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Re: How to use Junction boxes?
Thanks for the Example file Cory!
I still have a couple of questions for you on the example:
If I try to tag the Jbox...It only reports one circuit #?
How did you connect each circuit to the Jbox...You couldn't have used wires because you didn't hide those elements in the view and you couldn't have deleted them?
I cannot replicate what you did..and I cannot get the Jbox to report what panel it is attached to once connected!
Last edited by vaughndave; 2009-07-21 at 09:17 PM. Reason: added pic
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
You have to create circuits the virtual way.
Step 1. Select whatever fixtures you want on circuit 1 and hit the "Create Power Circuit" button on the options bar (see attachment 1).
Step 2. Select your panel and create your wiring (see attachment 2)
Step 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to create circuits for the remaining devices in the room.
Note: You have not added the j-box to any of the circuits, yet.
Step 4. Select any device on Circuit 1 and hit the "Edit Circuit" button on the options bar (see attachment 3).
Step 5. (See attachment 4)
Step 6. Repeate Steps 4 and 5 to add the j-box to the other circuit(s) in the room. Each time you are prompted to select a connector, make sure you select the same connector.
Step 7. Now that you have added the j-box to all circuits in the room, draw a homerun wire from the j-box. The wire will show 3 arrows like I posted earlier. Then, to show the panel name and circuit numbers, tag the wire. You may have to customize your wire tag to show this information. I don't remember if it is built that way out of the box.
To address your other question, when you select the j-box and look at it's properties, or if you tag the j-box, you are only going to see one circuit. I'm sorry, but I can't help you with that one. Your panel will list all three circuits and your wire tag will reflect all three circuits.
Hope that helps.
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
Well....Thanks for the detailed explaination! This is pretty much how I have been doing it...I forgot to mention I am in 2010 with the new service pak installed. This is pretty finicky..at least in 2010. if I go thru the same step in each room I don't get the same results everytime. I eventually get what you have shown all along though. but it is like grinding teeth to say the least!
Thanks for all your help!
Dave
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
Yeah, I just tried to replicate in 2010 and it doesn't work. I figured it wasn't supposed to work this way in 2009. Too bad Autodesk "fixed" it. Now you can't circuit or annotate a junction box correctly, which is something I really don't understand. What's the point of having it? Oh well, on to figuring out another half-*** workaround. Good luck
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
We stumbled onto a way to do it in 2010. Circuit all your devices EXCEPT the JBox, and assign them a panel. Turn on your wires for those circuits. Then take each of the homeruns and drag the end of each one to the connection on the JBox. Now pull a homerun wire off of the Jbox and voila it works! Also, this seems to work with the delivered Jboxes in 2010!
Best regards,
Dave
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
Okay I might be reading into this incorrectly, but I had a similar situation to this recently.
Why not place your outlets on the circuits you want, show all your wiring without the homerun. Place your J-box with 1 connector go to a working view(non-sheet view) run a wire from any outlet to the J-box. Then go back to your sheet view and add the homerun on the J-box. You should have wiring to all devices and a homerun off the J-box which will show correctly. Just set your load on the J-box to 0 so that it doesn't affect your panel calcs.
Attached is a similar situation. I have a J-box and 3 ghost devices which have no 3D geometry just symbolic lines which are on a subcategory and I have constrained the ghost family to the J-box. So if the J-box moves they move. Each ghost device has a circuit assigned and in the working view they are all wired together. On the sheet view I have the homefun off the J-box and it gives me the desired result. This allows me to limit the different number of families I need to create. I have a ghost family which I can also use in other areas and control visibility by the view template and my standard J-box 1 connector family.
That's just my approach.
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
Originally Posted by james.klatt
I like both of these ideas. I'll have to share with the designers here in my office. Pulling the homeruns to the j-box in a working view is great, since I don't want to see them on the printed view and wouldn't have to go through the trouble of hiding them all. But I've got to figure out how to convince my users that they need working views. Up to this point, they've refused to have multiple views. I guess they think it is too cumbersome to switch back and forth, since they like to annotate as they go.
Dave, I guess your method won't include the j-box on the panel, since you aren't actually adding it to a circuit?
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
A good arguement for working views are that you can adjust the settings as you like and it won't affect your printed view. Especially having those set to wireframe speeds up your modelling work a lot!!! I would definately recommend it. My advice to our users here is don't be shy about creating views, but make sure you have a organization in place i.e. sub-discipline or even adding project parameters.
We also have a naming convention in place. All working views must have a ! in it and once a week I go through and purge any view that doesn't have an ! and that is not placed on a sheet. People didn't like it at first but it forces people to follow procedures.
Re: How to use Junction boxes?
That's correct Cory. We really don't want the load to show up on the panel anyways...one less thing to worry about really the way I see it.
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