Everyones favorite schematic drawing software?

Rson said:
I may need to try qelectrotech again. I remember it was pretty limited when I tried it previously, but that was a couple of years ago. Also, I remember having an issue trying to get it to English.
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I just installed it earlier and had no issue with having it in English. It did however crash like SkyCAD did for me as I mentioned in a previous post, so that would point to an issue with my computer, not the software.
 
mylespetro said:
I just installed it earlier and had no issue with having it in English. It did however crash like SkyCAD did for me as I mentioned in a previous post, so that would point to an issue with my computer, not the software.
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or dodgy designing.....I would as in a most hardware/software bite the bullet and use tried and tested stuff. 40% of the time the pricing is for s reason
 
Free Electrical, Mechanical,Board Schematic Software

:smas:If any of you purchase from Allied Electronics, they have a group they support for schools, learning and DIY. I believe all their software is free. They have Electrical, Mechanical and Printed Circuit-Board software and it can all work together. Since I have AutoCad I have not spent the time to try all of it. You can try it at https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/home
or find it on their website. Their DS Toolbox for your phone is a great resource for electronics.


Please let us know how it works if you try it.



One other note: Newark Electronics has a similar group and offer a HOME version of National Instruments LabView for about $50.00 for home projects and students if you are interested.
 
I have been using AutoCAD Electrical for 20 years. I really love it but it can be intimidating because it is so flexible.

I did try using Solidworks electrical and after six months I was ready to pull my hair out. It was not easy to use at all. For example, it did not do item numbering on the panel layout. The only way to get item numbers on the panel was to draw it up in Solidworks 3d and import it in. You also could not do any detail views of the panel without using Solidworks 3d.

Rson, I would like to speak to your not wanting to go subscription.

I wrestled with this as well. I found that when I was paying full price for AutoCAD and only updating every three years I was paying about the same by going subscription and getting all the updates and changes every year. This allowed me to take advantage of all the new things that came available. Just my two cents....

As a panel/schematic designer, if you are not using some kind of Electrical CAD you are hurting yourself. The ability to create BOMs, Wiring Reports, To/From Lists, Terminal Marker reports for printing, Wire Number Reports, etc are were these packages really shine.

If are interested in reading through a bunch of tips/tricks for ACE, Doug McAlexander's website is full of information. http:/ecadconsultant.com
 
I have used

  • Radica Electra V7
    • Intuitive for VERY simple schematics it get UN-intuitive VERY quickly once you go past a few pages.
    • It also completely crashes a couple times a day and throws and exception message about every 10 minutes. Yes I am being serious. I used it for almost a year.
    • Stay Away
  • SEE Electrical V8R2
    • The Sales guy claims it has all these great features but which is theory it does but they are no cumbersome to use that it is a joke.
    • It got to the point where we stoped using auto-wire number and terminal number because it caused so many problems and turned in to more work than just doing it manually. This was painful for me as I am not one to give up easily and I am disgusted by Luddites that don't like to learn or change, but even I finally realized it was more trouble than it was worth.
    • The software is basically legacy. They rarely add anything new. The UI is extremely cumbersome. You have to go through half a dozen layers of windows just to simple highly repetitive tasks like modifying the properties of a component.
    • We had the most expensive advanced version.
    • Stay Away
  • Proficad
    • I haven't used it very much, just toyed with it on a couple small projects it'd a descent little program from what I have seen but it mostly seems gear toward Wiring Diagrams instead of Schematics or at least most of the existing symbol libraries are.
I had not heard of SkyCad until I saw it in this thread. I have been watching all the tutorials on YouTube. Every video I watch I'm like "whaaaaaa it does that I have always want to beable to do that"


I am waiting for the advanced tutorials to be released. It has Mutli-Core Cable Single Line Style but I really wish it had the traditional multi-line cable symbol style as well.


The biggest draw back I see so far is you can't import DWGs which is handy for doing Panel Layouts. You can in SEE Electrical even if it is a nightmare getting them adjusted correctly once you do.


I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the Terminal Strip Features. SEE Electrical Terminal Strip features are a joke. SEE doesn't even understand terminal bridging.


I am a little afraid of it because it is so new. it seems it has only been released for less than 6 months unless I am mistaken.


Subscription model doesn't scare me at all I prefer it. It makes it a lot more Flexible.
 
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alive15 said:
I think I'm the only one using Auto-cad mechanical 2012 for electrical schematics haha. My company cheap.
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Correction your company likes to waste money under the guise of saving money.


Even will all my complaints about Electra and SEE Electrical they still save me a lot of time compared to doing all of it completly my hand in AutoCad Mechanical
 
theColonel26 said:
Correction your company likes to waste money under the guise of saving money.


Even will all my complaints about Electra and SEE Electrical they still save me a lot of time compared to doing all of it completly my hand in AutoCad Mechanical
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Haha, we don't make too many of our own Elec schematics actually; whenever we do, we always start with templates, it's never from scratch. Our company is moving away from Autocad towards Draftsight since AC is becoming more expensive.

Draftsight is really similar to Autocad but free of charge. Draftsight does a better job managing the different autocad versions than autocad does itself. Sometimes I cant open a 2017 file without having to convert in AC, but draftsight can open everything and convert it automatically, which is one thing I do like about it.

I don't think Draftsight has any good symbols, so you have to import them all on your own.
 
@alive15...FYI - Free Draftsight is going away end of 2019.




If you like I can attach a screen shot of the warning I got last week or so.
 
testsubject said:
I have been using AutoCAD Electrical for 20 years. I really love it but it can be intimidating because it is so flexible.

I did try using Solidworks electrical and after six months I was ready to pull my hair out. It was not easy to use at all. For example, it did not do item numbering on the panel layout. The only way to get item numbers on the panel was to draw it up in Solidworks 3d and import it in. You also could not do any detail views of the panel without using Solidworks 3d.

Rson, I would like to speak to your not wanting to go subscription.

I wrestled with this as well. I found that when I was paying full price for AutoCAD and only updating every three years I was paying about the same by going subscription and getting all the updates and changes every year. This allowed me to take advantage of all the new things that came available. Just my two cents....

As a panel/schematic designer, if you are not using some kind of Electrical CAD you are hurting yourself. The ability to create BOMs, Wiring Reports, To/From Lists, Terminal Marker reports for printing, Wire Number Reports, etc are were these packages really shine.

If are interested in reading through a bunch of tips/tricks for ACE, Doug McAlexander's website is full of information. http:/ecadconsultant.com
Click to expand...

Very well said.
I too have been using ACADE since VIA Development days.
It has grown well.
It did make me choke on the subscription price, but it VERY nice to have every upgrade there. From your subscription AutoDesk site..you can even download older versions.
 
theColonel26 said:
I have used
I had not heard of SkyCad until I saw it in this thread. I have been watching all the tutorials on YouTube. Every video I watch I'm like "whaaaaaa it does that I have always want to beable to do that"
Click to expand...
I'm a beta tester, and yes, I've been very impressed with the innovative features SkyCAD offers. And the best part of it, they listen to your needs. Just go to their forum and talk to them.

The biggest draw back I see so far is you can't import DWGs which is handy for doing Panel Layouts.
Click to expand...
I have good news for you: they are working on it! They recently added the DWG export.

I am a little afraid of it because it is so new. it seems it has only been released for less than 6 months unless I am mistaken.
Click to expand...
Your are right, SkyCAD is a new software. But it is also new regarding the neat features you get and the fresh approach to electrical CAD drawing. Also, I think that we, the first batch of users, have relatively more decision power regarding feature requests.
 
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