely with
AutoCAD®Inventor®software.
AutoCAD Electrical 2010 includes new features and
functionality designed to improve productivity while
allowing you to maintain existing workflows. The
software makes it even easier to save time, reduce
errors, and create innovative electrical control
designs.
Technical What’s New
AutoCAD Electrical 
Welcome to AutoCAD®Electrical 2010
Contents
Ease of Use ....................................................3
Ribbon Interface .......................................................... 3
Workspaces .................................................................... 3
Circuit Builder .............................................. 4
Green Design.................................................................4
Power Feed Support.....................................................4
Additional Circuit Builder Features..........................4
Motor Control of One-Line Circuits ................5
No Wire Numbering for Wire Layers ...............5
Electrical Audit ..............................................5
Help Updates .................................................5
Proven Benefits ............................................ 6
Conclusion .................................................... 6
Stay Up to Date ............................................. 6
Subscription...................................................................6
Product Updates...........................................................6
Feedback.........................................................................6
Image courtesy of Amerimax Home Products, Inc.

Ease of Use
Enhancements to the user interface and workspaces in
AutoCAD Electrical 2010 make it easier than ever to use
and learn.
Streamlined Design Environment
AutoCAD Electrical 2010 features a streamlined user
interface. Find your favorite tools and commands faster,
locate lesser-used tools more eciently, and discover
relevant new features more easily. The result is less
time searching through menus and toolbars, and more
time getting your work done.
The AutoCAD-style ribbon interface is designed to
make experienced users even more productive and to
improve the ease of adoption for new users coming
from basic AutoCAD. The ribbon interface has been
optimized to oer easy access to common tools.
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.
Workspaces
Choose a workspace that fits your environment and
workflow. It’s easy to switch between workspaces—
simply select the Workspace icon on the status bar.
AutoCAD Electrical oers 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.
3AutoCAD Electrical 
Technical What’s New

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.
Green Design
The Circuit Builder tool in AutoCAD Electrical 2010
lets you use calculations to analyze energy eciency,
meet code requirements, and make “green” engineering
decisions. Circuit Builder displays parallel energy loss
calculations for a range of conductor sizes against
various installation and ambient factors. To create
a green design, for example, you might choose to
oversize a motor’s conductors to reduce heating losses;
Circuit Builder can tell you whether the resulting
reduced energy loss over the life of the motor will
recover or surpass initial materials and labor costs.
Power Feed Support
Circuit Builder provides power-feed circuits for
insertion into electrical controls design. Add a source
arrow symbol or generic load box representation—or
insert a user-created load symbol, such as a variable
speed drive control, at the end of the power feed
bus. Circuit Builder also allows you to adjust load
representation based on rung spacing.
Additional Circuit Builder Features
Other Circuit Builder features designed to increase
productivity include:
•Wireconductorsizingbasedonelectricalcode
requirements.
•Supportforsplit-parallelconductorsizing—soyoucan
substitute multiple smaller-diam¬eter 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denemotordescriptiontext,
installation, location, and text description for
individual circuit components.
•Theabilitytoinsertanewcircuitandreferencean
existing circuit—transferring 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.
4AutoCAD Electrical 
Technical What’s New

5AutoCAD Electrical 
Technical What’s New
Motor Control of One-Line Circuits
Use the new one-line symbol library to create
intelli¬gent 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.
One-line component symbols can be related to parent/
child counterparts on sche¬matic and panel layout
drawings. Switch between one-line and all related
components; when a component is modified, all related
components update automatically.
You can also tag schematic or panel components, using
existing commands to reference a pick list that includes
components pulled from your one-line diagrams.
AutoCAD Electrical also includes new reporting
functionality that lets you select whether a report
contains one-line, schematic, hydrault, pneumatic, or
P&ID components.
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, 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.
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.)

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, DWG, Inventor, and Productstream are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc.,
in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk
reserves the right to alter product oerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or
graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2009 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
Proven Benefits
An independent productivity study1comparing
standard AutoCAD and AutoCAD Electrical concluded
that when using AutoCAD Electrical:
•Creationofnewdesignswas84%faster.
•Editingexistingdesignsare77%faster.
•Riskoferrorswasgreatlyreducedbecauseofa30%
reduction in number of commands used.
For the complete study, go to
www.autodesk.com/autocadelectrical-productivity.
Conclusion
We thank you for your continued support of AutoCAD
Electrical and hope you feel we are listening to
your needs. We developed the new and enhanced
functionality in AutoCAD Electrical 2010 to make
you more productive, make your company more
competitive, and return true value to your bottom line.
Stay Up to Date
Autodesk gives you more. Gain access to technical
expertise, utilize training and support programs direct
from Autodesk, stay up to date with the latest product
releases, and give us your feedback. Not only does
Autodesk want to help you use AutoCAD Electrical
more eectively—we want to make sure that AutoCAD
Electrical is working eectively for you.
Subscription
Log into the Subscription Center to receive product
updates, log and view support requests, or take
eLearning courses. A valuable component of Autodesk®
Subscription, eLearning provides a continually
expanding curriculum of short training exercises.
Product Updates
If you experience an issue with AutoCAD Electrical
2010 that has been solved in a service pack or hotfix, a
dialog box will appear when you submit the problem to
Autodesk, enabling you to immediately install the new
service pack or hotfix.
Feedback
AutoCAD Electrical customers can provide feedback
to the AutoCAD Electrical development team through
several avenues:
•Providetipsorjoinnewsgroupsat
www.autodesk.com/autocadelectrical.
•Keepuptodateonwhat’shappeninginyourindustry,
stay in touch with other industry professionals, and
take advantage of a host of online resources at the
Manufacturing Community Portal, at mfgcommunity.
autodesk.com.
•TalkwithyourAutodeskAuthorizedResellerand
support sta.
Your input is crucial to our success, and we look
forward to receiving your suggestions.
Technical What’s New
1Designed by Autodesk and commissioned to an independent consultant, this study explores 10 common design challenges and
shows direct comparisons of the time and eort required to accomplish each specific task in AutoCAD and AutoCAD Electrical
software. Read the complete study at www.autodesk.com/autocadelectrical-productivity