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UsingthetobuttonsintheViewtoolbar, youcanswitchbetweenfivedifferentgrids,forwhichdifferentgridsizeshavebeenstoredintheuser settings. PleasekeeptheSnaptogridoptionactivatedduringthesubsequentschematicgenerationanduse GridCwiththedefaultgridsize4. The"ON"or "OFF"textinthestatusbarinfrontofthegridsizeindicateswhetherthesnaptogridisactivatedornot seeexampleregardingstatusbaronpage Theuseofgridsnapisindependentofthegrid displayoptions.

Ifthisviewbothersyoulaterwhencreatingtheschematic,thenturnthegriddisplayoffin thesameway. Forschematicediting,itisoftena goodideatoenlargeacertainscreensegmentinordertobeabletoseedetailsbetter. Forinstance,youcan usethe"windowzoom"inordertoshowacertainwindowsegmentinanenlargedview. In additiontothemousepointer,amagnifyingglasswillalsobedisplayed. Leftclickthemouseinthe upperleftcorneroftheschematic,andusethemousetoopenanareawhichincludesaboutaquarterofthe schematicpage.

Clicktheleftmousebutton again. Bydefault,duringscrollingthemousewheel actsinthesamewayyouarefamiliarwithfromotherCADprograms. Inthesettings,youalsohavetheoptionofchangingthe scrollingbehaviorsothatitmatchesthebehavioroftexteditingprograms.

Inthiscase,whenyouscroll withthemousewheel,thevisiblesectionofthepageismovedupwardsordownwards. Theelementisdisplayed inadifferentcolor. Belowthesymbol,asmalltextwindow Tooltip isdisplayedwithinformationabout theelement.

Youcan,however, usetheUndocommandtoreinserttheelement. Note:When editingelementsintheGraphicaleditor,besidestheusualWindowsoperatingmethods firstselect elements,thencallcommand ,inmostcasesthereverseorderofoperation firstcallthecommand,then selectelements isalsosupported.

Thebox withtheredXisthesymbolassignedtothedeletefunction,andtheboxwiththedashedlinestandsforthe areatobeselected. Leftclickthemousebutton ontheupperleftoftheelement,andusethemousetodragaframearoundQ1.

TheelementQ1is removed. IfyourcursorisinthePagenavigator,thentheprojectforwhichyouhaveselectedone ormorepagesisclosed. Note:PleasenotethatthemenuitemCloseinthepopupmenuPagenavigator onlyclosesthepagecurrentlylocatedintheforeground.

Tip:In theProjectmenu,beneaththemenuitemPrint,alistofthelastprojectsopenedisdisplayed. Youcanuse thislisttoopenacorrespondingprojectwithoutneedingtousethemenuitemOpen. Nowthatyouhavelookedatthecomplicateddemoprojectinthischapter,inthenexttwomainsections youwillcreateamuch"simpler"schematic.

By default,symbolsdonotcontainanylogicaldata. Whatisa component? Itconsistsofthe functionandsymbol. A componenthasadevicetag,connectionpointdesignations,andsoon. Devicesare logicalelectronicorfluidtechnicalunitsthatworktogether. Dependingonthepagetype,acertaincoordinatesystem willbethedefault. Onelectricalengineeringschematicpages,thecoordinatesystemisofthetype, Electricalengineering. Thecoordinates areindicatedingridincrementsRXandRYanddisplayedinthestatusbar.

Anglesandotherelements Tnodes, interruptionpoints,etc. The Coordinateinputdialogisclosed. Youcanimmediatelyinsertmore angles. Notes:Intheentire sampleproject,weplacethedifferentschematicelementsintopreciselydefinedpositionstomakeit possibletocomparetheresults.

Thiskindofdeterminationofinsertioncoordinatesisnotabsolutely necessarywheneditingyourownschematics. Todothiswheninsertingasdescribedaboveyoucan useCoordinateinputorpositiontheelementsatthegivencoordinatesusingthemouseorthecursorkeys.

IfyouusetheCoordinateinputdialogtodothis,eachelementisdirectlyplacedafterconfirmingthe coordinateswith[OK]. Ifyoupositiontheelementusingthemouseorkeyboard,thenafterpositioningyou muststillleftclickorpress[Enter]inordertoplacetheelementonthepage. Pleasenotethatwhen insertingtospecificcoordinatesoutsideofthecoordinatesystemsinuse,thegridsizebeingusedwill alsoplayarole.

If, forexample,inthePagepropertiesyouchangedthedefaultGridfrom"4. Oncetheconnectionpointsoftwoanglesymbolsaredirectly horizontally orvertically alignedintheschematic,theyareautomaticallyconnectedwithaconnection line. Thisiscalled"autoconnecting",inwhichtheconnectionlinescreatedthiswayarecalled "autoconnectlines".

Onlytheseautoconnectlinesarerecognizedandreportedaselectricalconnections betweensymbols. Autoconnectingisalwaysperformediftheconnectionpointsoftwosymbolsarealigned horizontallyorvertically. Wheninsertingandmovingsymbols,apreviewoftheautoconnectlinesis shown. InsertingPotentialConnectionPointsThepotentialsintheschematiccanbedefinedbypotential connectionpoints.

Thesymbolforthe potentialconnectionpointhangsonthemousepointer. TheProperties components : Potentialconnectionpointopens. OnthePotentialdefinitiontabinthe propertiesdialog,fortheNameofpotential,enterthevalueL1. Thepropertiesdialogis thenclosed. Afterthesymbolsareplaced,adifferentsymbolvariant mustbeselectedinthepropertiesdialog. Tip:Iftherearedifferentvariantsofa symbol suchasforapotentialconnectionpoint ,thenyoualreadyhaveseveralpossibilitiesduring positioningtoselectbetweenthedifferentvariants.

Forinstance,ifthesymbolishangingonthemouse pointer,youcanpressthe[Ctrl]keyandmovethecursorinacircle. Onceyouhavedecidedonavariant,firstreleasethe[Ctrl]key,thenclicktheleftmousebuttontoplace thesymbol.

Adifferentwaytopagebetweenthevariantsavailableconsistsofpressingthe[Tab]keywhile inserting. Foreach direction,therearethenfourvariants. Theinsertionpointsofallplacedschematicelementsare shownintheschematicas"blacksquares". TheT noderightdialogopens. Tips:Forfastdisplayandhidingoftheinsertionpoints,youcanalsousethe[i] key. Bydoubleclickingtheinsertionpoint,youcanalsoopentherespectivepropertiesdialogandthen editthepropertiesforothersymbols,textsandgraphicalelementsthatareplacedinthegraphicaleditor.

Therectanglehangson themousepointer. Clicktheleftmousebuttonto determinethestartingpointoftherectangle. Note:Wheninsertinggraphicalelements,asmalltextwindowforinputting numbersisdisplayedonthecursorbydefault. Thevalues enteredintheinputboxrelatetothegraphicalcoordinatesystemwithitsoriginatthebottomleftand whichisreportedin"mm"or"inch",accordingtothepresetdisplayedmeasuringunit. IftheInputbox functionisenabledintheOptionsmenu,youcanusetheinputbox,forexample,topositiongraphical elementsquicklyandpreciselyongraphicalpages.

Onsuchpages,thegraphicalcoordinatesystemis preset. Clicktheleftmousebuttontodeterminethestartingpointofthefirstlineof therectangle. To"visually"highlighttheactionline, changetheformattingpropertiesofthelinesinserted. Doubleclick,forinstance,onthe"PE"line the firstline. Changethe settingshere. Todifferentiatethelines,selectdifferentformattingproperties e. Inthetreeview, symbolsaredividedneatlyintodifferentgroupsbasedontheirfunctiondefinitions.

Here,youcanpage throughthedifferentgroupsuntilyoufindthesymbolyouwant. Example:Thefollowingillustration showssymbolselectionthroughthetreeviewforthefirstdevicetobeinserted. Ontherightsideinthedialog,theSymbol selectionpresentsyouwithapreview. Onceyouhaveselectedthedesiredsymbolinthepreview,you canthenacceptitwithadoubleclick.

Forthesampleproject,weareusingasymbolselectionfromthelist view. Note:Thesymbol selectionviadirectentrydescribedbelowworksonlyifyouleavethecolumnsofthelistconfiguredsothat thenameofthesymbolisinthefirstcolumn. TheSymbol selectiondialogisopened. Toreducethenumber ofsymbolsshown,selectafilternow. Todothis,fromtheFilterdropdownlist,applytheIECsymbols, multilineentry.

Thevarioussymbolsare managedinsocalled"symbollibraries". Afteryouenterthefirstcharacter,the cursorjumpstothefirstsymbolwhosenamebeginswiththatcharacter,andselectsit.

Theselectedsymbol isdisplayedinthepreviewwindowontherightside,withallexistingvariants. Thefirstvariantofeachis selectedinthepreviewwindow. Inthelist,selectthethreepole switchQ1andclick[OK]. Thesymbolhangsonthemousepointerandcanbeplacedonthecurrentpage intheGraphicaleditor. DeterminingpropertiesAfterplacingtheswitchonthepage,the Properties components dialogopens. ThefieldsDisplayedDT,Connectionpoint designation,andConnectionpointdescriptionarealreadyprepopulatedwithentries.

Enterthevalue 16AintotheTechnicalcharacteristicsfield. Intheschematic,youalsosee theconnectionpointdesignationsenteredandthefunctiontext. Tip:TocallupSymbolselectionquickly, youcanalsousethe[Insert]keyorthebutton Symbol intheSymbolstoolbar. Insertingothergeneral devicesProceedinthesamefashionasaboveforthecomponentslistedbelow.

Inthelistview,select Symbolselectionusingdirectentry. Todothis,enterthesymbolnamegivenbelowforeachone,and leavetheIECsymbols,multilinefilterfilteractivated. Beforeyoucanthenselectadifferentsymbol,youmustfinishthe actionandthencallSymbolselectionagain. Positionthesymbolsonthegivencoordinatesandfillinthe propertiesofthecomponentsinserted,ifnecessary. Theentriesoftheprepopulatedpropertiesaregivenin parenthesesinthefollowinglisting.

InsertingTerminalStripsandTerminalsTerminalsareakindof deviceand,likegeneraldevices,canonlybeinsertedintoyourschematicusingsymbolselection.

IntheSymbolselectiondialog, selecttheListtab. Theterminalsymbolhangsonthemousepointerandcan beplacedonthecurrentpageintheGraphicaleditor. TheProperties components :Terminals dialogopens. Terminalsarealso automaticallynumberedbydefault. Forthis purpose,theMainterminalcheckboxisactivatedinthepropertydialog. Next,youmustmodifythe functiondefinitionoftheinsertedterminal. Thefunctiondefinitiondefinesthestandardbehaviorofa function. Youcanthen decidelateronthespecificterminal Nterminal,PEterminal,etc.

Here,inthetreeoftheSelection field,selectthefunctiondefinitionTerminalwithsaddlejumper,2connectionpoints. The Functiondefinitionsdialogisclosed. IntheProperties components :Terminalsdialog,alsoclick [OK]. Forthefirsttwo terminals,youcanacceptthepredefinedterminaldesignations2and3,butforthelastterminalchangethe designationtoPE. Forthefirsttwoterminals Xand X ,alsoselectthefunctiondefinitionTerminalwithsaddlejumper,2connectionpoints,andforthePE terminal X thefunctiondefinitionPEterminalwithrailcontact,2connectionpoints.

Finishthe actionbyselectingthemenuitemCancelactionfromthepopupmenu. Theterminalstripdefinition identifiestheterminalstripandcontainsalltherelevantdatafortheterminalstripaswellastheterminal strippartinformation.

Thesymbolforthe terminalstripdefinitionhangsonthemousepointer. TheProperties components : Terminalstripdefinitiondialogopens. Duetotheautomaticnumbering,thefieldDisplayedDTisalready prepopulatedwiththeentryX2. IntheDisplayedDTfieldonthe Terminalstripdefinitiontab,enterthestripdesignationX1alreadyassignedintheschematic. Inthe Functiontextfield,enterthetextMotor,4connectionpoints.

Theterminalstripdefinitionis insertedatthegivencoordinates. Thecabledefinitionlinemustcross thecorrespondingconnections. Thesymbolforthecable definitionlinehangsonthemousepointer. The Properties components :Cabledialogopens. Duetotheautomaticnumbering,thefieldDisplayedDTis alreadyprepopulatedwiththeentryW1.

Inthe fieldsNo. Intheschematic,the cabledefinitionlinewiththedisplayedDTW1isshownalongwiththedataentered. Whendrawingthecabledefinitionline,aconnection definitionpointisautomaticallysetateachintersectionofconnectionswiththecabledefinitionline.

The cableconductorsaredeterminedviatheconnectiondefinitionpoints. Youwillonlyseethese automaticallygeneratedconnectiondefinitionpointsifyouhaveactivatedtheviewofinsertionpoints. Forcertain actions e. In doingthis,newconnectionsaregeneratedbasedontheavailableinformationorexistingconnectionsare updated.

Theindividualconnectioncangetitsdatafromprojectsettings,potentials,orfromaconnection definitionpoint. Sincetheconnectiondataisnotautomaticallyupdatedforeachaction,werecommend manuallyupdatingbeforecertainactions suchastheexecutionofcheckruns,orworkinginnavigator dialogs. Notes:The"manual"updatingof connectionsisusuallydonefortheentireproject. Ifthecheckboxisnotactivated,updatingisonlycarriedforthecurrentselection of pages,functions,etc. Youcantellifconnectionsareuptodatebylookingattherightedgeofthestatus bar:Ifthe" "signisdisplayedthere,theprojecthasoutofdateconnections.

If nootherfunctiontextisenteredforacomponent,thefunctiontextfromthepathwillbeusedforreports e. ThePropertiesPath functiontextdialogopens. Thepath functiontexthangsonthemousepointer. Click theleftmousebuttontoplacethetextinthedesiredpath.

Note:Besurewheninsertingpathfunctiontextsthattheinsertionpointofthetext isalignedwiththeinsertionpointofthecomponentwhichshouldreceivethepathfunctiontext. Inserting "InterruptionPoint"ConnectionSymbols1. Hold[Ctrl]andthen movethecursorinacircle. Selectthevariantwiththearrow pointingdownwards VariantD ,andreleasethe[Ctrl]key. TheProperties components :Interruption pointdialogopens. Assignthis"PE"linethesameformattingpropertiesyou assignedtothefirst"PE"line.

Forinstance,selecta differentlinethicknessandadifferentlinetype. Next,youwillalsoinsertcomponentsonthesecond schematicpage,thusgeneratingcrossreferences. In thischapter,youwillcompletetheschematiconthesecondpage,thusgeneratingcrossreferences.

Theprogramautomaticallyinsertsmost ofthesecrossreferenceautomatically online. Basedonthesampleproject,youwillgettoknowsome ofthemostcommoncrossreferencetypes. Devicescanconsistofdifferentelementsandbedistributedacrossmultiplepagesof schematics. Insuchcases,crossreferences identifythefactthatindividualcomponentsbelongtogether.

Acrossreferenceshowsyouwheretheother partofadevicecanbefoundintheschematic. Usingcrossreferences,youcanreliablyfindacomponent orassociatedpartsonaseriesofpages. Thecross referencesareshownbydefaultintheorder,[Separator]Pagename[Separator]Column. Bydefault,the crossreferencesreceiveadifferentcolorthantheotherelementsdisplayed.

TheNCpowercontactK1onthefirst schematicpagewilllaterbecrossreferencedtoacoilwhich then islocatedonpage2incolumn2. Automatically GeneratingInterruptionPointCrossreferencesFirst,inserttwointerruptionpointsonthesecond schematicpage. Todothis,selecttheminthePagenavigatorand doubleclickonthepage. GeneratingCrossreferences82EPLANElectricP8GettingStartedChangingdisplaysettingsforthe interruptionpointsTopreventthedevicetagfromcrossingfutureautoconnectlines,additionalsettings mustbemadeintheappropriatepropertydialogs.

InthedialogProperties components :Interruption pointswitchtotheDisplaytab. Thecross referencesrefertotheinterruptionpointswiththesamedisplayedDTlocatedonthefirstschematicpage. OrusetheConnection symbolstoolbartoinsertthelistedcomponents.

Oryoucanusethe[Ctrl]keywheninsertingtorotatethesymbolonthecursorandselecttherightvariant thatway. Thisformofcrossreference displayisoftenusedforcontactorcoilsormotoroverloadswitches. If youhaven'tyet,activatetheFilterIECsymbols,multiline. Inthelist,selectthecoilK andclick[OK]. Thesymbolhangsonthemousepointerandcanbeplacedonthecurrentpageinthe Graphicaleditor. TheProperties components :Generaldevicedialogopens.

Inthepropertiesdialog, switchtotheCoiltab. ApplythepredefinedConnectionpoint designationA1A2. Thisincludestheconnectionpointdesignations,thesymbols,andthe schematicpositionsofthecontactscrossreferencedtothecoilandisshownbelowthecoil.

Inserting anothercontactforthecoilNowusesymbolselectiontoinsertanothercontactforthecoil. Forsearching viadirectentryenterSandthenselecttheNOcontactwithsymbolnumber1.

TheDTselectiondialogwhichthenappearsshowsalltheDTspresentintheprojectwhichmatchthe givenfunction. Ifyouhaven'tyet, activatetheFilterIECsymbols,multiline. Inthe propertiesdialog,switchtotheNCcontacttab. Orapplythe displayedDTusingDTselection. NowusesymbolselectiontoinsertanotherNOcontact symbolnameforDirect entry:Ssymbolnumber Onthemotoroverloadswitchitself,youseethecontactsjust insertedasacontactimage.

Thecrossreferencedcontactsareshownassymbolsontheactionlineofthe motoroverloadswitch. Inaddition,theconnectionpointdesignationsandtheschematicpositionsofthe contactscanbeseeninthecontactimage. Tip:FromtheNOcontactyoujustinserted,Q2,youcan jumpdirectlytothemotoroverloadswitchonthefirstschematicpage.

ChangingthecontactimagepositionForcontactstobeshown inacontactimage,appropriatedisplaysettingsmustbemadeforthecontactimageinthepropertiesdialog ofthemotoroverloadswitch.

Doubleclickinthe schematiconmotoroverloadswitchQ2. In thepropertiesdialog,switchtotheDisplaytab. TheContactimagedropdownlistalreadyshowsthe correctsettingforthecontactimage.

UsingtheOncomponentoption,thecontactimageisdisplayednext tothecomponent. Inthisdialog,youcan"manually" determinethepositionofthecontactimageinrelationtotheinsertionpointofthedevice. Deactivatethe Automaticallyalignedcheckbox.

IntheXposition field,enterthevalue Click [OK]. Thepositionofthecontactimagehasbeenmovedtotheothersideofthecomponent"Motor overloadswitch". In thenextchapteryouwilllearnhowtoassignpartstothedevicesinserted. Beforeyoustartwithreportsandcanautomaticallygenerateapartslist, youmustenterpartsforthedevicesinserted.

ThePartstabisavailableinthepropertydialogofthe componentstodothis. Partselectionisadialogyoucanusetoselectparts andtheirdatafromadatasource. Partsmanagementisthepartoftheprogramin whichyoucanmanageinformationspecifictopartsandpeopleitemssuchaspartnumbers,customer, manufacturer,orsupplierdata. Tomanagepartsdata,youhavetohaveatleastadvanceduserknowledge,andforthis reasonwewillnotgointoanymoredepthaboutpartsmanagementhere.

Doubleclickontheinsertionpointof switchQ1. Inthepropertiesdialog,switchtotheParts tab. Thebuttonappearsonceyouclickonthecorrespondingtable cellinthePartnumbercolumn. Structurally,thisdialogisexactlylike Partsmanagement. Inthelefthalf,thepartsareshowninatree,listoracombinationofthesetwo representations,wherethetreestructureissubdividedbydefaultintothehierarchylevels:Electrical engineering,Fluidpower,andMechanics.

Intherighthalfofthedialog,youseethedatabelongingtothe elementorelementsselectedintheleftwindow. Todothis,click,forexample,ontheassociatedplussigninfrontofthelevelsParts,Electrical engineering,Component,General,andonthelevelsofotherproductgroupslikeCables. Orselectthe variouslevelsinthetree,andthenselectExpandinthepopupmenu.

ThestructureoftheElectrical engineeringgenericproductgroupwillbeexpanded. Thepartsnumbersareshownonthelowestlevelin thetree.

Toreducetheamountofdatashown, selectafilternow. TheAutomaticfilter dialogopens. ThecheckboxIdentifier Q isalreadyprepopulated. In Partselection,selectthecorrespondingActivecheckboxfortheAutomaticfiltersothatthefiltersettings willbeused.

Inthetreefrom productgroupPowerswitchgear,selectthepartSIE. Thepartsdataoftheselectedparts arenowshowninthedatafieldsontherightsideofPartselection. Theimagefilestoredinthepartwill alsobedisplayedintheGraphicalpreview. Recommended Morefromthisauthor. RockwellAutomation SavethemostimportantslideswithClipping Clippingisahandywaytocollectandorganizethemostimportantslidesfromapresentation. You cankeepyourgreatfindsinclipboardsorganizedaroundtopics.

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KG assumes no liability for either technical or printing errors, or for deficiencies in this technical information and cannot be held liable for damages that may result directly or indirectly from the delivery, performance, and use of this material. This document contains legally protected proprietary information that is subject to copyright.

All rights are protected. The software described in this document is subject to a licensing agreement. The use and reproduc- tion of the software is only permitted within the framework of this agreement.

All other product names and trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. KG is pleased to welcome you as a new user. Since this documentation is designed as an introduction to EPLAN, many of the more complicated functions and relationships will be ignored.

These details are covered in our trainings, where you can also find help with your own individual and company-specific tasks.

You should defi- nitely take part in our training program in order to make the best use of the functionality and possibilities of the system. In the program itself, we provide you with an extensive online help sys- tem.

In addition to conceptual information and dialog descriptions, here you will also find "step by step" instructions for most program functions.

The "Proceed as follows" section of the operating information gives you step by step instructions for using the program. Once you have started the program and require information on a particular dialog, you can then call up the appropriate help by simply pressing the [F1] key.

We hope that the beginner's manual will give you a thorough insight into the many different options and features of your EPLAN software. Tip: Useful tips to facilitate your interaction with the program are presented after this image.

Example: Examples are highlighted by this symbol. In order to find a particular program function, the menus and options shown in a menu path must be selected in the sequence shown.

So that you can successfully follow the instructions, we assume that you have already installed EPLAN and have the required software protection dongle and license. While writing this guide, we used the fully licensed program with its entire scope of functionality. If you have not licensed all the modules, this docu- mentation or some figures in this documentation may possibly go be- yond the scope of functionality of the software you have purchased, that is, functions are also described which may not be available to you.

The user interface of your EPLAN application may differ from the figures presented here if, in the Select scope of menu dialog, you selected the Advanced or Expert user mode when you started the program.

That is the mode we used when creating this manual. All settings can be made in a central location in the program in the Options menu under the menu item Settings. For the sample project, we almost exclusively used the default settings of the project template being used.

Don't change these settings while working with the sample project; otherwise you may see different results. Since a list of the different call-up options would make this guide much larger, we usually use the mouse controls in the action instructions.

During program installation, a program icon is created on the Windows Desktop. Here, you specify the user mode in which you would like to define the displayed scope of the menu.

In the Select scope of menu dialog, select Expert. Click [OK]. In this informational dialog, which is automatically shown every time you start the program, you are shown useful information on program functions. Deselect the Show tips at startup check box if you do not wish this dialog to appear every time the program is started. Click on [Close] to close the Tip of the day. Before you create a project, you will first see a little more information about the user interface in the next chapter.

Note: In the Select scope of menu dialog, if you activated the Do not show this dialog again check box, this dialog will no longer be shown when you start EPLAN, and the currently specified menu scope will be used. You will also learn how to change the interface easily. Be- sides various other interface elements, you see the Page navigator and the Graphical preview on the left side of the main window. When you first start the program, these two windows are empty. The area on the right side with the background image will be used later as a working area for the opened pages.

The main window is the entire working area of the program; its size and position can be changed. For many other interface elements e. You can attach "dock" these ele- ments to the window edges inside the main window. What is the Page navigator? You can choose between two representation types. In the tree view, the pages are displayed hierarchically by page type and iden- tifier such as higher-level function, mounting location, etc.

In the list view, this information is shown arranged in a table. You can switch be- tween the two views by clicking on the corresponding tab. In the Page navigator, you can edit the pages of one project, for instance, copy pages, delete them, or change page properties. Multiple pages from different projects can not be edited at one time. Tip: To show and hide the Page navigator quickly, you can use the [F12] key. What is the Graphical preview?

The Graphical preview is a preview window for the minimized display of highlighted pages, symbols, image files, macros, forms, etc. For exam- ple, if you have highlighted one or several pages in the page navigator, they will be displayed in a minimized window in the Graphical preview.

Using this window, you can quickly search through all the pages of a project. It contains the program icon with the system menu, the program name, and the buttons controlling the size setting of the window. If you have opened a project page, the name of the opened page will also be shown in the title bar by default. Menu bar The menu bar is located below the title bar. It contains the most impor- tant commands and dialog calls. In order to show all the menu items of a menu, left-click on the corres- ponding menu.

Until you have opened a project and a page, you will not be able to select many of the menu items. These menu items are shown in a grayed-out view. Some menu items work like a switch, that is, they can be turned on or off. This applies particularly to the View menu for the Graphical preview menu item. If the option is switched on, then this is indicated with a pre- ceding check mark. Tip: In the Graphical preview, the pages you have selected in the Page navigator are shown in a reduced view.

Using this window, you can, for instance, quickly search through all the pages of a project. Popup menu In many places in the program in fields of windows or dialogs, in an opened page you can open up a popup menu by right-clicking. The popup menu shows the most commonly used menu items for the object in question.

If menu items are present in the popup menu of a field which go beyond the standard functions, you can see that from a "popup menu button". This button is located above the corresponding field. Toolbars As standard, the toolbars are located below the menu bar and consist of buttons allowing you to directly call up the most important EPLAN func- tions. Here, too, you do not initially have all the buttons available. Example: The following figure shows you the Standard toolbar for an opened project.

When you point the mouse at a menu item or a button in a toolbar, a brief informa- tive text relating to the action called by this command is displayed here. If you have the cursor in an opened page, the status bar shows you information about the cursor position, grid, and logical status, along with data about the currently selected element, in some cases. On logic pages such as this schematic page , the coordinates are entered in grid increments; and on graphics pages, they are entered in millimeters or inches.

Device data is reported on logic pages. In the maximized view of the main window, the diagonal lines are not shown. To show them, the window must be reduced in size, for instance using the button. Changing the User Interface You can change the view of the user interface to fit your own work habits. Many dialogs, such as the Page navigator, which you often use for editing your data, can be permanently positioned on your screen while working with EPLAN and undocked from the EPLAN main window in the same manner as independent windows.

You can position any of these "Windows" in an undocked state , and every other dialog, by pulling the title bar of the dialog to the desired position while holding down the left mouse button. Docking and undocking control elements Some user interface control elements, such as the menu bar, the tool- bars or various windows like the Page Navigator, can be positioned inside or outside of the EPLAN main window.

Next click the title bar of the Page navigator with the left mouse button and keep the button pressed. Press [Ctrl] to avoid docking, and pull the Page navigator to a free position on the Windows Desktop. If the borders of the respective control element are displayed with a thick line, EPLAN positions the control element as an independent, undocked element on the Windows desktop.

Repeat this procedure for additional control elements. To do this for a toolbar or the menu bar, click on a "free" spot within the bar. Practice docking control elements, too. To do this, click the title bar of the desired undocked control element e. You can recognize this by the border of the element being displayed as a thin line.

This will be a horizontal or vertical line, depending on whether you wish to position the control element at the top, bottom, left, or right. You can recognize the orientation from the thinly drawn pre- view rectangle. When the program is exited, EPLAN saves the last settings of these elements docked, undocked, size, position and restores them the next time the program is started.

Moreover, another toolbar "Symbols" has been hidden and two more moved around inside the main window "Graphics", "Connection symbols". To avoid unnecessarily reducing the size of your EPLAN user interface, you have the option of hiding the toolbars you don't need. Click the right mouse button on a free area in the menu bar or toolbar. The popup menu shows all the available toolbars.

Displayed toolbars are marked with a preceding checkmark. Select the Standard toolbar, for instance, and click the check box in front of the toolbar name. EPLAN closes the popup menu and hides the toolbar. Repeat the procedure and deactivate some more toolbars. Practice displaying unhiding toolbars too. To do this, call up the popup menu again and click on the name of a hidden toolbar e.

You can also use this dialog to customize and extend the predefined toolbars and create your own toolbars. Selecting workspaces Once you have changed the EPLAN user interface to suit your needs, you can save this arrangement as a "workspace. We provide you with a few predefined workspaces which you can use as templates for your own workspaces. The Workspace dialog opens. From the Scheme drop-down list, select the entry Connections as an example of a workspace.

Besides the Page naviga- tor, the main window now also contains the two windows Potentials and Connections. In these special navigators, all the potentials and connec- tions of a project are shown.

Restoring the original view 1. From the Scheme drop-down list, select the entry Default. EPLAN now shows the view displayed when it first started up. Using this action, you can reset an EPLAN user interface that you may have changed back to the original state.

You can find more detailed information about the user interface — for instance, how you can define your own workspaces — in the EPLAN online help. In EPLAN, schematics and attached documents such as lists and over- views are created as pages within projects. A project consists of a collec- tion of different types of documents. Projects are stored and organized in a special database — "Project Management".

What is a project structure? In EPLAN, "Project structure" means the combination of all identifier structures used in the project for objects, pages, devices, and functions. All objects in a project pages, devices, and functions must be identified and placed in a hierarchical structure within the project. In a hierarchical- ly arranged project structure, for instance, you can store and find pages and devices more easily.

The identifiers for project structure are called "structure identifiers". What is a project template? In order to create a new project, you always need a template. When using the project template, you create a project in which some settings are already predefined. For instance, the structure of page identifiers and device tags are stored in a project template. Even as a beginner, you can use the Project wizard to quickly and easily get results.

In the dialog of the wizard — the Create project Wizard dia- log — you can enter all the principal data for a new project step by step. The Create project Wizard dialog opens. In the Project name field on the first tab, enter the name for your first project. Select a storage location for the project. To do this, click [ By default, your projects are managed in the Projects directory in a "company folder" created during installation in the illustration, the Company code folder. Select this "company folder" and click on [Make New Folder].

A new folder is created below the currently selected "company folder", whose temporary name New Folder is highlighted with an edit frame. The Browse For Folder dialog is closed and you are returned to the Project wizard. Select a Template for the project. To do this, click the [ If you don't select a template here, you will not be able to perform any more steps in the Project wizard.

The Open dialog opens. Click on [Open]. The Open dialog is closed, and the name for the project template is accepted for the Template field. The template and location now being used will then be the defaults next time the Project wizard is started.

Click [Finish]. The Importing project dialog opens. The Project wizard copies the template into the new project. This procedure may take some time. Projects form the first level in the tree icon:. The levels with the project pages are typically below the level with the project name. The selected project template enables hierarchically arranged structures for all objects in the project.

It has a project structure already determined. Structure identifiers for the "higher-level function" and the "mounting location" are used to identify pages and devices. This will, for example, be visible later when editing the page properties in the Full page name dialog see page The next chapter will describe how to create and edit pages. There, you will also read how to assign structure identifiers for the pages. Note: Once you are more familiar with EPLAN, you can use the different tabs of the Create project Wizard dialog to change the default settings from the project template regarding structure, numbering, and properties.

In this chapter, you will learn how to create pages and edit their page properties. A project gen- erally consists of pages of different types. The page types help structure a project.

The page type is generally assigned when the page is created, but it can also be changed later. The title page or cover sheet is usually the first page of a project. What is a schematic multi-line page? A schematic multi-line page is a page for which the schematic docu- mentation has multi-line symbols. It has special editing capabilities for the creation and analysis of schematic diagrams.

For instance, symbols inserted are automatically connected with one another. What is a graphical editor? A graphical editor is the part of the program you use to create and edit schematics and mechanical drawings. It is started when you open a page. Besides the window in which the page is displayed, the menu bar also has numerous program functions such as the Insert menu avail- able for graphical editing.

The window is dockable and has its own standard Windows buttons. In a "maximized" view, the window of the editor fits into the main window in such a way that the title bar is integrated into the menu bar of the main window see also the illustration on page In the "minimized" view, the window has its own title bar.

The Page type field is automatically prepopulated with Schematic multi-line I. In the Page description field, enter the text, Power supply. Any page or structure level may be selected when you do this. Note: Based on the Beginner mode selected in the Select scope of menu dialog, you use fields that allow multilingual entries e.

This function provides you with the whole word based on the letters you type in. Only words in the dictionary will be suggested. In the tree view of the Page navigator, select the 1 Power supply page. Most property fields already have values. EPLAN accepts the properties of the selected page and automatically suggests the next free page for the Full page name. Click on [Clear fields]. The contents of some properties fields such as the Page de- scription field are deleted.

The automatically suggested Full page name and the prepopulated Page type are kept. Next to the Page type field, click the [ The Add page type dialog opens. In the Page description field, enter the text Cover sheet. For the Form name property, click in the Value field next to it, and then click the button that appears.

No value needs to be entered for the Plot frame name property. The plot frame used for a page is already predefined in the project settings. The other displayed properties, Scale and Grid, are already prepopulated with correct entries. The cover sheet is shown in the tree view of the Page navigator and opened in the Graphical editor. Then, in the Page type field, select the entry, Schematic multi-line I , and in the Page description field enter the text, Control ET1.

Now you have created the pages you need for editing the schematic. Closing a page Since you don't immediately need the second schematic page, close it again. The page 3 Control ET1 is closed. In the tree view of the Page navigator, select the page 2 Cover sheet.

The cover sheet of the project is shown. This is the case, if in the View menu, you activated the menu item Workbook. In the Page navigator, you can recognize the opened page from the fact that the page name and description 2 Cover sheet are now in bold. Tip: To open a page selected in the Page navigator, you can also double- click on the page or press the [Enter] key. Open the page 1 in the same way. This will automatically close the first page and display the empty schematic in the Graphical editor.

For instance, select page 2 again, then from the popup menu of the Page navigator select the menu item Open in new window. For every opened page, a tab is shown below the graphical editor window.

You can quickly switch between pages by clicking these tabs. The pages created, however, don't yet have struc- ture identifiers. In the following section, we describe how you can assign the identifier by editing the page properties. In the tree view of the Page navigator, select the cover sheet page 2 Cover sheet.

The Page properties dialog opens. Change the value in the Full page name field. Here, you can enter the structure identifier and the name of the page e. Enter the value ANL in the Higher-level function field. Enter the value DBT in the Mounting location field. In the Page name field, change the entry from 2 to 1.

The Full page name dialog is closed. The structure identifiers are accepted for the field of the same name in the Page properties dia- log. In the Page properties dialog, click [OK].

For the "Higher-level function" structure iden- tifier level with the identifier ANL, the icon will be used; and for the "Mounting location" level with the identifier DBT, the icon will be used. Repeat this action for the schematic page page 1 and 3.

In the Full page name dialog, as the structure identifier for the Higher-level func- tion, enter the designation ANL again. For the Mounting location, enter the designation SCP for the schematic pages. And for the second sche- matic page, in the Page name field, change the entry from 3 to 2.

Now all pages in the project have structure identifiers. You may first have to enlarge the Page navigator window a little before you can read all the page descriptions. Note: If you have made a change during page editing for instance, changed page properties, inserted graphical elements, etc.

There is no separate save necessary, and so there is no corresponding menu item in the program! You will also learn how to open and close a project, and you will learn a few basic com- mands for viewing and editing a project. Opening a Project 1. The Open project dialog opens. Here, the projects are shown which are located in your predefined project directory by default.

Click [Open]. The page description is displayed in the Page navigator. Then repeat this for the plus sign in front of the structure level CA1, then for the next to the structure level EAA. The first section of the tree is opened. The pages are now dis- played in the "lowest" project level. First, page through the pages of this extensive project. The currently selected level in the tree view will be opened or closed.

A minus sign before a level indicates that the level is already open. For instance, if you want to show all the pages of a project in the tree at once, then select the closed level with the project name, and press the [X] key on the numeric block of your keyboard. For a larger project, this process can take some time. Paging Through the Project Pages Using the appropriate program functions, you can look at the pages of a project one after the other in the Graphical editor.

Repeat this action a few times and look at the contents of the pages in the Graphical editor. The pages are shown one after another in the Graphical editor. If the tree structure in the Page navigator was not yet completely opened, this will be done while paging through the pages. The page name and the description of the currently opened page are high- lighted in bold in the Page navigator.

Page back a few pages, too. However, if your cursor is located in the Page navigator, the keys will not page through the pages but will cause the cursor to jump to the bottom or top page shown in the tree view. Turning on the grid display A glance at the two menu items View and Options will show you that in EPLAN there are numerous program functions which make it easier for you to draw schematics.

You can work with a grid to make the positioning of elements easier. By default, in the Options menu, the menu item Snap to grid is activated. If this option is activated, the graphical elements and symbols are posi- tioned directly on the grid points of the grid during the drawing process.

The size of the grid used is stored as a page property. In the graphical editor, you can modify the grid size set by default to the respective page type. Using the to buttons in the View toolbar, you can switch be- tween five different grids, for which different grid sizes have been stored in the user settings.

Please keep the Snap to grid option activated during the subsequent schematic generation and use Grid C with the default grid size 4. The grid size used is displayed in the status bar. The "ON" or "OFF" text in the status bar in front of the grid size indicates whether the snap to grid is activated or not see example regarding status bar on page The use of grid snap is independent of the grid display options.

If this view bothers you later when creating the schematic, then turn the grid display off in the same way. For schematic editing, it is often a good idea to enlarge a certain screen segment in order to be able to see details better. For instance, you can use the "window zoom" in order to show a certain window segment in an enlarged view. In addition to the mouse pointer, a magnifying glass will also be displayed. Left-click the mouse in the upper left corner of the schematic, and use the mouse to open an area which includes about a quarter of the schematic page.

The area to be enlarged is outlined with a thick frame while it is being selected. Click the left mouse button again. The selected area is displayed at maximum size. By de- fault, during scrolling the mouse wheel acts in the same way you are familiar with from other CAD programs.

In the settings, you also have the option of changing the scrolling behavior so that it matches the behavior of text editing programs. In this case, when you scroll with the mouse wheel, the visible section of the page is moved upwards or down- wards.

Move the mouse pointer onto the element with the designation -Q1. The element is displayed in a different color. Below the symbol, a small text window Tooltip is displayed with information about the element.

Select the element by clicking on it. The color of the element changes again. The element -Q1 is completely deleted. You can, however, use the Undo command to reinsert the element. Note: When editing elements in the Graphical editor, besides the usual Win- dows operating methods first select elements, then call command , in most cases the reverse order of operation first call the command, then select elements is also supported.

Practice this once for the element -Q1 you just inserted.