Program for electrical drawings?

sunny1

sunny1

Member
Location
Washington State
Occupation
electrician
I am looking for a program for making electrical drawings. Something free or low cost where I could draw up one line diagrams or simple schematics without too steep a learning curve would be really useful. I have used TinyCAD and that works pretty well, despite a few minor annoyances (very likely operator error), but I often see some really good drawings on this forum, so I thought I'd ask if anyone has other suggestions.

Thanks in advance.
 
MS Paint, AutoCad LT, Visio, by hand and then scan them. If you get one of those nice drafting stencils for letters and lines.
 
I use the drawing function in Google Workspace/Drive but I'm a masochist. I've created a bunch of standard symbols with relevant connecting lines and callouts that I can easily place onto a floorplan that I just paste into the background . It's pretty light weight which helps it go quickly.

I would definitely use something different if I needed to print full drawings. I'm a cheapskate so I use Inkscape to do architectural style drawings when needed.

Rob G - Seattle
 
I recently tried EZ Schematics as a trial version. It is very rudimentary but cheap. Especially with the limitations of the free trial, I wasn't quite sold on it. It is worth a look, though.
I mostly resort to TinyCAD. Since it's more set up for electronics, I've spent time copying and pasting more useful symbols into a library for use--even assigning pins so that circuit lines snap to them.
 
I use AutoCAD LT. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it is very powerful. The "align" command is nearly worth the price of the program all by itself. :D
 
SkyCad is the way to go. Its stupid easy to learn 1-2hrs (including making your own components). But once you get the hang of it. Its all I use. Its also 100% free. Its got a built in wiring # feature (0312) = Page 3 Line 12. It labels components this way with proper designation such as FU012 or PLC1. Things of that nature. The terminal layout is a little bit of a learning curve, however they have done a massive update since I had to use terminal feature.
 
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