The Rittal guidance to configuring enclosures

Many aspects of designing and manufacturing control systems and switchgear remain manual, and time-consuming. This is especially true of solutions that need to be tailored to very specific imperatives. However, the availability of high-quality data can streamline these engineering tasks, particularly during the initial product planning and development phases.

Professional engineers require accurate, detailed and validated CAD data that can be utilized directly in their CAD software. This approach can be illustrated by considering the TS 8 baying system. Rittal offers a wide variety of rich 2D and 3D CAD data for TS 8 enclosures and accessories over the Internet. This information can be downloaded in over 80 formats from CADENAS’s PARTcommunity platform, or from the Rittal website using RiCAD 3D software. Users simply choose the format that suits their purpose. Each data set includes a product description, eCl@ss classification, and links to corresponding product content on the Rittal website.

The CAD data is available in various granularities, and can be directly imported into the user’s CAD design program. Moreover, Rittal offers a TS 8 CAD configurator, which access data via PARTcommunity, to help users select the TS 8 model they require. This planning software allows users to add basic accessories, such as bases and punched sections to the selected TS 8 enclosure. The result is a powerful, time-saving tool for the tasks associated with the initial design phases of a baying system.

Eplan software and the corresponding CAE data that Rittal provides via the Eplan portal support electrical engineers by delivering new enriched data sets for products and components from the Rittal TS 8 baying system portfolio. Up to 200 attributes can be assigned to each component within a macro file. These attributes include commercial data, logic, 2D and 3D graphics macros, circuit diagram macros, manufacturing information and data on accessories. As a result, the TS 8 enclosure can be designed and configured virtually and efficiently. In other words, digital information is available from end to end: for electrical design, for the creation of a virtual 3D prototype in Eplan Pro Panel, and for automated production. The data also supports commercial processes, such as purchasing and logistics. Seamless access to this data accelerates all associated work tasks, increasing user productivity – not just in engineering, but also in all downstream commercial and technical processes. This increases efficiency, saves time, and cuts costs.

In short, CAD and CAE data provided by Rittal, in conjunction with Eplan solutions from other members of the Friedhelm Loh Group, enable better, faster design and manufacturing of professional control systems and switchgear – from end to end.