Working with AutoCAD Drawings—Exercises

Basic Data Setup

Loading the AutoCAD Adapters

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to set up the basic data required to run the integration between AutoCAD and IFS Application.

Windows:
NA

1. Loading the Adapters.

General Exercise for Loading the AutoCAD Adapter

Main Exercise

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to show how to create objects and blocks in an AutoCAD drawing and to show how the CAD integration really works..

Windows:
NA

Setup AutoCAD with Grid and Snap

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to create a grid and a snap within an AutoCAD drawing.

We do this in order to setup the drawing environment. this will make it faster to draw and easier to get things in scale. There are two elements that you should define. That is the grid and the snap.

Note: A grid is an area covered with regularly spaced dots to aid drawing. The spacing between grid dots is adjustable. A snap is the spacing between points of the snap grid.

1. Start AutoCAD application.
2. In the command line type GRID and press Enter.
3. Now type ON and press Enter.
4. In the command line type SNAP and press Enter.
5. Now type 5 and press Enter.
6. In the command line type ZOOM and press Enter.
7. Now type ALL

The grid will be in the full space of the window.

Create Drawing (Symbol)

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to draw a square with a circle embedded in it.

To draw the square,

1. In the command line type LINE and press Enter.
2. Proceed to draw the four sides of the square by using the grid points as reference.

To draw the circle,

1. From the menu select Draw/Circle/Center, radius.

Click where you want as the center of the circle and expand the radius to fit in the square.

Define Attributes on a Drawing

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to assign attributes to the square and the circle you drew in the previous exercise.

1. From the menu select Draw/Block/Define Attributes.
2. In the Mode section select the Verify check box.
3. In the Attribute section give a name for this attribute in the Tag field. As you are defining a number you can define it as NO.
4. Enter Number in the Prompt field.
5. The test options shows how the text of the attribute will be displayed on the screen.

Specify the following values in the relevant fields.

6. Click Pick Points and point where you want the attributes to appear.
7. Repeat steps 2 to 5. Enter CO as the attribute tag and Color as the prompt.

Make a Block of a Drawing

Note: A block is a generic term for one or more objects that are combined to create a single object.

AutoCAD utilizes blocks to build reusable units and store attribute information. A drawing needs to have blocks defined. Therefore the next step is to create blocks and define information connected to the blocks.

1. From the menu select Draw/Block/Make
2. Give the block a name as Block_1.
3. In the Objects section, click the Quick Select icon and click OK.

A block will be created based on the objects in the drawing and you can view the result in the Preview Icon area.

4. Click OK again.
5. AutoCAD will display a message asking for your defined attribute values.
6. Enter Number as 1.1 and Color as Red and save.

Now that you have created a drawing the next step is to include it in IFS/PDM-Configuration and IFS/Project Delivery.

Map IFS specific attributes

At this stage you need to add the IFS specific attributes to all your blocks in the drawing (you currently have only one block which is Block_1), or map the IFS specific attributes to some of the existing attributes on your blocks.

1. From the menu select IFS Applications/Options
2. Select the IFS Keys on block tab and select your block.

Note: Use this tab to add IFS specific attributes on an existing AutoCAD block. IFS attributes will be added to a block or existing block attributes will be mapped as IFS keys.

3. Click Select define the NO attribute as IFS Part Number and click OK.
4. In the command line type ATTEDIT and press Enter.

Note: You will get a square curser.

5. Point at your block and click.

This opens the Edit Attributes screen.

Note: The result should show Number as 1.1 and Color as Red.

You have now added all IFS specific attributes into the drawing.

Create a New Part in IFS

Since you now (in a simplified way) have said that NO 1.1 is a IFS Part Number, lets see how easy it is to transfer that directly to IFS PDM-Configuration (or Project Delivery if needed)

1. From the menu select IFS Applications/Part Revision Information
2. Click on your block in the drawing. You see the window Part Revision Information

Note: The Part Number is already there. This is taken directly from the block based on your mapping.

3. Fill in the Description field and click Apply to directly create the part in IFS PDM-Configuration.

Minimize the AutoCAD application and go to your IFS application.

4. Go to PDMCON/Parts/Overview-Engineering Parts
5. Query for Part Number 1.1. Verify that the part is created.

Note: This way of defining parts is PDM is cumbersome if you have many blocks. You will see how to export many blocks in the next exercise.

Export from multiple block to IFS

We will now insert five or six new symbols in to your drawing.

1. From the menu select Insert/Block
2. Under Name select Object_1
3. Under Insertion Point select Specify On-screen and select a point on the screen.
4. In the command line you will be prompted for Number type 1.2 and press Enter.
5. In the command line you will be prompted for Color type blue and press Enter.
6. In the command line you will be prompted for IFS Part Revision type R01 and press Enter.
7. In the command line you will be prompted for IFS Part Description type CH1 and press Enter.
8. In the command line you will be prompted for IFS Product Structure Position type 1 and press Enter.
9. In the command line you will be prompted for IFS Product Structure Quantity type 1 and press Enter.
10. You are now prompted with the values you just entered. Press the Enter key to confirm these.
11. Repeat steps 1-10 five times.

Remember to add different NO since they will be IFS Part Numbers when exporting.

Note: The Export  feature lets you choose what kind of block to export, and the adapter will them automatically pick all similar blocks. The reason for this is that you don't want to transfer every kind of block default. i.e AutoCAD define format block that have no value for PDMCON. So when AutoCAD is the CAD tool, you need to plan how you build blocks and choose the right ones for export. To learn more about blocks and export, please read the AutoCAD help information.

To Export,

1. From the menu select IFS Applications/Export BOM
2. Pick a block on your drawing.
3. Export BOM List screen will be opened.

All similar blocks will be displayed.

4. Click OK.

This exports all the parts to PDMCON.

5. Go to PDMCON/Parts/Overview-Engineering Parts and verify that the parts are created.

Note: You can use this window to export the bill of material (BOM) list for the selected block in the AutoCAD drawing to IFS PDM-Configuration, or to update block information for the IFS specific keys. Part revisions that do not exist in the database will be created. (The IFS specific keys are IFS_PART_NO, IFS_PART_REV, IFS_PART_DESCRIPTION, IFS_PROD_STR_POS, IFS_PROD_STR_QTY)

Since AutoCAD uses blocks and not a multilevel structure all parts will just be created as a list in PDM, unless you define a top part where you will build a two level structure. Let us now define a top part

1. You need to create a new part in PDM or use an existing one. For this exercise use Part Number 11000-1

This part should be in Preliminary state in PDMCON.

2. From the menu select IFS Applications/Options
3. Select the General tab, select Connect to Main Part and Apply.
4. Select the Part tab fill in the part 11000-1.
5. From the menu select IFS Applications/Export BOM

Enter the part description for all parts where it is empty. Also remember to put in quantity and position since you are building a structure based on your top part.

6. Select the rows and click OK.
7. Go to PDMCON/Parts/Engineering Part Revision and query for part 11000-1.
8. Go to Consists of tab and verify that the parts defined as blocks have got exported into the structure of the top part.

So now you know how to demo the AutoCAD adapter. Please read the available documentation and presentations to learn more about the details.