To Create a Custom Wire Connection Style

Symbol Builder inserts a wire connection template drawing when adding a wire connection to your symbol. The list of wire connection styles is built dynamically based on the template drawings found in the symbol library path. The wire connection template name indicates that it is a wire connection template, the wire connection type, and direction.

AutoCAD Electrical toolset comes with some schematic wire connection styles. If additional styles are needed, create the wire connection templates for a new style. To create a complete style, create a wire connection template for each wire direction. To add a new schematic style, create the following wire connection template drawings.

• BB?11.dwg
• BB?12.dwg
• BB?13.dwg
• BB?21.dwg
• BB?22.dwg
• BB?23.dwg
• BB?31.dwg
• BB?32.dwg
• BB?33.dwg

The “?” is replaced with the next available digit. AutoCAD Electrical toolset allows up to ten styles using the digits 0-9. You can create them using new drawings or by copying a set of existing wire connection template drawings to the appropriate names and modifying as needed.

Starting a wire connection template from a new drawing

1. Start a blank new drawing.
2. Draw the graphics for the wire connection.
3. Use the AutoCAD ATTDEF command to add the wire connection attribute definition. The insertion point of the attribute definition is the location AutoCAD Electrical toolset uses to connect the wire. The wire connection attribute tag is X?TERM01. The "?" character position is used to identify the preferred wire connection direction:
   • 1: wire connects to the attribute from the right
   • 2: wire connects to the attribute from above
   • 4: wire connects to the attribute from the left
   • 8: wire connects to the attribute from below
   • 0: special for motor connections that radiate from a circle
4. (Optional) Add the TERM01 attribute definition.
5. (Optional) Add the TERMDESC01 attribute definition.
6. (Optional) Add a custom drawing property to define the style description. This value is the text displayed in the terminal style list in Insert Wire Connections dialog box.
   • Select File Drawing Properties.
   • Select the Custom tab.
   • Select Add.
   • Enter “Terminal style” for the custom property name.
   • Enter the style description for the value.
   • Select OK to save the drawing property.
7. Save the drawing to the appropriate library folder following the wire connection template naming convention.

Wire connection template naming convention

• First two characters are “BB”.
• Optional characters which indicate the symbol type for this wire connection.

  Blank	Parent or child schematic symbol
  PTWN	Panel footprint or nameplate
  STTN	Schematic terminal with terminal number
  STWN	Schematic terminal following the wire number
  PTWN_NOTERM	Panel terminal

• One or two characters indicating the terminal style. It is a single number, 0 through 9, for schematic symbols. For a panel symbol, the single number is followed by an underscore.
• Last two characters are digits that indicate the wire direction.

  00	Radial, wire connects from an angle
  11	Left and top
  12	Left
  13	Left and bottom
  21	Top
  22	Top, left, bottom, and right
  23	Bottom
  31	Right and top
  32	Right
  33	Right and bottom

Supplied wire connection templates

Template Name	Symbol Type	Terminal Style	Attributes in the template
BB012, BB021, BB023, BB032	Schematic parent or child	None	X?TERMn, TERMn
BB000	Schematic parent or child	None	X0TERMn
BB111 to B133	Schematic parent or child	Screw	X?TERMn, TERMn
BB211 to BB233	Schematic parent or child	Small Screw	X?TERMn, TERMn
BB311 to BB333	Schematic parent or child	Circle, number inside	X?TERMn, TERMn
BB411 to BB433	Schematic parent or child	Square, number inside	X?TERMn, TERMn
BB511 to BB533	Schematic parent or child	Fixed PLC	X?TERMn, TERMn, DESCA01, DESCB01, TAGA01
BBSTTN012, BBSTTN021, BBSTTN023, BBSTTN032	Schematic terminal with terminal number	None	X?TERM01, TERM01
BBSTWN012, BBSTWN021, BBSTWN023, BBSTWN032	Schematic terminal following wire number	None	X?TERM01
BBPTWN0_12, BBPTWN0_21, BBPTWN0_23, BBPTWN0_32	Panel footprint	One wire number	X?TERMn, TERMn, TERMDESCn, WIRENOn
BBPTWN1_12, BBPTWN1_21, BBPTWN1_23, BBPTWN1_32	Panel footprint	One wire number	X?TERMn, TERMn, TERMDESCn, WIRENOn
BBPTWN2_12, BBPTWN2_21, BBPTWN2_23, BBPTWN2_32	Panel footprint	Two wire numbers	X?TERMn, TERMn, TERMDESCn, WIRENOn, WIRENOnA
BBPTWN_NOTERM0_12, BBPTWN_NOTERM0_21, BBPTWN_NOTERM0_23, BBPTWN_NOTERM0_32	Panel terminal, no levels	No levels	WIRENOL, WIRENOR, TERM, TERMDESCL, TERMDESCR
BBPTWN_NOTERM1_12, BBPTWN_NOTERM1_21, BBPTWN_NOTERM1_23, BBPTWN_NOTERM1_32	Panel terminal, one level	One level terminal	WIRENOL, WIRENOR, L01PINL, L01PINR, TERM
BBPTWN_NOTERM2_12, BBPTWN_NOTERM2_21, BBPTWN_NOTERM2_23, BBPTWN_NOTERM2_32	Panel terminal, two levels	Two level terminal	WIRENOL, WIRENOR, L01PINL, L01PINR, TERM, L02WIRENOl, L02WIRENOR, L02PINL, L02PINR, L02TERM
BBPTWN_NOTERM3_12, BBPTWN_NOTERM3_21, BBPTWN_NOTERM3_23, BBPTWN_NOTERM3_32	Panel terminal, three levels	Three level terminal	WIRENOL, WIRENOR, L01PINL, L01PINR, TERM, L02WIRENOl, L02WIRENOR, L02PINL, L02PINR, L02TERM, L03WIRENOL, L03WIRENOR, L03PINL, L03PINR, L03TERM

The “?” is replaced with the appropriate wire connection direction number and the “n” is replaced with the two digit sequential number. If your template contains only one wire connection attribute, always use “01”. The “01” is replaced with the next available value when the wire connection template is inserted using Symbol Builder.