Expanded online range for configuring control cabinets

Siemens now offers even more freely accessible product data records on the Internet for designing control cabinets with CAE/CAD applications. Around 10,000 EPLAN Electric P8 macros in .edz format are thus now available via the CAx Download Manager. The Siemens Online Support Portal also offers data records for 3,500 products in the ecl@ss Advance standard for components from the Sirius Innovations portfolio.

In addition, Siemens has redesigned its Industry Mall configurators for controllers (TIA Selection Tool), motor starters (3SK1/3RK1 configurator), power supplies (Sitop Selection Tool), and 3WL air circuit breakers from the Sentron portfolio. It has also simplified use of the configurators and expanded their functionality. As a result, the new Simatic S7-1500 controllers and the ET 200SP and ET 200MP I/O systems can be easily configured in the TIA Selection Tool to obtain the plant configuration with associated ordering list. The tool automatically takes account of the configuration rules, and offers several export functions to other systems, such as the Siemens Industry Mall and the CAx Download Manager.

The Siemens Industry Mall, the CAx Download Manager, and the Siemens Online Support Portal are component parts of the Planning Efficiency initiative. The basic idea of Planning Efficiency is to use online functions to support design engineers and control cabinet builders in all aspects of configuring control cabinets throughout the entire value added process. This is achieved on the one hand by means of simple and clear selection and ordering of components on the Internet. Users can compare different products in detail at the click of a mouse, and configure them quickly for their own requirements. Customers can then click to transfer the product selection made to the shopping cart of the Industry Mall, order it there, and track the status of the order.

On the other hand, Siemens offers free access to a host of data for computer-aided design and engineering on its Web sites. As well as EPLAN Electric P8 macros in .edz format, a host of 2D dimension drawings, 3D models, and master data on approximately 90 percent of all products required by users for control cabinet building are available free of charge in the CAx Download Manager. In total, the offer encompasses data and information on more than 60,000 products in up to 12 variants and ten languages. Additionally, customers can create and download project-specific and standardized documentation using the My-Documentation function. A representative customer survey has shown that, all-in-all, Planning Efficiency can deliver time savings of up to 80 percent compared to control cabinet configuration using components from different vendors.