then uncheck the box Display on home run. Your home run arrow is a closed filled arrow by default. You can choose a different arrow, none at all, or display an arrow for each circuit. You also can specify how wire crosses over other wire or how it shows to connect.
Circuiting handles how circuits that are added in Circuit Manager. Circuit Manager is a tool to control the circuits in a panel. You can have a prefix in the name such as LPT so the first panel would be LPT1. You can number them in order sequentially or by poles increasing number or grouping. You can also check or display overloads when a load reaches any percentage of the circuit rating you enter or an ambient temperature of the wire. Electrical Project Database is to enter the path of a file AutoCAD MEP uses to circuit across multiple drawings (such as xrefs).
product focus
AutoCAD MEP
I’ll give you more tips on some of this in the last part of this series with tips and tricks. Preferences on the Manage tab covers Electrical, Conduit, and Cable Trays. Some of the preferences are the same as in duct. We’ll look at the differences.
Conduit Layout Preferences are very similar to duct preferences in the routing tab. All of these can be set on the fly as well. The Annotations tab gives you the options to have labels of systems or arrows and parts gives us the ability to select parts that will be automatically inserted when we change elevation or direction. Conduit works very much like piping. Connections really only lists the connection style, which for conduit is conduit. Go figure. Electrical preferences has three tabs to offer. Voltage Definitions is the first and generally isn’t one I see users change. You can edit any of the minimum or maximum settings by clicking in the field to change. Adding new is the button at the bottom with the * and the button with the x will delete one.
Cable Tray Layout Preferences has the same routing and parts as conduit. The annotation is visual as to how the pattern appears. You have the label and flow arrows also found in other preferences.
September 2011
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