Features
Discover the wide range of features in AutoCAD® Electrical software that automate control design tasks, increase drafting productivity, and give electrical engineers a competitive edge.
Standards-Based Drafting & Components Libraries
Easily create standards-based designs that comply with industry requirements using AutoCAD® Electrical control design software. It supports international standards and provides comprehensive libraries of manufacturer content and symbols.
Extensive Manufacturers' Catalogue Content
Use real manufacturers' catalogue data to streamline the design process. AutoCAD Electrical comes with a manufacturers' catalogue database that contains more than 650,000 components and symbols from the industry's most popular vendors. These components provide a full spectrum of input and output (I/O) devices, including switches, sensors, lights, and numerous panel devices, such as wireway and panel enclosures.
Electrical Component Libraries
Easily select commonly used devices to quickly create electrical control systems designs. AutoCAD Electrical provides a simple menu-driven system for inserting electrical devices. Each menu provides access to a comprehensive symbol library that includes push buttons, selector switches, pilot lights, relays, contacts, fuses, terminals, and more.
Symbol Builder
Guide and manage the creation and conversion of AutoCAD® software blocks into intelligent AutoCAD Electrical symbols. Built on top of the AutoCAD Block Editor, the Symbol Builder helps create electrical symbols and black boxes that conform to the AutoCAD Electrical architecture.
Multidiscipline Symbol Libraries
Quickly generate accurate pneumatic, hydraulic, and piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) schematics. The comprehensive symbol libraries include devices such as valves, operators, manifolds, meters, regulators, filters, and more.
Support for Multiple Design Standards
Meet your customers' design requirements with support for the JIC, IEC, JIS, and GB international standards. Select symbol libraries, cross-reference settings, wire and device tagging conventions, and much more to meet geographic design requirements.
User-Defined Attributes
Add custom attributes to AutoCAD Electrical symbols and have their contents available in any project reports. Easily communicate company-specific design data by using newly defined metadata to extract information for standard reports.
Electrical Design & Drafting Productivity Tools
Easily create standards-based designs that comply with industry requirements using AutoCAD® Electrical control design software. It supports international standards and provides comprehensive libraries of manufacturer content and symbols.
Extensive Manufacturers' Catalogue Content
Use real manufacturers' catalogue data to streamline the design process. AutoCAD Electrical comes with a manufacturers' catalogue database that contains more than 650,000 components and symbols from the industry's most popular vendors. These components provide a full spectrum of input and output (I/O) devices, including switches, sensors, lights, and numerous panel devices, such as wireway and panel enclosures.
Electrical Component Libraries
Easily select commonly used devices to quickly create electrical control systems designs. AutoCAD Electrical provides a simple menu-driven system for inserting electrical devices. Each menu provides access to a comprehensive symbol library that includes push buttons, selector switches, pilot lights, relays, contacts, fuses, terminals, and more.
Symbol Builder
Guide and manage the creation and conversion of AutoCAD® software blocks into intelligent AutoCAD Electrical symbols. Built on top of the AutoCAD Block Editor, the Symbol Builder helps create electrical symbols and black boxes that conform to the AutoCAD Electrical architecture.
Multidiscipline Symbol Libraries
Quickly generate accurate pneumatic, hydraulic, and piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) schematics. The comprehensive symbol libraries include devices such as valves, operators, manifolds, meters, regulators, filters, and more.
Support for Multiple Design Standards
Meet your customers' design requirements with support for the JIC, IEC, JIS, and GB international standards. Select symbol libraries, cross-reference settings, wire and device tagging conventions, and much more to meet geographic design requirements.
User-Defined Attributes
Add custom attributes to AutoCAD Electrical symbols and have their contents available in any project reports. Easily communicate company-specific design data by using newly defined metadata to extract information for standard reports.
Error Checking & Prevention
AutoCAD® Electrical software includes automatic error-checking capabilities that help designers perform real-time diagnostics to catch problems before the build phase of a project.
Automatic Wire Numbering and Component Tagging
Spending long hours manually assigning wire numbers and component tags is a thing of the past, as are the potential errors inherent in that process. AutoCAD Electrical drafting software automatically places sequential or reference-based numbers on all wires and components, based on the configuration you choose. Reference-based numbers and tags automatically get a suffix when necessary so that names are unique and the software can renumber the entities as the design requirements change. This numbering convention is flexible enough to meet nearly any design requirement.
In addition, if AutoCAD Electrical determines that an inserted wire number will "bump into" something, it automatically searches laterally along the wire for a clear spot to place the wire number. If that fails, it searches for a clear spot away from the wire. When it finds one, it places the number and automatically draws a leader back to the wire.
Real-Time Error Checking
Avoid costly errors at build time by catching and removing errors during design. AutoCAD Electrical drafting software constantly compares the requested changes with the current project and alerts you to potential errors such as duplicated wire numbers or component tags as they occur.
Real-Time Coil and Contact Cross-Referencing
Significantly reduce the risk of costly mistakes associated with assigning too many contacts to a relay. AutoCAD Electrical sets up a parent/child relationship between the two and keeps track of how many contacts are assigned to any given coil or multi-contact device. When you exceed the limit, you get an alert.
Another benefit of this feature is the ability to assign the next available set of terminal pin numbers to each inserted "child" contact, based on the pin list properties of the parent coil. Display cross-referencing information in almost any format on the drawings, and run cross-referencing reports at any time.
Electrical Audit Report
Missing or incorrect wire numbers can cause major headaches. Use the audit report function to analyze and report such design anomalies so you can correct them before they reach manufacturing.
Schematic Design Tools
With AutoCAD® Electrical software, you can create and modify electrical schematics more accurately and in a fraction of the time it takes with AutoCAD® software.
Electrical-Specific Drafting Commands
Save hours of design time using specialised drafting features in AutoCAD Electrical, developed specifically for designing control systems. Quickly trim wires, copy and delete components or circuits, and scoot and align components for easier drawing creation.
Ladders and Reference Line Numbers
Use the flexible ladder insertion functionality in AutoCAD Electrical to quickly place ladders into a drawing, minimising the redundancy of creating control drawings. Place ladders horizontally or vertically while maintaining complete control over all ladder characteristics, including rung spacing, number of rungs, and ladder width. Reduce tedious manual processes with automatic placement of reference line numbers based on a predefined configuration.
Visual Wiring Sequence Indicators
Efficiently communicate design intent to manufacturing and avoid wiring errors by graphically indicating the proper wiring sequence of a circuit directly on the electrical schematic. When you make changes to a wire sequence, the updated information is automatically reflected in the from/to wire list report.
Revise Ladder
You don't have to start from scratch when you need to modify a ladder in your design. Use the Revise Ladder command to modify ladders already inserted into drawings. Without deleting and starting over again, you can modify most aspects of the ladder, including rung spacing and number of rungs, as well as starting and ending reference numbers. This single command saves hours of manual editing and helps focus your time on high-value work.
Insert Rungs
Being able to quickly insert rungs into an existing ladder greatly speeds up the drafting of electrical control schematics. Simply click anywhere inside a ladder to insert a new rung complete with wire connection dots and automatically align it with the corresponding wire numbers.
Three-Phase Motor Control
Save time and increase productivity when creating three-phase motor circuits. Quickly design motor circuits using intelligent, built-in symbol libraries that include three-pole breakers, switches, motor contactors, and more. When you insert them, these symbols adapt to the underlying three-phase rung spacing automatically.
Connector Generator
Quickly generate connectors by providing minimal information, such as the number of pins and orientation. The resulting connector is ready to be wired into a design. With AutoCAD Electrical, you'll be able to generate accurate point-to-point style designs in a fraction of the time it takes with traditional AutoCAD software.
Automatic Wire Gaps
Effortlessly create easy-to-read schematics. Whenever two wires cross in an electrical design, AutoCAD Electrical automatically indicates which wire passes through. You can choose from wire gaps, loops, or solid wires to show crossing wires.
Source and Destination Markers
Quickly track wires from page to page within a project. When a wire starts on one drawing and continues onto another, you can connect them electronically using the source and destination signals.
Cable and Conductor Tracking for Electrical Schematics
Easily manage cable and conductor usage in AutoCAD Electrical projects with automatic tracking capabilities. Designate individual wires as belonging to a cable, and then generate reports based on cable usage for fabrication purposes. Similar to inserting components, when you assign manufacturer part number information to cables, AutoCAD Electrical automatically tracks and reports conductor usage based on that part number.
Project Interface
Easily manage and navigate the many individual DWGTM files that make up an electrical control systems project with the AutoCAD Electrical project interface. The intuitive file management features in AutoCAD Electrical let you spend more time designing and less time organising files.
Panel Layout Tools
AutoCAD® Electrical software makes it easy to quickly create panel layout drawings, while intelligent updating helps to reduce errors.
Create Smart Panel Layout Drawings from Electrical Schematics
When you use AutoCAD® Electrical to create panel layout drawings, the software gives you a systematic means of making sure checking that no devices are missed and makes an electronic link between the representation of the device in the schematic and panel drawings.
Here's how it works: Once you have created an electrical schematic, the software extracts a list of schematic components for placement in the panel layout drawings. You simply choose a device from the list and drag it into place. The physical "footprint" representation of each schematic device is inserted into the layout at the point you select. Then the software creates an electronic link between the schematic and panel device representations. So when you change key data on one drawing, you get a prompt for permission to update the other. Even non-schematic items like wire duct and mounting hardware can be added to the layout and automatically combined to create a "smart" panel bill of materials (BOM) report.
Starting Designs with a Panel Layout Drawing
AutoCAD Electrical provides a flexible design environment that works the way you want to work. You can start designs by creating a panel layout drawing, using it to drive the creation of the corresponding logical control schematics. This feature gives you the boost you need for tight turnaround times and supports the needs of individual designers.
Location Boxes and Markers
Quickly and easily associate groups of devices with a specific panel location using the Location Box command. Apply location markers on the schematic that represent the corresponding panel location. This capability makes it easy to identify locations for a device or group of devices, resulting in more accurate panel layouts.
Insert Balloons on Panel Devices-Enhanced
Save time by automatically annotating control panel drawings with intelligent item balloons that coincide with the panel BOM.
Comprehensive Terminal Management
AutoCAD® Electrical software enables you to increase design accuracy and reduce the complexity of working with terminals in a control design.
Terminal Strip Editor
Easily manage and edit terminals throughout a project with the simplified Terminal Strip Editor interface. With only a few clicks, you can insert spare terminals or make modifications, such as reversing the left and right wiring information for a terminal.
Terminal Jumpers
Easily view, create, and edit jumpers within the Terminal Strip Editor. Reduce design time and help eliminate errors by accurately representing terminal jumpers as part of the control design.
Graphical Terminal Strip Generator
Slash design time by automatically generating graphical terminal strip layouts based on schematic design information for use in panel layout drawings or terminal plans. You can choose to generate these terminal strips in a graphical or table format. AutoCAD Electrical automatically populates terminal strip layouts with the wiring information for each side of the strip as defined in the Terminal Strip Editor.
Inserting Spare Terminals
Provide accurate bill of material (BOM) information by eliminating the guesswork encountered when planning for spare terminal needs. Users can insert spare terminals through the Terminal Strip Editor and accurately update various terminal reports.
Direct to Terminal Wire Sequencing
Deliver more accurate reports by taking advantage of the flexibility in the level of control available when defining the wire connection sequence. Land wires from multiple devices onto a common terminal, and have all information accurately reflected in various terminal and wiring reports.
Multi-Tier Terminals
Reduce the complexity of using multilevel terminals in a control design. AutoCAD Electrical enables you to define and manage the terminal numbers as well as all connectivity information, within a single, easy-to-use dialogue.
Data Management & Reporting Tools
AutoCAD® Electrical design software includes built-in tools that instantly generate and update critical reports so you can reduce errors, provide accurate information to manufacturing, and save hours on document maintenance. Fully integrated data management tools make it easy to securely store and manage your work-in-process electrical design data.
Automatic Report Generation
Drastically reduce the time required to create and update reports, while removing associated errors of producing reports manually. Report generation in AutoCAD Electrical is simple, customisable, and gives you the option of running multiple reports with a single command.
You can automatically generate reports that cover bills of material (BOM), from/to wire lists, PLC I/O, terminal plans, cable summaries, and cross-referencing reports.
Customise reports to display relevant information by sorting and filtering available fields, which can be run on a current drawing, collection of drawings, the entire project, or a specific location or panel. Place reports into a drawing as a smart table object that can be easily updated later or saved to a file. AutoCAD Electrical supports saving reports in ASCII, Microsoft® Excel®, Microsoft® AccessTM, CSV, or XML formats.
Surfable Reports
Navigate reports and their corresponding designs with the surfable reports feature. When you place reports into a design as a table, you can click the various fields to instantly find the corresponding devices in the schematics or panel layout drawings.
Drawing List Report
AutoCAD Electrical can extract a list of project drawings that lists drawing numbers, titles, dates, revisions, and other important data. Create a list of data extracted from the project drawing title blocks and save to file, print, or insert it into a drawing.
Integrated Data Management
Accelerate development cycles and increase your ROI by reusing existing designs. AutoCAD Electrical includes integrated data management tools for workgroups that securely store and manage work-in-progress electrical design data and related documents.
Autodesk Vault Manufacturing
Autodesk® Vault Manufacturing software, previously known as Autodesk® Productstream®, securely stores and manages engineering information, design data, and documents-shortening the design-to-manufacturing process. It helps design, engineering, and manufacturing departments collaborate and share digital prototyping information with multisite tools to connect workgroups across discrete locations. Take full advantage of advanced functionality by giving design departments the tools they need to track engineering change orders, manage BOMs and promote earlier collaboration through integration to manufacturing business systems. In addition, for Vault clients using non-Autodesk design products, support for multi-CAD environments means that customers with mixed environments can manage all engineering data throughout the product lifecycle.
Collaboration & Interoperability
Easily incorporate your electrical control designs into your mechanical designs with AutoCAD® Electrical software. The sharing of accurate design data between AutoCAD Electrical and other Autodesk applications enables electrical and mechanical teams to smoothly collaborate on digital prototypes.
Link to Cable and Harness Functionality of Autodesk Inventor Professional
Quickly create accurate 2D and 3D electrical control designs using the bi-directional interoperability between AutoCAD Electrical and Autodesk® Inventor® Professional software. Pass electrical intent information for cables and conductors from AutoCAD Electrical to Autodesk Inventor Professional to automatically create a 3D harness design. And, pass wire-connectivity information from Autodesk Inventor Professional to AutoCAD Electrical to automatically create the corresponding 2D schematics.
Share Drawings and Track Changes
Easily exchange data with customers or suppliers in native DWGTM format. AutoCAD Electrical drawings can be viewed and edited by any DWGTM-compatible program such as AutoCAD® software or AutoCAD® LT software. With the built-in AutoCAD Electrical revision tracking functionality, you can track all changes made to your drawings since the last update, no matter how many people accessed them.
Publish Designs on the Web
AutoCAD Electrical makes it easy to share designs with your extended enterprise by publishing either individual drawings or entire projects on the web. AutoCAD Electrical creates the HTML pages as well as the links you need to post your complete design to the web. Additionally, you can allow customers or vendors to drag your drawings into "live" AutoCAD sessions, where the drawings maintain their complete AutoCAD Electrical intelligence.
DWF Tools
Publish DWFTM files directly from Autodesk manufacturing design applications, and securely collaborate on 2D and 3D designs with customers, suppliers, planners, and others outside your engineering workgroup. Using free* Autodesk® Design Review software, team members can digitally review, measure, mark-up, and comment on your 2D and 3D designs while protecting your intellectual property. Tight integration with Autodesk manufacturing products enables accurate communication of design information, including assembly instructions, bills of material (BOMs), and finite element analysis (FEA) results without requiring CAD expertise. Autodesk Design Review software automatically tracks comments and their status, and the DWF-based markups can be round-tripped, helping speed the revision process and minimise information loss.
Multiuser Environment
Collaborate more effectively and increase productivity while sharing projects within workgroups. AutoCAD Electrical control design software provides drawing status indicators and better control of project-wide commands to improve efficiency in multi-user environments.
Programmable Logic Control Tools
AutoCAD® Electrical includes a set of tools specifically designed to increase your productivity and accuracy when working with PLC I/O drawings.
PLC I/O Libraries
Quickly create PLC I/O drawings by selecting from a library of more than 3,000 intelligent PLC I/O modules from the industry's most popular vendors.
PLC Module Builder
The programmable logic controller (PLC) module builder makes it easy to add PLC I/O modules to the standard library. Using a graphical interface, simply add modules you need that aren't included in the current library.
Automatically Create PLC/IO Drawings from Spreadsheets
Generate a complete set of PLC I/O drawings simply by defining the project's I/O assignments in a spreadsheet program. This capability can save you a tremendous amount of design time by virtually eliminating the need to create those drawings in an AutoCAD® environment.
Once the drawings have been created, easily export the I/O information and descriptions to a format that most PLC programming software packages can read. The PLC programmer won't need to recreate addresses and their descriptions. Then import the descriptions on each PLC I/O point into your PLC program to maintain consistency between your drawings and your PLC program.
PLC I/O Import/Export
Export critical I/O address and description information into multiple file formats. Exchange data bi-directionally between AutoCAD Electrical and Rockwell Automation's PLC programming software or Schneider Electric's UnityTM software products. Reusing crucial design data between AutoCAD Electrical and the corresponding PLC program helps you reduce design time and minimise errors.
Data Migration Tools
Save hours of rework by leveraging your existing design data from AutoCAD® and other products. Automatically convert data into intelligent AutoCAD® Electrical designs without losing previous customisations.
Migration Utility-New
The migration utility lets you easily migrate from your previous version of AutoCAD Electrical design software to the latest release while preserving your existing data and settings.
AutoCAD Data Migration
Quickly bring existing designs created in AutoCAD® or AutoCAD LT® software into AutoCAD Electrical for further modification with the data migration utilities. The migration tools in AutoCAD Electrical, drastically speed up the conversion of native AutoCAD data into intelligent AutoCAD Electrical designs. You'll be able to realise the advantages of using purpose-built electrical design tools faster.
promis•e Data Migration
Users of promis•e® software can avoid hours of rework by easily migrating designs into AutoCAD Electrical design software using the promis•e data migration tools.
Content Database Merge Utility
Use this powerful utility to easily merge existing manufacturer catalogue databases, PLC I/O libraries, footprint lookup databases, and corresponding footprint symbols with content delivered in each new release. You'll be able take full advantage of content additions in new releases, without losing previous customisations you made to current content libraries.
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