What tool to draw an industrial diagram (PLC's relays, etc)

Thread Starter

edugimeno

Joined Jan 31, 2019
6
What program would you suggest (preferably free) to easily draw an schematic for an industrial cabinet containing some Omron PLC's and remote controllers, network wires, relays, and harting sockets?

I have been trying Q-electrotech, seems about right but it doesn't have any of my Omron remote devices, so Im having to download the DXF cad design from their website, export it to ELMT, remove unneeded views (side, top, etc), add terminals and labels, etc, for each missing component.

What else can you suggest?

Thank you!
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,023
Tried and True ...........
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pencil_x1.jpg
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Personally, I prefer an old Photo-Editing Program called Microsoft Picture-It,
but it's hard to find, and even harder to install and get working.
It won't work above Windows-7.
 

scorbin1

Joined Dec 24, 2019
103
Most of the free tools you are going to find are going to be geared more towards electronics rather than electrical diagrams. Even with a nice expensive paid version of a CAD program, I spend a majority of my design time doing exactly what you described. No matter what program you find, you will not avoid this entirely.

That being said, Eagle is free, but geared more toward electronics rather than electrical but could still work. Fusion360 is also free for non-profit and can do wiring. I have not dug into Fusion360 as we use AutoCAD Electrical, and I could definitely be wrong, but I believe it is geared more toward electronics as well.
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
It seems you are looking for the cabinet layout S/W rather than the ladder logic diagram as that would come with the Omron PLC.?
You could probably do it in free Kicad, although this is a schematic capture PGM.
May take a while to draw the physical outlines.
There is free open source Pgm's for Schematic and Photoshop style Pgm's, but seems nobody has done the same for CAD.
 
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