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| Electrical (not electronic) CAD Software Suggestions? |
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| NiallDarwin:
Hi all, I'm designing an electrical install for the first time. I'm looking for CAD suggestions as my research hasn't turned up a great deal. One of the difficulties is that most of my search results offer electronic design not electrical design. I've started with KiCAD's schematic editor & think I can make it work but its going to involve a lot of custom symbol creation. Before I get too into it I'd like to hear if there's a much more sensible option that I've missed. Open Source very much preferred. I'm not against paying for software but I balked at AutoCAD Electrical's $200/month :-\ Thanks :) |
| Gregg:
20 plus years ago I used AutoCAD i believe it was version 14 that was before Autodesk became greedy and it was a student version stand alone running on WinXP. I still have it on an old laptop and use it occasionally even though I'm long retired. I had to make my own library of symbols etc. but it was worth it. Since it is vector based, it is scalable to almost any standard print size. I made hundreds of schematics; I'm sure it helped me toward several promotions. Maybe you can find a copy of the earlier versions of AutoCAD that don't require stupid cloud connection; there is nothing really necessary to need the latest and most expensive version unless an employer decides it is necessary and is willing to pay for it. In my opinion, avoid raster based programs like MS Visio. The IT people used to send me stuff in Visio and it drove me nuts. |
| NiallDarwin:
Good tip, thank you. I think I've an old version kicking around. I started my Mechanical design career on it but once I hit parametric 3D CAD I never looked back. I really like the circuit checking capabilities, BOM generation etc in KiCAD. Old AutoCAD won't do this - its just a fancy drafting tool - but maybe I don't need it for what I'm doing :) |
| Black Phoenix:
Well I've been using spontaneously the Solidworks Electrical. But my version is an older one I got from a company who gone belly up. Can't talk about the new version. Most of the library I had to make the symbols myself since it were missing a ton and the ones that existed were not 100% perfect for my uses, nominately font and size/connections. |
| tautech:
--- Quote from: NiallDarwin on November 10, 2022, 11:37:21 pm ---Hi all, I'm designing an electrical install for the first time. I'm looking for CAD suggestions as my research hasn't turned up a great deal. One of the difficulties is that most of my search results offer electronic design not electrical design. --- End quote --- 2 that jump straight to mind: Microsoft Visio TinyCAD |
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