Visio

Okay, I downloaded the 30day seeminly full working copy of MSVisio from microsoft's website. I typically use Promis-E for controls drawings, but wanted something a little more "drag and drop" for P&ID's.

Visio seems pretty nice. Does anyone know of any places to get some controls ad-ins for it? ie PLC cards, more vessels, more defined instrumentation?

TIA ,

Greg

Promis-e???

I have not used visio for anything else other than state diagrams, so I cannot help you there. I was just curious about promis-e. I saw it in the automation direct catalog and was wondering if it was any good. So is it very easy to use or any nicer than autocad? I am currently using AutoCAD electrical 2005 and it is ok I just need to find a CAD program that will speed things up without doing alot of data entry. AutoCad is pretty powerful but takes a ton of work just to set it up nicely
regards
Dallas
"former" eastkodakguy

I like autocad. It (even Rev.11) has more capabilities then I will ever use.

I never understood promise-e or Visio being a help.

I just loaded new promise-e demo into the computer, and like many times before on several different computers over the years, it doesn't run.

Maybe next year, and maybe not.

I was talking with someone last week, and tols hime I am probably going to hand draw the next project to see how much time I can save.

Years ago at Komatsu-Dresser, I had the honor of being the only person to replace a cad drawing with a manual one. And change control said it couldn't be done.

Long live the T-Square.

regards.....casey

I learned basic control drawings using visio, and then was enlightened in autocad. Take some previous experience advice, just learn cad and save the headaches, visio can do it, but in relation to cad you are tying your hands. Cad in relation is so much better, and with the time you will invest in Visio you can do learn Cad. Just a little advice from past experience, but it is your choice. Visio is very nice for flow charts, troubleshooting guides, etc. so don't get me wrong, it has it's uses, just not very practical for schematics.

PS you can get drawings from cad converted to visio, ie card layouts, racks, processors, but it is all cad based, and reduced to visio, and then limited in what you can do again.

Love Visio

Personally, I use Visio quite extensively. I never had the time to learn CAD inside and out nor wanted to (just dont have the time). There are a number of sites that have pre-drawn symbols and just recently there have been a couple of add-ons for electrical schemtic drawings for Visio.

Symbols here http://www.visimation.com/

Schematic software here http://www.radicasoftware.com/Default.asp

There are others, just do the typical search. As mentioned before, Visio can have limitations if you want extensive drawings but I can put out a P&ID or schematic in half the time as compared with CAD.

Regards,
Chris

Thanks for the input everyone. I agree with all of your statements. AutoCAD is really the way to go, from an engineering standpoint. If you have a tech. or an electrician that needs to make a quick drawing, and doesn't have a lot of CAD experience, Visio may be the way to go...

As for Promis-E, the install is terrible. Very modular software, I have just about all the option and librarys, so I end up entering like 20 different passwords, on an install. Otherwise, the software comes with a good tutorial, and is intuitive to learn. It runs on the AutoCAD engine, so it's definately NOT a break away from A-CAD, but it certainly speeds a lot of processes up. I was torn between Promis-E and ACAD Electrical, I demo'd both and promis-E won in my opinion. It just so happens ECT international (promise-E) is local to my area, so support is local....Makes it nice for the impossible install/licensing process, but as I said outside of that, it's nice software. As for the demos of it not working, I heard that a lot from others, but never had an issue with their demo.

Greg

I am young, and I still prefer pencil/paper.

GregPLC said:

I am young, and I still prefer pencil/paper.

Click to expand...

Some of the best work is done with napkins and crayons.

You are so correct.....Thanks again for that offer of possibly trying to locate a CLX I/O card last week. Someone at Holt met me there at like 11p.m. to get me a card, worked out well.

Greg

Well, just found out promise-e doesn't work on antique computers.

Back to ACAD and the old board.

regards.....casey

Greg, if you like Visio, you must have a look at www.radicasoftware.com . You can generate schematics much much faster, have cross references, generate terminals, BOM and have symbols that is able to automatically generate PLC points.

Electrical CAD Software

You may want to check this one out also, http://www.eplan.us

I recently obtained Visio Pro and was surprised at all that it can do, I have not touched the surface of its capabilities yet.

I have managed to develop a good starter symbol set for electrical drawings but it still needs more, so if you know or want to share symbols please let me know.

I have only had it installed for about a week so still have a lot to learn about it, so much in fact that I may take a class for it soon. In the meantime I am doing the online tutorials MS provides for free.

BTW I have looked into Visimation and Radica.

Still Love Visio

Hi Ron,

This link here: http://www.mvps.org/visio/3rdparty.htm will take you to a site that has a number of sites for many categories related to Visio.

Click here for the MS Visio Forum.

I noticed that this thread was started in October 2004. Since then, I have personally gotten to like this program more over time and have delved into the programming aspect. I am now in the process of building an automated "Time & Motion" program with Visio for the automated hoist systems that we do.

This said, the capabilities of Visio, once learned, are endless

Have fun,
Chris