By Miles Nicholson
A symbol such as a terminal with multiple levels and electronic components can be quite complex. As an example a modular terminal block such as the following part from Phoenix Contact has multiple levels with one of the levels a terminal with terminal number (continuous equipotential) connection and the other level a terminal with wire number change (change in equipotential):
Fuse modular terminal block - PTTB 4-HESILED 24 (5X20) - 3211888
In effect you have to treat each deck of the terminal as a “level” when creating a new part, thus meaning the above part, as an example, will have 2 “levels” defined.
Rather than using the IEC standard for a terminal, which is a circle, have a custom terminal symbol representing specifically a fuse terminal and associate a 2nd level terminal with terminal number.
If you don’t wish to create your own terminal, you can use one that Cadline have made available. Please see the article:
Terminal Blocks with Electronic Components
With regards to the part, create a new part within the parts database e.g.:
CATALOG 3211888
MFG PHOENIX CONTACT
DESCRIPTION FUSE MODULAR TERMINAL BLOCK - PTTB 4-HESILED 24 (5X20)
TYPE MULTI-LEVEL
RATING 6.3A/28A
MISCELLANEOUS1 6kV
MISCELLANEOUS2 BLACK
LEVELS 2
LEVELDESCRIPTION TOP,BOTTOM
TPINL 1,2
TPINR 3,4
WIRESPERCONNECTION 2,2
You can also refer to the following article:
Adding a Terminal into the Parts Database & Associating a Footprint
Assign the manufacturer and part to the 1st “fuse” terminal within the schematic and associate the “continuous” terminal to the 1st terminal:
Creating a Multi Deck Terminal
You can also assign optional accessories for the respective fuses and other accessories:
Assigning Mandatory & Optional Accessories
A fuse terminal was created:
A continuous terminal was created:
Level descriptors can be added: L01PINL, L01PINR, L02PINL & L02PINR. The TPINL & TPINR values defined in the part are automatically annotated into the schematic symbols.
It’s easier to understand the schematics if you assign terminal numbers with a level descriptor suffix such as 1T, 1B etc. It’s also probably better not to use “A” for the top level of each terminal as this is a fuse terminal and the value could be misunderstood as being a fuse rating.
Jumpers can be shown in the schematic using a wire layer prefixed with JUMPER. Please refer to the following article for more information:
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