AutoCAD Pneumatic DWG Generator

This work project was designed to automate the task of creating complex and dynamic pneumatic AutoCAD drawings for any machine. Machine I/O and devices were already being entered into an Excel spreadsheet where PLC base programs and HMI screens could then be generated based off that info. However, generating pneumatic drawings from the data on the Excel spreadsheets was most complex task of all, which I undertook single-handedly.

Inside this program, users could enter device names and their attributes into a database. These attributes included its general type, how many pneumatic lines, default valve type, regulators, flow controls, and more. Users could also enter in their own custom blocks for a device.

The Python program would read a machine's Excel I/O spreadsheet and match the device names to the database to generate the drawings. This was a particularly challenging task, as the dynamic sizes of each device meant that the program had to intelligently place objects on the page and avoid collisions, while maintaining readability. Pythons "shapely" package was used extensively, as well as "matplotlib" and interaction with Windows' COM.