Description
The aim of this unit is to enable students to produce 2D CAD drawings (using industry standard CAD software), and to modify and construct electrical and mechanical drawings e.g. distribution systems, fire alarms, steam ranges, electrical and hydraulic circuits. This unit will support the development of the students’ CAD abilities and build upon those skills to introduce the more advanced techniques that are used to create and modify schematic drawings quickly and efficiently. These techniques can be used to construct pre-prepared symbols for use in circuit diagrams, or be used to create unique symbols and symbol libraries.
Alongside the creation of schematic drawings utilising the block, attributes and insert commands, the students will also learn how to extract information to populate spreadsheets and databases, tabulating the information directly from the working drawing.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit students will be able to:
1. Create and modify CAD drawings.
Introduction to the user interface:
Command line, Status Bar, panel titles and tabs
Recognise and apply absolute, relative and polar coordinates
Drafting aids:
Grid, snap, object snap, ortho and polar tracking
Draw commands:
Linetypes, circle, text, hatching, dimensioning
Modifying commands:
Copy, rotate, move, erase, scale, chamfer, fillet
Creating and defining text and dimension styles
Creating layers:
Layers/levels, colour
Viewing commands:
Zoom, pan, viewports and layouts
2. Construct, insert and export blocks with textual attributes.
Creating and editing blocks and write blocks
Defining, editing and managing attributes
Inserting blocks from external sources
Attribute extraction
Dynamic and nested blocks
Using the design centre and tool palettes
3. Produce complex schematic drawings.
Create block library and table legend, including symbols and description
Create electrical, electronic, hydraulic and pneumatic schematic drawings
4. Transfer information to external sources.
Electronic transfer of information:
Data extraction and data extraction (DXE) files
Extracting data to tables and spreadsheets
Organise and refine the extracted data
Table styles and formatting data extraction tables