drawing electrical prints

2004sk4

Member
Join Date
May 2005
Location
Georgia
Posts
172
What software would anyone recommend for drawing electrical prints. I would like something with that is pretty much drag and drop. It need to have fuse,limits,transformer,overload and etc

2004sk4
 
This has been discussed in several threads.

The most common used on this site apprear to be autoCAD and DesignCAD.

DesignCAD "LINK"

With AutoCAD, some use AutoCAD 2005 (or whatever), LT, or AutoCAD 2005 Electrical.

Do a search on CAD or drawings should produce several good threads to review.

regards.....casey
 
Last edited:
...if you are doing the prints 'in-house' & will supply a printed copy only, try doing Google for Smart Draw. It sells for far less than A-cad.
 
2004sk4 said:
What software would anyone recommend for drawing electrical prints. I would like something with that is pretty much drag and drop. It need to have fuse,limits,transformer,overload and etc

2004sk4
look for drawing with Orcad
 
Autocad Electrical is cool (since this is the only one I've used so far!) but ofcourse expensive.
 
AutoCad with the VIA Schematic package works very well. It will allow for easy design of general schematics and ladder diagrams.

Look it up on the web. Just search for "VIA Schematic".
 
I used to use Via. Problem I had is that it's Autocad based, and if you don't use Autocad alot, it it's hard to use. If you're proficient in Autocad, it's a great program. I'll be watching this post closely, as I too am looking for something simple and cheap. I do like the looks of Smartdraw.
For those of you using Smartdraw, Do you recommend the full package or just the Tech edition?

"Less is more"
 
Has anyone tried Microsoft Visio? I'm trying to a drawing in AutoCad and someone form my office walked by. He said he saw "a bunch of those object" in the Visio. I looks like it has saw drag on drop capabilities wiht most of the things I need for schematics. (Contacts, pressure, temperature, flow, limit switchs, etc.)

I haven't tried it yet or investigated price. Asking for opinions here.
 
Visio is a very capable design tool, although it is not automated. AutoCAD electrical which is VIA rolled into ACAD as it was bought out has automated features which greatly speed up the process. It can automatically generate I/O drawings based on an .mdb file. There are others out there including Promis-E and many more. All automated ACAD addins are $expensive. These programs also have BOM, panel layout, to-from, terminal strip layout and many other automated tools. Visio does not.
 
I have just started taking autocad at the local college. I know my work uses autocad, but I have no clue how to use it, played with it and decided way more of a learning curve than just playing with it. It actually may work out good, just was notified our inhouse autocad person is quitting, I am going to talk to my company of moving me into management, so I can basically do autocad drawings for them, and continue PLC programming. With hopes of getting me out of the field, since there is no sight in the future of this MS thing where I can drive let alone working in high voltage panels.
 
olias said:
I used to use Via. Problem I had is that it's Autocad based, and if you don't use Autocad alot, it it's hard to use. If you're proficient in Autocad, it's a great program. I'll be watching this post closely, as I too am looking for something simple and cheap. I do like the looks of Smartdraw.
For those of you using Smartdraw, Do you recommend the full package or just the Tech edition?

"Less is more"

For the price I got the full edition. Actually I got two copies. My boss decided we both should have a copy at the price. We got a nice discount because they were just releasing V7.

We sometimes have to do a mechanical layout due to customer requirements. For the price, it was a no brainer to get the whole package. Smartdraw has sent me 2 upgrades no charge too.
I got the CD too so I do not have to keep the entire library on my computer. I loaded the ones I use frequently. If I need a library, I can down load it or copy it from the CD. You get the choice when you try to open the library. With the CD you do not have to load it on the hard drive if you do not want to.

My boss has a blast making drawings with it. He has done several timing charts in technicolor at that.
 
multisim is pretty much drag and drop, but it does require a bit of a learning curve to get the hang of it.
We had to use that when I was in tech. school. I haven't used it since, but I remember it was pretty fun, but a little hard.
 

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