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Note

All SolidPractices are written as guidelines. It is a strong recommendation to use these documents only after properly evaluating your requirements. Distribution of this document is limited to Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks employees, VARs and customers that are on active subscription. You may not post this document on blogs or any internal or external forums without prior written authorization from Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation.

This document was updated using version SOLIDWORKS 2023 SP02.1. If you have questions or need assistance in understanding the content, please get in touch with your designated reseller.

Preface

The SOLIDWORKS Electrical application enables you to optimize your drawings and designs for manufacturability so you can maximize quality, avoid rework and decrease time to market. This SolidPractice focuses on the installation structure and the various components within SOLIDWORKS Electrical that work together to provide powerful functionality and collaboration. The purpose of the document is to unify the reader with the understanding of the objects and elements within SOLIDWORKS Electrical to approach and generate electrical designs expeditiously.

It is an expectation that the reader is familiar with the SOLIDWORKS Electrical software and has a good understanding of the various elements of the user interface (UI).

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SOLIDWORKS Electrical Architecture

The SOLIDWORKS Electrical application focuses on simplifying electrical schematic creation using an intuitive interface for the faster design of embedded electrical systems. SOLIDWORKS Electrical has several components that work together to provide powerful functionality and collaboration. This section explains each of these components in detail.

SOLIDWORKS Electrical Application

Users interact with the application to create and develop projects. The composition of the software includes two packages: 

• SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic for detailed schematic design, wiring line diagrams, 2D cabinet layouts, and complete management of terminals and reports 
• SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D for 3D plant layout and the routing of wires, cables and harnesses

There is a bidirectional integration between the two packages in real time, which enables unification of the bill of materials (BOM) between the electrical system and the mechanical design. This provides better collaboration and productivity and results in fewer product delays, more consistent and standardized designs, lower costs, and faster time-to-market.

Collaborative Server

SOLIDWORKS Electrical installs a Collaborative Server, which is a utility that runs as a service. The Collaborative Server monitors user access and allows for collaboration on projects.

The most important function of the Collaborative Server is to regulate file access. Multiple users may be working in a project simultaneously. The application enforces a restriction that only one user can open and work with a document or drawing in a project at any given time. The reasoning is that SQL Server® stores all elements of a page and mirrors the elements onto physical drawing files. Because only one person can open the physical pages at a time, SOLIDWORKS Electrical ties this access to a single monitoring application. In this case, it is the Collaborative Server.

A user request to open a document or drawing is fulfilled by the Collaborative Server, which in turn keeps track of who has which document open and determines if a document is available to other users.

SQL Server

SQL Server is a database management system developed by Microsoft. The primary function of SQL Server is to store and retrieve data in response to requests by other software applications. The databases contain all of the metadata that defines the components and connectivity within a project, and links the application and program data together. If you opt to use an existing SQL Server, SOLIDWORKS Electrical will not install the SQL Server software.

SOLIDWORKS Electrical is primarily dependent on a SQL Server instance that intrinsically consists of five databases – namely, tew_app_data, tew_app_macro, tew_app_catalog, tew_app_classification and tew_app_project. These databases contain data that relates to the elements in the library and to other application level data such as configurations, user profiles, etc. SOLIDWORKS Electrical creates a database for every electrical project (tew_project_data_#). Therefore, at any point in time there are five or more databases in an instance. The five databases are as follows:

• TEW_APP_DATA – This database maintains records of all blocks used in SOLIDWORKS Electrical. It tracks all symbols, 2D footprints, title blocks and other blocks, descriptive elements, and graphical references.
• TEW_CATALOG – This database maintains a list of all manufacturer parts except cable references.
• TEW_APP_PROJECT – This database maintains information about all projects, such as the project ID, project name, project modification date, etc. along with translatable text used in the project properties.
• TEW_APP_CLASSIFICATION – This database maintains information about all of the different classes in the application. This includes both system and user created classes.
• TEW_APP_MACRO – This database stores a list of all of the macros that users create.

Shared File Directory

Along with the application, the SOLIDWORKS Electrical installation includes files that contain program data. This data consists of physical files that users access when designing projects such as parts, templates, and 2D and 3D symbols. The default location of this directory is ‘C:\ProgramData\SOLIDWORKS Electrical’. The shared file directory will contain the following subfolders and files:

The only folders that should be accessible outside of the software are the Project Template folder (if a template requires removal), the SOLIDWORKS folder for storing more models, and the TEMP folder in which to collect log files.

TIP: With a database linking a complex file structure, it is a good idea to perform regular backups. This may be done regularly without requiring the support of the I.T. department, by using the Archive environment and Unarchive environment tools. You will find these tools on the File tab in SOLIDWORKS Electrical. The tools provide for selective archiving and unarchiving.

Installing SOLIDWORKS Electrical

When it comes to installing SOLIDWORKS Electrical, you have two setup options: Standalone or Client-Server. When installing SOLIDWORKS Electrical as a standalone product, all components are installed on the computer of an individual user. The default settings in the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager make it easy to install this type of implementation. The following image depicts a standalone implementation.

When implementing a client-server installation to allow for collaboration between multiple users over a network, SOLIDWORKS Electrical is installed on each of the user’s machines. All other components are installed on a server, or in a shared network location to which all clients have access. A visual reference of a client-server type of implementation is shown in the following figure.

Projects and Data Flow

A SOLIDWORKS Electrical project stores the many different types of files used to create the reports, data, and other documents that define an electrical machine, assembly, installation, or system. Every project within SOLIDWORKS Electrical is fully configurable and has a distinct hierarchy that allows for management of the most complex designs by providing ways to subdivide and group relevant document sets.

SOLIDWORKS Electrical provides intelligence and collaboration on electrical designs by using a combination of database and file architecture. When working on a project, you are not working with one individual file, in that a drawing sheet is comprised of database elements and multiple files on disk. When you place a graphical element into a project, such as inserting a line diagram symbol, it is a copy of the symbol from the library. The properties that relate to this symbol are tied to the graphical representation and this information is written into the unique project database immediately. The structure of a project enables collaboration by dynamically updating the data. An important point to note here is that for most design operations, it is not necessary to save to disk because all changes are instantly stored in the database.

Terminology and Definitions

To increase the intuitiveness and ease of using the SOLIDWORKS Electrical software, this section explains some of the most commonly used terminologies.

Symbols

A symbol is a pictogram of an entire or partial representation of an electrical device. These symbols can vary from country to country, but to a large extent use international standards. However, SOLIDWORKS Electrical provides the possibility to create and customize your own symbols within the program. A broad classification would be single-line and multi-line diagram symbols.

Single-line diagram symbols are used when an electrical design requires information about a circuit, but does not require details about the actual wire connections and operation of the circuit. Figure 3 depicts a single-line diagram of a motor.

A multi-line drawing symbol usually gives more information about the relative position and arrangement of devices and terminals on the devices. This information helps when building the device. Figure 4 shows a multi-line diagram of a motor.

Figure 4 Multi-line diagram symbol

A schematic diagram uses a more symbolic notation to emphasize interconnections, whereas, a single-line diagram shows more detail of the physical appearance.

Parts

Parts are items that will be purchased and physically installed as part of an electrical project. These items will be reported in BOMs, part lists, etc. They contain circuit and terminal data and may be associated with default symbols. They exist as metadata within the SQL Server. Note that parts are not components because multiple parts could be assigned to a single component.

Components

A component represents an individually identified assembly that is an actual part that will be used in a machine, cabinet, installation, or system. Different symbols and types of symbols in the electrical project can represent a component. Figure 5 shows the different element types that you can assign to a component.

It is possible to create a component from the

Components

manager, and then insert, and associate a symbol to the existing component. Deleting the symbol will not delete the component. It is only possible to remove these components by deleting them from the component tree.

Circuits

Circuits are a combination of one or more terminals.

A terminal is a physical connection (such as a screw or hole) in a device. These circuits are used in the symbol definition, and in the manufacturer part definition. The software manages several types of circuit, which correspond to the nature of the electrical component.

When you assign a manufacturer part, the software compares the circuits of the manufacturer part and the circuits of the various symbols that represent the component. If they match, the numbers of the material terminals automatically propagate to the symbol circuits and display in the scheme. If there are any differences between the circuits of the manufacturer part and the circuits of the symbols, the circuits are added together and reserved. A green circuit state indicates a circuit match, blue indicates that the part is not associated with a symbol, and red indicates that the part has no circuits that match the symbol.

Summary

It is vital to comprehend the various elements of the SOLIDWORKS Electrical software. Having a good understanding of parts, symbols, components, and bill of materials will help identify an effortless design process that aids both electrical and mechanical designers to collaborate effectively.

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