Parameters in Motors Category to Control Motors Auto Circuit

[DeanUser]

I just fired up my latest release of DraftLogic Electrical, and there are now four parameters that look to drive motors Automated Circuiting where there used to be one. How do I take advantage of the new parameters?

[forumadmin]

You are correct, the September 2010 release adds three more parameters to the 'Motors & Distribution' parameters category for controlling the actions of Automated Circuiting as it relates to motors. The pre-existing parameter (Circuit Large Motors To?) has been modified to play nice with the new ones. [2012/7/16: Note that we split the Motors and Distribution parameters to separate categories in the Project Library in early 2012 .]

So to sum up:

Circuit Large Motors To? (Select from MCC/MDP/Power Panel.) Directs DraftLogic Electrical to where to circuit motors above the FLA cutoff to. First voltage/phase compatible MCC will be used, MDP will only be used if voltage/number of poles compatible, and Power Panel will direct large motors to attempt to circuit to a panel in the 'Power' type circuiting area they are within (i.e. will go to same place you are directing receptacles to with your circuiting service area). Error arrows will be placed if nothing compatible of the type you requested is found. Motors that qualify as 'Large' are always circuited to their own circuit(s).

Small/Large Motor Full Load Amps Cutoff (Specify decimal value between 0 and 100). Provides DraftLogic Electrical Automated Circuiting with a cut-off point to use for deciding whether to treat a motor as a 'small motor' or a 'large motor'. Small motors always attempt to circuit to a panel in the 'Power' type circuiting area they are within (i.e. will go to same place you are directing receptacles to with your circuiting service area). Depending on the following two settings, they may or may not mix in with receptacles and heaters of the same number of poles/voltage. Large motors are circuited to the destination specified in the above parameter.

Include Small Motors In Receptacle Circuits? (Specify Yes or No by checking for Yes or unchecking for No.) Tells DraftLogic Electrical Automated Circuiting if motors that qualify as small should attempt to circuit together with devices that circuit as 'power' devices (i.e. receptacles and heaters) of same number of poles/voltage. If 'No', small motors will still attempt to group together with other small motors for circuiting.

Auto Circuit All Motors Separate? (Specify Yes or No by checking for Yes or unchecking for No.) Tells DraftLogic Electrical Automated Circuiting to circuit all motors to their own circuit(s), regardless of whether they qualify as 'Large' or 'Small'. Thus, if this setting is set to 'Yes', the prior setting is ignored. The small/large cutoff and large motor circuiting destination parameters are valid for either 'Yes' or 'No' here since they tell where to circuit the respective sizes of motors to, regardless of whether there is going to be circuit sharing or not.

Motors that get their own set of circuits for whatever reason get the motors-specific treatment required by the CEC/NEC, i.e. motors-specific rules for protection amperage and feeder selection. Motors that combine in a circuit with anything else are assigned protection using only their wattage load value, i.e. their protection and feeder are sized as per a regular receptacle circuit. You can always, of course, specify protection amperage in the Circuit Manager or motor block overrides and use the Branch Circuit Wire manager or motor overrides to manually select feeder/bonding.

We hope you benefit from the higher degree of control over motors Automated Circuiting!

[forumadmin]

An additional note about these parameters:

Not only do these motor parameters tell Automated Circuiting about how to circuit motors, they also tell DraftLogic Electrical which part of its code should handle the feeder selection for each motor.

'Small' qualified motors, i.e. those with an FLA below the 'Small/Large Motor Full Load Amps Cutoff' Motors parameter value, will be handled by the Automated BCW code for determination of home run group and feeder.

'Large' qualified motors, i.e. those with an FLA above or equal to the 'Small/Large Motor Full Load Amps Cutoff' Motors parameter value, will be handled by the Load Calculator code for determination of feeder (they are assumed to home run individually). Since the Load Calculator runs as an inherent part of any report that reports protection or feeder of any devices in your project, the 'Large' motor feeders are calculated often.

What is important for you to remember about the above? Well, if you have 'Small' motors in your drawing, they are only going to get a feeder assigned if you run the Automated BCW code. If you don't want to or otherwise need to run Automated BCW, and it is OK to have all or most of your motors considered as home running alone, then you can just adjust the 'Small/Large Motor Full Load Amps Cutoff' Motors parameter value to something very low like '.01'.