Auto-Detecting Panels with IQ Skills

Auto-Detecting Panels with IQ Skills

Building a panel list by hand is one of the slower setup tasks in a new project. The Auto Detect Panels IQ Skill replaces that work by reading your specifications and floor plans — panel schedules in particular — and extracting the panels it finds into a reviewable list you can save straight to the project. This guide covers running the skill, reviewing the results, and saving the list, along with why this belongs at the start of a project rather than partway through detailing.

The Manual Method, for Context

Before this skill existed, creating panels meant going to Project Settings → Panel Settings and listing out each panel individually — entering it, selecting the voltage, saving, and repeating for every panel on the job. On a project with a large panel count, that adds up to real time before any detailing begins.

What the Skill Actually Does

Auto Detect Panels is a skill, not a prompt. There is logic running behind it rather than a single instruction you type in, and it draws from more than one source:

Part 1: Run the Skill

1. Open IQ Skills in your project.
2. Click Auto Detect Panels. This triggers the skill.
3. Let IQ work through the documents. As it builds out the panels, it lists them for you on screen. Extraction time scales with the size of the project — a job with a large panel count will take longer than a small one.

Part 2: Review the Extracted Panels

When extraction completes, you get a full list of what IQ found and a decision on each one.

1. Review the list. If a panel already exists in the project, IQ flags it so you are not creating a duplicate.
2. For any panel you will not be using on the job, select Delete This Panel to remove it from the list before saving. This keeps unused panels out of the project entirely.
3. Work down the full list before moving on — this is your one clean pass at the panel schedule.

Part 3: Save the Panels to the Project

1. Scroll to the bottom of the list.
2. Click Save Panels. IQ writes the entire panel list to your project, and the panels become available for use in detailing.

Run This Early

Auto Detect Panels should be one of the first steps you take on a new project, before detailing starts. The alternative is discovering mid-workflow that the panels are not there yet — you begin placing circuits, go to assign them, and have nothing to assign them to. Running the skill up front means the panel list is in place and waiting when circuiting begins.

Key Points to Remember

• Panel schedules on the floor plans are the primary source. The more complete and legible those schedules are, the better the extraction.
• Review before you save. Deleting unneeded panels during review is cleaner than removing them from the project afterward.
• Duplicates are flagged, not silently created. If a panel already exists, IQ tells you.
• Front-load it. Running this before detailing avoids a stall once circuiting starts.

Need Help?

If you have questions about this workflow, reach out to your Customer Success team. We can walk you through the process and help you optimize how it fits into your project setup.