Electrical circuit diagram Cad??

I have been following a recent post, looking for an electronic circuit Cad
program.

I need a Cad program or simple drafting program that will allow me to draw
electrical wiring diagrams.. I am about 90% complete wiring a 38 ft sail
boat and because of all the equipment, I'm beginning to loose track of the
circuit runs. I keep track the best I can with 'as built' sketches, using
drafting templates, but I really want to do a proper job.

I have posted this inquiry in the rec.boats.electronics but all I ever get
are recommendations for electronic circuit and PCB design programs.

In the simpler ones I find very few symbols in the library that pertain to
these types of components. The type of diagram I want to produce is somewhat
similar to an automotive wiring diagram, showing wire colors, markings,
routing, etc.

Some of the components that should be represented are battery banks, battery
selector switches and circuit breakers, inverter/charger, amp meters, volt
meter, freq. meter, both AC and DC distribution panels, sub panels, GFI
monitoring, equipment bonding system, electrolysis control monitor/control
system, solar panels, windgenerator, engine gen., aux generator system, tank
level monitoring circuits, bilge monitor/pumping control..

As you can see the list goes on and on.. Right now I have a lot of it in my
head and on hand drawn pages in a note book..

Anyone have a recommendation that isn't going to require me to learn AutoCad
or something as complicated..

Thanks
Steve

 

Have you had a look at Visio ??
A pretty handy program for many things you may wish to put to paper. You get
to pick which type of dwg to produce, ie mech eng, elect eng etc etc.

 

<snip>

I've never worked on boat circuits, but reckon I'd consider several
options:

1. Visio, as already recommended. It has a reasonable set of
templates, as you can see from this illustration I've assembled
hastily:
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Images/VisioExamples.gif
Together with its many templates for lines, arrows, boxes, etc, and
its text facilities, it could give you the flexibility you want.

2. Microsoft Word. Making my own templates and using the program's
reasonable drawing facilities.

3. PaintShop Pro. Ditto. And as an example of what you can do with
this approach, see Tony van Roon's work at
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/
He says: "I made a template with all necessary electronic symbols and
icons and copy-and-paste whatever I need, then connect the lines, add
color, etc."

 

Should the opportunity arise to aquire Orcad 9.0 , the part editor in
that program is very easy to use and it doesn't take long to create you're
own libraries !!
Makes anything possible, I have my own library for veroboard for instance.

 

I need a Cad program...to draw electrical wiring diagrams

The Library editor in CadSoft EAGLE can do the same.
It can generate 1-page schematics.
(The free version doesn't do tabbed-page drawings.)

 

I need guidiance on the following
a. how to design remote input/ output panel, distribution panels and
loop drawings
b. how to produce the following documents: circuit diagrams, list of
components,layout drawing and terminal
schedules.
c. components slection for PLC's, remote input/output panel and field
devices
d. hardware commissioning on site
thanks
Maxwell Zabayo