I'm looking for a software I can use to plan installations, create wiring diagrams and block diagrams, and illustrations that will make it easy for customers to see what our ideas are.
What exactly are you doing and what are you wanting to show your customers? Most of my Clients are usually more interested in viewing sections, elevations, plans, etc. and while critical for other parties, few of the Clients few really care about seeing the line drawings.
There are a wide range of options (Stardraw, d-tools, Visio, SktechUp, VidCAD, Vectorworks, AutoCAD, Revit, etc.) and I have found that certain factors can be critical in deciding which works best for you:
- Do you need to work with architectural backgrounds and drawings provided by others?
- Do you want to have integrated drawings, i.e. have a single equipment list that is common to line diagrams, rack layouts, etc.?
- Do you want to generate equipment lists, quotes, cable labels, run lists and so on from the drawings?
- Do you need to address wiring details such as individual conductor breakouts or multipair cable?
- Do you care if your drawings look generic or do you want to be able to control the 'look' of the drawings?
- Do you want pictorial type line diagrams?
- Do you need or want to work in 3-D?
Stardraw's founder and CEO David Snipp's move to take the CTO position at Global Cache and their apparently acquiring the Stardraw intellectual property earlier this year may indicate a focus on the control aspects so I will be interested to see how that may affect Stardraw.
