The instrument balloons are drawn as annotations. The input air symbol and the electrical connection ID symbol (in black) are included in the assembly but they are separate classed symbols. So all the graphics, except the gate valve symbol at the bottom, are either annotations or a part of the control valve actuator symbol. In this example, all the graphics represent one purchased control valve assembly. You’ll need to ask yourself what symbols you want reported as separate line items in your line lists, valve lists and instrument lists, etc. This might seem like a simple step but there are things to consider. Eventually this drawing will be removed from the current project and stored in a network location but we need to create this as a project drawing first to draw the initial layout of symbols and lines, etc. This is where you will draw the symbol assembly in the next step. Using AutoCAD P&ID, in a typical project, create a new project drawing and name it something like Assemblies.DWG. The process isn’t necessarily straight forward though so let’s take a look at what’s involved. By taking these individual symbols, annotations & lines and making them a single block you can then take advantage of AutoCAD tool palettes to place the group of symbols all at once. Copying and pasting from other drawings, while significantly faster, still requires some extra effort.
![autocad valve symbols library autocad valve symbols library](https://www.conceptdraw.com/How-To-Guide/picture/mechanical-engineering/Engineering-Mechanical-Design-Elements-Hydraulic-Pumps-and-Motors.png)
You can imagine that redrawing this on multiple drawings can get time consuming. This set of symbols is a representation of one purchased component on a P&ID drawing. That is to group symbols together and add them to a custom tool palette so they can be placed as easily as any other individual P&ID symbol. I have a third option that you might find even more helpful. You can speed your effort somewhat copying and pasting these assemblies from past project drawings but that can complicate documentation and tagging.
![autocad valve symbols library autocad valve symbols library](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ybOVnLu881A/maxresdefault.jpg)
If you are an AutoCAD P&ID drafter then chances are you have had to redraw common sets of P&ID symbols to represent a typical process, or arrangement of components, across multiple projects (let’s call these common sets of symbols assemblies for simplicity).