Create Electrical Components

An electrical component in equipment, is a connection point between equipment and cables and can represent anything from an individual cable gland to a piece of electrical equipment, such as a generator. Electrical components must be selected from the catalogue via a Selection Table. They are positioned and orientated within equipment in the same way as nozzles and primitives.

1. Select Create > Electrical Component from the main drop-down menu to display the Create Electrical Component form.

   

   The form lets the user select an electrical component from the range of catalogue items available.

2. To name the component, either enter a Name explicitly, or use the Autoname option.

   If the project has been configured with User Defined Element Types based on electrical component (ELCONN) element type, they will appear in the User Defined Type list. When the electrical component element is created, it will be created as the User Defined Type selected from this list. Selecting a User Defined Element Type may change the content of the Selection Table if the table has been configured to filter on element type.

3. Select the overall category of electrical component by choosing one of the Table options.

   This table may be divided into sub-categories selected using the Type options and can be sorted and filtered to restrict the number of components displayed for selection.

4. A component in the table can be selected by clicking on a row in the table.

5. Clicking on the Properties option displays the Modify Properties form on which to set any parameterized data relevant to the selected electrical component.

   Note: If the user does not set these, default values will be applied.

   If no parameters are required for the selected component, then a message 'There are no properties to set' is displayed.

   The Plotfile option will display a diagram of the component if one has been provided with the component definition. This diagram can also form part of the Modify Properties form.

6. When the user has fully specified the electrical component, click Create.

   The component is then created at the equipment origin. A Component Position panel is displayed at the bottom of the form and is used to place the component in the required position by entering the coordinates of the component, or by using event-driven graphics positioning to place the component using the graphics cursor to pick a position in the 3D view.

   

7. When the new component has been positioned, click Next to create another component or Dismiss to close the form.

8. To orientate the component use Orientate>Rotate or Orientate>Axes functions on the main menu bar.