Electrical wiring diagram software?

[Monte Milanuk]

Any recommendations for software - downloadable or cloud-based, preferably free - for doing up electrical wiring diagram for shop (or whole residence)? I'm in the process of mapping out the circuits for our house - two full 200A panel boxes worth, with a bunch of slim-lines, so plenty of circuits. My hand-drawn efforts are pretty ugly, so I'm looking for a computer-based solution to clean things up a bit.

Thanks,

Monte

[John K Jordan]

Any recommendations for software - downloadable or cloud-based, preferably free - for doing up electrical wiring diagram for shop (or whole residence)? I'm in the process of mapping out the circuits for our house - two full 200A panel boxes worth, with a bunch of slim-lines, so plenty of circuits. My hand-drawn efforts are pretty ugly, so I'm looking for a computer-based solution to clean things up a bit.


Monte,

Sorry, I don't know of software - I do it with a pencil. Google shows me a bunch of options searching for "electrical layout software". But I wonder if getting and learning software to make it do what you need might be more trouble than it's worth. I've used standard CAD software when I wanted something to look pretty but for building things myself, ugly still worked! If I wanted to market or publish something I'd want pretty, though.

One thing I do which helps me a lot when things get complicated (I do all electrical and construction myself): I like to make two separate electrical diagrams - one logical and one physical - as well as a circuit table. (I have no idea if the software solutions will do this.) I did this when I built my shop since things got complicated (in my mind, anyway).

- The physical diagram shows roughly where each receptacle, fixture, and switch will be with pencil lines roughly showing the connection from each cable from the panel, great for when I am actually stringing wire. I make up symbols to show the type of outlet, number each circuit and outlet, and use colored pencils where needed to make things clear.

- The logical diagram shows each panel and breaker with a line to the right showing each box and the order they are connected. This lets me see in a glance the number of receptacles on each breaker, the wire size and type, and estimate the loads. It was best for planning the wiring for 3-way lighting switches as well.

- The table has each numbered breaker with a circuit description and columns for checking off progress: all boxes installed, cable run, connections made, testing complete, ready for power (with dates). This helped me to stay on track and make sure I didn't forget anything or make a mistake. I'd have to count but I'm certain I put in well over 100 outlets (receptacles, lights, and switches) inside and outside the shop. With most of the lighting circuits 3-way and 4-way it would have been easy to overlook something or have to spend the time to run down and fix a mistake! (I'm happy to say everything tested out fine.)

When planning the shop I kept all the pencil drawings in one big spiral-bound notebook with a new drawing when I decided on major revisions. With the electrical diagrams, shop layout plans, lighting zones plan, construction sketches, dust collection routing, HVAC, etc the notebook was pretty fat! (and ragged by the time I got done. :))

I'm not suggesting you do this, but just reporting what worked for me.

JKJ

[William Adams]

A vector program such as Inkscape or diagram software such as Visio ( https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-an-electrical-engineering-diagram-b1b1d8b5-1950-4f6a-8265-0b088dc294bc ) works well enough, esp. w/ a suitable library of symbols. e.g., http://www.conceptdraw.com/diagram/electrical-wiring-software-open-source

Many CAD apps have support for electrical using similar libraries --- list of the free / opensource ones here: https://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/CAD#2D

One specialty app (maybe more for PCBs) is https://www.tinycad.net/

[Bill Adamsen]

+1 on the Visio or even Illustrator if "that's your pony." I generated all the electrical for my shop using Illustrator and it made the bidding very efficient and the electrician loved that what he installed was what I wanted.

[Steve Milito]

I'm in the middle of a renovation where I had an architect generate drawings. The electrical layout consists of the location of the outlets, switches, lighting, etc using a small number of symbols. There are annotations and labels next to many of the symbols. There is also an annotation page where generalized comments are made. The actual wired connection is not drawn.

[Bob Cooper]

i used visio and having this documented has been super useful. using the layer feature to make certain aspects visible/invisible has been very helpful too. Here's a screenshot of what mine looks like

[John K Jordan]

i used visio and having this documented has been super useful. using the layer feature to make certain aspects visible/invisible has been very helpful too. Here's a screenshot of what mine looks like

Hey, another documentation thing I find useful when I remember (and wish I always remembered!) at construction time is take a photograph of each wall after the wires are run and before the walls are covered. This helps if I want to modify or trace things later.

JKJ

[Bill Dufour]

I was told that electrical wiring on blueprints is not shown true to life. The receptacles , boxes etc are accurate but the wire runs are shown as curved general locations since the wires will have to be snaked around plumbing. ac ducts etc. Wiring is pulled last after a lot of stuff is placed inside the walls.
The boxes may be located early, and accurately, but the wire is the last thing before the sheetrock goes up.

[Ben Rivel]

I use Visio. Havent had a need for anything fancier for my needs yet.