Planning Symbol Wizard Configurations

The first step in creating a Symbol Wizard is to identify the different configurations that should be included in a symbol. In the example of a centrifugal pump, a Symbol Wizard should represent a pump that has the inlet pipe at the left, right, top, and bottom of the pump’s central housing. Also, the Symbol Wizard should be able to show or hide a tachometer for each orientation of the centrifugal pump.

After identifying all of the different configurations of a Symbol Wizard, identify the unique properties of each configuration. The example of a centrifugal pump includes two properties: inlet pipe orientation and whether a tachometer is shown with a pump or not.

The next step is to identify the properties and associated equipment.items for each configuration of the symbol.

Using the Symbol Wizard Editor, create the Choice Groups and Choices needed to represent all properties and equipment.items of a Symbol Wizard.

In the example of a centrifugal pump, the Choice Groups are Orientation and HasTach. The Orientation Choice Group includes Left, Right, Top, and Bottom Choices, which are the possible equipment.items of a pump’s inlet pipe. The HasTach Choice Group includes Boolean True or False Choices that indicate whether a configuration includes a tachometer or not.

Initially, the top listed Choice is the default for a Choice Group. To assign another listed Choice as the default value for the Choice Group, assign the Choice in Default Value field of the Option Properties pane.

If the desired base configuration of a centrifugal pump has pipes oriented to the right and includes a tachometer, then Right should be assigned as the default Orientation Choice and True assigned as the default HasTach Choice.

Planning Tips

• Always decide the different configurations that should be incorporated into a Symbol Wizard as the first step.

• Identify those properties that define a symbol’s configurations. These properties will be specified as the Choice Groups when building configurations with the Symbol Wizard Editor.

Identify all equipment.items of each property that define a symbol's configurations. These equipment.items will be the child Choices of the parent Choice Groups.

Select a default Symbol Wizard configuration at the planning stage to identify the symbol elements, named scripts, and custom properties that you want to include in the base configuration.

Related Topics

Creating Visual Configurations of an Industrial Graphic