Program to produce single line diagrams?

heynow999

HI

I am looking for an easy to use program that can produce single line diagrams. We need to submit these to the LDC when we put in an application to connect. It used to be that they would only need a single line drawing when we were ready to install but the process has changed and the LDC now needs a SLD at the start of the process. Our electriction would produce and submit these before but we need to do them ourselves as these applications may not turn into jobs, so we don't want our electriction wasting his time on our paperwork.

Thanks

GreenerPower

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

Visio works for me.

GP

ggunn

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

Google Sketchup in Engineering space works well for that, and it's free.

mr.radon

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

I used Power Point. Worked, took longer but worked.

ggunn

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

mr.radon wrote: »

I used Power Point. Worked, took longer but worked.

I did that a couple of times. It's like trying to change a tire with a screwdriver - the wrong tool for the job.

GreenerPower

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

It's all depend on how familiar you are with the tool. For simple one-line, even paint-brush works for me - lines, circles/ovals, rectangles, text - that's all you need to use.

GP

solarix

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

I'm not sure how much I recommend it, but I use SuperCAD by Mentala.com. A schematic oriented system which makes solar drawings easily. About $250 I think.

nsaspook

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

Dia is a "simple" Visio clone for Linux and Windows.

http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Links

Windows port: http://dia-installer.de/

ggunn

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

GreenerPower wrote: »

It's all depend on how familiar you are with the tool. For simple one-line, even paint-brush works for me - lines, circles/ovals, rectangles, text - that's all you need to use.

GP

Nevertheless, Google Sketchup, a free program, is a much better alternative, IMO.

n3qik

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

Drawing from the Open Office suit.
Here is a sample:

ggunn

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

Here's a sample in Google SketchUp/LayOut.

mr.radon

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

I didn't know google sketchup did line drawings! I used this to do shading analysis, i'll have to look into that.
I use Pro-Diagram at work, but that is overkill for what the utilities need/L&I needed for the permit.
Power Point took me all of 30 minutes. Wish i had Visio.

HTG PVinPA

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

Smart Draw works well. Not free. They have templates and symbols. If your doing quite a few a year it will pay for the time saved. Cost is $197. You can download it for 6 days and try it out. I used it for a solar hot water install and it worked well. I plan to purchase it.

HTG PVinPA

Re: Program to produce single line diagrams?

Well, I thought I attached a pdf to my reply, but it isn't showing up. I clicked on the paperclip and it said it uploaded so I closed the window. But, don't see any attachment.

I tried.

SolarDesignTool

You can generate a single-line diagram using SolarDesignTool in a few minutes. It will generate a PDF, DWG, and DXF as an 8.5 X 11 or 11 X 17.

It supports residential size systems -- two or fewer string inverters (single or multi-MPPT), inverters with optimizers (such as SolarEdge), microinverters, and AC modules. You can't use it for commercial size systems.

Here's a link to a page that describes the feature. http://get.solardesigntool.com/features/single-line-diagrams/

Disclaimer: I am the founder of the company and helped develop this feature.

rahulio25

Disclaimer: I work for Aurora Solar

If you're in the solar industry and looking to create single-line diagrams, you should check out Aurora Solar. Our tool does a lot more than just single-line diagrams and you can find a more in-depth answer on what Aurora can do here: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-software-for-modelling-a-PV-system

RunninThruLife

Aeries CARS (Cable and Raceway Systems) (www.aeriescars.com ) does a good job with Single Line diagrams using the LoadMatic software.

The software comes with pre-defined CAD blocks to save you some time on your end... it's much less time consuming to tweek than it is to create, but you can use your own if you already have them defined... you just have to add the attributes where appropriate.

With the blocks attributed accordingly, anything you enter in the spreadsheet is output into a drawing format for you (2015-2021)... the best part, you only have to change it in one spread sheet to update all of your drawings; it's amazingly simple.

It does other stuff too, like raceway modeling, cable routing, and revision control, but those are handled with other software modules in the suite. It's the LoadMatic software that's built for single line diagrams.

Source: Former User, Current Developer

zozomike

Not sure how involved you wish to be, but an easy freebie is Paint.net. Quite capable and robust. lines, shapes, colors etc. Began as a grad school build on MS paint, became quite capable.