Schematic reports in AutoCAD Electrical

00:03

AutoCAD Electrical is packed with impressive report-generating capabilities.

00:08

Once you create schematic and panel drawings,

00:11

you can generate a report to extract exactly the intelligence you want from these project drawings, format it, and display it on screen.

00:20

The possibilities for what you can create with a few quick clicks are endless.

00:26

On the ribbon, Reports tab, Schematic panel, click Reports to open the Schematic Reports dialog.

00:33

There are a couple of quick things to remember about reports.

00:37

Almost any information you put into a drawing can be extracted into a report.

00:42

Reports are divided into different types, each with related categories of information.

00:48

If the information you want in a report is not available for the selected type, try switching types.

00:55

Also, panel reports can be very similar to schematic reports.

00:60

For example, the schematic Bill of Material report is almost identical to the panel Bill of Material report,

01:07

which means that creating both may be redundant.

01:10

In the Schematic Reports dialog, the report types are listed under Report Name.

01:16

Bill of Material is selected by default, but if you select a different type, such as From/To, notice the options in the dialog change.

01:24

Select Missing Bill of Material, and then select Component to view their different options.

01:31

For this exercise, select Bill of Material.

01:34

Under Bill of Material, select Project to extract information from the entire project, and not just the Active drawing.

01:42

Expand the Category drop-down for a list of available options—Schematic, One-Line, One-Line bus tap, Hydraulic, Pneumatic, and P&ID.

01:53

Based on this selection and the symbols you have selected, relevant components are filtered out and included in the report.

02:01

For this example, leave Schematic selected.

02:05

Under Include, there are options to include cables, connectors, or jumpers.

02:10

In this case, leave All of the below selected.

02:13

The Display group box is specific to the Bill Of Material report.

02:17

These different ways of tallying or grouping report components allow you to change the focus of the report based on its use.

02:25

For example, you can create a purchase list or group a report by installation.

02:31

Select Freshen Project Database to refresh the project database once the report is created.

02:38

Click Format to use a previously saved format for your report.

02:41

In this case, there are none saved, but if you have one created, you can click Browse to select the existing format.

02:49

Click Cancel to close this dialog.

02:52

Most report types include the Installation and Location Code options, which filter the information to be extracted by the report.

03:01

This is a good example of the usefulness of these values.

03:05

When creating schematic designs, be sure to always enter at least the location code for your components.

03:13

In the Location codes to extract group box, select Named Location.

03:18

Next to List, select Project to open the All Locations — Project dialog.

03:23

In the location list, select M, and then click OK.

03:28

This instructs the report to list only components with a location value of M.

03:34

By adjusting this value, you can generate different Bill of Material reports for specific project components.

03:41

Click OK to open the Select Drawings to Process dialog.

03:46

Previously, you opted to create a project-wide report, but, if necessary, you can use this list to narrow it down to specific drawings.

03:56

For this example, click Do All to transfer all drawings to the lower pane, which means they will all be processed for the report.

04:04

Click OK to generate the report.

04:07

In the Report Generator dialog, you can view the report in the upper section, with options below for adding headers and page breaks.

04:16

At the bottom of the dialog, select Put on Drawing, Save to File, or Print to use the report as needed.