Electrical switches on islands

[Larry_Sweeney]

Is the a "magic trick" to ganging switches together on an island? Every time, in an elevation view, I try pulling two switches together one disappears. In another case, still in elevation view, I have three switches apart and when I attempt to set them all at the same elevation, one will disappear before I even try to bring them together as a 3-gang unit. I've looked at everything in the dialog boxes and can't find anything I've missed. Please tell me the "secret"

[Joe_Carrick]

Larry,

 

Have you tried X17?  It has a tool to make electrical items into ganged units.  You just group select and click on the edit tool to gang them.

 

The rules are that they must all be at the same height and within 36".  I'm not sure how many can be ganged in one box.  Off hand I would think 4 should be the max but I just did 5 and it worked.  HD actually lists a 6-gang box but that seems to be the max.

 

Chief will allow more but the space between studs would make it difficult to actually do more and I don't think there are cover plates for more than 6 anyway.

[Joe_Carrick]

One thing I found is that if you gang switches and oulets, you will need to make sure your 3D views have both electrical & electrical -power layers on or you won't see all of them.

[Larry_Sweeney]

Joe................Thanks for the "Heads up" about X17. I haven't downloaded it yet. I started this project in X16 and I didn't want to switch over midstream in the project. It's always the "little things" with this program that always give me the biggest headaches. I wish CA would just sit down, listen to the "group" about fixing things that aren't quite working correctly with the program (some for MANY years) and fix those items once and for all. Thanks again for taking the time. Have a great weekend.

[Renerabbitt]

1 hour ago, Joe_Carrick said:

electrical -power

Joe this must be one of your own custom layers. There is no electrical-power layer. OOTB with a ganged switch we only need the "electrical" layer turned on

[Joe_Carrick]

11 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Joe this must be one of your own custom layers. There is no electrical-power layer. OOTB with a ganged switch we only need the "electrical" layer turned on

You are correct.  I have:

• Outlets on Electrical, Power
• Lights & Switches on Electrical
• Jacks, etc on Electrical, Communication

[DBCooper]

Quote

 

Is the a "magic trick" to ganging switches together on an island? Every time, in an elevation view, I try pulling two switches together one disappears. In another case, still in elevation view, I have three switches apart and when I attempt to set them all at the same elevation, one will disappear before I even try to bring them together as a 3-gang unit. I've looked at everything in the dialog boxes and can't find anything I've missed. Please tell me the "secret"

 

 

Without a plan or even a picture, no one will be able to do anything but make random guesses.  My guess, just based on some weird things I have seen in the past, is that you have created a layout where when you edit one of these switches on your island that they are snapping to something else, maybe a wall or some other cabinet that is behind it or close by, which is causing it to be hidden in your elevation.   Take a look in the plan view and you might be able to see where it went.

 

I do think this might work better in X17 though since it looks like they made some big changes to how electrical gangs work.

 

[GeneDavis]

If it's the switch for the sink grinder, do it with a plunger air switch.