We are in the electrical field. Several times a year, we need to design the electrical system for a project.
What would be an affordable CAD program that we could use to design the system? Now we are doing it by hand and turning those drawings over to an architect. Sometimes we would need to download an Architectural CAD file and add the electrical to it.
Thanks for any opinions.
Cadvance General CADD IntelliCAD
See
I will add Visual Cadd to the list above
Popeye
Can't agree with you.........
The Electrical Engineers within our Consultancy use Cadvance, they have AutoCAD but still use Cadvance because they find it so easy to use. There is an Electrical Contractor in Carshalton that also uses Cadvance
Yes I would agree that the file format you get the drawings in is AutoCAD based i.e. dwg or dxf but you are quite incorrect about affordability.
Cadvance & IntelliCAD don't require as powerful PC's as the ever demanding AutoCAD software does. General Cad and Visual CAD are both based upon Generic CADD that AutoCAD bought to kill the product and obtain the customer base.
The cost of setting up can be kept to a minimum if its possible to use an A3 Plotter/ printer for most of the drawings.
Check out my web site at
Regards
Alan
I don't know about things in your neck of the woods, but here in the UK the Industry Standard would be AutoCAD, and for affordability as well as compatibility, that would indicate the LT version. I have done a lot of containment, small power, lighting blah blah over the years, and it's always been ACAD - in fact even when I do telemetry or electronics, it's ACAD or ACADLT. Never seen any of my 50 clients use anything else... you just get the dwg file on a CD or attached to an e-mail, work on it and send it back. All building services trades can then be co-ordinated. If you are working with layouts sent from architects, then you'll have to use what they're using.
It IS hard to start, and hard to maintain a CAD department (even of one person) - you'll need the hardware sufficient for your needs - large monitor, graphics card etc - perhaps a plotter, lots of space, and training, room for the manuals...downloading the add-ins, drivers, patches, and latest versions. There's the IT dept's horror at the memory and network slow-down, security, and all sorts of considerations that might mena that it just could be best for you to forget all these overheads and worries and outsource the work - let others keep up to date and do the CAD for you - even better than agency personal taking up your air!
Cadalot,
Can the programs that you suggested read files produced by AutoCAD?
Bob
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