Creating and Customizing Circuit Breaker Symbols for Electrical One-Line Diagrams in Revit

Now let's add some loads to our main distribution board. These loads each need a circuit breaker, and we could draw in some basic lines to create a circuit breaker, but we'll use several so it might make sense to create a family. To do that we'll go to File, New, Family, and we're looking for an annotation family and we want the generic annotation.

When we find it we'll click Open. This is a blank generic annotation family. Let's zoom in a little bit and delete the note.

We also need an additional line type, so let's go into our Create, Line, and notice there are only really generic annotations or invisible lines. We can go to the View tab, Visibility and Graphics, and click on Object Styles. Right here for generic annotations we can click New, and we want to call this Wide Lines.

Wide Lines, and click OK. We'll give this a value of 5, and click OK, and OK again. Now when we go to the Create button and start the line command we will notice that we have wide lines.

Let's go ahead and select it. Now I want to click right here in the crosshairs and move my cursor straight up. I want about a three quarter inch line, and hit ENTER.

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Now that I've got that, I can do a one inch line, and another three quarter inch line. I have three lines here, and the line in the center I don't need. I'm going to click it and hit Delete.

I want to go back to my Create tab and do Line, and I want a circle now. So click one time on this bottom line, and I want this to be about a one eighth inch radius circle. I'll create another one on the top line, also one eighth inch circle.

Now that I have those two circles, I need to create an arc between the two. And so I come here to the Start and Radius arc, and I'll click the quadrant of the first circle on the quadrant of the second, and I'll set that radius here to maybe three quarters of an inch. Now I have most of the line work for this circuit breaker.

I can click the bottom line and drag it down so it connects directly to the circle, and do the same for the top line. Now I can select this arc, and I'll use MB on my keyboard, and move it over about a sixteenth of an inch. It's going to unjoin, but that's perfect.

I'll click Unjoin. So imagine my one line. The power's coming in.

It comes here. This is symbolizing a breaker, and the arc kind of shows that there could be a toggle switch to turn the breaker on and off, and then the power can continue on. So that's all the line work I need, but I want to add in a couple of labels.

So I'll go back to my Create tab, and I will find the label. So right here, Label, and I'll click once to place a new label. Now I need to create my own parameter, so the New Parameter button's in the bottom left.

Click that, and I'm going to call this Amps. Discipline is Electrical. Data Type is Current, and I want this to be an instance parameter, and I will click OK.

Now all I've done so far is create that parameter. I want to add it over here to my label, so I'll click the green arrow to the right, and here it is, Amps. I can give it a sample value.

We'll call it 100. Now I do not need a suffix, and that's because Revit, knowing that this is a current parameter, will put in a suffix for me, so all I have to do is click OK. So there's a 100 label.

Now I'll go on to the Modify button, click this 100, and I want to adjust the box to make it smaller, and I want to edit on the left here the options, so Vertical, Align, Middle, that's fine, Horizontal, Align, Center. I want to make that left, so it's left aligned. Now I can keep dragging that box down until it makes a little bit more sense.

I might even move it down a little bit so that mine resides right here next to that circuit breaker. Now that I have one label, I can copy it to move a little faster, so I'll do CC on my keyboard, click once, and click again about a quarter inch down to place a copy of that label. Go back to my Modify button, select this second label, and click Edit Label.

Now I already used Amps, I don't need it. I can select it and click the red left arrow to get rid of it. Let's make a new parameter, and this time I'm going to call it Phase.

Discipline is Electrical, and the data type will be Number of Poles, and this will also be an instance parameter, and we'll click OK, and I want to add that in. Phase. I'll click OK here.

So there's Phase. Now that's pretty good, but I know that Revit will actually not provide a suffix, so I can add one if I'd like. Let's go ahead and edit this label, and let's give it a sample value, one phase, and I want to do a suffix.

I could simply do PH for Phase, that would work fine, or if you want to be fancy on your keyboard, you can find the ALT button and do ALT, and hold ALT down and type in these numbers, 0216. ALT 0216, and that gets me a Phase symbol, and I'll click OK. So I've got 100 amps and my Phase symbol.

I'm going to go up to the top left, and I have the Family Categories and Parameters, and the Family Types. I want the Family Categories and Parameters. That looks OK.

Now let's do the Family Types. I have my two parameters. I'll edit the first one, Amps, just double check.

It's Amps, it's Instance, Electrical Engineering, that looks good. Phase, I can also edit that, make sure it's Phase, Instance, Electrical Engineering, that looks good. With my double check out of the way, I can save this family to give it a name.

So I will go to File, Save, and you can save this anywhere you'd like on your computer. I'm going to save it in this Families folder, and I will call it Symbol-Circuit Breaker, and click Save. With the name, I can load into Project and close.

And here is my Circuit Breaker. I'm going to place one right here on my Main Distribution Board. That'll be my first Circuit Breaker off of the Main Distribution Board, and I also want to place a Circuit Breaker leading into the Distribution Board.

To do that, I'll hit Space on my keyboard until I have a nice horizontal breaker, and I'll click right there. I'll go to my Modify button. I'll grab this long, wide line and drag it out of the way of the breaker, right about to there.

And now I can modify these parameters. I'll click on this Circuit Breaker, and I want this to be 1500 Amps. So I'll type in 1500 and Amps.

And you recall we never put a suffix, but Revit knows it's Amps, so it puts the A. Now I'll click on Phase and click 3. So 3 Phase, 1500 Amps coming into my Main Distribution Board. Now I want some Panel Boards here. So I have already created a Panel Board family, and so I'm going to go to Annotate and look for the Symbol button, and I want the Symbol Panel Board.

Pretty straightforward, simple symbol, and it's just a rectangle. So I'll click on this endpoint, and there it is, a super basic rectangle. That's my Panel Board.

Now I created an annotation symbol simply because now I can copy this over and reuse it versus drawing individual lines. I need to give this Panel Board a name, so I'm going to click on the Text tool in the Annotate tab. It's set to quarter inch.

I want to change it to 1 eighth inch text. I'll click right inside that box, and I'll do PB-1 for Panel Board 1. After clicking the Modify button, I can move that into place, and there it is, Panel Board 1. But it says 0 Amps, so I want to change that. Let's go ahead and make this one 200 Amps, and it'll match the 3 Phase power.

Perfect. With that, I have my first Panel Board, and it's a breeze to create more Panel Boards. I'll draw a box around this Circuit Breaker and Panel Board, and I'll do CC on my keyboard to copy, and I'll move it over about an inch and a half, and there's one.

And I'll continue that process until I have all four of my Circuit Breaker Panel Boards, and one and a half inches. There we go. All I need to do now is update the name.

I'll just click in the text box, change it to Panel Board 2, Panel Board 3, and Panel Board 4. Awesome. That looks really good. Now this dashed line is kind of conflicting now.

I'm just going to drag it down to show that these Panel Boards are indeed separate from the main distribution board. Now we have some more equipment we can add on to our main distribution board. Let's start with some HVAC equipment.

I'll grab one of these Circuit Breakers. I'll copy it, CC on my keyboard, and move it over one and a half inches. So there it is, and I know the amperage will be different on this depending on the manufacturer.

Let's start with the 60 Amp Breaker, and for that HVAC equipment, we want a continuity symbol. We can do that with lines. We could go to Annotate and do the detail lines and draw some continuity lines, or we can bring in a symbol or create our own.

We already have a symbol loaded, so let's do that. Annotate, Symbol. I'm looking for Symbol dash Continuity, and I'll click right there.

There's a continuity symbol. Now I have to label what this is. I'll go back to my Annotate tab, select Text, and I'll simply add HVAC.

With the Modify button selected, I can move this label until it's centered, and there I go. I've got one piece of HVAC equipment. Now I can grab this Circuit Breaker and HVAC equipment, copy it over an inch and a half, and now I have a second piece of HVAC equipment.

What else do I want to add? I want to add in the motor for the elevator. Now that elevator is a different type of power, and it's across the room from the distribution board. It's a different part of the building.

I need to add a Transformer, and so to do that I'm going to add in a Transformer annotation symbol. I'm going to go to Annotate, Symbol, and let's find a symbol for Transformer. I've got an Outdoor Transformer and a Step-Down Transformer.

I really need a Step-Up Transformer, but that's okay. I can modify this. I'll click on this, bring it in.

Now this is kind of a sideways Transformer. I want to click the space bar until it's vertical, and I want it up above this dashed line, so somewhere right in here. So let's click one time.

We've placed it. Now we'll select it, and I want to add the Y secondary. Let's turn that on.

There's the Y, and that's about it. I want to add in some text describing what this is and connect it to my main distribution board. To connect it, I need to go to the Annotate tab, Detail line, and I want to have Wide Lines turned on, and drag a line down to the main distribution panel.

Up at the top, I'm going to add some text. So go to Annotate, Text, and I'm going to start to the right. This is a Step-Up Transformer, and we're starting with 208, 120 volts.

But we're going to step up to 480 volts, and we'll say the size of the Transformer. We'll say it's about 20 kVA. All right, and that's about it for that Transformer.

What is that Transformer powering? It's powering an elevator, but the one-line diagram simplifies everything as much as possible. What really runs the elevator? It's a motor. So you guessed it, we need a motor symbol here.

Now, we could use an annotation symbol or simply draw a circle for a motor. So I'm going to go up to the Annotate tab, Detail line, Circle, and click right at the end here, maybe a little bit higher, just lined up. Click one time, and I think a half-inch circle is plenty big, so I'll click there.

I can select it and use M, V on my keyboard to move it down until it just touches this top line of the Transformer. There it is. Now, I like to give it an M for Motor, so I'll go to my Annotate tab, Text.

This time, I can use the quarter-inch text, click in that circle, and do M for Motor. Using the Modify button, I can drag it until it's about centered in that bubble. And I want to describe what this is.

So last but not least, I'll go to Text, change my text to eighth-inch, click right above it, and I'll add the word Elevator. And if needed, I can center that text a little bit as well. Once I'm set, I can do ZE to zoom extents and see my work.

Now I've got it. I've got my four panel boards, my two pieces of HVAC equipment. I'm coming off to a Transformer that's across the room that then powers the motor for the elevator.

And in a nutshell, that is our one-line diagram.