Wires

A variety of wires

Capital Electra X provides a variety of wires for every conceivable type of connections. Just drag and drop to place wires on your drawing. In addition, you can always customize wires, and drop them into your own custom stencils for further usage.

Variety of Wires
Variety of Wires

Difference between a line and a wire

A normal line in Vecta does not have data and intelligence as compared to a wire in Capital Electra X:

Line and wire differences
Line and wire differences

Connecting and manipulating wires

Wires in Capital Electra X are extremely flexible and can be stretched and manipulated in a variety of ways, by dragging on their handles.

Connecting and manipulating wires

Editing wire name

To edit a wire name:

  • Click on a wire and type to edit.
  • Alternatively, you can right click (or double click) on a wire and select Edit Wire.

To show or hide wire name, right click on a wire and select Show or Hide Wire Name.

The wire window

Included on the Wire window are real time cross reference information on wires that you have already placed on your drawing. To display the location of a wire, click on a wire name. (e.g. /1.J1 - Page 1, location J1). To set the current wire name to a wire name that already existed in your drawing, double click on a wire name in the _Existing Wire Names list, and click OK.

Changing wire name

Customizing wires

Users may want to customize existing wires, by changing line weights, color and wire names by default. To customize wires:

  • Drop a wire onto a drawing.
  • Customize wire accordingly.
  • Drag and drop the customized wire onto your custom stencil.
  • Drag and drop custom wire from stencil to drawing for further usage.

Automatic wire name detection

When a wire is dragged and moved to connect to another wire, Capital Electra X will automatically detect and assign a wire name to the connected wire.

Capital Electra X automatically connects wires and updates wire name
Capital Electra X automatically connects wires and updates wire name

Wire name propagation

If you have multiple wires connected together, changing the name of any wire will also changes the names for all connected wires. Changes will propagate to all connected wires, through wire links and even over multiple pages.

Intelligent wires in Capital Electra X

Automatic wire connection

When a wire is connected to another wire, Capital Electra X automatically creates a connection point and connects the 2 wires together. When you move the wire away, the connection point is automatically deleted.

Capital Electra X manages wire connection automatically
Capital Electra X manages wire connection automatically

 See also 

Wire links are used to extend a wire to another location, on the same page or to another page, while still symbolically representing a single wire. Use FromWireLink (source) to extend a wire to another location and ToWireLink (target) to continue a wire from another location. When you double click on unpaired links, Capital Electra X will automatically prompt you to pair them. When double clicking on paired links, Capital Electra X will automatically jump to the target link.

Using wire link to extend wire to another location

Wire buses

Wire buses are similar to wire links, just that wire buses allow users to extend multiple wires to another location, on the same page or to another page. FromWireBus is the source to extend a wire to another location and ToWireBus is the target to continue the wires from another location. Capital Electra X will automatically prompt you to pair them by double clicking on unpaired wire buses. When double clicking on paired wire buses, Capital Electra X will automatically jump to the target wire buses.

Using wire buses to extend multiple wires to another location

Assigning Cables

To assign a cable to a wire:

  • Right click on a wire and select Edit Wire.
  • On the Wire Window, click on Cable.
Assign cables to wire

Assigning Cable to Multiple Wires

To assign a cable to all selected wires:

  • Right click on a selected group of wires and select Edit Wire.
  • On the Wire Window, click on Cable.
  • Select All selected wires.
Assign cable to multiple wires

Managing Cables

To assign and manage all cables:

  • Click on Manage Wiring | Manage Cables.
Manage cables for a wire

Selecting A Cable

When users click the Select button on the Manage Cables window, the Select Cable window will be displayed. Click on a cable and then click OK to select the cable to be used on the wire.

Select cable from cable database
Select cable from cable database

Arranging Cable Cores

When users click the Arrange button on the Manage Cables window, the Arrange Cable Core window will be displayed. Drag wires from any core and drop to any other core to rearrange cores. Alternatively, drag wires to the right to remove wire from a core, or to drag it back to another core.

Drag and drop cable cores to arrange them
Drag and drop cable cores to arrange them

The Cable Database

The Cable database stores all cable specifications so that they can be used and re-used on multiple projects and drawings. Once a cable is selected, it's specifications is then transferred and stored on the drawing itself for portability.

To access the cable database:

  • Click on Manage Databases | Cable Database.
Manage cable database
Manage cable database

The Cable Tag Symbol

The Cable Tag symbol is used on a drawing to automatically display cable information on a wire. Simply drag and drop the Cable Tag symbol on any wire to display cable information. More options are available with a simple right click.

Use the Cable tag symbol to display cable information on a wire
Use the Cable tag symbol to display cable information on a wire

Assigning Components To Wire

To assign components to a wire:

  • Right click on a wire and select Edit Wire.
  • On the Wire Window, click on the Component button.

Add custom fields for a cable

Click on the Custom fields button to add custom fields for a cable. After the custom fields dialog shows up, you can start to add custom fields in the label-value columns.

Add custom fields for a cable
Capital™ Electra™ X