Need suggestions for work

I just started work recently. I will design and draw some electrical drawings. I only got AutoCAD in my computer. I'm wondering if I need ask company to buy AutoCAD electrical software and some electrical design handbooks for me. Or anything else to begin my work?

Any suggestion is very appreciated.
Thanks
Jeanne

You will find that if you search back on CAD , there was a thread that sparked a deal on controversy - one suggested that a piece of chalk and a rock was enough , someone else siad that any business that wanted to be taken seriously should be able to produce CAD or equivalent drawings .
I know what I think , be interested in hearing your views too.

Glad you are interested in the topics on the forum, why not register and contibute under a name besides guest?

You will find that if you search back on CAD , there was a thread that sparked a deal on controversy - one suggested that a piece of chalk and a rock was enough , someone else siad that any business that wanted to be taken seriously should be able to produce CAD or equivalent drawings .
I know what I think , be interested in hearing your views too.

Click to expand...

It is registered but takes the anonymous persona to make snide remarks that are unnecessary. I have no problem with PLAIN ENGLISH, its a jerk.

The aforementioned thread pertaining to ACAD was from an individual that primarily does fluidpower systems and did not have "time" to perform his job and create drawings so asked for assistance in creating the drawing. I hope that is what this site and IE&M are here to provide. On occasion I expect contacts to be made between members that provide monetary gain, that is possibly one reason many go online....its called networking.

This is my opinion. If a company hires you expecting you to create "drawings" they should provide the necessary tools to accomplish it. Those tools should be what you are familiar with whether its rock, chisel and hammer, drafting table and pens, or a computer with ACAD E.

Thanks, Rsdoran.
I know you have plenty of experience for electricity. I'm a beginner and working in a start company. I will ask for ACAD E. Only have ACAD is not enough, right?
Could anybody recommend some electrical design handbooks for me? highly appreciated.

I use AutoCAD Electrical. I wouldn't use anything else at this point for controls drawings. You must however keep two things in mind:

1.) You still need to know how to create safe and logical control drawings.

2.) It will not excuse your need to learn CAD in general. I don't know what your background is...

I know of 2 good books, I own them both, each of them is from www.isa.org

First one is: "Control System Documentation" ISBN:1-55617-896-4

Second one is: "Successful Instrumentation and Control System Design". ISBN: 1-55617-844-1

You will not be dissapointed with either title.

Sounds like you have a pretty good "white box" opportunity. I wish you the best of luck!

Good luck,

Greg

P.S., AutoCAD alone is plenty, it is what most use. There are not a lot of Electrical users out there, as of yet. I know of a few on here, and I haven't heard anything bad about it.

I can not offer any info pertaining specifically to design but there are numerous threads here on Autocad, panels, symbols etc, just use a search.

In case you need symbols I have some here:
http://www.patchn.com/electrical.htm

http://www.patchn.com/fluidsymbols.htm

Chakorules also has downloadable symbols (for ACAD) and more at http://www.mrplc.com

Greg reminded me of something. You may want to obtain an NEC Electrical Code Handbook, more pictures and explanations in the handbook, and NFPA 79:Understanding and Applying Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery.
http://www.nfpa.org/

OSHA standards can be found here: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owasrch.search_form?p_doc_type=STANDARDS&p_toc_level=0&p_keyvalue=

As I recall...

ACAD Electrical is to ACAD as...
C++ is to C.

C can do anything that C++ does.
Likewise, ACAD can do anything that ACAD Electrical does.

Many thanks to Greg and rsdoran. Both of your suggestions are treasure for me.
Sorry Terry. I can't agree with you completely. I only know ACAD-E can be easy and efficiently use for electiical designer. I don't know where can find the plenty of electrical symbols in ACAD. Please give me some suggestions if you have any idea for that. Thanks.

Just out of interest RSD , what did your comment mean ?

I made a couple of posts a while back about problems with a Siemens archive , and was met with more than a bit of ignorance on that occasion . I wonder what you refer to when you make your comment about snide remarks ?
I don't see what is snide about suggesting someone look at that thread , it was really quite interesting to see the completely differing opinions as to whether a drawing package in any shape or form was necessary .

As I mentioned the last time I bothered to impart info , I have no need to register and have you insult me ( I can't see what difference registration would make in the first place ) .

What exactly makes ACAD Electrical so special?

Could it be the library of electrical component drawings?

Gee... I'm gonna go out on a limb here...
I'll bet those electrical drawings are ACAD drawings... what-a-ya think?

Hmmm...

AutoCAD is more then adequet for making schematics and layouts. Since ACAD-E is many thousands of dollars, is it really needed? There are many links listed on this site, just click the "Search" tab above.

My AutoCAD training consisted of:

1) Click number 3 on menu to go to autocad.
2) Click on Autocad to start program.
3) Control C will back you out of whatever trouble that you just got into.

I made my own blocks and symbals at first.

Being a hacker, I got through the first day. I did have a big set of ACad manuals on hand, though they were an older version. I made several drawing that first day, and "scaled" them. The next morning, after reading some of the manuals, I found out that I should be drawing "full size".

I went to the library and found some pocket guides and other books on AutoCAD, and learned lots of shortcuts.

The pocket guides were lifesavers, and big timesavers. Perhaps one of your area libraries or bookstores has something available.

I have seen AutoCad for Dummies, but can't remember if I thought that it was extremely Good or Bad.

I've never looked, but maybe there is a "ACAD.NET" site out there, like PLCS.NET.

regards.....casey

And, you can always get help here!

Terry Woods said:

Likewise, ACAD can do anything that ACAD Electrical does.

Click to expand...

As a user of ACADE, I have to diagree with your statement.

Were you to have said:
"ACAD and a cad user with enough time to waste, can do anything that ACADE does." that would have been a true statement.

I use ACADEs parametric build utility a great deal. On a typical project that can save over a weeks work over using ACADE without parametric build, and even more over ordinary ACAD. Try generating 20 finished and numbered drawings, 2 io moduels per drawing, in a single afternoon with plain flavored ACAD. I've used other packages, and quite franlky, ACADE is the most productiviy enhancing sofware of any sort in my toolkit.

Terry Woods said:

What exactly makes ACAD Electrical so special?

Could it be the library of electrical component drawings?

Gee... I'm gonna go out on a limb here...
I'll bet those electrical drawings are ACAD drawings... what-a-ya think?

Hmmm...

Click to expand...

Terry,

It is a library of electrical components and so much more. Yes, all the ACE drawings are ACAD drawings. They can be opened by ACAD. What makes ACE special is the blocks that are created and the interdependency that they have through a project database.

With this datbase, all sorts of reports can be generated; BOM (per drawing, groups of drawings or the whole project) I use this the most, terminal strip reports showing all the terminal strips and the signals going through them with associated wire numbers, all PLC I/O used, etc. It will also autogenerate the wire numbers for all the lines used. I can add all the wire numbers to a group of drawings in less than 5 minutes. It really does automate the design process.

This list of things it can do can be huge. ACE is very customizable so you can set it up anyway that you are comfortable with. It is not just reports either. Every aspect of the electrical drawing is covered in ACE (wiring diagrams, panel layouts, door layouts, even pneumatics are in there.)

I have been using ACE for over 7 years (in all its incarnations) and have been a beta tester for it for 5. I would never be able to keep up with the amount of work I have to do and provide a high level of quality without it.

I realize that I may sound like a fanboy, but in this area I feel justified. I have stated this many times in the past: If you design control panels for a living you are only hurting yourself if you are not using a drawing package designed for electrical control panels.

Bob

Well... OK then.

But... doesn't normal autocad do at least some of the stuff you mentioned? Like BOM?