Electrical symbols

[Jeff24]

I'm totally new to Chief Architect and got it primarily to do an electrical plan for a modestly complicated project. Unfortunately, it seems the set of electrical symbols is limited. I need

• quad outlets
• multi-gang boxes (2,3,4 and sometimes 5),
• quad and duplex outlets in ceilings, inside cabinets, ..., 
• 240V in the ceiling,
• Lutron switch keypads,
• differentiate between low and line voltage lights,
• depict under cabinets and toe kick lights
• a way to depict hardwire terminations (e.g., run 240v to in-floor heating)
• a modest variety of devices (e.g., bathroom fan, range hood, ...) as elements of the electrical layout 

I get that a few of these things are "special" but multi-gang, floor and ceiling mount, ... are pretty darn common I'd think. So, I must be doing or looking at this wrong and missing something. Can someone point me in the right direction?

 

Note, I did search around and found some hacks for some of the issues (e.g., multi-gang boxes). Also, there appear to be libraries with some of these devices but it's unclear how they would show up in the 2D view (e.g., what symbol shows up for a Timer Switch?). I mostly need something an electrician can look at and understand without a mess of annotations.

 

Note as well that I don't really care what it all "looks like" (i.e., not after any rendering effects and 3D), just looking to define and track the electrical layout in 2D such that someone can walk in a room and look at the "map" and see what's what. Suggestions?

 

[MoeGia]

You can gang outlets and switches by placing individual switches or outlets close together.  Switches are placed separately so you can connect each to its own fixture.

 

There are many bonus libraries you can download and install that may have more of the fixtures you're looking for.  Chief ships with it's core libraries and has many others available online.  Or in the library browser, make sure search online is selected.  

 

Stove hoods would be found as appliances, fans are mechanical, I think??  Chief considers them fixtures, not electrical.  You can tag them as electrical or favorites in the library if you are going to use the program for other projects.  

 

You can place an outlet and open the symbol and specify where it's mounted; on the ceiling for instance.  You can assign it a specific CAD block so it appears differently in plan view. 

 

If you want the down and dirty way, I would just use the simple supplied 'electrical items' supplied and change the 2D CAD block and the label as you would like and copy those new symbols as needed.  You could generate an electrical schedule of the symbols and their names so others can understand what they are.

[joey_martin]

Change the 2D symbols to whatever you want them to be.

 

[DBCooper]

• quad outlets
• multi-gang boxes (2,3,4 and sometimes 5),

As noted above, if you just place the outlets and/or switches close together they will auto gang in camera views.

• quad and duplex outlets in ceilings, inside cabinets, ..., 

There is a ceiling mounted outlet in the library but as far as i know there isn't a quad and you can only auto gang outlets and switches that are on walls.  You might be able to build your own quad symbol pretty easily though.  If this is something you want to learn how to do, you might want to post it as a separate question.  As for placing electrical inside cabinets, if you want it on the back of a cabinet, you can just place it on the wall behind the cabinet and set the distance from the wall to 3/4".  If you need it somewhere else, I usually set it into a floor mounted outlet and then manually position it where I want it.

• 240V in the ceiling,

You can usually convert any wall mounted symbol into a ceiling or floor mounted symbol by changing where it is mounted in the symbol options and then rotating the 3D data.

• Lutron switch keypads,

If there isn't one that is close enough in the bonus libraries, you could probably find one online that you could import.  You could probably also make your own but depending on how accurate you want it to be would make this either be simple or hard.

• differentiate between low and line voltage lights,

How do you want to differentiate them?  You can always copy an existing symbol and modify the cad block that displays in plan views.  You can also modify the line styles used for your electrical connections.

• depict under cabinets and toe kick lights

There are a few different options in the libraries but if you need something specific you will need to import a symbol or build it yourself.  I can almost always find something in the library that is close enough to what I need.

• a way to depict hardwire terminations (e.g., run 240v to in-floor heating)

You can probably show what you want using a cad block.  Might be best to post a picture of what you want to show to be sure.

• a modest variety of devices (e.g., bathroom fan, range hood, ...) as elements of the electrical layout 

There are lots of these things already built into the libraries.  For anything you want that isn't, you can always import it or build it yourself.

 

Hope this helps.  If you need more specific answers or examples of "how to", then ask.