The Brass Tacks of Panel Design

Control panels are ubiquitous to any electrical design discussion. In most cases, panels hold together the nerve center of a system and vary widely in complexity. An electrical design solution needs to cater to a simple panel such as we find in our homes that may contain a few fuses and disconnects. That solution should also be able to handle complex panels like the ones used for switchgear, PLCs, and the motor control centers that drive the world of automation all around us.

What are the key areas to consider in evaluating a design tool geared towards efficiently and effectively designing panels?

Requirements for Panel Design Tools

• Maintain consistency between the logical and physical design to produce high quality, repeatable design process.
• Seamlessly work for the designer in both 2- and 3-dimensional panel design requirements.
• Easily design a panel from scratch including ducts, rails, and non-electrical essentials.
• A robust intelligent library to store and manage complex components.
• Manage space requirements for cooling, wiring, and form/fit restrictions.
• Produce manufacturing documentation including bill of materials, wire lists, cut-mark-and-strip machines, labeling machines, etc.
• Drive automation processes such as CNC machines, advanced assembly machines, advanced wiring tools, and future revolutionary solutions to further automate the process.

Consistency and quality

A panel is a physical representation of the logical data from a schematic. The need to keep the information across the two areas in sync is paramount in ensuring quality. Detailed views of the panel are also important to ensure the manufacturing and commissioning teams clearly understand the design intent.

E3.series ensures your schematic and panel are always in sync. Component, wire, and connectivity information is a common thread in your design. The application is constantly checking for common errors to help get the design right the first time and avoid rework. Dedicated zoomed-in views of a panel can be created to fine-tune the design and share the details to increase clarity in the design documentation.

Versatility

Ease-of-use in Panel Design Tools

An effective solution needs to work for the engineer without adding overhead to complete the design quickly. A simple solution is to provide an intelligent library of parts that can be dragged and dropped on a schematic or panel to hit the ground running. In E3.series, the information for mates, orientation, cutouts, and other physical/logical information is saved in the library. Therefore, the information – once entered – can be re-used over and over again.

The details desired in the panel views are driven by the user and the project requirements. The 2D views can be simple blocks or detailed graphics and the 3D views can be

the same with added information for the depth. The 3D views also can use STEP models for adding rich detail when required.