SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic - Exercise 4

In this exercise, you learn the basic commands for managing the electrical schema.

This exercise is based on the electrical project that you created in Exercise 3. If you did not complete it, you can download this electrical project file and unarchive it in SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

For reference while following this exercise, open, or download and print this PDF document.

Inserting Wires

First, place the power wires using the placement options to manage bends. See the video below and the first page of the PDF (Appendix 4A).

  1. In the Pages panel, right-click 03 - Electrical scheme and click Open.
  2. Click Schematic > Draw multiple wire.
  3. Optional: If the current wire is not N L1 L2 L3:
    1. In the Command panel, under Wire style selection > Name, click . . ..
    2. In the Wire style selector dialog box, click N L1 L2 L3 and click Select.
  4. In the Command panel, under Available wires, clear Protection.
  5. Click twice to draw the busbar across the top of the 03 - Electrical scheme drawing, starting in column 1 and ending in column 10, then click .

    See the video below starting at the 0:24 time point.

  6. To draw the motor circuit wires, click Schematic > Draw multiple wires.
  7. In the Command panel, under Available wires, clear Neutral wire.
  8. Click the brown wire on the power wire that you drew in step 5, then drag to draw the rest of the wire path.

    See the video below starting at the 0:34 time point and the PDF.

    Press C to insert a bend in the path. Press the spacebar to cross or uncross the conductors.

  9. Click Schematic > Draw multiple wires.
  10. In the Command panel, under Available wires, select Neutral wire and clear Phase 1 and Phase 3.

    This leaves only Phase 2 and Neutral selected.

  11. Draw the wire upstream of the transformer as shown in the video starting at the 1:02 time point and the PDF.

    Do not try to disconnect the phase on L2 directly. First, connect it to L1, then select and disconnect it from L1 using the handle (blue square). Finally, reconnect it to L2.

Next, insert the control-command wires.

  1. Click Schematic > Draw single wire.
  2. In the Command panel, under Wire style selection > Name, click . . ..
  3. In the Wire style selector dialog box, click = 48V and click Select.
  4. Draw the wires as shown in the video starting at the 1:38 time point and the PDF.

Inserting Symbols

Next, insert the required symbols. See the video below and the first page of the PDF (Appendix 4A).

The most efficient way to insert symbols is to use the palette. Even if this seems time-consuming to start with, once you create your own palette, you can find and insert symbols quickly.

  1. In the Symbols palette, click Protections to expand the Protections group.
  2. Double-click the three-pole circuit breaker, then drag it to the appropriate location as shown in the video starting at the 0:22 time point, and click OK.

    If the three-pole circuit breaker symbol is not in the Protections group, find it by searching for circuit breaker in the Find group.

    You can also find and insert symbols by clicking Schematic > Insert symbol. Click Other symbol . . . in the Command panel and find the symbol in the Symbol selector dialog box.

  3. In the Symbol properties dialog box, click OK.
  4. Continue to add other symbols as shown in the video starting at the 0:30 time point and the PDF.
  5. When you insert the motor symbol, associate it with the M1 motor. In the Symbol properties dialog box:
    1. In the Component list on the right side, expand L2 - Motor Room and select =F1-M1.
    2. Under User data on the left side, in the User data 1: field, enter Motor pump, and click OK.
      The manufacturer data is provided by the manufacturer part. Users enter the user data. You can propagate this data across the symbol if the associated attribute is present in the symbol definition.
  6. When you insert the second fuse symbol (F3), you can copy the first fuse symbol (F2). Click Schematic > Multiple copy, click the F2 fuse symbol, and locate the new symbol as shown in the video starting at the 2:10 time point and the PDF.

    The mark increments automatically, and the manufacturer part associated with the original symbol is also copied.

  7. When you insert the F4 and K1 symbols, use the Symbol orientation controls as shown in the video starting at the 2:22 time point to orient the symbols.

    When you insert a symbol on a wire, it is automatically oriented according to the wire. When you insert it outside the wire, you need to manage the orientation manually. Note the automatic generation of the cross references.

  8. Add the F4 wires and the auto-supply wires for K1 as shown in the video starting at the 3:21 time point and the second page of the PDF (Appendix 4B).

Assigning Manufacturer Parts

In this exercise, allocate the manufacturer parts using the information on the third page of the PDF document (Appendix 4C). For each symbol:

  1. For each symbol, perform the following steps.
  2. Right-click the symbol and click Component Properties.
  3. In the Component properties dialog box, on the Manufacturer part and circuits tab, click Search.
  4. In the Manufacturer part selection dialog box, on the , use the appropriate filters to limit your search, and click Search.

    See the video below starting at the 0:21 time point and the last page of the PDF.

  5. Select the appropriate part and click Add ([+]) below the search results list to allocate it to the symbol.
  6. Click Select and click OK.
    To add an auxiliary reference (such as a contacts block), repeat steps 4 to 6, selecting Auxiliary for Type. Sometimes you need to clear Class to find an auxiliary or an accessory. You can store them in another class (common to several references).