Taking the plunge, VIA WD how good

OK folks, I think (therefore I hurt), that I am ready to recommend that the company buy the Autodesk (Formerly VIA) WIRING DIRECT software for panel, wire, PLC, BOM, and all the other happy details. Now the QUESTION to you, What are the horror stories, ie learning curve, failures, not usable with XXXXXX, things along these lines, I have demo'ed the proggie and it seems VERY SWEET, but THAT IS THE DEMO. What about the REAL DEAL. What should I look out for (besides cost) and what gains will this give me. Is support up to par, are the updates FREE (within this version of course) things along these lines. Thanks for any help "Little Bob"

Good Choice! If you have the 30 day trial demo then you have the REAL DEAL. The only limitations are that it will only run for 30 days. IMHO WD is with out a doubt the best ACAD add-on out there. I found it very easy to set up and use (once I sat down and RTFM). I have been using it for the past year and a half and I have found no faults with it. My projects are better organized and the completion times are shorter. I have always gotten good results from tech support. Updates are free if you have the maintenance contract. I think we pay $400.00 a year for maint renewal.

I agree with RDay. I have been using WD about a year and a half as well. I haven't really had any issues (bugs) that I can remember. A few suggestions: 1). Yes, RTFM!!. It won't make a lot of sense at first on some things but it will help. 2). I suggest that you try to closely follow VIA's "format" for tag names and other items as you can. It will make a lot of their features more usable. I am fairly familiar with most of the software functionality (I think...) so if you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Also tech support is pretty good, at least it was... I haven't used it since the Almighty Autodesk took over... Good luck....

K.C. said:

I suggest that you try to closely follow VIA's "format" for tag names and other items as you can.

Click to expand...

Can you give an example of their "format"?

The software (by default, I think) will name components by line reference number. In the past if I had three motor starters in a control panel I might have named them MS1, MS2, MS3. With VIA, if I place a motor starter coil on reference line number 233, it will by default name this coil M233. You can then change the name to whatever you want. However, if you move this coil or need to do a project-wide resequence, it (sometimes) will rename your components to the default format. This can be quite frustrating when it screws up your cross-referencing. You can follow whatever format you want, I just find it easier to use theirs and go with the flow, so to speak... I am pretty fortunate that most of my customers don't make me follow any particular format so this hasn't been a prob...

Does anyone have a web link for this product. It sounds interesting.

Rich

I am still using the version put out by CIMLOGIC (bought by VIA, bought by Autodesk). I am very happy with it. I was never real happy with the BOM functions and the panel layout stuff was just introduced, but they may have been improved.

I really like that the drawings are pure autocad and can be used by non-users w/o any hoop jumping.

I have felt for while that if you do any decent amount of schematic drawings and need the autocad format, if you don't have this or a similar product, you really aren't interested in making money. The productivity gains are tremendous, especially after you've had it a while and get in your own customizations. I am painfully reminded of this as I have had to retrofit a couple of machines where the oem didn't even use attributed blocks, much less a drawing package.