Hagerman Blog

As Controls Engineers, we are all aware that design involves both hardware and software, typically including PLC logic. The hardware design explains the physical wiring and descriptions, and the software design makes it happen. Sometimes one engineer or designer does the hardware design, and another does the software (PLC/HMI/etc.).

I believe 99% of you will agree that having a data management system such as Autodesk Vault is the right way to go. It is secure, tracks changes to versions and revisions, and offers so much in the way of making your design data more accessible. However, what do you do if your controls group doesn't have Vault but still needs to track changes to AutoCAD Electrical projects? And how can you compare a drawing when someone else, such as a vendor or customer, makes changes?

As part of the controls design process, schematic symbols are placed into drawings. Due to industry standards such as NFPA (JIC), IEC, ISO, etc., we don't have to worry about figuring out how the graphics should look. And most of you have blocks representing the graphics and most likely text such as Device ID, Ratings, etc.