Electrical CAD Standalone vs. CAD Add-on

One of the main topics when exploring Electrical CAD is whether to use a standalone product or an add-on to an existing CAD system. There are many reasons why I believe a standalone product is the way to go.

First of all, let's look at the history of a CAD software company like AutoCAD. I don't mean to pick on it, but it is the standard for CAD. CAD was originally designed for mechanical and structural diciplines, and they found many new uses for CAD, specifically electrical schematics. Many companies went on to create add-ons to AutoCAD for electrical purposes.

Several of those companies, created parallel standalone products while developing the add-ons. After some time, it was realized that with the add-on product, it became difficult to enhance the software any further. The add-on product was abandoned, and the standalone product remained, to be developed further. If there was ever a reason to believe the capabilities of an add-on product are limited, this is it. How much more sense does it make, to use a product that was created for Electrical CAD at the very beginning?

The second important factor is the commitment to AutoCAD. One must realize that when you purchase your software to go on top of AutoCAD, you are also committing to AutoCAD itself. If you want to go this route, you are likely stuck with an add on that will require updates to both AutoCAD and the add-on. Your yearly budget for total updates and/or service contracts will be higher.

I've seen scores of companies changing over to AutoCAD compatible products, to the various versions of software from the IntelliCAD consortium, including a product I have, called progeCAD. It boasts a selling price of 1/10th the price, with full compatibility.

In future blog posts, I will be getting further into the various companies that offer Electrical CAD, specifically those from different parts of the world.

Reasons to Switch to Electrical CAD

There are many reasons to switch to Electrical CAD. There are the basic underlying reasons, efficiency, standardization, accuracy, automation of tasks, and the reuse of existing circuits for new projects.

The specifics of the main reasons are summarized in a short video I made on the subject:

Seven Reasons to Switch to Electrical CAD (YouTube)

Of course, seeing these points being demonstrated is much more informative. The products I offer either involve a trial, or a live or online demo (depending on geography).

Any comments or questions for clarification are welcome. Perhaps I can redo the video using this feed back.

Introduction to Electrical CAD

Many people that design control systems today are using AutoCAD (or another clone like progeCAD, for example) to create Electrical Schematics. This has been the standard in North America for quite some time.

The challenge has always been how to get the job done more efficiently. Studies have shown that electrical designers using this method must spend substantial amounts of time (more than making the original) to complete the project. This does not pose much of a problem when the project is relatively small.

But what happens when the projects start to grow? That inefficiency starts to become a monstrous beast that is hard to handle.

This is where Electrical CAD comes in, and companies take varying times to realize the need for this kind of software. I've been working with Electrical CAD for some ten years now, and I can help companies with this kind of transition. I can also relate, because I've done it the 'old way' too.