Using Excel to diagram circuits

[Cal31]

David, can you attach one of your drawings as a PDF? I'd like to see what it looks like.

[David M]

Sure. I will email it in a few minutes.

[oleman]

I am not trying to offend anyone, just trying to make lives easier.
I have been making a living in electronics design and cleaning up design messes since 1963 and have used many make-shift design tools over the years.
Using excel to design electrical schematics is basically like driving nails with a crow-bar, it can be done but why bother when real schema tools are available for FREE. One I use if it is not going to a PCB design is expresspcb, free out of PCB design company in Portland Ore, USA area. Digikey also sponsors a free schema application. If I am doing real design where the output will be PCB design I use the Industry Standard design tools topped off by Orcad part of the Cadence design companys offering.
Orcad was one of the first non-hobby uses of the PC, dating back to the 70's and still the most comprehensive offering in the industry.
Orcad is EXPENSIVE for a non-professional user but it has features that make completed design less of a workout.
So before you pickup the crowbar to drive nails, I recommend you see what else is out there! Yes, as in all things worthwhile there is a learning curve but not near as great as starting out with the wrong tool for the job.

[exMaggieDrum]

For you CAD types, my sailing buddy who used Autocad professionally recently recommended that I download and use Draftsight. The free version is more than capable but the Mac version is only in beta right now with limited documentation for the slight (but significant) differences in the UI.
DraftSight free CAD software: Community - Dassault Systèmes

MUCH easier than Autocad but with most of the same features.

[exMaggieDrum]

Originally Posted by oleman

I am not trying to offend anyone, just trying to make lives easier.
I have been making a living in electronics design and cleaning up design messes since 1963 and have used many make-shift design tools over the years.
Using excel to design electrical schematics is basically like driving nails with a crow-bar, it can be done but why bother when real schema tools are available for FREE. One I use if it is not going to a PCB design is expresspcb, free out of PCB design company in Portland Ore, USA area. Digikey also sponsors a free schema application. If I am doing real design where the output will be PCB design I use the Industry Standard design tools topped off by Orcad part of the Cadence design companys offering.
Orcad was one of the first non-hobby uses of the PC, dating back to the 70's and still the most comprehensive offering in the industry.
Orcad is EXPENSIVE for a non-professional user but it has features that make completed design less of a workout.
So before you pickup the crowbar to drive nails, I recommend you see what else is out there! Yes, as in all things worthwhile there is a learning curve but not near as great as starting out with the wrong tool for the job.

I understand why you feel the way you do but my diagrams more than meet my meager requirements. And I can send them to lots of people who know nothing about CAD or Orcad (which I had never heard about) and they can use them using tools that a huge number of people already are familiar with enough to at least look at them and mod them for their own use easily. I don't have to insert any hardcore specs, more than perhaps "amps" for a fuse or "volts". I haven't run across anything I need to diagram (yet) that a square, circle, and line can't document well enough for what I do them for.

My buddy who used Autocad to document customer electronic systems could only leave paper copies with his customers and he admitted using it was way overkill. But it was what he was familiar with and was easier for him than learning Excel. There are times when I would like to be able to draw a line around corners and such but that is not enough of a reason to go through the brain damage of Orcad or other systems. Happy it works for you though. My crowbar is more than a good enough hammer for me.

[Lake-Effect]

I too was going to sneer at using Excel for drafting... but then I looked at your work. No more sneering... just respect. Nice job!

I do use Excel (actually i prefer OpenCalc, the OpenOffice equivalent) for tabular work and working up load estimates.

Originally Posted by C40

Try TinyCad instead. It is free open source software for drawing electrical circuit diagrams and schematic drawings. I have been using it for quite a while with good results. It can be downloaded at TinyCAD download | SourceForge.net

+1

I've used AutoCAD occasionally, and had a licence for TurboCAD, but for knocking out the occasional schematic or system diagram, i found TinyCAD was the easiest to use (and remember) and the fastest to work with. I made a small library of electrical symbols for typical boat items, and then it's just drag, position, and connect the dots.

I also occasionally use the free electrical CAD from the circuit-board houses (eg PCB123) but for boat stuff TinyCAD is still my first choice.

[S/V Alchemy]

I have found it easy enough to use InDesign (I do graphics) for the large scale stuff, but am considering either going to a "mini-CAD" setup OR just finding some fonts that contain all the standard symbols! This is from some time ago: everything's changed.

[DiverSailor]

Greetings!
YES you can down load these .xls files and use them!. Thanks please post the rest just as your did the first three!

How to:
1. Highlight and copy the whole file name. (just copy the name not the file..)
2. then click of that and return that file and Save as.. you will see something like 'attachment.php' or something. determine where you want to store these files.. once there then highlight an the .php file and paste the name of HouseBattery.xls or what ever over that and save.
3. Go to where you saved it and open in Excel and enable editing and save...
4. Make your diagram changes! and rename to your boat

This is great!

Alchemy, do you happen to have a diagram of the boat like that, that could be edited? I could love a copy.. difficult to do much with .pdf files

Ed

[goodoldwoody]

Good work exMaggiDrum,
Great minds think alike. I've been doing the same only in MS Word. I have Autocad & Quickcad. Word is good enough and when saved on Dropbox they become even more permant records. On another note it's amazing the amount of redundant wiring found on the average boat. Also the number of dangerous crossovers where people have wired jumpers over battery switches and so on. One boat had that many crossovers that it was possible to start the engine with all the battery switches in the off position.

[exMaggieDrum]

Originally Posted by DiverSailor

Greetings!
YES you can down load these .xls files and use them!. Thanks please post the rest just as your did the first three!

How to:
1. Highlight and copy the whole file name. (just copy the name not the file..)
2. then click of that and return that file and Save as.. you will see something like 'attachment.php' or something. determine where you want to store these files.. once there then highlight an the .php file and paste the name of HouseBattery.xls or what ever over that and save.
3. Go to where you saved it and open in Excel and enable editing and save...
4. Make your diagram changes! and rename to your boat

This is great!

Alchemy, do you happen to have a diagram of the boat like that, that could be edited? I could love a copy.. difficult to do much with .pdf files

Ed

Hi Ed, I may have missed something here. When I tried to upload the file I got an error saying it was too big to upload. I suspect I just am not following your directions though. Joe

[Morrissey]

I made some diagrams using the 'crowbar' method, one is attached. It took a lot of time to do and generated a huge file in xls or pdf, but jpg is OK. I have CAD drawings from the yard when they did the refit, but kinda like the equipment icons embedded. Easier for novices to relate the drawing to what stuff actually looks like on the boat as well.

I would like to improve the schematics, and will try some of the suggestions above. I have a W7 desktop, but prefer to use a MacBook Pro. That seems to limit options a bit.

[DiverSailor]

That I am not sure of... how big is the file compared to the first 3 files up loaded. Different file type? I have uploaded files as one file type, then downloaded, and changed the file back to what the orginal file type was to move and share them..
e.g. 123.xls to 123.txt upload download and change to 123.xls at the new location and it worked fine.. a way to trick the system withou causing system blockage or problems.