How to Configure the Cable Routing Settings

Select Preferences from the Paneldes Menu. Choose the Cable Routing tab at the top of the dialog.

Connection

Device to Duct	The distance for panels and devices to connect to raceway segments.
End to End	The distance for any two raceway segments meeting at endpoints to be connected.
End to Mid	The distance for any two raceway segments intersecting anywhere along their lengths to be connected.
Non Split Distance	Limits the size of the splitting allowed when routing. i.e. a length segment will not be split if it produces a segment shorter than this value.
Conduit to Trench	The maximum connection distance for a conduit to connect to a trench.
Snug-fit distance	The distance below which to consider two raceway segments to be snugly fitted together.
Max Angle Tolerance	The maximum deviation angle from a straight line that a cable can take at a join of two length segments.
Cable Cloud Radius	An alternative distance used to connect panels or devices to raceway segments when there is no segment within the Device to Duct distance. The distance used for finding segments within a "cloud" around the closest segment that the routing algorithm can find.
Max Device to Duct	The maximum distance the Automatic Settings calculator will find for the Device to Duct setting.
Max End to End	The maximum distance the Automatic Settings calculator will find for the End to End setting.
Max End to Mid	The maximum distance the Automatic Settings calculator will find for the End to Mid setting.
Automatically suggest Cable route settings	When you click on this button routing algorithm will Automatically find and suggest connection settings for your plant model (currently opened in Paneldes). This button is enabled only when you open Routing:Cable on Paneldes preferences while Routing and Viewing Cables.

Routing

Group Cables by Location	Cables running between the same location (panel/device) will be routed together (i.e. follow the same route) if this setting is turned on. See Conductor list sorting in the topic Routing Functions Description.
Exclude Raceway and devices in panels	For Cable reports, you can control the exclusion of raceway inside panels. By default, Paneldes removes any raceway that is inside a panel from the analysis. TIP: If you know that you have not placed any raceway inside any panels then you can remove the tick from this option. This will increase the speed of the route optimisation as the exclusion step is skipped. There will be no difference to the result. Clear the box Exclude raceway in panels to increase speed on pure plant models. The "exclude raceway in panels" checkbox also causes the router to ignore devices inside those same panels. The cables will route directly to the Panels containing the devices (which is more efficient for speed and memory).
Hide Duct Bank Conduits	For Cable reports, you can optionally hide the conduits inside ductbanks. This generates an estimated cable report that uses only the trench segments on the model, not the conduits within them. The generation of the report may be faster because potentially many conduits are removed from the analysis. This option should be used in preparation for ductbank editing. See Preparation for Ductbank Editing in the section How to generate wire and cable routes. Tick the box Hide Ductbank Conduits to make a faster estimated cable report for ductbank editing.
Large Cable Cutoff	Cables with cable factor above the size specified here will be processed before cable grouping is done. These 'large' cables will be routed first. Other cables, grouped or otherwise, will be done after these. If this setting is 0.0 then no cables are considered to be 'large' cables and instead all cables can be grouped by location if that option is enabled. See Conductor list sorting in the topic Routing Functions Description.
Alt. Route Limit	The length limit, from the shortest route to the longest route, within which those routes are considered viable alternatives to each other. The final choice of route is made from this list of viable routes (all within Alt Route Limit of the shortest of them) but the final choice from the list is not based solely on length.

Length Reporting

Trim Wastage and Additional Trim Wastage (%)	Added to each length of cable to allow for some extra length over and above the exact length (e.g. for stress relief, trimming, connection etc.). The variables can be either a set size (e.g. 2m) or a percentage (e.g. 10%). Using both settings allows a mix of set value and percentage.
Corner Correction (%)	Unused at present. For future use.

Filling

Use NEC filling	Specifies whether Paneldes will use the NEC code to calculate raceway fill. See NEC filling.
NEC Signals Power Levels	Two or more power levels used for control or instrumentation (signals) cables and trays for NEC fill calculations. See NEC filling. You can use one or both boxes and each box supports the entry of multiple comma-separated power numbers.
Report Conductor Filling as Raw Fill	When this setting is turned on, Paneldes will report the conduit fill info as the simple cable factor used percentage, without including the NEC derating factor based on the number of cables in the conduit.
Maximum NEC fill for conduits 1 - 3+ cables	The maximum fill allowed in a conduit for 1 cable, 2 cables and for 3 or more cables in the conduit. A derating factor for conduit filling. Specified independently for conduit carrying power versus signals/control cables. See NEC filling.