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Anyone using SolidWorks Electrical Schematic?

SabreFlyr

Well Known Member
Sponsor
I have gotten a very preliminary start on drawing my electrical system using ExpressSCH and I'm not unhappy with it. So far, however, it seems somewhat fundamental. Now that EAA members have access to the full SolidWorks Student Engineering Kit, which includes SolidWorks PCB (which, in turn, includes SolidWorks Electrical Schematic), I'm giving it a try. Off to a slow start, however. First tried installing it in Windows inside my Parallels Desktop virtualization software on my MacBook Pro. Several weeks of trying and research only resulted in failure. This morning, I created a partition on my computer and installed Windows using Apple BootCamp Assistant. Inside of three hours, I had a full Windows installation with a running copy of SolidWorks (most of that spent on the SolidWorks download and install). At a glance, it seems EXTREMELY capable, if maybe a bit :rolleyes: daunting.

Has anyone else given it a try? What are your thoughts?
 
Electrical schematics

Good to know that solidworks electrical package is now available through EAA. I did the research on the solidworks package and it looked far more capable than using Express PCB which is what I have been using to draw up my schematics but it was very expensive. Will take a stab at loading Solidworks Schematic capture SW and get up to speed so I can provide an opinion.

KT
 
Autodesk Eagle

I'm a SolidWorks user; I'll have to check out SolidWorks Electrical Schematics.

I'm using AutoDesk Eagle free version right now and I'm very happy with it. One tip: Eagle is for circuit board design so one adds Devices to the schematic. Devices contain Symbols which are what you see on the schematic. If you are not laying out a circuit board you need to add Attribute "_EXTERNAL_" to your Devices to indicate they have no form factor.
 
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Solidworks Schematics

Loaded the latest solidworks with electrical and took the tour last night. Very extensive and complete library of components and completely ANSI compatible symbols. Looks like the learning curve is going to be pretty steep to be able to effectively use all the shortcuts and features of a very powerful and complete program. Looks rock solid from the short time I played with it.
I have been using ExpresssSCH, got through the learning curve and building my own library of symbols which is pretty easy and fast if you are just doing the schematic part. I have been working interactively with the physical layout, the electrical connections, disconnect connectors and routing considering maintainablity and troubleshoot capability in addition to making it detailed and professional. Marking the schematics up in pencil and then adding the details in the SW file copy. I think I am too far along with the existing process (too close to being done) using ExpressSCH to back into using Solidworks - maybe for the next project. If I were starting from scratch I would certainly invest in the learning curve and have Solidworks in prime position.
KT
 
One of the things I see right off the bat that will aid maintenance is separate colors for individual wire lines, one of the least of it's capabilities, from the way it looks right now. But, definitely a steep learning curve!
 
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