Dive into the process of creating an electrical symbol, specifically the duplex outlet, using CAD software. This tutorial will guide you through the necessary steps, from setting up your workspace to accurately placing coordinates and drawing lines.
Key Insights
- The process begins with creating a new file in your CAD software and saving it with a relevant name, such as duplex-outlet.
- The tutorial emphasizes the importance of precise absolute and relative coordinates to accurately represent the duplex outlet's features, such as the circle and vertical lines.
- The tutorial concludes with using the offset tool to create two vertical lines, which are a crucial part of the duplex outlet symbol, and removal of the unnecessary construction geometry.
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In this video we will work on our first electrical symbol, the duplex outlet. Please make sure that you have your electrical symbols handout either up on your computer or printed out for the rest of this lesson.
Let's start the electrical symbols drawing. I will go file, new, choose my template, and hit open. As always, I will go file, save, and I will save this drawing to my C drive, CAD 101 file downloads, and I will name it duplex-outlet.
I will hit save. I'll go to layer properties, and in this case this is an electrical symbol. So this is not an architectural object.
A-syms means architectural symbols. This is an electrical symbol, symbol. So this is E-syms.
If you've already made your layer, please undo and follow along. Let's go new layer, E-syms, S-Y-M-S. In this color, we should be different than 120.
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In this case, I'm going to choose color 61, hit okay, and let's make this our current layer. I'll close my window. Now we just talked about absolute and relative coordinates.
If we study the duplex-outlet, we can see that the center point, zero comma zero, is in the middle bottom of our two vertical lines. And the circle, which exists in the middle of those lines, is a one inch radius circle that is away from zero, zero, a quarter inch. This is a lot of data to break down, so let's focus on one thing at a time.
If we start with the circle, we can see that the center point is a quarter inch above zero, zero, zero. That means the center of that circle is at zero comma one over four comma zero, because it is exactly up in the y direction, one quarter inch. We can draw that circle using absolute coordinates.
I'll go circle, zero comma one over four comma zero, enter to lock it in, and this has a one over eight inch radius, enter. Let's do a zoom extents. Select our circle, right click properties, and we can double check.
The center is at zero in the x value, the center y is at one quarter inch, and the center z is at zero. That is exactly where we need it to be. I'll close properties and hit escape, escape, escape, scroll out, zoom out, control s to save.
The two vertical lines could also be drawn with absolute coordinates. In this case, the bottoms of the lines are along the x axis, which is zero in the y direction. The top of the lines are exactly one half inch away, and these are both vertical lines.
But I do not want to figure out the absolute coordinates of these points. Instead, let's start with something we know and then work towards what we don't know, or in this case, what would be challenging to figure out using mental math. In this case, if we start at zero comma zero and draw a vertical line, that is a very good first step.
So let's go to the line tool and start at zero comma zero, enter. Now this line goes in the vertical direction one half inch. We just looked at absolute polar and relative coordinates.
All of these would work. In this case, let's use our polar relative coordinate, which would be at one over two angle 90, and 90 is a vertical line. Enter.
Enter to say I'm done. That line could have been drawn with absolute polar relative or relative coordinates. Again, it's up to you to find the best workflow when you're working professionally.
Zoom extends in case you can't see all of your geometry and control S to save. Now, there is not one vertical line. There are two vertical lines in this case, and they are one sixteenth of an inch apart.
Remember, offset is a tool that creates a copy a certain distance from the original object. In this case, if we offset to the left and to the right half the distance, we will end up with the two lines that we need. So I will go to the offset tool, and I will write one over 32 for my offset distance, because it is half of one over 16.
I'll hit ENTER to lock it in, and I will choose this to the left and click, and this to the right and click. Enter to say I'm done with my offset. Now, that original line, which is now in the middle, is construction geometry.
We don't need it. We can choose the line and hit the delete key. Zoom extends, control S to save, and in the next video, we will work on the half-hot outlet with a slightly different workflow.
See you there.
