Released July 6, 2009
The following is a list of new and updated features and bugs that were fixed in Design Master Electrical 7.2. The highlights in this release include equipment groups, better ability to handle aluminum wire sizes, copy fixed circuit command, circuiting to individual poles of a breaker, and support for AutoCAD 2010. It also includes the usual collection of small improvements to existing features or fixes to bugs reported by customers.
Circuiting to Individual Phases of Breakers: It is now possible to circuit to the individual phases of breakers. There are two common requests that this feature addresses.
Copy Circuit: The Swap Circuit command now has a Copy button. The command has been renamed to Swap and Copy Circuits to include its additional functionality. The Copy button takes the fixed load settings from the circuit on the left and copies them to the circuit on the right. It does not copy any of the circuited devices. This function is to be used when you have a number of fixed loads in a project that are all the same.
Equipment Groups: Equipment can be separated into different groups. When you print an equipment schedule, it only includes equipment connections from the specific group. The appearance of the schedule can be customized for each different group.
This feature allows you to create separate schedules for your kitchen equipment, mechanical equipment, elevators, and whatever other types of equipment the projects you work on require.
Equipment Schedule Sorting: The equipment schedule can be sorted on fields other than the equipment callout, such as the panel board or location.
Improved Wire Sizing Options: The Sizing Options in the Wire Sizing dialog have been completely redone to allow you better control of how the wires in your project are sized. In particular, this improvement makes it much easier to handle aluminum wires in Design Master Electrical.
The list of breakers available is now shared between all of the different sizing options. The Sizing Option that is selected controls whether the Standard Branch Circuit and Standard Feeder toggles are checked for each breaker. If it is checked, wires and breakers will automatically size to that breaker if appropriate. If it is not checked, it will be ignored.
You can now include multiple breakers of the same size with different definitions. This can either be different combinations of wire sizes, or different wire materials (copper versus aluminum). The new Description field is displayed in lists of breakers to allow you to differentiate between breakers of the same size.
Wires Without Conduits: Wire callouts can be displayed without a conduit size.
In the Wire Sizing dialog, an Include Conduit checkbox has been added to breakers. If this box is checked, the wire callout associated with that breaker size will include a conduit. If it is not checked, the conduit will be left off. You can use this feature to automatically set conduits to not be included.
In the Circuiting dialog, you can set the Conduit Size to None. This allows you to manually set specific wires to not have a conduit size included.
Wires Without Grounds: Wire callouts can be set to not include a ground wire by default. In the Wire Sizing dialog, both the Service Ground and the Equipment Ground lists include None as an option.
Breaker Sizing for Noncontinuous Loads: Breakers can be sized to 100% of noncontinuous loads and 125% of continuous loads (NEC 210.19 and 210.20). Previously, breakers were sized to 125% of the total load. This feature is turned off by default in current projects to prevent confusion caused by breakers being sized differently. Use the Customization->Options->Edit Project List command to manually turn this feature on. It is turned on by default in new projects.
Smarter Automatic Looping: The path that loops that are automatically inserted take is a little smarter now.
Switches connect to the nearest device that they control, instead of the nearest device on the circuit. The one exception to this is switches that are next to each other. They will automatically be connected, even if they are controlling separate devices.
On combined homeruns, you have the option to first loop to devices on the same circuit, or to loop to the closest device. You can set this option separately for light fixtures and other devices.
Voltage Drop Calculations Without Showing Loops: In order to calculate the voltage drop in a circuit, it is necessary for Design Master Electrical to know the path of the wires between devices. This is still necessary, however it is now possible to set them to a non-plotting layer separate from the homerun and to turn the circuit callouts on when drawing loops.
Light Fixture Aiming: There is a new Aim Light Fixture command that will rotate and tilt a light fixture so that it is pointing at a specific location on the ground. This is useful for aiming emergency lights when designing egress lighting systems.
One Line Device Dialog Fault: The fault displayed in one line device dialogs (panels, switchboards, etc) is the total fault including motor contributions, not the utility fault.
Update Drawing When Dimscale Changes: If you change the dimscale on your drawing, run the Coordinate Drawings and Database command to automatically update all of the graphics to match the new scale factor.
3D Block Names: All blocks can have an explicit 3D block associated with it. Previously, the 3D block name was fixed. This change will make it easier to reuse common 3D blocks.
AutoCAD 2010 Support: AutoCAD 2010 is now supported.
Version Checking: Design Master Electrical will automatically check for a newer versions on the internet and alert you if one is available. There is also a new command, DM Electrical->Help->Check for Updates, which you can use to force Design Master Electrical to check for an update.
To turn this feature off, use the DM Electrical->Help->Check for Updates command and uncheck the Alert me when updates are available toggle.
