Creating Electrical Mounting Height Details and Outlet Annotations

Efficiently Adding Receptacle Symbols and Dimension Annotations to Your Electrical Details

Learn how to create detailed electrical mounting heights in a project by referring to a BIM 323 Lighting Drop and Mounting Heights PDF. The meticulous process involves copying existing dimensions and elements, adding receptacles, and annotating with text to provide clear and concise information.

Key Insights

  • The process begins with locating the Electrical Mounting Heights detail in the project browser, followed by adding dimensions and copying existing elements to create the outlet above a counter.
  • Various receptacles, such as clock outlets, duplex receptacles, and telephone outlets, are added using the copy function and minor adjustments are made to fit the layout perfectly.
  • Annotate text is used to label each element for clarity, including noting the dimensions from the finish floor to each outlet. A special purpose power outlet is created with a circle and triangle symbol for unique identification.

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.

Now let's complete our mounting height detail. Again, we will refer back to our BIM 323 Lighting Drop and Mounting Heights PDF, and we'll go to the second page. We'll notice a couple of items in green that we're going to add to the mounting heights detail.

First, we'll find the detail in our project browser. It's called Electrical Mounting Heights. We'll double-click to open it up, and we'll begin right here around this counter.

We have a counter. We could assume maybe a sink is here, and so we want to create the outlet right above. And so we first need a dimension right here.

We can recycle what's already been drawn. So I can select this dimension, and I can copy it over, grab the elements that belong to it, and do CC on my keyboard. I'll click one time, move it to the right, just over here to the right, and click.

I'll hit Escape, and now I can move things around. Number one, I'll select this element, and do Move on my keyboard, which is MV, and I'll move it up about 1'8". It's gonna give me an unjoined element, and that's okay.

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Now I can select this line, grab the blue dot, and drag it up to match that line here. Now I can select this line, and grab its blue dot over past that line. So that's looking pretty good here.

Now I can select the tick mark, and do CC on my keyboard to copy. Copy it from the right to the left. So I've got my dimension string here.

Now I notice that this dimension is keyed in with this note here, number one. So I'll select that entire note with its surrounding box, and I'll do CC on my keyboard. I'll grab that midpoint, and I'll click right here to place it.

That looks pretty good. I can enhance it even better by using the Slice command SL on my keyboard. Click on that line, hit Escape, and there's some blue dots when I select the line that I can click and drag, and make sure that we don't have any overlap with that keyed note right there.

Now I need a receptacle above the countertop. Well, I have one over here to the right, a couple different receptacles. So here's one that I already have done, the clock outlet.

I will select it and do CC on my keyboard. I wanna grab the right midpoint. I'll click one time.

Move down over the counter, and I'll click to place it. Go back to Modify. I can do SL for Slice, and slice that line, and do the same trick where we drag each line to blue dot to match where that receptacle needs to be.

Now, this is a duplex receptacle, so I'm gonna select this inner circle, and MV to move it, MV on my keyboard. Click and go up, I'll say about four inches. Ah, that's probably too far.

I should've gone maybe three and a half inches. So go back down a half an inch. Okay, once I have that, I can select it, MM on my keyboard to mirror it down, and there is my duplex receptacle.

Okay, with that, I want to add a centerline mark right here, but I'm gonna slice the line first this time, SL on my keyboard, and pull those two lines apart to create an opening. Now, I'll find an existing centerline. Now, I have just drawn this with line work.

It's a wide line, arc, and straight lines, and that's an okay way to do it for a detail, just line work. Click and click again. And there is my centerline.

Now, I can add in some text. So the first text I want to add is right here. I want to add duplex receptacle.

And so I'll go to my text, which is under Annotate tab, Text. I want the 1⁸ inch text, and I will just click with the left leader, that's okay. Click, click, click, and start typing.

I want duplex receptacle, duplex receptacle. Go back to my Modify button, and I want to make a couple of modifications here. First, I want to drag the blue dot so it's on two lines.

I want to move the text really close to this symbol. We're showing that this symbol in the floor plan is the receptacle we're talking about, and we want to move our leader over to the receptacle and move its control point across as well. Something like that.

Get it all lined up, pointing at that receptacle. Okay, perfect. Now we want another text right up here, so Annotate Text.

This time we can start at the receptacle, click one time, come up to the side and click again, and one more time, and we'll type in the text. It's install six feet away from sink or water. Now I can click the Modify button and make a few adjustments here, put it on about three lines, and we're good to go.

That's perfect for the left side. Now let's move over to the right. We're pointing at a duplex receptacle, but it doesn't exist.

So what we're gonna do is take the computer outlet and copy it over. CC on my keyboard. I'll click one time here and click right under that leader, click, there it is.

Now I need the duplex portion, the two circles inside. I will select these two, CC on my keyboard, grab that corner and place it in the corner here. So there's a duplex receptacle.

I'll hit Escape, and now I can copy this over. I'll take the whole thing, CC on my keyboard, and I'll bring it about to the middle here, maybe not quite the middle, somewhere in here, and click, there it is. That's my telephone outlet.

And I believe we have a triangle. Let's double check with our PDF. It can be a little bit hard to see.

It might just be a circle. Let's zoom in a little bit tighter here and see what we have. Yep, looks like just our regular outlet there.

We'll just put a circle, kind of just showing there's a symbol there, which would be a triangle, but we're just gonna show that circle. So all I do is delete out my circles, delete, delete, I already have one up here. So I'll grab that clock outlet, grab that circle, CC on my keyboard, and put it right there.

Okay, so I've got my three outlets. I need a circle in that last one as well, so I'll do CC, put a circle in that one as well. Now I need a dimension right here.

So let's recycle one of our existing dimensions. We'll grab this dimension here, select that line work and the text and copy it over. So I'll click and I'll click somewhere right there.

There it is. I need to grab this portion and move it down. And I wanna move it to the center line of that receptacle.

So before I move it, I might click it and drag its dot out, grab it again, CC to copy. And I made it nice and big, so I don't have anything ambiguous. I can go to that midpoint and right there.

Okay, with that, it looks like I copied it, so I can delete what's existing. Grab that vertical line, grab the blue dot and drag it down. And I can take this line, and bring it to the receptacle first.

I'll copy it, CC, bring it to the other side. I want to go up here, get my center line, CC to copy it. It's all just line work.

I can just copy all the way across, get this line and connect out to that final outlet. And with that, I want to move and adjust this text. So I'll do MV on my keyboard, MV to move, drag it down.

And I might need to use the arrows to get it to line up how it wants to be, so I can see the tick mark. And this one is gonna be 18 inches. So 18 inches, AFF is above finish floor.

Okay, so there we go. This is our finish floor. And you know what? I've gone a little bit too far.

That's my computer outlet. I went too far. I'm gonna drag this line back, and I don't need that circle.

I need another outlet right here. So right under this triangle, I'm gonna grab this, copy it, CC on my keyboard, right there. And now I have that second outlet.

This is my special outlet. So right now I've got my duplex receptacle. This is a telephone outlet.

So I'll copy this over, double click, and this is my telephone outlet. And I want that close to that little triangle symbol. I'll drag this down, and I might need to grab this guy and move it over.

So I'll do MV on my keyboard. There we go. And that moved over, it looks really good.

Telephone outlet. Now this one is a special purpose power outlet. So what I wanna do is a couple things.

I wanna do a leader and draw that special purpose symbol. So let's go ahead and create the text first. I'm gonna go up to annotate text.

And this time I'll be a little bit trickier, and I want my leader to be on the right only. So right-sided leader. And we'll click up here.

That means the right leader will be at the top. And so I'll click my text. Couple times for the leader, that's okay.

And I wanna put in my special purpose outlet. Click and modify and move it across. And I want to move that leader.

It should stay up high now. And I want to go up here to that special purpose outlet and drag this over. Something like that.

And now I want to go back to my annotate detail lines, make sure I'm on medium lines, and draw a circle. So I'll do a circle. And I want to click right in the middle.

Click, pull that out. There's my circle. Now I also want a triangle, so I can be tricky.

There is a circumscribed polygon, so I'll click that. And size, I'll change it to three. Enter.

I'll click right in the center of my circle and pull this out. And I can zoom in until it's about perfect right there. And that is my special purpose outlet.

It's a triangle and a circle all together. I'll click my modify and I'm back in business. So that's it.

I have all of my mounting height details completed.

photo of Reid Johnson

Reid Johnson

Licensed Architect | Contractor | CAD/BIM Specialist

Reid isn't just someone who knows CAD and BIM; he's a licensed architect and contractor who deeply integrates these technologies into every facet of his career. His hands-on experience as a practitioner building real-world projects provides him with an invaluable understanding of how BIM and CAD streamline workflows and enhance design. This practical foundation led him to Autodesk, where he shared his expertise, helping others effectively leverage these powerful tools. Throughout his professional journey, Reid also dedicates himself to education, consistently teaching university courses and shaping the next generation of design professionals by equipping them with essential CAD skills. His unique blend of practical experience, industry knowledge gained at Autodesk, and passion for teaching positions Reid as a true specialist in BIM and CAD technology, capable of bridging the gap between theory and real-world application.

Credentials:

  • Autodesk Fusion Certified User
  • Autodesk Revit Certified Professional
  • Autodesk Certified Instructor
  • Licensed Architect
  • Licensed General Contractor

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