Wirepath Routing in FireCAD

Overview

This guide covers drawing, managing, and maintaining wirepath segments — the lines that represent circuit wiring paths between devices in your fire alarm system drawings.

Prerequisites

• A FireCAD project must be open
• Devices must be connected to circuits (see Building Circuits)

Drawing Wirepaths

Auto-Draw All Circuit Wirepaths

1. Type ATAUTO_DRAW_CIRCUIT_WIREPATH
2. Select which circuits to include
3. Choose options:
   • Delete existing — Remove old segments and draw fresh
   • Reuse existing — Keep segments that are still valid
   • Time limit — Maximum seconds for the layout algorithm
4. The routing algorithm calculates optimal paths and draws polyline segments

Auto-Draw Active Circuit Only

1. Select a circuit in the Project Circuits Palette
2. Type ATAUTO_DRAW_ACTIVE_WIREPATH
3. Wirepaths are drawn for the selected circuit only

Draw Shared Wirepaths

1. Type ATAUTO_DRAW_SHARED_WIREPATH
2. Shared segments (where multiple circuits run together) are drawn as a single path

Rerouting Wirepaths

Reroute All Wirepaths

1. Type ATREROUTE_WIREPATHS
2. All wirepath routes are recalculated using the layout algorithm
3. Labels refresh automatically with a full data reload

Use this after moving devices to new positions or when routing is suboptimal.

Reroute Selected Polylines

1. Type ATREROUTE_POLYLINES
2. Select the specific polyline segments to reroute
3. Only selected segments are recalculated

Manual Drawing Tools

For manual control over wirepath geometry:

Segment Display Options

Control what information appears on wirepath segments:

Wire Fill

• ATSHOW_WIREFILL — Display wire fill percentage on segments
• ATHIDE_WIREFILL — Hide wire fill display
• ATDELETE_ALL_WIREFILL — Remove all wire fill annotations

Conductor Count

• ATSHOW_CONDUCTOR_COUNT — Show number of conductors
• ATHIDE_CONDUCTOR_COUNT — Hide conductor count

Conduit Fill

• ATSHOW_CONDUIT_FILL — Display conduit fill percentage
• ATHIDE_CONDUIT_FILL — Hide conduit fill

Segment ID

• ATSHOW_SEGMENT_ID — Display segment/conduit ID
• ATHIDE_SEGMENT_ID — Hide segment ID

Wirepath Length

• ATSHOW_WIREPATH_LENGTH — Display wire run length
• ATHIDE_WIREPATH_LENGTH — Hide wirepath length

Segment Layer Colors

• ATUPDATE_SEGMENT_LAYER_COLORS — Color segments by their circuit assignment

Formatting Wirepath Labels

1. Type ATFORMAT_WIREPATH_LABELS
2. The Format Wirepath Labels dialog opens
3. Configure:
   • Label format using tokens: [LBL], [PNL], [CKT], [AWG], [COND]
   • Text height for label display
   • Hide threshold to suppress labels on short segments
   • Masking and line type options
4. Click Apply — all wirepath labels in the project update

Converting Between Polylines and Splines

Validating Segments

1. Type ATVALIDATE_SEGMENTS to run segment-specific validation
2. This checks segment intersections and updates segment data
3. Wirepath labels are recalculated

Starting Over

If wirepath routing needs a complete restart:

1. Type ATDELETE_ALL_SEGMENTS to remove all segments and their database records
2. Confirm the destructive operation
3. Type ATAUTO_DRAW_CIRCUIT_WIREPATH to redraw all wirepaths from scratch

Circuit connections remain intact — only the physical wirepath geometry is removed.

Tips

• Use ATAUTO_DRAW_CIRCUIT_WIREPATH for initial routing, then ATREROUTE_POLYLINES for targeted adjustments
• The fillet radius for ATPOLY corners can be configured in Options under Tools
• Enable segment display options selectively — showing everything at once can clutter the drawing
• After rerouting wirepaths, a full label refresh runs automatically (this takes a few seconds on large projects)

Quick Reference

What's Next

• Managing Device Properties — Configure device labels and properties
• Generating Reports — Create reports with current wirepath data

FireCAD is the industry-leading AutoCAD add-in for fire alarm system design — from circuit layout to wire routing to code-compliant reports.
Learn more and get started at getfirecad.com →

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