Adding Company 3D Components to Autodesk Inventor 2017 Electrical Catalog

In the last article, I covered how to add the additional Eaton 3D components to the Autodesk Inventor 2017 Electrical Catalog.  Most companies will add their own electrical components to the AutoCAD Electrical catalog and may want to add 3D components models to match.  This article will outline the process for doing this.  I would suggest that you review the previous article since it will give you background into the process.

The component I will be using is a Balluff photo sensor receiver.  I downloaded the 3D model from the internet but you of course could model your own part models.  I would recommend that you explore the three websites listed for you during the installation of Autodesk Inventor.  These can be found in the Windows program listing.  Below is the location in Windows 10.

If it not absolutely necessary but I would suggest that your add your new content to the default Inventor Electrical Library 2017 adding any new folders as required.

The next step is to add the new component to the AutoCAD Electrical Component catalog currently defined by your company.  You can do this from AutoCAD Electrical or Autodesk Inventor since the configured catalog should be the same.  I will add the new component in the category "PE (Photo Switches)" as shown below.  At this point I have only added the component catalog number, manufacturer, type and voltage.  I will add the 3D model symbol in a moment.

The next step is to add the "SYMBOL3D" to the catalog entry.  This can be done in the Electrical Catalog Browser in Inventor.  Create or open an Inventor assembly, then select the Electrical Catalog Browser icon and last navigate to the new "PE" component finding the "SYMBOL3D" column.  Remembering that you can assign new 3D content by selecting the "..." icon, I will use the second method in order to show some additional options.

Selecting the catalog editor icon from the Electrical Catalog Browser will place you in editing mode.  This is indicated by a yellow background.

Selecting the "SYMBOL3D" field, three dots will appear which when selected will open the 3D Part/Assembly dialog box.

In the row marked as "Default" select the "..." and navigate to the location of the new 3D model to be assigned to the catalog entry.  After selecting the IPT model, select "Open" to continue.

Under the Comment column, enter any notation you would like the user to see when placing the component.  This is totally optional and later I will show a good use for this comment.  For now, I will just add "BDB (Beyond the Drafting Board) Model" to indicate the model was developed by my company.  Select "OK" to save and dismiss the dialog box.  

The file path and comment will appear in the SYMBOL3D cell.  Select the "Accept Changes" icon in the Electrical Catalog Browser to finish the AutoCAD Electrical catalog editing session.

Selecting the entry will display an icon of the new 3D model.  Hovering over it, the comment and the model file name are displayed.  Selecting the icon with a left click of the mouse will place it into the Inventor assembly.

I hope you noticed that the 3D Part/Assembly dialog box allows you to add more than one 3D model for each entry.  In fact, as you add models, the dialog box will provide a new line for another entry.  There is a practical limit here because of the icon display during placement and I will only add three models to an entry to demonstrate my point.  I am using a Eaton push button for my example.  I have copied the original model and made two new models, one with a red button and one with a green button.  I modified the catalog entry, or you could create a new one, to indicate the component has a multiple color button choices.  I then edited the 3D Part/Assembly dialog box and configured all three models with appropriate comments to identify them.  Notice I left the original model as the Default.

After saving my edits, I select the entry in the and three model icons will appear.  Again if you hover over the icons, the configured comment will be displayed.  

Selecting the model you desire, you will be able to place one of three different models in my assembly.

One idea is to place electrical component accessory models used with an electrical component in the list to give ready access to related assembly models.  Many other scenarios as possible only limited by your imagination.

Adding AutoCAD Electrical 2017 3D Content to Inventor 2017

In my past two articles I illustrated how to add additional content to the AutoCAD Electrical schematic and footprint databases.  Autodesk published additional content for Eaton components but has not released the AutoCAD Electrical 2017 installation routines.  The articles were a step by step process for adding this content.  If your company uses Autodesk Inventor and have loaded the Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser add-in, you may want to place AutoCAD Electrical 3D components directly into your Inventor models or use the Electromechanical workflow for linking your AutoCAD Electrical schematics directly to your Inventor electrical 3D models.  This article does not cover or explain the Electromechanical application but it will explain how to configure the Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser to allow the placement of the additional 3D electrical components listed in the AutoCAD Electrical Schematic catalog from the Eaton additional content.

During installation you have the ability to install the Autodesk Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser 2017 add-in.  You can check to see if it is installed and loaded by selecting the Tools tab in Inventor and then picking the Add-Ins command on the Options Panel.

If you find the indicated add-in and it is marked to be loaded automatically, you are ready to go.

If you do not see the add-in, retrieve your installation media and install it.  The screen shot below shows the entry and in my case it is already installed.

Once you have verified the add-in is present and loaded, open a new or existing Inventor assembly.  Select the Assembly tab and then find the Electrical Catalog Browser in the drop down list as shown.

This will open the same Catalog Browser used by AutoCAD Electrical.  You will notice it is also using the primary catalog database as defined in the AutoCAD Electrical WD.ENV file.  If you have a secondary catalog database defined, you can select it if desired.

Now for the bad news.  During the installation of Autodesk Inventor 2017 only a hand full of AutoCAD Electrical 3D models are provided.  You can add your own IPT models and I will cover this process in another article but first I want to show you how to add the additional Eaton 3D models supplied in the Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical 2016 content pack update-2.  These models will compliment the Eaton schematic catalog database update described in my previous article.  

The first step is to unzip the Eaton 3D content from the downloaded zip file.  If you have not downloaded the zip file you can find it here.  Opening the zip file you will find the 3D content listed in the folder shown below.  Extract the folder to the same location as the zip file to keep things organized.

Opening this folder you will notice the folder structure is by AutoCAD Electrical catalog categories.

Browse to existing Inventor Electrical Catalog 3D model location created during the Autodesk Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser 2017 add-in installation.  It is located by default in the following location.

Position these two folders beside each other, you will be coping the contents of each one from the zip file to the corresponding folder already existing on your hard drive.  If you find you do not have an existing folder on your hard drive, copy the complete top level folder, for example the TRMS and the XF folders.  The existing folders do not contain any Eaton content so no files will be overwritten.  If you desire, make a backup for the existing folder before copying.

The next step is to modify your Inventor project file to point to these 3D models.  The addition of the following library entry will accomplish this.  The library name can be anything you desire.  If you have moved the default Inventor Electrical Catalog 3D content, modify the path as needed.  Save the project file, close Inventor and restart to load the file references.

You can test your configuration using the following method.  Configure the Inventor Electrical Catalog Browser to show the "SYMBOLS3D" column.  Refer back to my previous article if you need assistance on how to accomplish this.  Using the additional content PDF found on the Autodesk update webpage, I have selected a MS (Motor Starters/Contactors) A25 Series.

Browsing in the Inventor Electrical Catalog browser, I have selected one of the A25 listings and noticed a Symbol3D model file is listed but the placement icon is missing. 

There are two methods of associating the Eaton 3D part to the catalog entry.  The first is to edit the component and link the 3D part name in the SYMBOLS3D column.  This is the harder of the two methods.

The second method is to select the browse icon during placement and browse to the SYMBOL3D 3D part name using the library folder.  Once selected and after pressing the "Open" icon the following dialog box will be presented.  If you select "Yes" the 3D part model will be permanently mapped to the Electrical Catalog Browser entry, selecting "No" will not.  If desired, you can set a default answer and check the option to not show the dialog box again under the Prompts entry.  Either method will associate the 3D part and the catalog entry for future insertions.

When placing the same component next time, simply select the new component icon and place the component in the assembly model.

In my next article I will cover the process of adding company developed electrical 3D components models which uses a very similar process.

Adding Additional Content to AutoCAD Electrical 2017 - Footprint Database

This is a continuation of my previous article which outlined the process of adding additional Eaton content to AutoCAD Electrical 2017 schematic database.  In this article I would like to outline the process of adding the addition Eaton content to the footprint database and also cover the process of adding the additional Eaton footprint symbols.  Please refer back to the previous article before attempting the following process for some important information and instructions.

The process for adding the Eaton content to the footprint database is very similar to the process used to add the Eaton content to the schematic database except the selections in the AutoCAD Electrical migration utility.  If you have not expanded the Eaton footprint database from the downloaded zip file, do so now and place it in the zip folder location.   The file is located in the following folder in the zip file.

Start AutoCAD Electrical 2017 and open a new or existing panel drawing.  Any drawing will work but since we will be testing some migrated footprints it is a good idea to be in the proper drawing.  Select the Project tab and then select the Migration Utility.

In the migration utility dialog box, select the following entry to tell AutoCAD Electrical we will be migrating a footprint database.

The next thing I need to configure is the Copy/Merge Options.  Put some thought into these settings to make sure that you add the new Eaton content and maintain your existing footprint database.  In my example I am going to merge the new content and overwrite existing database records.

The next step is to select the new Eaton content source file which you unzipped earlier and place it in the Source column.  This will be a Microsoft Access database file with a .MDB extension.

Next step is to select the destination catalog database that the new Eaton content will be merged into.  This will normally be AutoCAD Electrical 2017 footprint_lookup.mdb file unless your company had renamed it.  The location may vary depending on your company's installation.

Selecting "OK" at the bottom of the migration utility dialog box will bring up a summary of the pending actions.  You are also given the ability to save the migration configuration for use at another time which is not needed since this is a one time operation.  Select "OK" to start the migration process.  The process may take a few minutes to complete often hesitating during the process so be patient.  Progress bars will be presented showing the progress of the migration process.

Once the process is complete the migration utility will display the Migration complete dialog box listing the location of files.  You may be interested in the migration log file which is quite detail.  Play close attention the statement at the bottom of this dialog box stating you must close and restart AutoCAD Electrical to use the migrated files.  Select "Done" to finish.

The next step is to add the new Eaton 2D footprints drawings to the AutoCAD Electrical 2017 panel footprint library folder.  The folder path can be found by viewing one of your company's project properties dialog box as shown below.

The supplied Eaton 2D footprint symbol drawings must be expanded from the original zip file.  These are  in the following location and are listed in various content specific folders.  Expand the folders and their contents to the same location of the zip file.

The AutoCAD Electrical migration utility may be used to copy the new footprint symbols into the AutoCAD Electrical folder using the following entry but an easier method is to simply copy the contents for each folder to the matching AutoCAD Electrical panel folder.   If you use this method, copy the complete folder and contents if it does not already exist int he panel footprint symbol library.  Eaton has supplied both imperial and metric footprint symbols.  I am using the imperial files.   Please note if your use the migration utility only one folder may be process in each session.  I will use the second method.  

Before copying the Eaton 2D footprint symbols an error is displayed when attempting to place one of the new Eaton circuit breaker panel symbols.

After copying the new Eaton 2D footprint symbols to the matching AutoCAD Electrical panel footprint folder, the placement of the same component is a success.

In my next article I will discuss the process for using and adding AutoCAD Electrical 3D content for use with Autodesk Inventor 2017.

Adding Additional Content to AutoCAD Electrical 2017 - Schematic Database

First let me layout the situation.  You have installed AutoCAD Electrical 2017 with all the manufacturers content available from the installation files which your company uses.  One of these manufacturers is Eaton and you have found that Eaton has made additional AutoCAD Electrical content available for version 2015 and 2016 but you notice that Autodesk has not released this content for 2017 at this time.  Your installation of AutoCAD Electrical 2017 is the first version your company has installed or you did not install the updated Eaton content in the 2016 version and migrate the manufacturers content forward. 

You think about downloading the AutoCAD Electrical 2016 Eaton content update and try to install it on your 2017 workstation.  This may work, I do not know, but Autodesk does not say it is compatible so do you take the chance of messing up your AutoCAD Electrical 2017 installation or do you wait for Autodesk to release the update?  The installation routines use the same methods of adding the Eaton content to the manufacturer content as the AutoCAD Electrical Migration Utility uses.  This article will allow you to add  the Eaton updated manufactures content using the Migration Utility so you use the extend content now instead of waiting.

The first step is to make a backup of your existing AutoCAD Electrical databases, symbols and other files that may be altered during the process.  This is just a safety precaution so you can return AutoCAD Electrical to the original state if you make a mistake.  The file level you back up is up to you.  I will be backing up the folder containing the catalog databases and the panel footprint symbols.  You can find these two folders by looking in your project "Settings" (wd.env file) for the catalog databases location and your project "Properties" for your panel footprint library folder location.

The next step is to download the additional Eaton manufacturers content.  You will find it at this location in a zip file format.  Open up the zip file and find the Eaton schematic catalog database file.  You will find it is in the following zip file location.  Save it to the same location as the zip file just keep things organized.  I will be coming back to unzip the Eaton footprint lookup catalog database in another article so if you can save it out now if you would like.





Open up AutoCAD Electrical 2017 and open a new schematic drawing or an existing one it really does not matter.  All commands require you to have a active drawing open in order to use them.  Select the Project tab and then select the Migration Utility.

Select the Catalog Lookup entry by placing a check mark in the box.  This indicates that we are going to migrate into the catalog lookup database.  Please note that the Migration From box says "Custom" which means there are no other AutoCAD Electrical version on this workstation so I am creating a custom migration.

The next thing I need to configure is the Copy/Merge Options.  Put some thought into these settings to make sure that you add the new Eaton content and maintain your existing database.  In my example I am going to merge the new content and overwrite existing database records but maintain any added custom database entries. 



The next step is to select the new Eaton content source file which you unzipped earlier and place it in the Source column.  This will be a Microsoft Access database file with a .MDB extension.

Next step is to select the destination catalog database that the new Eaton content will be merged into.  This will normally be AutoCAD Electrical 2017 default_cat.mdb file unless your company had renamed it.  The location may vary depending on your company's installation.

Selecting "OK" at the bottom of the migration utility dialog box will bring up a summary of the pending actions.  You are also given the ability to save the migration configuration for use at another time which is not needed since this is a one time operation.  Select "OK" to start the migration process.  The process will take a few minutes to complete often hesitating during the process so be patient.  Progress bars will be presented showing the progress of the migration process.

Once the process is complete the migration utility will display the Migration complete dialog box listing the location of files.  You may be interested in the migration log file which is quite detail.  Play close attention the statement at the bottom of this dialog box stating you must close and restart AutoCAD Electrical to use the migrated files.  Select "Done" to finish.

On the website where you originally downloaded the Eaton content you will find a PDF listing all of the new Eaton content families.  I am going to use this to prove the process worked.  Below is a screen shot from this document listing the CB (Circuit Breakers) series content that is included in the update.

Before I used the migration utility process, described above, I used the AutoCAD Electrical Catalog Browser to search for Eaton EHD Series circuit breakers.  The Content Browser shows that they do not exist in the catalog database.

After the migration the same search shows that the Eaton circuit breaker series is now a part of the AutoCAD Electrical catalog proving the migration was a success.

In my next blog article I will cover the process of using the AutoCAD Electrical 2017 migration utility to add the Eaton content to the footprint database and also to add the additional footprint symbols to the application.