7
Task: Turning a Listing of I/O Assignments and
Connected Devices into a Drawing Set
This sample spreadsheet is what an engineer or designer might put together to define
a project’s PLC I/O requirements. Each I/O module is represented by a group of rows
(example, 8 or 16 or 32 rows) in the spreadsheet, each group representing one I/O module in the design. Each row in the group
corresponds to one I/O point in the module. The row carries the I/O address and a listing of any series-connected, in-line devices
wires to the I/O point.
The task is to take this spreadsheet data and turn it into a set of PLC I/O schematic
drawings. This means 1) insert a PLC I/O representation and renumber its I/O points
to the appropriate range of address values, 2) insert symbols to represent the
connected devices, 3) draw wires to connect to the I/O points, 4) type in appropriate
description text on to each device and each I/O point, pulled from the spreadsheet.
To make it easier for basic AutoCAD, we’ll assume 1) the various symbols exist and
can be quickly accessed and inserted into the drawing; 2) the description text can
be cut and pasted from the spreadsheet to the symbols to save time. For AutoCAD
Electrical, we’ll assume that the spreadsheet columns are arranged in the PLC I/O
generator’s default column format.
Steps
1. Start with the first drawing. Find and insert the appropriate PLC I/O symbol. Edit the addresses to match the spreadsheet.
2. Insert the in-line device symbols. Draw wire lines to connect symbols from the left-hand bus over to the I/O point.
3. Cut/Paste description and tag text over from the spreadsheet.
4. Repeat above until all modules are accounted for.
Study Results
This study assumes the designer has created an initial controls scheme, with all information documented in a spreadsheet, which
is properly formatted data. As there are many different workflows that could accomplish this task, overall time savings will differ
among users.
The AutoCAD user would begin by manually drawing ladders or inserting existing blocks, which require editing of all reference
numbers. This is followed by the addition of custom components (blocks), all of which require a combination of copying and
pasting data from the spreadsheet, and attribute editing.
With AutoCAD Electrical, you need only insert the appropriate data into a preformatted spreadsheet, and drawings are
automatically created for you within a preselected border.
As shown here, by using AutoCAD Electrical you can achieve substantial productivity gains over basic AutoCAD.
6.
Automatically Create PLC I/O Drawings from Spreadsheets
Productivity Gain* AutoCAD AutoCAD Electrical
Number of Commands Utilized 4 1
Number of Times Commands Were Accessed 244 1
Total Number of User Picks, Clicks, Keystrokes 442 4
Total Time to Complete Task (minutes, seconds) ~2 hours 0:30
Time Saving with AutoCAD Electrical — Time savings is subjective based on the user’s level
of experience. Based on this example, the time savings was substantial.
Automatically create PLC I/O drawings from the design data stored in a spreadsheet.
AutoCAD Electrical gives users the ability to generate a comprehensive set of PLC I/O
drawings by simply defining the project’s I/O assignments in a spreadsheet. AutoCAD
Electrical then automatically creates drawings, complete with ladders per the drawing
configuration, I/O modules, addresses and description text, and component and
terminal symbols connected to each I/O point. Once the drawings have been created,
the I/O address and description report can be exported to the PLC program.
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