AutoCAD Electrical for protection & control of Substations

[weeclare80]

Hi does anyone use AutoCAD Electrical for Protection & Control Systems for Substations.

We currently produce all our drawings using AutoCAD and I am compiling a report to try to initiate a trial project using AutoCAD Electrical

We currently produce schematics, panel arrangements, Cable Connection Diagrams for terminals, Cable Block Diagrams, Wiring Diagrams and single line diagrams all using basic 2D drawings.

I am keen to trial a project to see how many of these drawings we can produce with ACADE and whether we can also then produce cable schedules and equipment lists from there.

The main aims of the trial would be to save time/ increase productivity and reduce errors.

Does anyone have experience and/or ideas for this?

Thank you

[Ed Jobe]

I'd be interested in hearing someone else's opinion on this as well. If you go ahead with your trial, let us know how it turned out.

[weeclare80]

Will do

[jschambers646976]

Hello,

I realize this is a somewhat older thread, but I thought I would add my two cents:

I work for a control systems engineering company and do all the things that you listed with AutoCAD Electrical. We mostly do hydroelectric power plants but we do other plants, pumping stations, irrigation projects, etc. I'm an AutoCAD guy that had to be brought up to speed on ACADE.

Yes, I think it would be good for you. It makes generating reports such as BOMs and stuff like that much easier. However, there are a bunch of problems you will encounter switching over:

1. Don't even think about doing it without getting properly trained first. I got forced to do it before the training came and it was kind of a nightmare.
2. It requires a bunch of customization. Sure you get a bunch of pre-done stuff from the different electrical mfg's, but its never even close to everything you need. So you have to learn how to make your own ACADE symbols, including panel footprints.
3. The database is everything(what ACADE calls the "catalog"). Get familiar with working with it outside of ACADE(you can open it with Access). If you don't know how to manipulate databases, make sure you get a least a primer course on it.
4. This all takes time. Yes, it does a lot of great time-saving stuff, but you also have to get used to it and you have to get it setup the way you need to before you can really see the productivity gains from it.

I'd like to hear your experience.

[Ed Jobe]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like an honest evaluation.

[jweaver]

1. Don't even think about doing it without getting properly trained first. I got forced to do it before the training came and it was kind of a nightmare.
2. It requires a bunch of customization. Sure you get a bunch of pre-done stuff from the different electrical mfg's, but its never even close to everything you need. So you have to learn how to make your own ACADE symbols, including panel footprints.
3. The database is everything(what ACADE calls the "catalog"). Get familiar with working with it outside of ACADE(you can open it with Access). If you don't know how to manipulate databases, make sure you get a least a primer course on it.
4. This all takes time. Yes, it does a lot of great time-saving stuff, but you also have to get used to it and you have to get it setup the way you need to before you can really see the productivity gains from it.

I'd like to hear your experience.

I just stumbled across this post, and I have to agree with the above 100%. I work for the utility company in Nashville and I just finished up our first substation using AutoCAD Electrical after playing around with it for a couple of years. Pretty sure once we get everything smoothed out we're going to see at least a 50% decrease in design time and a even bigger reduction of errors.

In addition to what jschambers posted, I'd say embrace the pinlist editor and learn how to do those as well. It's tedious and mind numbing getting them set up, but when you do it right, you can have all the pins at hand for complex IED relays. The image below shows the pin list screen for one of our Schwietzer relays. I've even got the communications ports in there.

PinListExample.png