Add Connectors And Wiring (5:55 min)

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Now, let's talk about connectors.

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Connectors are a very special form

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of standard schematic components.

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So they are pre-built and that's why we call them standard,

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but they're actually parametrically

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capable of adjusting to the spacing and the setup

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that you have uniquely in your drawing.

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So connectors are located on our schematic tab

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of the ribbon in the insert components panel

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and they're the far right upper corner.

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And if we click on Insert Connector,

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we get this dialog box.

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If it's the first time you've ever gone here,

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you'll see this very condensed dialog box.

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When we click Details, it will expand that dialog box

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to give us all of the different types of edits and toggles

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that we may want to be able to make this connector what

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we need it to be.

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So let's talk about the different options

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within this connector.

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We can tell it how many pins we want in a connector, which

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I'm going to choose 10.

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I can choose what I want that pin spacing to be.

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Now, I am at 1-inch spacing on my wires,

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but I'm going to leave this pin spacing of 0.75

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to show you what the difference will be when we actually

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break this connector in half.

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So I'm not going to choose fixed spacing,

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I'm going to say at wire crossing

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and this is what allows it to parametrically build

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across all of the wires it will snap to

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as I go to places on my drawing.

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It's a bit of the same functionality

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we will see when we actually add PLCs later on in this lesson.

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Now, I can choose whether or not I want a plug-in receptacle

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combination together or if I want the plug

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only or the receptacle only.

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Now, I'm going to choose the combo.

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You can also choose whether or not

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you want that to force a wire number

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change as the wire passes through that particular plug

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receptacle combo.

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In this case, I'm going to leave it off of there,

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but that is an option in the toggle.

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Now, one of the things that you can set up here

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is how you want the pin list to look.

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So right now it's just going to build 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so

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on, but you could do an alphanumeric

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and it will figure out the code that you want.

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Now, if you have it without any sort of pattern,

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just fill in there with commas everything that you want.

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So if I wanted this to be

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it will then pick up a pattern.

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But if the pattern doesn't follow anything,

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you can just type in with commas what you want to see there.

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The easiest thing is obviously the numerical setup

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that I'm about to do.

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So all I need in there is a single character of 1.

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Now, I can say whether or not I want this connector to be

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a vertical connector or a horizontal connector,

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which also is a toggle up here.

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So we've got a few places where you can edit these.

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You can rotate it and flip it this way.

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And that's what the plug left-to-right is.

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You can also choose whether or not

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you want to see the pins on both sides or just the plug side

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or just the receptacle or none at all.

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It will still break it, you just will not

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see the pin values on there if you use the hide both.

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I'm going to use plug side.

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And then you could get really detailed if you want to

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and actually choose the spacing of the width of the plug,

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the width of the distance from the top to the first pin,

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the distance from the bottom pin to the bottom

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of the actual connector, the width of obviously

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the receptacle, and even the radius of the fillet

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that's being created on the plug side.

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So lots of options there.

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Probably not something you need to edit very often,

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but you do have the capability of doing it.

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Now, I'm going to hit Insert.

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And when I go to insert this, you'll see that the size of it

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is it kind of ghosts out to what it

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thinks that this connector is going to look like.

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You can see that based off of that 0.75 spacing.

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Now, as you see me bring this in, it's going to expand,

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because it now realizes that the spacing of my wires

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is bigger than the 0.75.

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So now it's going to try to meet that spacing.

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When I click this in, it automatically

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builds all of those connection points there.

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And then it opens up the Insert Edit Component dialog box.

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And it allows me to start filling out information on here

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that I might need.

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Now, I inserted the whole thing.

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If I wanted to just insert it and then break it,

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you can do that as well.

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So let's go through the same format.

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You can see the dialog box opens now in full form

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because I opened it once.

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And this time if I say allow spacers and breaks,

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I can choose to do that and I can

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choose to insert it like this.

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And then I can choose which things

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I want to insert one by one.

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So I can start next connection, next connection,

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and keep building it along the way

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and then end up breaking it to perhaps

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be able to set that next connection down here.

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And, again, it will ask me if I want

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that fixed spacing or at wire crossing

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and if I just want to insert everything at this point

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and it will finish building it.

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And it, again, will add any information.

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If you want to add a description or anything else to it,

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you can do that.

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So connectors have lots of power to them.

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Whenever you right-click on them as well, there's

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an additional menu that will pop up in that marking menu

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to allow you to rotate, stretch, split,

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move any of your connector pins.

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You can even swap and delete those.

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So where most people would think you need to explode,

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don't explode anything in AutoCAD Electrical.

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You don't have to do that.

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This is a fully editable connector

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that has all of these different toggles in it

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to allow you to do lots of different editing

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to this connector, even after you've placed it.

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Please take a moment to do the add connectors and wiring

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exercise.