SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic uses intelligent symbols for the development of electrical, P&ID, schematic and general arrangement diagrams. The symbols supplied represent a variety of electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic processes, and instrumentation devices. The symbols are DWG file types that are inserted into drawings as blocks. Symbol intelligence is obtained from attributes that hold relevant information applied during the design process. SOLIDWORKS Electrical lets the user create a symbol completely from scratch for those unique circumstances where there may not be an ANSI or IEC symbol available for an electrical device.
Creating Symbols in SOLIDWORKS Electrical
When creating a symbol from scratch, it is recommended to create your symbol on a schematic that has a title block so you can make sure it is scaled correctly and that it is on grid. You can create your symbol by using static shapes and lines from the Draw tab in the ribbon menu.
Once your symbol is sketched, you will need to add it to the Symbol Library. You’ll want to open the Symbols manager and click on the icon that says New and fill in the necessary property fields. This is going to create a place holder for the new symbol.
Take note that when you create a new symbol, it’s going to show a blank tile for a place holder. You will need to open this symbol by right-clicking the blank tile and selecting Open. This will bring you into the symbol editor. Copy the symbol you have sketched up on the schematic with a title block and copy it into the symbol editor. You’ll know that you are in the symbol editor by seeing the name of the symbol on a purple tab just below the ribbon menu.
Then, add the connection points, set insertion point and add your desired attributes. Once complete, make sure you click the Save button in the top left of the screen next to the SOLIDWORKS Electrical logo.
Now, when you go to insert this symbol, you should see that the tile has an illustration of your symbol.
The symbol can be inserted into a schematic and wires can be connected to the connection points along with assigning a manufacture part to the symbol. When creating your own symbol, you still have all the same capabilities as you normally would using a default symbol. When creating a symbol from scratch it will live in the Symbol library until it is deleted.
Creating a symbol may not be as fast as downloading it off the Electrical Content portal or importing the symbol from another CAD tool. However, it is still very useful for those times when you need to represent a specific electrical component that doesn’t have a standard symbol.
Do you want to learn more about the features and tricks of SOLIDWORKS Electrical? Check out our Video Tech Tip library for electrical design and explore other tips that could help you improve your experience with the software.
