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.