Electrical Design Software | Elecdes Design Suite by Scada Systems Ltd

How to Place a Panel

Procedure

  1. To place a panel you need to use the Place Panel entry in the Construction menu.

    You will be presented with the Place Panel Dialog shown below.

    • The set of data fields on the right of the dialog box contains the information about the panel that you are going to insert. You can manually enter data into these fields or click on the Catalog tab at the top of the dialog to pick a panel from a catalog. For an explanation of each of the fields for a panel, see the Panel Attributes reference item.

    • On the left side of the dialog you will see the Previous Components list. To learn more about how to use this, see the Using Previous Components reference item.

    • If you have an Elecdes bill of materials, you can import panels from it to Paneldes. To learn more about this, see the Using Components from Elecdes reference item.

    • If you wish you can choose that the Panel does or does not have side mounting plates with the checkbox provided. These would be useful for those users attaching components to and inserting components in the panel such as Panel builders. For those users purely concerned with cable routing around a plant you should disable the addition of side plates on your many panels as they will significantly increase the size of your plant model for no benefit and routing speed will be reduced.

  2. Once you think you have provided sufficient information to construct the panel, click on the Construct button. If you have not entered sufficient information for Paneldes to construct your panel, you will be warned that one or more parameters are missing.

    You may also be warned that a panel with the same tagname and location as the one you are about to place already exists on the drawing. You may duplicate the component but it is not recommended to do so as it will cause problems when you come to generate cable routes.

  3. Once you have fixed any problems, click construct again. The dialog will disappear and you will be asked to pick the position for the panel on the AutoCAD command line. You will also notice that the cursor will be showing you a white box representing the outline of the panel you are about to place.

  4. For a full description of all the available options when placing a Paneldes object, see the Placing Paneldes Objects reference.

  5. Once you have chosen the position and orientation for the panel you can, either, click the left mouse button or type in the position on the command line as a 3D point and push enter. The panel will be constructed and you will be returned to the Place Panel Dialog ready to place another panel.

  6. If you want to undo the last panel you have constructed, click on the Undo button. Your drawing will be restored to the state it was in, prior to you constructing the panel. This button is equivalent to the AutoCAD undo command.

  7. To exit without constructing another panel, click on the Exit button or close with the X in the corner of the window.


You can choose to GROUP your 3D blocks (label block or realistic 3D block) - Paneldes will make an "AutoCAD group" when the PANEL and 3D block are inserted and this will simplify selecting these items during later editing. The default action is to group these items.

You can choose to GROUP all PLATES on PANEL components - Paneldes will make an "AutoCAD group" when the PANELS and PLATES are inserted and this will simplify selecting these items during later editing. The default action is to group these items.