SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic - Exercise #08

This exercise learns you to manage the PLCs. It is based on the electrical project you made in the Exercise #07. If you did not complete it, you can download the electrical project file and unarchive it in SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

If this is your first time, open the PDF file of the exercise to read through it. Printing it out is recommended.

• PLC management

• Input/Output management

• Editing the macro associated with a circuit

• Generation PLC drawings

PLC management

Add a PLC with the following characteristics to the electrical project:

1. Open the PLC management.

2. Click on the Add PLC icon and select the PLC manufacturer part option.

3. Allocate the requested part.

Input/Output management

Create 9 digital inputs with the following designations: Sensor #1 to Sensor #9 and 7 digital outputs with the following designations: Solenoid #101 to Solenoid #107

1. Select the PLC management Inputs/Outputs command.

2. Or select the Inputs/Outputs command in the Electrical project menu.

3. Select the Add several Inputs/Outputs command using the Digital PLC Input option in the Input/Output management.

4. Add 9 digital PLC inputs and 7 digital PLC outputs in the same way.

5. To add a description, select the channel and click on the Properties icon. You can also click directly on the Description box for the channel.

Save the digital inputs in a macro.

1. To create the PLC macro, select the inputs.

2. In the left-hand part of the Input/Output management, select the User I/O group.

3. Click on the Save into macros icon to add the macro to the group you have just created.

Associate this I/O with the N1 PLC channels.

1. In the PLC management, select the 9 Digital PLC inputs and click on the Associate icon. 

2. In the PLC management, select the 9 Digital PLC inputs and click on the Select icon. A message will inform you of the consistency between the two selection sets.

3. Repeat this operation for the Digital PLC outputs.

Insert a page break between the inputs and outputs.

1. Open the PLC management.

2. Choose the last Digital PLC input and select the Add/Remove a page break command in its contextual menu.

Editing the macro associated with a circuit

In the PLC board drawing configuration, the circuits are associated with a macro. Edit the macro associated with the Digital input to replace the pressure sensor symbol by a thermal sensor symbol.

1. Open the PLC drawing configuration.

2. In the configuration dialog box, open the properties of the configuration used in the electrical project (reminder: Electrical project configuration > General tab).

3. Go to the Circuits tab and in the Circuit type field select Digital PLC input.

4. The module will be drawn in the upper part of the drawing. In the Symbol on top section, click on the macro modification icon.

5. The macro is automatically added to the dockable panel, Pages tab and the macro opens in the graphical area.

6. In the contextual menu of the symbol, select the Symbol > Replace command and select a pressure sensor symbol. Close the macro.

Generating PLC drawings

Generate the PLC drawings and redirect them to a folder entitled PLCs and open the drawings to complete them according to the appendix 8.

1. Open the PLC management.  

2. Select the Generate drawings command. 

3. In the Books/Folders selection dialog box, select New folder and create the PLC folder.

4. Select the folder.

Complete the scheme in accordance with the Appendix 8A and 8B.