- [Instructor] Locations and functions
are a way for us to help organize
our Solidworks electrical projects.
So if I want to create or edit
some locations and functions,
I can just jump into the Project tab,
and I have Locations and Functions.
So I can click on Functions first, let's say.
And by default, there's always going to be one location
and one function.
So in fact, you don't even have to use
locations and functions if you wouldn't like to,
but they can be very useful
in helping to organize your projects.
So, for example, later on, we can create a bill of materials
based on its location or just grab and search components
based on their location or their function.
So they're really just used for organizational purposes.
So I can add as many functions as I'd like
and throw specific portions or components
into those functions.
Same idea for locations.
I'll just jump into Locations here.
Again, by default, there's always going to be one,
just main level location.
And I can create as many new locations
or sublocations as I'd like.
So maybe I want to create a new secondary location here.
By default, I just have this L1, and it's been named
Main electrical closet.
But maybe I want to create a new location as well.
I'm going to call this one L2, and maybe I'll give this
a descriptive name of Motor room and say okay to that.
So now I have my L1 main electrical closet
and my L2 motor room.
I can create as many locations as I'd like.
I can also create sublocations, sub-sublocations and so on.
So maybe in my main electrical closet,
I want to create a sublocation,
so all I have to do is click on that location,
and as long as I'm highlighted on it,
now I can again say New location.
And I'm creating another new location
within this L1, so it's going to be a sublocation.
And I'm going to call this again L1,
'cause it's my first sublocation,
and I'll call it, maybe within my main electrical closet
I have the backplate.
And now if I expand that L1,
so I have another L1, L1, backplate.
And maybe I want to create one more here,
so I'll say New Location and I'll rename this L2,
and this would be my door, for example.
So now I have a few different locations.
I have L1 main location, the main electrical closet.
Within that I have a few sublocations,
which would be my backplate, should contain
most of my electrical components,
the fuses and circuit breakers and so on,
as well as the panel door, which might hold
some electrical components such as indicator lights
or push buttons and so on.
And then I also have a secondary location, L2,
the motor room, which would most likely hold
a few electrical components as well,
of course probably the motors and maybe some sensors
and things like that.
I'll just close out of this.
And how this helps organize us is
not only can it be used in a bill of materials
and parts lists and things like that later on,
but also if I just jump over to my Components tab here,
we'll see, of course, the list of all my components,
so right now this just have a few components in here,
a K1 compactor, looks like a M1 motor,
maybe an S1 push button or something like this.
And so I can throw each and every component
into their specific locations.
So most likely my K1, you can see all three of them
right now are just in the default main electrical closet.
I probably want to change that.
I probably want my K1 contactor, that would most likely be
on my backplate.
I'll just click and drag and throw that into my
backplate subpanel.
And now, that component has been placed into my backplate.
So later on, for example, I can create
my bill of materials based on just the location
of the backplate, and it's going to show me
all the components that would be located there.
Same idea on my door.
Maybe I have this S1 push button.
I'll just click and drag and throw this into the door.
And my motor, M1, most likely in the motor room.
So, of course, not overly necessary in this case.
I just have three components.
But once you get to a full electrical project,
you potentially have hundreds and hundreds
of electrical components.
You can see it can get quite messy or disorganized
fairly quickly there, so using locations and functions
are a great way to help us keep our projects organized.