Software for wiring diagrams / harness

[ivonenand]

Hi guys!
I would like to ask you all, what software are you using for drawing wiring diagrams? Say you need to draw a wiring diagram for a washing machine or 12V wiring of a car; what would you use?

There are CADs like Autocad Electrical, some Solidworks stuff, V-Sys from Mentor Graphics... etc, but they are waaaay to expensive. I know there is a free Design Spart Electrical cad out there. Is anyone using it? I don't have much demands for a software, just to be able to write down the colors, awgs, lengths and labels for the wires.

Many thanks in advance,
Ivo

[Alex Eisenhut]

Libre Office Draw?

[SL4P]

I have Se AutoCAD or Visio

[ivonenand]

Hi,
But those are general purpose drawing programs. How do you document wire sizes, lengths and colors? Do you just put text above the wire for the label and then have a separate spreadsheat (excel) where you fill in the wire data?

Ivo

[SL4P]

The number of variables is endless.... connector types, pin assignments, wire gauge, insulation types... part numbers, bend radii... and so on.
I doubt you could describe every option with a style/template based application.
AutoCAD with callouts provides very readable, professional drawings

[MasterBuilder]

Some other options are,
SEE electrical
Eplan
E3 series
Aucotec engineering base

I personnaly like SEE electrical. In my industry (automation) most compaies use autocad electical or Eplan.
Most of the electrical CAD software are CAD with database.

As fas as free or open software goes I dont there is anything specificly fo relectrical CAD. I would guess that Kicad could be mad to work in an electrical cad fashion, if  you can extract device designations and the other varibles from it. The free software "Dia" is nice for quickly drawing diagrams and has electrical symbols, but dosent seem to have any features for associating the varibles and database stuff.

[krish2487]

Qelectrotech is a decent compromise between free, functional and cross platform.
I have used it several times and I have been able to do my job without much frustration.

[MasterBuilder]

Qelectrotech is a decent compromise between free, functional and cross platform.
I have used it several times and I have been able to do my job without much frustration.

That looks like nice clean, straightforward software unlike some of the competitors.

I have just tried Designspark Electrical, its repackaged Solidworks electrical, and appears to be idential in all but name. Considering Solidworks electrical is expensive and the only limitation of use for Designspark electrical is maximum 15 pages it seems to be a good choice. On further reading it seems to be non-commercial use only, can anyone confirm this?

[aon]

I have just tried Designspark Electrical, its repackaged Solidworks electrical, and appears to be idential in all but name. Considering Solidworks electrical is expensive and the only limitation of use for Designspark electrical is maximum 15 pages it seems to be a good choice. On further reading it seems to be non-commercial use only, can anyone confirm this?

I downloaded DS Electrical to check it out, reading through the T&C I don't see anything about it being for non-commercial use only, but they are quite direct about their intention of using your information to contact you for advertising.

EDIT: It does say "private or internal business purposes only" in the license and T&C, but surely that must mean that you can't offer the software itself as part of a service to your customers? I'm not a lawyer, but there's not much point to the whole thing if you can't deliver documents. Nobody designs industrial controls as a hobby

[MasterBuilder]

Id be shocked if the equivalent of solidworks electrical was being offered with commercial license free gratis considering a Solidworks electrical license is expensive and it is difficult to get even a trial version of that software. My interpretation of "private or internal business purposes only" is non commercial use. By non commercial use I mean that the software may not be used to produce drawings for paying clients, Im also no Lawyer.

[aon]

Im also no Lawyer.

Since neither of us are, I emailed DesignSpark support and asked them (my specific question was whether the license prohibits using the design files or printouts commercially):

Hi Antti,

No it is meant to mean for unrestricted use. Sorry for the confusion.

Regards,

Peter

Seems like an OK deal to me

[firewalker]

Libre Office Draw?

Are those stencils free for download?

Alexander.

[Dago]

In my experience everyone just uses Excel/Word for this.