Cable Block Diagrams (CBDs) provide a graphical representation of the interconnection of the cables and the various junction boxes, marshalling racks, cabinets, wiring equipment, and so forth in your project. They show the project cable flow between the various cables, cabinets, and wiring equipment of your project.
Cable Block Diagrams are ideal for use in the preliminary planning stages of your plant to verify the destination panels for cables as no wiring connections or terminations are needed at this early stage of your project. A CBD is also used for ordering made to order (MTO) cables at the feed stage of your project, and after completion of your project, as part of the maintenance program to show the location of all major cables, panels, junction boxes, and so forth.
Smart Instrumentation allows you to drag and drop panels and wiring equipment from the Domain Explorer to your drawing and position them exactly where you want. The software creates a representation of existing cables on the fly, or you can manually connect cables between item connection points.
Cables with cable sets and wires and panels with strips and terminals should not
be used for CBDs. The CBDs are intended for preliminary design purposes before cable
sizing and panel requirements are fully understood.
When dragging two connected panels or wiring equipment to a CBD, the connecting cable
is not displayed in the CBD folder under the CBD drawing until you save the CBD using
the File > Save Custom Changes command.