design software

cosinephi · Mar 28, 2011

Can anyone share their experiences with design software packages? DO any of you use Amtech - they were gettin bad press a few years ago - have they got better?

Any others? Looked at Castline/Solutionselectrical/HevaComp etc but all seem to lack one thing or other. Already got decent certification s/w but that only takes you so far. More of my commercial clients these days want to see plans & schematics etc. Have no real problem doing the designing part - worked hard enough to gain the skills & don`t want to lose em, but can be a bit time consuming on more complex jobs so that would be a gain too. Discrimination studies MUCH better to perform in s/w tho - use Curve Direct whenever i can but it only does Schneider kit of course.

Even Amtechs packages seem devoid of any drawing s/w - don`t they include any? I could use Visio for that i guess but for the money is it too much to expect an end to end solution?

Must be

Lee321 · Mar 29, 2011

used amtech was very good. can't remember too well but schematics of distribution and cable calcs etc were spot on but as for layout drawings for construction may need another prog for that

steptoe · Mar 29, 2011

a platform would be a good start,

or at least an OS,

M$ probably do lots of rubbish for a stupid price,

or Apple will probably do a helluva lot better,

sorry,

no they wont,

they will probably do the best you can buy,

or alternatively,

OSS will do something much better than windoze, not quite so good as MAC, but a helluva lot cheaper than either.

Ash · Mar 29, 2011

I was looking into designing software but didn't really know where to look

I found Autocad: Electrical, which seemed pretty good but I'm not sure if that's for installation electrics because all the previews showed electronics and motors.

Was mainly trying to just find software to do layout diagrams and circuit arrangements, rather than cable calcs