Enhancing efficiency in electrical engineering

Advances in digitalisation have unlocked new approaches to automation, expanded the intelligence of electromechanical components and promoted the construction of cyber-physical systems (CPS). Consequently, a change in approach is required, since in addition to control and mechanical design, electrical design and data features are now playing increasingly important roles in the development process. Mechanical engineering, plant design, building automation, cabinet design and electrical installation are all affected.

Modern challenges of development

The modern challenges for electrical engineering could hardly be greater: “Looking at an example from everyday life, mobile telephones used to have six functions. Today, a smartphone has thousands of functions that all have to be developed, enabling communication not only with the device but also with other handsets and equipment. This trend is mirrored when looking at machine development,” emphasised Axel Zein, Managing Director of WSCAD.

With more than 30 years of experience in the industry, WSCAD, located in Bergkirchen near Munich, is a specialist in electrical engineering CAD. It offers intuitive software tools along with its cloud-based database, wscaduniverse.com, a browser-based portal containing more than 1.4 million items of part data.

Axel continueD: “Our cross-discipline electrical engineering solutions cover the complete electrical engineering process, helping our users complete their jobs better, faster and more easily. WSCAD products and services offer speed, quality and cost-effectiveness.”

With the increase in functions of individual components and the variety of connections between devices, electrical schematics and assembly plans are becoming more and more complex. Designers also have less time to complete projects, so they require up-to-date information on housing data, electrical schematics, component lists, cables and connection lists or building automation diagrams.

Powerful electrical engineering tools with comprehensive data libraries provide pre-designed macros with all possible variants, linked to symbols and the materials to be used. Not only does this save time but it also increases productivity – ideal for design projects with tight deadlines.

Stored knowledge to ensure reliable designs

The most powerful electrical CAD portal in the world, wscaduniverse.com, enables end-to-end engineering and is a digital knowledge hub suitable for almost any electrical engineering project. It contains over 1.4 million items of part data from more than 360 manufacturers in various electrical CAD formats: WSCAD, DXF/DWG and EDZ. With additional 3D data available in other common CAD formats like STEP, the portal enables a structured and methodical approach to design, backed by standardised documentation.

“With such a high number of parts and the range of different data formats covered, we have an extremely wide reach. Users of electrical CAD systems worldwide can benefit,” explained Christian Rathgeber, Business Development Manager at WSCAD GmbH.

Free access

Electrical CAD users can access the product data they are looking for by simply registering for a free account in the WSCAD data portal. If a part data record for a specific product is unavailable, they can simply send an online request for the part direct to WSCAD.

The easily accessible 3D data stored in the online library enables realistic, exact models of whole cabinets to be displayed. As a result, assessment of the mechanical functioning of components or complete systems can be carried out. This facilitates and speeds up the engineering process as well as the reading of data from other electrical CAD systems.

"wscaduniverse.com is the only platform that provides access to electrical and 3D data free of charge," explained Axel. “Users don’t have to create parts data themselves. They are able to find all the information they need in one place. This enables them to save a great deal of time, while also helping to improve the quality of their work. Using real 3D data will also open completely new opportunities for electrical engineering applications.”

The online portal provides quick, intuitive and text-sensitive search and filter functions. Expensive and time-consuming research – including work by third-party providers – is a thing of the past; manufacturers can also add their products without any cost.

Wiring using a smartphone or tablet

The WSCAD platform is much more than a conventional electrical CAD program with schematic diagram pages numbered consecutively including product data sheets. It enables model-based design that covers every aspect of a project, with schematic diagrams, individual checklists and process-related updates ready at the touch of a button. All documents and additional information are available as a digital twin of the real cabinet for further processing, quality assurance and approvals. Integration into existing production environments and the conversion of CAD data into control data for machinery are also features of the WSCAD platform.

Installers, service engineers and maintenance engineers can also benefit from these features. The WSCAD Augmented Reality App for iOS or Android mobile devices can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play. This provides access to digital wiring lists for use during cabling, making the wiring of cabinets easier. Service engineers requiring information on wiring diagrams, part data or original manufacturer data sheets no longer need to pore over manuals the size of telephone directories. They can simply scan the QR code of the component in the cabinet to see 3D models of the parts as well as up-to-date manufacturer documentation on a smartphone or tablet.

• Most powerful electrical CAD data library in the world
• Over 1.4 million data records from more than 360 manufacturers in WSCAD, DXF/DWG, EDZ and 3D electrical CAD formats including STEP
• Free to use after registering
• Native 3D CAD data in over 100 formats: STEP, IGES, CATIA*, SIEMENS NX*, AutoCAD* for photo-realistic 3D views and collision tests based on actual component dimensions
• eCl@ss compatibility
• Multilingual part data (manufacturer-specific)
• Quick text-sensitive search function and intelligent filter functions
• Reaches over 145,000 electrical engineering users worldwide
• Approximately 2.1 million search queries and 990,000 downloads per annum
• Annual growth: users: + 40%, manufacturers: + 35%
• Native Cloud application, integrated in WSCAD SUITE X
• Awarded Best electrical engineering symbol and part database
• Free to use for users and manufacturers