Not all components may be available in G-Electrical’s standard library. Our library was assembled to have the most essential components in order to make it lighter and avoid useless components to the majority of designers.
Also, the library is not something “finished” because we will always have specific and private components for some customers or design teams. This means some components will have to be created. While designing with G-Electrical, you may have come across some components that could be customized to your company or client’s needs. In this article we shall see an in-depth step by step on how to register a complete component inside G-electrical – using a circuit breaker to illustrate an example.
Before we make any changes in the database, we will need to unlock the palette modifications.
📖INFO: The G-Electrical’s library is fully customizable, so we can create our own components.
Unlocking the modifications at the Components palette.
If you do not know how to unlock the palette changes, access this link to learn how to do it.
Now that you already unlocked the palette, you have total control over changing, deleting and creating components and component folders.
Using the component creation Wizard…
What is the component creation Wizard?
The component creation Wizard is a built-in G-Electrical tool. It can be used to guide the user through the steps of setting the basic characteristics of the component, creating or import its representations, defining its advanced properties – if needed – and inserting the component in the desired library destination.
Go to the Components palette;
Right-click the “Component” root folder;
Click on “New component” (make sure the palette is unlocked);
Notice that the wizard will show up. It will guide you through the desired component registration. The first screen will have a welcome message.
Click Next to begin the registration;
General Info
The general info tab will show up. Here we must set 3 configurations;
Component Type
Inform the family classification in which the component will be registered. The behavior of the component will be linked to what was chosen here.
Name
What is typed in this field will be displayed in the component palette and should identify the component.
Define properties as standard/manually
There are this two options to define components properties. By selecting the “Standard” option, G-Electrical will jump a few steps of the component creation, by setting standard models. By selecting “Manually”, G-electrical will follow all the steps of parameters settings.
Select the type - Circuit breaker;
Fill the name - SINGLE POLE CIRCUIT BREAKER, SD61 SERIES, C CURVE, 220 VAC, 10 A, MODEL SDD61C10.
Check the "Define properties manually" option;
Click Next;
💡TIP: It is a good idea to enter names in capital letters, in order to keep the library organized.
Component’s representations (Drawings Tab)
In this tab you may define your component representations. If you want to learn more about how to insert a component representation, check out this link about all the methods.
Click on Schematic;
Click the “Copy from…” button;
On the “Filter by” field, change the “Type” to Circuit Breaker and search for a single pole symbol in your library;
We will use this symbol below in this example:
Click OK and then Next;
Components properties
In this step, let’s set two kinds of properties to our component: Behavior properties and custom properties (list properties).
Show in Reports
Define if the component will be displayed in G-Electrical’s generated reports. (e.g.: Bill of materials).
Prevent duplicate tags
This option not allows the component to have the same tag as other component in the project.
Tag
Here we shall choose the prefix used by the component. For example: Q and CB for circuit breakers, K for contactors, M to motors.
Rotate properties
This property will define if the component info will be shown horizontally, irrespective of the angle of creation or the component insertion.
Preserve wire name
Here we can select if the wires connected to this component shall be assigned the same name tag as the wires coming out from it.
This option is usually enabled to passage components, like terminals and connectors.
The other properties are technical ones, that can be filled to be shown in bills of materials, for example.
Let's define components properties...
Define Section Size – 0 (Leave this value set to 0);
Define Show in reports – Yes;
Define Prevent duplicate tags – Yes;
Define Automatic Tag – CB0;
Rotate properties can be set at will.Define Preserve wire name – No;
Define the Description – SINGLE POLE CIRCUIT BREAKER, SD61 SERIES, C CURVE, 220 VAC, 10 A, MODEL SDD61C10;
Define Manufacturer – STECK;
Define Part Number – SDD61C10;
Define Code – 020597;
Define Current – 10 A;
Define Voltage – 220 V;
Define Power Voltage – 380V;
Click Next.
Component Accessories
In this step, it is possible to link accessories to the same component, without having to insert it every time from the project palette (Custom).
In this case, it will not be necessary to link any accessories, because an instant auxiliary contact, for example, may or may not be linked to a circuit breaker, depending on the situations.
To fuses, that always need a base, protection ring, cap etc, it is possible to link these objects and save some precious design time.
We shall leave this step as it is.
Click Next;
Component terminals
At the contacts tab we can define the numbers of contacts that component shall have, accordingly to its physical build. All the contacts linked here are already parts of the main component, this means, they are not provided of any kind or third party component (accessories).
We will not have to link any contact in this circuit breaker sample.
Click Next;
Done, the component was created. We have two options now, either we finish the component registration in the library or we can start a new one.
Select the desired folder to place the new component;
Click finish.