About DIN Rails

The Din Rail is generated based on data held in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet called WDDINRL.XLS. Each row in the main worksheet, DIN_RAIL, represents a rail type. The Manufacturer, Catalog, and Description fields are used to create the drop-down list on the dialog box. In addition, each rail type has a corresponding worksheet named to match the catalog number. This worksheet defines some parameters based on the number of slots calculated from the rail length.

Spreadsheet fields

MFG

Manufacturer.

CAT

Catalog Number.

ASSYCODE

Assembly code.

DESC

Description used for dialog listing only.

RAILWID

Din rail width; distance between the top and bottom rail lines.

RAILCEN

Distance between the din rail centerlines.

RAILCEN1

Distance between the din rail centerlines; used for nonsymmetrical din rails.

RAILCEN2

Distance between bottom center line and the slot centers; used for nonsymmetrical din rails.

RAIL2SLOTCEN

Distance from the origin of the din rail to the center of the slots; used for off-center din rails.

RAIL2ENDBASE

Distance from the origin of the din rail to the din rail bottom; used for off-center din rails.

RAILLENSTD

Standard length of din rail.

RAILLENMIN

Minimum length of rail piece.

SLOTOFS

Distance from the beginning of the din rail to the center of the first slot.

SLOTCEN2CEN

Distance between slots measured from the center of each slot.

SLOTLEN

Length of each slot. Enter a SLOTLEN of 0.0 to generate a block without slots.

SLOTWID

Width of each slot.

CHANNEL

Distance from channel line to the origin; repeated for each channel line.

CHANNEL_END

Distance from origin to channel end for each channel.

MIN_SHIFT

Length of rail to shift from one piece of rail to the next to make sure last piece is not less than the minimum length.

NCHOLE

Name of AutoCAD block for the drill hole.

BRKT

Allow standoff brackets, Yes or No. If No, then the button is disabled on the dialog. If Yes, the button is enabled and you can select standoff brackets.

BRKT_NAME

Name of AutoCAD block for standoff bracket.

BRKT_MFG

Manufacturer for standoff bracket. Added as Multi-BOM on the created Din Rail block.

BRKT_CAT

Catalog number for standoff bracket. Added as Multi-BOM on the created Din Rail block.

BRKT_ASMB

Assembly code for standoff bracket. Added as Multi-BOM on the created Din Rail block.

CATALOG_TABLE

Name used to tie into the catalog lookup table. Values are either DIN or WW based on whether the spreadsheet record is a din or wire way. This determines whether the DIN or WW table (of the default_cat.mdb) displays when you click Catalog Lookup on the Panel Layout - Component Insert/Edit dialog box.

Catalog specific worksheet

In addition to the DIN_RAIL worksheet, you can define a worksheet specific to a particular din rail type to define mounting hole/bracket placement. The worksheet name must match the CAT value for the din rail on the DIN_RAIL worksheet.

The specific CAT worksheet has a SLOTQTY column and as many ORG_LIST columns as necessary to define the hole/mounting bracket placement.

SLOTQTY - Start at 1 and go to the maximum number of slots per din rail piece. The maximum number equals the number of slots if the din rail is at its maximum length.

ORG_LIST - Define the slots to place the holes.

Parametric building of wire ways

You can create generic wire way records in the spreadsheet (wddinrl.xls) for parametric building of wire ways. To do so, add the following records in the spreadsheet:

  • MFG = PANDUIT
  • CAT = Generic
  • DESC = Wire duct, 3.25"x3.11" tall, slotted
  • RAILWID = 3.25
  • RAILLENSTD = 72
  • CATALOG_TABLE = WW
  • MFG = PANDUIT
  • CAT = Generic
  • DESC = Wire duct, 3.92"x1.89" tall, slotted
  • RAILWID = 3.92
  • RAILLENSTD = 78.72
  • CATALOG_TABLE = WW

In the Din Rail dialog box, select one of these records as the Rail Type and click OK. In the Panel Layout - Component Insert/Edit dialog box, Catalog section, click Catalog Lookup. The Catalog Browser dialog box now displays wire ways with Manufacturer = PANDUIT. Select a suitable wire way from the list.

Line properties

There may be times that you want to specify a color, linetype, or layer for a particular line entity that makes up the Din Rail. You can do this with a few optional spreadsheet fields. For the 2 end lines, you add 2 columns in your spreadsheet, each called END_PROP. The first one is for the left end, the second is for the right end. The format is COLOR colorname LAYER layername LTYPE linetype. For example, COLOR 9 LAYER MISC LTYPE HIDDEN2. It is expecting a single space between the values. If you leave the field blank, or leave out one of the properties, it draws the lines using the current defaults. For the channel lines, it works similarly, but the columns should be called CHANNEL_PROP. Put them in the same order as the CHANNEL values. For example, you want the inner lines to be font HIDDEN2 and the CHANNEL columns are in this order, 0.69 0.49 -0.49 -0.69, this means the inner lines are the second and third channel columns. So the CHANNEL_PROP columns are:

  • First column: leave blank
  • Second column LTYPE HIDDEN2
  • Third column: LTYPE HIDDEN2
  • Fourth column: blank

END_PROP

Use this field to define the properties for the end lines.

CHANNEL_PROP

Use this field to define the properties for the channel lines.

Related Tasks