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
- Start a blank new drawing.
- Draw the graphics for the wire connection.
- 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
- (Optional) Add the TERM01 attribute definition.
- (Optional) Add the TERMDESC01 attribute definition.
- (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.
- Select File
- 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.