Design Checks for SOLIDWORKS Electrical

SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design Check #1 - Duct Filling Ratio (%)

SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic is a powerful 2D software to produce electrical wiring and cabinet designs. However, with just 2D there are limits on how you can visualise and verify your design. This is where 3D modelling comes in to play. With the additional Electrical 3D, you’ll be able to see a detailed finished product before it reaches the manufacturing stage. Also, within the 3D environment, there are tools which can help to aid in your design. For example, when it comes to choosing what size of ducts to use in your design, it usually involves manual calculations or guess work and sometimes it will be at the stage where the cabinet is built before knowing what size to use. With SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D you can calculate the Duct Filling Ratio very easily.

After routing the wires, select Calculate Cable Duct Filling Ratio under SOLIDWORKS Electrical pull-down menu. Then click on the Calculation of cable duct filling ratio in the Command complete dialog.

 

To display the duct filling ratio, right-click the on the duct component and select Properties. Within the Part Properties dialog you’ll be able to see the duct filling ratio in the list.

 

 

 

SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design Check #2 – Voltage Drop Calculation for Cable/Harness

How do we calculate the voltage drop?

A simple answer to this question is to use Ohms Law. For most cables the resistance of the cable per meter will be defined by the manufacturer and we can multiply this by the length of the cable. Then apply ohms law V_drop=IR to give us the voltage drop across the cable.

With SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic we can easily generate reports to display voltage drop and power loss across a length of cable or cables in a harness.

 

The information needed for the voltage drop and power lost calculation:

·         Voltage drop (V/A/km)

·         Length of cable (m)

·         Full Load current (A)

·         Applied voltage (V)

·         Inrush factor

This information will be added to the cable properties.

Important note: For SOLIDWORKS Electrical to generate a report the “Do calculation” box must be checked.

 

To generate the report go to Design rule check under Project tab. Within the Design rules manager you can add the voltage drop template that you wish to use, it would be a choice for cables or cables in harness. Once the appropriate template has been selected you will be to see the populated columns. To produce a report, select Generate Drawings and within your project documents you’ll be able to see a new report drawing is added.