A nameplate is inserted on to the drawing as a block. It can either be referenced to an existing component footprint block or inserted as a stand-alone nameplate.
When tied to a component footprint, the component footprint is the parent and the nameplate is a child of that parent. AutoCAD Electrical toolset establishes the link automatically by using invisible Xdata pointers on each block. It is different from the schematic parent/child link where a common "TAG1/TAG2" tag ID defines the relationship. AutoCAD Electrical toolset automatically annotates the nameplate with the description data lines and tag value of the parent (if the nameplate block carries these target attribute names).
Several generic, rectangular nameplates with stretchable boundaries are provided. Three generic nameplates are shown on the panel icon menu nameplates page. Each of them consists of a nested block, which AutoCAD Electrical toolset explodes and groups upon insertion. The rectangular outline of the resulting nameplate can be stretched using AutoCAD Grips or the Stretch Window command. You can also create your own stretchable nameplate symbols.