# Design progams



## jhartsock (Sep 13, 2012)

What programs do you use for your designs, especially your wiring diagrams?
Is there any free alternatives?:scratch:


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## GPM (Jan 14, 2007)

Do you mean something like this? http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/electrical.asp

FWIW, my entire house rewiring project I did some years ago are just a collection of individual hand sketches by room, panelboard.

GM


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

I sketch out individual room flow charts first. Then sketch out distributed wiring. Then I'll throw together my remote control notes. Next, I'll retrace the flow charts and remote schematic to look for bugs and verify operation. Then, lastly, I'll put together a finalized version of the project. 

There are a number of illustration programs out there. Illustrator is great, even excel or power point have the ability to create flow charts. A commonly used pro tool is Visio. 

You'll be able to find some open source alternatives around. 

Open Office Draw
http://www.openoffice.org/product/draw.html
This is a fairly simple program but its well written with good support and easy to use. 

Hope this helps


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## GPM (Jan 14, 2007)

Cool! Thanks for link!

GM


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## bamabum (Dec 7, 2012)

Google sketchUp does a good job for free. Most serious architect types use a cad program with layers for hvac, elec, water, etc.

sketchUp can import CAD and also has a version of layers.

http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=38572


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## wraunch (Apr 18, 2012)

Check out floorplanner and sketchup.


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## mcascio (Dec 5, 2010)

When I built my home years ago, I printed out multiple floor plans. One for security wiring, one for Russound and speaker wiring and one for data and av wiring.

I then had a spreadsheet that I made that I assigned a number to each cable and labeled it on the wire itself, in the spreadsheet and then on the floorplan. The spreadsheet listed the cable type, color, room, which wall it was on and then a field for any notes.

Seemed to work out pretty good for me and I still use it for reference.

Nothing fancy...but got the job done.


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## CompressionFed (Jul 2, 2013)

Another vote for SketchUp. Fun tool too.


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