Those who have been using AutoCAD for a while know that Autodesk releases a new version of AutoCAD each and every year.

Fortunately for those who develop software top of AutoCAD, like us at DraftLogic Inc., three years of AutoCAD releases are considered something of a ‘family’ wherein major changes are avoided so that applications like DraftLogic Electrical need little or no alterations to work between each new member of the same family. Unfortunately, there are usually ‘third-party application breaking changes’ between the families…

A New Family

AutoCAD 2013 is the start of a new family of versions & true-to-form Autodesk has included some major changes that affect developers like DraftLogic Inc. & applications like DraftLogic Electrical.

DraftLogic Electrical Current Release Cannot Be Configured In AutoCAD 2013

So you have likely already guessed that DraftLogic Electrical does not work as-is on AutoCAD 2013. This is pretty definitive, as both our Visual Basic and our ObjectARX code will not load run as-is…so no workaround to make things go.

2013 Compatible Release Soon

We have completed a preliminary assessment & have identified a fair amount of work that needs to be done to build an AutoCAD 2013 compatible version of DraftLogic Electrical. Given what we know so far, our estimate is that we will release an AutoCAD 2013 compatible version in three months. As work progresses, we will be able to update you with a more definitive release date.

Dean Whitford, CEO
DraftLogic Inc.
dwhitford@draftlogic.com
780-906-2888
See our website at www.draftlogic.com

Electrical Design Services Becoming a Commodity

The electrical design business has been commoditized for most of us, there are many firms doing the same thing in a competitive market so the profit margins to a great extent are determined by market forces. If we all use the same tools and processes to create designs and drawings our profits are limited by these market forces.Minor changes to process and the level of effort we place on the design and drawing creation can result in small but positive improvements to the bottom line but for the most part we are limited by the tools we use.

Negative Productivity Pressures
The pressure towards BIM (Revit, for example) has not helped profitability and has placed even larger burdens on the production staff to get things done in a timely manner. For all projects we have talked to our clients about, productivity losses on having to do a project in BIM are about 30-40%.
So what is the answer, how do you balance the demands of your clients, the need to pay staff well to keep them and at the same time maintain a profitable level of business operations along with your reputation?

Where Can You Have the Most Effect?

As mentioned in the opening sentence the largest single expense is your staff salaries so that is the place to begin to create efficiencies.

New technology is available to help you achieve the following goals:

1. Increase profit margins (see the revenue per employee effects here)
2. Reduce production costs (productivity information here)
3. Improve accuracy (read here about error reduction)
4. Expand deliverables (see the list of completely automatically generated reports here)
5. Free up cash flow to reward the high level producers in your firm and keep them

Seek out these new technologies that will bring freedom to the way you do business.

Commitment to Process Improvement

In order to take advantage of these tools you must show some commitment to change that will be required to break out of the old costly production habits. Those companies and individuals that are eager to change and embrace the new tools will benefit and move ahead of the pack.
Using the power of the computer on your desktop and harnessing it to ramp up production to the next level is one way of achieving the list of goals noted above. Leveraging automation is possible to achieve huge gains in productivity. In most cases the design process is a compilation of repetitive error prone tasks that can be significantly reduced with the new tools available.

By empowering your staff with the right tools to rise to new production levels will not only impact the bottom line but you will free up your most valuable resource, time! Time to pursue other clients, other work, or simply to reduce the overtime grind that we so often face in critical times.
Fortunately for us the software tools that we have at our disposal today are becoming better to help us achieve these goals.

Change is Never Easy
It often takes courage to implement change, even though it will be beneficial for all involved it still takes what appears to be a leap of faith and pushback will be encountered without question. It is human nature to oppose anything that can take us away from our familiar path.

Find the technology that is as non-disruptive as possible, integrate it into your work flow, train your people properly and your company and its staff can soar to new heights.
DraftLogic Electrical is one of those companies bringing revolutionary tools to your company.

Gerry Stebnicki, President

DraftLogic Inc.

Calculating fault currents for a transformer circuit

Situation description:

Project has 10 dry type transformers feeding panels. System voltage is 347/600 as service entry, transformers are feeding a variety of panel loads at 120/208 volts and one 277/480 volt panel. All panels and transformers are in a plant like building environment so sizes, locations and feeder sizes and lengths are varied.

Panels and transformers are located on the drawings and the designer has been requested to calculate fault levels at the panels downstream of each transformer to ensure that the appropriate breakers are selected for this project. Loads have been assigned to each panel but feeders and transformers have not been sized.

Using traditional methods where a designer is using an on line app to check voltage drop and some form of calculation spreadsheet to assist with the fault level calculations here is an analysis of the tasks and estimated time needed.

Typical workflow using traditional methods

1. Size transformers based on panel loads (loads are known). Estimated time 15 minutes

2. Size 20 feeders from code tables. Estimated time 45 minutes

3. Scale length of each feeder (20 ) on the drawings and check voltage drop based on expected load and selected conductor. Estimated time 40 minutes

4. Change conductor size if needed to satisfy voltage drop tolerance. Estimated time 15 minutes

5. Use fault level spread sheet to calculate fault levels for each component of each feeder, typically this will require calculation of three segments per feeder, the section from the transformer feeder breaker or fuse to the transformer, the transformer let though and finally the last segment from the transformer to the downstream panel. An estimated 70 combined mouse clicks and key strokes per transformer circuit. For 10 such circuits an estimated 700 keystrokes mouse clicks and keystrokes needed (each one an opportunity for error). Estimated time at only 10 seconds average per entry = 116 minutes

6. Collate results and prepare report for review. Estimated time 10 minutes.
Summary; Many steps needed, extensive human input for each step resulting in many opportunities for errors to creep into the process. Estimated total cycle time 241 minutes or 4 hours.

If a change is needed because of load variations the whole or part of the process must be repeated.

Same task using DraftLogic Electrical

Assumes panels were placed on the drawing using DraftLogic Electrical software which will automatically draw the single line and calculate all loads, conductor sizes based on voltage drop settings and will also calculate fault levels automatically at all critical points in the system from MDP to all downstream devices.

1. Select “single line” from report dialogue box and click ‘ok’. Estimated time 30 seconds.

2. Wait for automation to perform all calculations, size feeders and generate fault levels. Estimated time 2 minutes.
Summary; Only two steps needed, that take a couple of minutes to execute all required calculations and prepare a report for review in the form of a completed single line diagram. Estimated total cycle time 5 minutes. Using these tools all power tree objects are dealt with not just transformer circuits, the entire power tree from MDP to all downstream devices are sized, voltage drop is calculated and feeder sizes adjusted, all lengths automatically entered with adjustment factors vertical drops and connections within panels allowed for and fault levels calculated for all objects.

If changes occur, make the adjustments to whatever parameter is altered and re-run the process.

Conclusion

DraftLogic Electrical vastly decreases the time taken to do this task the first time around, taking only a few minutes versus four hours for the traditional method!

Not only does DraftLogic Electrical provide this incredible productivity gain, it also minimizes the opportunity for error. As you can guess from the number of manual actions and calculations being made in the traditional method, it is highly likely that errors will creep in to the manual process.

Lastly, these gains in productivity and accuracy only multiply as the work needs to be done over and over to accommodate for change requests and ‘what if’ design scenarios.

Gerry Stebnicki, President
DraftLogic Inc.
sales@draftlogic.com
780-906-2888
See our website at www.draftlogic.com

Although we have always provided you with industry-leading automation like that in the automated luminare tags and luminaire schedule, We at DraftLogic have always wanted to give you more control over the luminaire tagging and also to make even ‘smarter’ placements. With today’s release of DraftLogic Electrical, that is all coming to life.

With the new luminaire tags, you now have lots of control over the results of the automated placement. You choose one of several different density levels and a buffer, scale, and maximum service distance (i.e. distance that multiple luminaires will ‘share’ the same tag).

In about 8 weeks, we plan to release the luminaire tag automated placement part 2 with enhancements versus today’s version: faster execution, specific handling for centering in tbar cells, and last but not least, some enhancements based on your feedback.

See the forums entry for more detail on how to use the new luminaire tag automated placement:

http://www.draftlogic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=115&sid=19bdf5d530398a7ce7e7d6f43d4d5315

As always, please email, call, or chat us if you have any questions!

Regards,
Dean Whitford, CEO & Gerry Stebnicki, President
DraftLogic Inc.

You know what?  I hate reading software manuals, attending software training courses, and watching training videos as much…or even more…than you do!  I can usually get away without doing any of that…with typical ‘consumer grade’ applications.  It is an indisputable truism, however, that not all software can be made simple and intuitive enough so that a reasonably intelligent person can sit down and effectively use it without having to do any of these horrible horrible things  :)

In Our Experience

We at DraftLogic Inc. have been working with new clients and with potential clients that are setting up pilot projects and trials of DraftLogic Electrical.  Since what happens in the initial learning phase of the software determines whether implementation moves forward or not, we have learned some key factors that determine success or failure across all sites.

These key factors apply to all software that has a tough job to do. What do I mean by that?  Well, typically speaking, the more complex and knowledge intensive the end product, the more complex the software to help users create a quality end product. For example, consider AutoCAD, Revit, and enterprise resource planning products.  Each of these products requires a minimum base level of product knowledge before a user can be truly productive with them.  Sure, someone with reasonable computer experience can sit down and draw some simple entities in AutoCAD, but you and I both know there is no way that someone without experience or training will be able to create professional quality output without some training!

So let’s dig into these keys to success that you can apply to almost any software built for complex tasks, using DraftLogic Electrical as our ‘case study’.

DraftLogic Electrical is going to make your design time both more enjoyable and more productive. It does this by automating boring, low skill, and error prone tasks; thus freeing up much more of your time to be able to concentrate on the important design decisions. You will finish your projects faster and even be able to deliver more value to the client in the shorter design time.

The Three Keys to Success

There are three key things that are all necessary to be successful with DraftLogic Electrical. If you can make these commitments, it is highly likely that you will be very successful with DraftLogic Electrical, i.e. your design productivity will, at a minimum, double and you will enjoy your design time more. The more of these commitments that are not met or are only partially met, the more likely it is that you will not be successful with DraftLogic Electrical and you will miss out on a great opportunity.

Firstly, your company must allocate you paid time during regular workdays to do the video training. The hours required in total are 20-24 if our tutorial school is used as the sample, up to approximately 30 hours if you select one of your projects to try things on.  The video training must be completed in a span of no more than two weeks–any longer and you’ll forget the basics before you learn the other features! In our experience, it is also not going to work if the company asks a designer to learn DraftLogic Electrical ‘as they go’, ‘during lunch times’, or ‘at home in the evening/weekends’.

Secondly, you must go carefully through the entire training video series, pausing the videos often and trying each function on the tutorial school data.

Thirdly, you must not ‘spin your wheels’. We want you to have a positive learning and use experience, not get frustrated trying to figure something tricky out. Call for support when: there is a concept in the training videos that does not seem to make sense, a function does not work when you try them it the tutorial data, or there simply seems to be some instruction or information missing.  Spend a few minutes reviewing the video, quickly check for information in the forums, and perhaps read the particular section for the function in question in the user manual…but other than that, pick up the phone and call 780-906-2888 for help.  Spending a few minutes on the phone with us will save you many more minutes of frustration.  We have noticed that some folks tend to email rather than call, please be aware that email might not get looked at for some number of minutes so it is always best to call if you have a question that needs to be answered in order for you to be able to continue.

In Closing

I have two last suggestions.  The first is for those trying to help clients learn their software–you need both the executives and the users to buy-in to the above to make the learning process work.  The second is for those who have to learn any software built for a complex task–think of the end state of improved productivity with less effort that you will be in after training…that should help you to stay focused and gain maximum benefit from the training.

Happy Software Engineering,

Dean Whitford, CEO

DraftLogic Inc.

PS:  interested in seeing a sample video training program?  Check ours out.

Most important of all, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Now back to business…DraftLogic will be available for support throughout the Christmas season, with only sporadic absences of a few hours.

So please call/email/chat as you need for assistance & we will either be immediately available as per usual or be getting back to you within a 1/2 day.

Note the holiday season may be a opportune time to upgrade your site to DraftLogic Electrical V3.0 if you have not already done so!

Kindest regards to you and your family this holiday season,
Gerry Stebnicki, President & Dean Whitford, CEO
DraftLogic

New Feature to Control Annotation

Today we are pleased to announce that DraftLogic Electrical now includes a function to move all that visible annotation to separate layers from the parent symbols so that you can control the color of the annotation separately from the color of the parent symbol. By having the annotation a different color, your plotting can utilize a different lineweight for the visible annotation versus the symbol’s geometry.

Speed is Not an Issue

The layer change for the annotation takes less than a couple of seconds even on a project with thousands of devices in it. Annotation is pushed to separate annotation layers for each system, thus maintaining your ability to isolate by system in model space and for viewports.

Completely Reversable

If you need the annotation returned to the same layer as the parent symbol, another quick function completes the round trip for you.

For detail on how to use the new functions, see this forums entry.

Thanks again to Daniel for this feature request!

Best of the Christmas season to all,
Dean Whitford & Gerry Stebnicki
DraftLogic Inc.

In case you missed the ConEst and DraftLogic press releases over the past few months, ConEst released their IntelliBid version 7. In addition to numerous goodies in the estimating environment improved upon over prior versions of IntelliBid, DraftLogic Electrical can transfer every element of your completed design into the IntelliBid V7 count sheets. This saves you innumerable mouse clicks and keystrokes! Now instead of the drudge-work of counting, clicking, measuring, and typing to get the detail from the design into the estimating software, electrical estimators can now focus on applying their estimating discretion to complete an estimate.

See our news page for more information, or the Electrical Contractor website coverage of the same. We also have detail about the IntelliBid integration on the DraftLogic website.

Regards,
Dean Whitford, CEO
DraftLogic Inc.
780-906-2888
dwhitford@draftlogic.com

This is yet another way that we leave the control of what happens in DraftLogic Electrical up to you! Due to so many questions about user control from prospective buyers after they see our eye-popping electrical design automation, we’ll soon be posting a web page to let everyone know that the user remains in full control of the results & specifically how we enable that.

Back to the new feature announcement…after we thank Daniel L for bringing this feature request to our attention. Thanks, Daniel!

When you generate panel schedules, you can now have the ‘service description’ column filled in three different ways for single-device circuits where the device has a unique name, equipment tag, or description assigned:

1. Report the equipment tag (aka description) only, falling back to the unique name if there is no equipment tag on the device.

2. Report the device location only

3. Report a combination of 1&2.

This is all in effect as of build 3.0.0.361, which can be updated with a single file overwrite from build 3.0.0.350. If you have not yet updated to V3, we will be replacing the 3.0.0.350 installers with 3.0.0.361 ones this weekend.

In the past, panels and motors were reporting their unique name and all other circuits were reporting their location. With this change, all single-device circuits where the device has a unique name, equipment tag, or description assigned will act in accordance with your choice of one of the three above options at a new project parameter created for this purpose. Note that all circuits still get a single letter prefix to let you know if the circuit is for a child panel, child transformer, receptacles, motors, lights, or mixed.

See more information about this new feature in the DraftLogic Electrical forums.

Let me know if you have any questions or desire to get this free upgrade for all users,
Dean Whitford
CEO
DraftLogic Inc.
780-906-2888
dwhitford@draftlogic.com

Click here to return to the Draftlogic website.

PS: Daniel, we are now working on your request to be able to separate visible attributes onto separate layers with the ability to differ in color from their parent block. ETA for release of the new function is a couple weeks.

Just Like Your Dentist: You Have to Go There From Time to Time but it Always Hurts

The vast majority of those who are asking are not doing so because they like designing in Revit, they are asking because they are forced to work in Revit on certain projects. Without fail, those same folks tell us that working in Revit is costing them design productivity…and not just a little bit! Their estimate of the electrical design productivity drop is 30-40%, no small thing in a world where we need to become more productive rather than less.

All of the electrical design firms we have spoken with about Revit have experienced the same thing. The industry is forcing us all in that direction and we are developing strategies to help us still be productive, profitable and at the same time give the clients the deliverables they are requesting.

Productivity Shoot-Out to See What the Affect Is

Since we were curious about exactly how much productivity was being lost, we decided to run a productivity shoot-out. The same project would be designed in AutoCAD with the typical ‘corporate tools’ to help out, Revit MEP, and DraftLogic Electrical (which runs on top of AutoCAD).

We had some interesting results.

Here is the summary of the “production hours for the design and drawings” on this example of a multi-use 26,000 sq. ft. two story building. Production times were from experienced software users in all three production time records. The results will vary from project to project depending on size and complexity, this is just one typical example, but reflects what we are hearing from clients across North America on productivity. Producing design and drawings in 3D takes longer, always.

Design Time Required to Complete the Project

Standard ACAD = 130 hours

Revit MEP= 177 hours (a 36% increase in production cost!)

DraftLogic Electrical = 21 hours ( an 84% increase in productivity over ACAD and 88% increase over Revit)

DraftLogic Electrical with Revit output of devices only (estimated) = 37hours (net 79% increase in productivity for 2D, 3D combined output over full 3D)

This clearly outlines the potential gains by keeping the 2D elements in the 2D environment from a production standpoint. Even when doing the design in DraftLogic Electrical and then going into Revit to place the devices therein to meet the project’s Revit deliverable requirement, DraftLogic Electrical is still almost five times faster than doing everything just in Revit!

Conclusion

Is your goal to slavishly work in a single platform that you would not work in if you had the choice?  We don’t think so!

As designers, the goal is to get the job done with the utmost of professionalism and in reasonable time–you want a good design on a timely basis, the software you use is just a tool to get you to a completed design.

As electrical engineering firm & design build firm executives & owners, you want the work done accurately, error free, to meet client requirements, and at lowest reasonable cost to your company.  If this means that there is some deliverable in some format (a Revit model, for example), well that is just part of the job and doesn’t necessarily mean that you want or need to do the job completely in that format.

This productivity shoot-out has clearly demonstrated, as have all our benchmark tests, that DraftLogic Electrical drastically increases design productivity.  In this case, DraftLogic Electrical still vastly accelerates productivity even when one of the project deliverables involves looking at the completed DraftLogic Electrical design in order to place required devices into a Revit building model as one of the electrical design deliverables.

Prudent and intelligent use of tools available can make a huge difference to your bottom line, call or email us to discuss your situation and we’ll discuss how DraftLogic Electrical can benefit you.

Regards,
Gerry Stebnicki & Dean Whitford
DraftLogic Inc.
gstebnicki@draftlogic.com / dwhitford@draftlogic.com
780-906-2888