- [Justin] Macros in SOLIDWORKS Electrical
are any predefined symbols, circuits, drawings,
that are stored in a library for use in really any project.
This is similar to say a very powerful copy and paste tool,
except it is saved out and stored forever.
And it also has a number of additional options.
So let's take a look at how we can use some macros.
It's actually a very simple process.
All I have to do is jump into my Macros panel,
it's the little star icon here.
Again, if I don't see that side panel,
if we remember where can turn on or off our panels
is within our View tab,
and I just want to make sure that my Macros panel
is turned on.
Once within my Macros panel, you see
there's a couple of default groups already set up here.
But if I want to create my own macro group,
like Favorites, or something like that,
I can just right click in any open space here.
I can say New group.
I'll give it a name, really whatever name I'd like.
Justin's Favorites or something like this.
I'll call this one Justin's Motor Starter,
whatever descriptive name really you'd like.
And then all you have to do is click and drag
to create your macro.
So let's say in this case,
something that I'm going to use over and over again.
Maybe in this project, and maybe actually
in additional projects as well.
Something I use quite often
is this kind of motor starter circuit.
So this whole circuit here.
I use this quite often,
so I don't want to redesign it every single time.
I'd like to save this out as a macro.
It's actually a fancy copy paste.
So all I have to do is grab whatever I'd like,
in this case, just the circuit,
and drag it over into my macro area.
One little hint or tip here as well, in box selection,
maybe you're aware, there's a slight difference
between the direction I box select.
So if I box select from left to right here,
so if I box select something like this,
and I want to grab this whole motor starter circuit.
So that was from left to right,
and from left to right,
it grabs everything that was within that box
but not everything that the box edges were touching.
So what that means again if I take a look, here's my box.
So since I'm just touching these four wires here,
but it's not fully enclosed within my box,
it's not going to grab those four wires.
So same idea here, if I went maybe like halfway
through my motor, something like this,
it's actually not going to grab that motor.
I have to fully encompass it within the box.
Here's the left to right box select here,
and we can see it didn't grab these four wires.
It didn't grab my motor here either.
Slightly different is the right to left box select.
That's going to grab everything that my box is touching.
So it would grab just these outer four edges or lines,
or if I kind of cut through my motor, something like this,
it would grab that motor as well.
Just a slight difference between the box select.
So, I'll grab everything here again,
and on my icons here, what's highlighted,
showing me what I've grabbed.
It looks like now I've grabbed my motor.
I've grabbed these four left lines and so forth.
So it looks like I have everything.
And then all I have to do is click and drag
into my macro group here.
And then here I am in my macro creation window,
so I give this a name, Motor Starter, or whatever name,
whatever description I'd like to throw in there.
And I'll just say OK to that.
So now I have this circuit macro saved out
and again I can kind of paste it.
I can click and drag it into this project
or any other project I'd like.
Same idea maybe I want to grab another one,
maybe this guy for controls here,
grab him, highlight everything,
click and drag, throw it into my macros group.
And maybe give this a name of Controls.
So now I've just very quickly created two new macros.
And then to use, of course,
I just click and drag it back in.
So let's say maybe I want to create a new drawing,
even a new project, I still have this option available.
But I'll jump into a new power drawing here,
and I want to use that very similar motor starter circuit
and the very similar control circuit as well.
So just grab, click and drag,
and there's my motor starter circuit coming in.
I'll place it somewhere about here, should line up nicely.
And as soon as I input a macro,
I get the Paste special option here.
So this goes through every single component
that's within my macro.
So I had a fuse there, a motor there, and so on.
And it essentially asks me, do I want to keep that?
Do I want to delete that?
Do I want to change that information, and so on.
So maybe I want to keep some of it,
remove some of it, change some of it.
For example, it's probably not the same motor.
It's probably another motor named maybe M3 instead of M1,
or whatever it might be.
So I can just go through this whole wizard
and jump in through Next, Next, change the parts,
change the part number, change the wire numbering,
whatever I may want.
In this case, I'm just going to leave all as default
and just hit Finish.
And we can see now,
it's just done the exact same kind of paste here,
and thrown in the same component names
and manufacturers, and so on.
But again, that's completely customizable
within your paste special option.
And same idea here, I can throw in as many as I'd like.
Even in a new project, I could throw this in.
Maybe I'll just click and drag
in my controls drawing as well here.
Same idea, just finish it off.
So see here, macros are really just used
as a major time saver,
so you don't have to completely recreate
everything from scratch.
If a lot of your electrical design
is probably going to be some repeat work there,
maybe it will save you quite a bit of time
to create a number of macros,
and just use those macros to make the slight changes
rather than completely restarting your designs.