Design Master improves drafting efficiency by automatically drawing homeruns and loops. In addition, Design Master can accommodate custom homeruns and loops. When inserting loops and homeruns, the user should keep in mind that Design Master uses the loops and homeruns in the voltage drop calculations. However, Design Master does not use loops and homeruns to determine circuiting; if you want to connect devices to the same circuit, you must use the Circuiting command.
To draw both the homerun and the loops at the same time:
DM Electrical
Circuiting and HomerunsDraw Homerun and Loops
Click on the device you want to draw the homerun from. This could be a light fixture, receptacle, switch, junction box, or a piece of equipment. Press space bar and Design Master will insert the loops and homeruns for all the devices on the same circuit as the device you chose to run the homerun from. To combine homeruns, see Combining Homeruns.
Design Master will place the loops, and will show the homerun from the device you had previously chosen. At this point, you may position the homerun as you wish by clicking to anchor the arrow on the drawing. The loops and homerun will look something like the image below.
Homerun wire sizes greater than #10 will be labeled with a wire size callout. The default option for homerun wire sizes of #12 will have tick marks automatically added. See the Customization/Wire Sizing or Customization/Options/Wire Sizing sections for more details.
If panels have already been placed on the drawing, the voltage drop calculation will run each time you place a homerun. The program will display the distance between the panel and the homerun, as well as the percentage voltage drop for the homerun. This information will appear in the command line of AutoCAD, or you may press F2 to bring up the AutoCAD Text Window screen to view the voltage drop information.
To draw a homerun only, see Draw Homerun Only. To have Design Master draw multiple homeruns at one time, see Automatic Homerun.
Design Master allows you to change some of the default looping settings. See Set Looping Options for more information.
You may also manually move or place a loop or homerun if the program places it in a location you are not happy with. See Moving Homeruns and Loops for more information.
For more information about voltage drop calculations, see the information about the voltage drop calculation parameters.