Modest opinion of AB’s CAD drawings

What on earth is wrong with them?

a) Some in imperial, some in metric
b) Some in imperial or metric, undefined, at 1:2 scale
c) Have fun with 440R Guardmaster drawings
d) Some of the above with 92,827,225,292,623 lines, polylines, and polygons
e) 2D 1756 rack drawings at a 45 degree ‘3D’ angle

JeremyM said:

What on earth is wrong with them?

a) Some in imperial, some in metric
b) Some in imperial or metric, undefined, at 1:2 scale
c) Have fun with 440R Guardmaster drawings
d) Some of the above with 92,827,225,292,623 lines, polylines, and polygons
e) 2D 1756 rack drawings at a 45 degree ‘3D’ angle

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They don't have one CAD guy. George does it his way, Paul does it his way, Larry does it his way. Then you have the problem of time. These products are introduced over a long time span, managers come and go, people come and go. So you might have had "we do it this way" in 2004, in 2008 we now do it this way, 2014 we now do it this way. Add all that up, you get your a-e situation.

Yeah, I just wanted a front view of a PLC to plop into a panel layout drawing, not a model that shows every intricate detail of every mechanical component. I have spent too many hours exploding, selecting and deleting extra stuff just to create my own blocks that are usable. I gave up trying to figure out whether they're scaled or not, I just know if they end up 25.4 times too big, then I get to scale them back to real life size...

I think their models originated from a variety of sources and were obviously never standardized before publishing.

dmroeder said:

George does it his way, Paul does it his way, Larry does it his way.

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I think you are mistaken... There was no Larry it was Ringo and John

I see I missed an opportunity here.

I think it would be nice if they, and other manufacturers, had a clip-art library of there products that could be used for drawings and proposals.

Search Google Images and a lot of photos come up, but not straight-on shots that clearly show the products.

P.S. - there was a Larry, just no George or Paul - it was Moe & Curly (or Joe, Curly-Joe, or back the original vaudeville member - Shemp)

I downloaded the IAB (Integrated Architecture Builder). It includes a ton of .png files that you can use in proposals or Visio.

Aabeck said:

I think it would be nice if they, and other manufacturers, had a clip-art library of there products that could be used for drawings and proposals.

Search Google Images and a lot of photos come up, but not straight-on shots that clearly show the products.

P.S. - there was a Larry, just no George or Paul - it was Moe & Curly (or Joe, Curly-Joe, or back the original vaudeville member - Shemp)

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The Siemens library is here, both pictures & cartoons. Also at least some CAD. All downloadable in a variety of formats.
https://www.automation.siemens.com/bilddb/index.aspx?lang=en

Edit:
Also, I think the TIA Selection Tool has a lot of those pictures buried in its folder for its own use.

I think my favourite AB cad files tricks are:
1. Drawings that are scaled not in inches OR mm, but in 2 inches. That is, to scale it to mm, you have to multiply it not by 25.4, but by 12.7
2. When you attempt to download a 2D model, but what you've given is a 3D model, so you try again thinking you must have clicked on the "3D" link by mistake - but no, both the 2D and 3D download link give you the same 3D model, leaving you with half an hour of poking and prodding to get an accurate 2D representation of the thing.

Fortunately I've been at this a while, and save every block I use, so I now have a reasonably comprehensive library of devices.

ASF said:

Fortunately I've been at this a while, and save every block I use, so I now have a reasonably comprehensive library of devices.

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HMMM... Can you share it?

You did know someone would ask, didn't you?

I may be dumb or something.
When I import a drawing (DWG) the first thing I do is import it into a new drawing sheet.
Set the sheet dimensions to metric or inch depending on the imported drawing.
Find a clearly defined dimension on the drawing then set 2 points on that dimension and set those. points as a fixed distance in the drawing.
All the dimensions will now be changed to match the fixed scale.
The drawing is now scaled correctly.
I can change the dimensions from metric to inch or whatever I need.
Save my new drawing as a symbol and I use that symbol on any drawing I want.
I have been doing that for years without any problems, I thought that’s what everybody did it I guess I missed something someplace.
When I am ready to build the panel I make paper temples for whatever hardware I am using. Tape them on the panel use them as the final payout and check, pinch and drill the panel from there.
I think it’s great if I can get good CAD drawings of the hardware I am using it makes panel payout much easier and more accurate.

1 - Flatten
2 - Scale
3 - Beer

Mickey said:

HMMM... Can you share it?

You did know someone would ask, didn't you?

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I'm away from the office for a little while and don't have the sort of bandwidth to upload that much data, but when I'm back in the office I'll see what I can do. Although it's only partly AB stuff, and definitely not exhaustive in terms of AB's product range. We use a lot of different brands for different things.

Jeev said:

1 - Flatten
2 - Scale
3 - Beer

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I'm going to have to investigate the "flatten" you speak of. I'm completely self taught on autocad so I do from time to time find things like this that make me bang my head against the table for not finding it years ago.

If it does what I think it does, then #3 is on me next time you're in Melbourne

ASF said:

I'm going to have to investigate the "flatten" you speak of. I'm completely self taught on autocad so I do from time to time find things like this that make me bang my head against the table for not finding it years ago.

If it does what I think it does, then #3 is on me next time you're in Melbourne

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I too am self-taught, which means there may be a better way, but this works fine for me! Flatten should turn your 3D into a 2D with the option to remove hidden detail.

ASF said:

I'm away from the office for a little while and don't have the sort of bandwidth to upload that much data, but when I'm back in the office I'll see what I can do. Although it's only partly AB stuff, and definitely not exhaustive in terms of AB's product range. We use a lot of different brands for different things.

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Don't do it just for me as I don't work anymore. I just though someone else
might be interested.