Electrical schematics drawing software

[bikepete]

Thanks! I'll check it out. I've also just downloaded KiCAD - seems a bit more polished than TinyCAD at first glance.

But pretty much all of them seem to be oriented around PCBs and integrated circuits. All that ('electronics') is a mystery to me, but I'm OK with basic electrical circuits.

What I mainly want to draw easily is a machine circuit diagram - with AC lines, contactors, start/stop pushbuttons, inverters, motors, inverter control wiring, that sort of thing.

I'm sure it's do-able in any of these systems, but neither of the two I've tried so far seem to have suitable component symbols built in. I probably just need to work out how to add in a suitable library...

[bikepete]

Ah, just found an old post asking exactly the same - I did search before but didn't spot it - anyway a poster there recommends QElectroTech which seems to have been built with control/automation in mind. Off to check it out...

EDIT - and having got it going it looks ideal for me. Seems to have all the stuff I need - and looks well laid out and put together too. Off to try to draw something...

[PeteL]

ProfiCAD seems OK - free for home use. It has a good range of symbols & components and its very easy to make your own custom symbols.

The limiting factor is that you can only use A4 sheet size and their drawing border...

[bikepete]

Many thanks for that - downloaded it too. Looks really good - maybe a more friendly (graphical) symbol picker than QElectroTech, but I think QElectroTech has even more symbols - including e.g. ready made blocks for Danfoss/Yaskawa/ABB inverters. Will have another go later and decide which to put time into getting familiar with...