Insert Balloon

Places a numbered balloon beside a symbol in a drawing that indicates the position of that component in the Bill of Materials list.

Accessed from:

2D Design Ribbon > Components Group
Panel Design Ribbon > Components Group

Balloons can be placed in any type of drawing, not just panel layouts. You can make settings for balloon appearance in the Project Options Balloon Settings dialog.

The Balloon Number dialog enables you to enter a balloon number for a selected symbol.

Setting

Description

Project Options

Displays the Balloon Settings dialog, which enables you to make settings that determine how balloons appear in various drawing types.

Next Available

Automatically assigns the next available balloon number.

Part Number

Displays the accessory kit part numbers as well as the kit parts themselves.

Balloon Number

Enter the desired balloon number.

Balloon Type

Select the type of balloon to insert from the drop down.

Circle
Line
Ellipse
Hexagon

Multiple Balloon Orientation

In the Project Options Balloon Settings, if you have the Display Separate Balloons For Quantified Parts check box selected, multiple balloons will be placed for symbols that have multiple part numbers assigned. When you select such a symbol when placing a balloon the Horizontal and Vertical settings indicate the preferred orientation of the balloon text. Refer to the images below on how the different orientations are displayed:

Horizontal

Balloons are displayed as follows:

To determine the direction the horizontal balloon stack, Substation uses the leader line. If the tail of the leader line is further left of the arrow head the balloons extend to the left. When it is further right, then the balloons extend to the right:

The Left and Right options refer to the Balloon Text.

For example, if a symbol has the following part numbers and balloon numbers:

The Left/Right options control whether these numbers should be listed from right to left (Left) or left to right (Right).

An example of the Left orientation is shown below.

If the Right option is selected then the numbers are displayed from right to left.

Vertical

Balloons are displayed as follows:

To determine the direction the vertical balloon stack, Substation uses the leader line. If the tail of the leader line is higher in the vertical direction than the arrow head the balloons extend upward. When it is lower, then the balloons extend downward:

The Up and Down options refer to the Balloon Text orientation. If the Up option is selected, the text displays as follows:

The Down option would display the numbers from top to bottom.

The software will prompt you to Pick leader start or balloon insert point. Click on the point where you wish the head of the arrow from the balloon to appear. The software will prompt To point...? Click where you wish the other end of the leader from the balloon to end. You can click on multiple points to create segments in the leader. If you wish the balloon to appear with no leader, simply press <Enter> , do not define any additional points.

Place Balloons on Multiple Symbols

When launching the Insert Balloon command, you can select multiple symbols to balloon. When more than one symbol is selected, the Select a Symbol to Balloon dialog displays. This allows you to select which of the selected symbols to balloon. The window selection option makes it easy when there are multiple symbols in close proximity and they are hard to visually separate. Select them all and then pick which one to balloon from the list.

The selected symbol will appear highlighted in the drawing. Click OK to proceed with drawing the balloon leader and entering the balloon number. Enter links to how to topics.