SOLIDWORKS Electrical Automation – Propagation

SOLIDWORKS Electrical & Common Requests

A common requests I receive, when it comes to wire numbering, is to have the wire numbers connected to a PLC named with the PLC Channel mark, terminal or address.  Initially, I believed this could be handled with traditional formulas as I might with wire marks displaying the component origin/destination (another common request).  But I could not find the right variable to use.  I soon realized that SOLIDWORKS introduced the PROPAGE command.

This command will allow you to copy the equipotential or wire mark to a terminal mark and in this example, we can ‘push’ PLC mark, user data, manufacturer data, order, channel terminal, address or mnemonic to the equipotential or wire mark.

In the images I start with basic wire numbers (row and number formula) then, using the propagate command I copy the channel address to the equipotential getting my desired result.   The wires do not have to be number first. I did so in the example to illustrate the difference between standard numbering versus the propagation.

The PROPAGATE command is another example of how SOLIDWORKS Electrical will not only increase your productivity but does so in a way that we can also ensure accuracy.  If the PLC or the address changes simply clicking the PROPAGATE command will update the schematic drawings and reports.