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.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
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 drawing the electrical symbols. I will go to File, New, choose my template, and click Open. As always, I will go to File, Save, and save this drawing to my C drive, CAD 101 file downloads, naming 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, so it should be E-syms.
If you've already made your layer, please undo and follow along. Let's go to New Layer, E-syms, S-Y-M-S. The color should be different from 120.
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In this case, I'm going to choose color 61, hit OK, and let's make this our current layer. I'll close my window. Now, we've just talked about absolute and relative coordinates.
If we study the duplex outlet, we can see that the center point, 0,0, is at the bottom center 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 0,0 by 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 0,0. That means the center of the circle is at 0,1/4,0, because it is exactly one-quarter inch up in the Y direction. We can draw that circle using absolute coordinates.
I'll type 'circle, 0,1/4,0', press ENTER to lock it in, and set the radius to 1/8 inch, then press ENTER. Let's do a Zoom Extents. Select our circle, right-click Properties, and we can double-check.
The center is at 0 in the X value, the center Y is at one-quarter inch, and the center Z is at 0. 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 can also be drawn with absolute coordinates. In this case, the bottoms of the lines are along the X axis, which is 0 in the Y direction. The tops 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 0,0 and draw a vertical line, that’s a great first step.
So let's go to the line tool and start at 0,0, press ENTER. Now, this line extends vertically by half an inch. We just looked at absolute polar and relative coordinates.
Any of these would work. In this case, let's use our polar relative coordinate, which would be at 1/2 angle 90, and 90 is a vertical line. Press ENTER.
Press ENTER to confirm 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 Extents in case you can't see all of your geometry, then Control+S to save. Now, there aren’t just one vertical line. There are two vertical lines, 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 by 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 set my offset distance to 1/32 because it is half of 1/16.
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. Press 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 select the line and hit the Delete key. Zoom Extents, 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.
