Don’t ask… “What is the Best Electrical CAD program”
In the world of the past, the electrical controls designers, and mangers were looking for ways to make the world of electrical CAD design more effective and streamlined. The criteria is only to generate a comprehensive ELECTRICAL only design / BOM. My past, and current employer use AutoCad Electrical for the E-design.
In the world of the past, the mechanical department had their 3-D CAD programs with 3-D, models and mechanical BOM reports. My last, and my current employer use SolidWorks for mechanical design.
Mostly, at many companies, (my current company included), there is NO correlation with the same devices between these two departments.
The result of the above scenario typically has the propensity for three recurring problems:
1. Under-purchasing of a cross-discipline device
A. Mechanical expecting Electrical purchasing
B. Electrical assuming Mechanical already purchased
2. Over-purchasing
A. The item needs to be identified in mechanical, so it gets purchased
B. The item needs to be identified in electrical, so it gets purchased, (AGAIN)
3. Cross naming, and/or multiple naming of the same device
There are three holy-grails, (in order of importance), for us controls guys to pursue, and I know it is where I want myself and our company to be…..
…..1st priority is BOM connectivity to our mechanical department. There should be a SINGLE BOM for a project. Our program/project engineers would do cart-wheels over a single BOM.
…2nd priority is a SINGLE ITEM identifying and naming nomenclature between the same mechanical device and it’s electrical representation. Mostly the device is referenced on the Section/Sheet/Line number of an electrical drawing, so we would need to back feed the Solidworks database to that identification.
…3rd priority, (lowest) would be 3-D Electrical Panel Designs/Layouts. Many but not all electrical vendors are there yet, but as an engineer, we can float boxy place holders, if the vendor does not have downloadable 3-d models.
Rate Solid Works Electrical 1-10 … Mechanical/Electrical SAME BOM dbase
Rate Solid Works Electrical 1-10 … Cross Discipline same name nomenclature/device identification
Rate Solid Works Electrical 1-10 … 3D Electrical Enclosures design
Thank You