Automotive schematic/wiring diagram software?

[Cato]

There are plenty of software companies and CAD programs available but they all seem to want a monthly subscription and most of them are ridiculously expensive for a small operation. I don't mind buying it as a one off, or even a small/reasonable monthly subscription, but I'm not interested in something suitable for a manufacturer or tier one supplier. Anyone know of or use anything suitable that I can use to turn my notes into something decipherable by/for others?

 

[bricol]

Any 2D CAD software - create your own symbol blocks to drop in.

I decided a pen, ruler and a drawing board was easier and quicker to create a record of my trials car wiring - and I use CAD every working day.

Absolutely everything fused - individual lights, accessories etc - then when something went bang in the middle of the night over Dartmoor, there was a good chance it wouldn't take out everything else and we could carry on.

 

[Cato]

Any 2D CAD software - create your own symbol blocks to drop in.

I decided a pen, ruler and a drawing board was easier and quicker to create a record of my trials car wiring - and I use CAD every working day.

Absolutely everything fused - individual lights, accessories etc - then when something went bang in the middle of the night over Dartmoor, there was a good chance it wouldn't take out everything else and we could carry on.

It's about finding one with the symbols and architecture available if possible, even if not it needs to be a reasonable subscription. So something which sits between the one off pen & paper or visio set up, and full blown manufacturer tier one stuff.

It'll be used for multiple looms over time, and I need to make sure I have a record and can provide a schematic/diagram when I make them.

There will only be one 40a fuse (main) and one relay (starter) everything else is solid state and/or digitally controlled.

 

[pint]

I've used draw.io before to make a one off schematic

edit: hang on it's changed name > https://app.diagrams.net/?libs=general;electrical

 

[Cato]

I've used draw.io before to make a one off schematic

edit: hang on it's changed name > https://app.diagrams.net/?libs=general;electrical

I'll have a loook, thanks.

 

[droopsnoot]

I had a quick look at that and couldn't see whether it supports having wires in multiple colours, does anyone know if it does? I'd like to do a wiring diagram for my car and show the things like red with white trace, green with yellow etc. I've tried doing it manually but it's difficult to do it neatly.

 

[Cato]

I had a quick look at that and couldn't see whether it supports having wires in multiple colours, does anyone know if it does? I'd like to do a wiring diagram for my car and show the things like red with white trace, green with yellow etc. I've tried doing it manually but it's difficult to do it neatly.

Most of the schematics seem to use lettering in the line for the colours now R R/w etc. I guess it saves on processing power for the memory intensive programs and printer colours when hard copy is required.

 

[MetalMonkey]

I had a quick look at that and couldn't see whether it supports having wires in multiple colours, does anyone know if it does? I'd like to do a wiring diagram for my car and show the things like red with white trace, green with yellow etc. I've tried doing it manually but it's difficult to do it neatly.

Most of the schematics seem to use lettering in the line for the colours now R R/w etc. I guess it saves on processing power for the memory intensive programs and printer colours when hard copy is required.

This ^^

It also keeps things a lot clearer as you don't need fat lines to depict the colour of the wire - which makes complicated diagrams too confusing to follow. Nice thin black lines on white, with reasonable separation is so much easier to follow.
A written wiring colour is also unequivocal, there is no ambiguity or doubt over the interpretation. Is it Brown with a Red trace or Red with a Brown trace?
Just include a key with your diagrams and make sure the nomenclature is standardised.

There also used to be set of standard colours as well (I'm thinking about BS-AU7), although I suspect that doesn't apply to modern manufactures.

 

[m_c]

I've used DipTrace in the past, as they have a free level.


@MetalMonkey wiring colours should always be listed in the order of most importance, so your Brown/Red example, should list the main colour first, then the trace colour second. And if there is a tertiary colour (popular on older Merc stuff) it gets listed last.
With English colour names, you just need to be a bit sensible with abbreviating colours, avoid things like BL (BLack or BLue?) and use BK (BlacK) and BU (BlUe - I've never seen BE used...)

 

[Cato]

It also keeps things a lot clearer as you don't need fat lines to depict the colour of the wire - which makes complicated diagrams too confusing to follow. Nice thin black lines on white, with reasonable separation is so much easier to follow.
A written wiring colour is also unequivocal, there is no ambiguity or doubt over the interpretation. Is it Brown with a Red trace or Red with a Brown trace?

That makes a lot of sense.

 

[MetalMonkey]

I've used DipTrace in the past, as they have a free level.


@MetalMonkey wiring colours should always be listed in the order of most importance, so your Brown/Red example, should list the main colour first, then the trace colour second. And if there is a tertiary colour (popular on older Merc stuff) it gets listed last.
With English colour names, you just need to be a bit sensible with abbreviating colours, avoid things like BL (BLack or BLue?) and use BK (BlacK) and BU (BlUe - I've never seen BE used...)

I think that was pretty much my point - if you draw coloured lines they are far easier to confuse than a written code and need to be drawn at much larger scale to be clearly visible.
For the example I gave, NR is what I would use to clarify that it is browN with a Red trace. The old AU7 codes were (B)lack and bl(U)e.

I suppose another consideration is colours on a printed paper may fade over time whereas a B&W drawing will remain legible for a lot longer.
With the advent of zoomable electronic documents I suppose this is not so much of an issue now - but I still think a written code is more descriptive, providing there is a key!

 

[Keithmac]

Most diagrams I work with are Black and White, just make sure key is easy to find and easy to read!.

 

[rcx132]

I've just used Draw.io (now called Diagrams.net).

I like that I can define the connection points on my components, eg if a throttle sensor has four wires then I can draw a box and add four connection points for each wire. It's fast and easy to use an the diagrams are neat (unlike Visio). It's free, it's fast to use (unlike Visio).

Down sides.... well it's just a diagramming application so it doesn't have any special features for managing wiring looms.

I used triangles to show my earths but I'm sure you can import shapes and use proper symbols.

 

[Robotstar5]

I miss working for a company with an Eplan licence, fantastic software for electrical design.

 

[ajlelectronics]

One of the clever people on the Scimitar forum has redrawn the wiring diagrams so:

 

[Cato]

I miss working for a company with an Eplan licence, fantastic software for electrical design.

I know what you mean, it's been a long while since I was 'office' based with access to CAD, FrameMaker etc and I don't miss it one little bit. Until I need to access or create technical documents/drawings.

Funny how the big money in tooling and training used to be in production and repair, then it seemed to flip and the big budget stuff was all around the computer screen.

 

[GRW]

Our Elec Engr in work creates the "as-installed" elec diagram drawings for the panels made or modified with a new central control module.

He's used a programme called "Turbocad" for years. He always said it was a very reasonable purchase, and provides all the features needed for elec drawings (Autocad might be "more" but it's megabucks)

 

[droopsnoot]

One of the clever people on the Scimitar forum has redrawn the wiring diagrams so:

That's the kind of thing I was hoping to do.

I take the various disadvantages of a colour diagram on board, it just saves continually looking between the diagram and the key. Deciding which is the main colour and which is the trace shouldn't be a problem, the proportions of each colour would deal with it as in the Scimitar diagram.

 

[Gareth J]

For a slightly better than by hand version, I just used a basic "draw" type program when I built a loom years and years ago. Pinched the icons from a scan of an original loom. Aside from the obvious editing advantages, the best thing was that I drew it in layers, so when building, and now for reference, I have circuits separated out. "Indicators", " brakes" etc. Much easier to see what's what.

Might be obvious but was a revelation to me!