Electrical CAD Drawing

"Professional Electrical AutoCAD Drawings at YOUR Standards"

Ah yes the Electrical CAD Drawing. I am going to be taking a look at this through the point of view of someone whose background may not be in the electrical field, but needs to get an electrical design converted into a high quality AutoCAD drawing.

From an architectural perspective, an electrical CAD drawing deals with how power and lighting is administered to a building or structure; usually in the form of a plan or an electrical schematic drawing.

It is generally a visual representation of how electrical connections are made from a building to the local power grid, how many electrical panels are required, where in the building the electrical panels will be placed, and, what exterior lighting is needed for the building.

Fortunately, there are people who do all this electrical design for us; the Electrical Engineer. In an engineering firm an Electrical Engineer is often provided a set of architectural drawings to create an electrical design.

The design process begins with fitting the electrical into space allocations designated by the architect. The electrical engineer will do his/her best to make the required electrical components fit into these allocated spaces, but back and forth revisions between the architect and engineer are sometimes required.

Usually a set of detailed electrical engineering drawings are created by the engineering firm and then sent to the architect to be super-imposed on the architectural set.

Other times the architectural draftsman has to create a basic set of electrical CAD drawings. To do this he/she will have to use electrical symbols and notations that they may not use every day. Some are pretty standard, like an “S” with a vertical line through it indicates a light switch. A circle with two vertical lines would indicate a duplex outlet. Some electrical symbols may not be as well known, for instance, what is the symbol for a switched duplex outlet? What is the symbol for a cable TV hook-up? I can tell you for the latter I have seen at least 3 different symbols.

This is where your CAD software comes in. In AutoCAD for instance, you can access the documentation catalog and go to the electrical division and find many electrical symbols. Some software is used specifically for creating electrical drawings and would contain nearly every conceivable symbol.

If you are using a software package like AutoCAD, you may need to create a job specific (or engineer specific) symbol, such as a TV hook-up symbol. There are also several AutoCAD 3rd party pre-made symbol resources to consider for additional AutoCAD electrical blocks.

Many firms may also consider outsourcing the electrical CAD drawing phase of a project to a professional drafting company. This is where a drafting service like Cadtech Design can help.

At Cadtech Design we have the resources to take the electrical designs that your engineer has provided to you and convert them into usable electrical CAD drawings utilizing your company standards.

For more information about sending your electrical designs to be converted into AutoCAD drawings, please use our contact form or give us a call at 705-673-5838 and we will be happy to provide you a quote.