How to Insert an Assembly
Fundamentals
An assembly is a group of component symbols and conductor lines for a user-defined part of a circuit that you will want to insert multiple times. Each inserted assembly is assigned a user-defined name. The circuit elements in an assembly are contained in a CAD "group" so they are easy to select and move as a unit. Despite the grouping, you can move, stretch, hide and show individual parts or attributes, just like you can with any other circuit.
Inserting a new Assembly
Select from the Elecdes ribbon panel, or select from the > menu, or run INSERTASSEMBLY from the CAD command line.
The file-open dialog from your CAD package will be displayed.
Choose the assembly file template that you want to insert. You may have the option to see a preview of the assembly in the file-open dialog depending on your CAD package configuration.
Select the insert point for the assembly.
You may be offered options to change the assembly via keywords for the insertion function. Applicable keywords will be listed after the command prompt.
Enter the keyword "File" on the CAD command line to choose a different assembly file.
Enter the keyword "Orientation" on the CAD command line to switch between horizontal and vertical versions of the same assembly if both are available.
The "Insert Assembly" dialog will be displayed.
In this dialog you can change component names, select component specifications from the catalog and you must enter a name for the inserted assembly.
You can directly enter PANEL, TAGNAME or SUBTAG values.
Grid-editor functions are available such as: sorting records, incrementing values and various advanced insert, copy and paste options.
The CATALOG column is read-only and contains a summary of the current catalog specification for each component symbol.
To change the catalog specification, select one or more symbol records and click .
Enter a name for the inserted assembly into the Assembly name edit box at the bottom.
The assembly and any duplicates of it will be referred to by this name in assembly functions and reports.
You can enter any name for this assembly that suits your purposes but it should be unique in the project.
Click when you are satisifed with the data for the assembly.
The assembly will be inserted and the attributes will be set to the values from the dialog.
Inserting a reference or duplicate of an Assembly
Select from the Elecdes ribbon panel, or select from the > menu, or run REFASSEMBLY from the CAD command line.
A dialog will be displayed from which you can choose one of the existing assemblies that have been inserted into any of your project drawings.
You can right click on the column headings to sort the list or to enter a filter for one or more columns to help you find the assembly that you want to duplicate.
The column ID is a unique identifier, Assembly Name is the user-defined name that you gave to the assembly, Panel number lists the panels of the components in the inserted assembly, Drawing is the name of the drawing on which the existing assembly is inserted, and Assembly File is the name of the assembly file template that was inserted.
Choose one assembly and click .
Select the insert point for the assembly.
By default you will be dragging the same assembly file template as the existing assembly that you chose. You may wish to change the file to an assembly that represents the same components but with a variation in layout, attribute or symbol visibility.
Applicable keywords will be listed after the command prompt.
Enter the keyword "File" on the CAD command line to choose a different assembly file.
Enter the keyword "Orientation" on the CAD command line to switch between horizontal and vertical versions of the same assembly if both are available.
The "Insert Assembly" dialog will be displayed.
In most cases the contents of this dialog are read-only, showing the component symbol values from the existing assembly that you chose at the start.
If the assembly file template that you are inserting has more symbols than the existing assembly, then one or more symbol records can be edited, as they can in the procedure to insert a new assembly, above.
Click when you are satisifed with the data for the assembly.
The assembly will be inserted and the attributes will be set to the values from the dialog.
The Assembly Name of a reference or duplicate assembly is the same as the existing assembly, as are the component symbol tag names and other attributes.
The RSTATUS attribute will be set to "DUPLICATED" in every symbol of the reference or duplicate assembly.
Assembly Entities and Attributes
The symbols and lines of an inserted assembly will be put into a new uniquely named CAD group.
All of the symbols will have assembly attributes added:
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| ASMBLYID | Automatically assigned identifier for this inserted assembly. Unique in each drawing. |
| ASMBLYFILE | File name of the assembly file template that was inserted. |
| ASMBLYNAME | The user-defined Assembly Name that you entered for the assembly (the same in any references or duplicates of the assembly). |
| ASMBLYSYMB | Symbol number or identifier used to match a specific inserted symbol back to the symbol in the assembly file template. |