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Both programs have their pros and cons. I have used both. The main difference is that AutoCAD Electrical is driven from the drawing side so the intelligence resides inside the drawings. There is a project database but it is primarily for AutoCAD Electrical's use to collect project information and generate reports. The database is updated automatically in the background while you work. It can be deleted at any time. If you edit the project again AutoCAD Electrical will recreate this database. Since the intelligence resides in the individual drawings, there is never a concern about the database becoming corrupted and destroying drawing data. The drawings are in control of the data and thus the drawings steer the database.
Promis-e, like most other Electrical CADD programs on the market, is driven from the database side so the project database is an integral part of the data storage for a project. The easiest explanation is that you are editing the database when you draw, and the database writes your edits back to the screen. Basically each time you open a drawing, the database creates/refreshes the drawing for you from the information it contains. This method has both positive and negative points. One main positive has to do with project-wide changes that affect multiple pages. The database-driven program will write the changes to the database in real time without a need to open the affected drawings. The result is fast project-wide updates. The next time you open one of the affected pages you will see the changes. In the past AutoCAD Electrical needed to open all affected drawings, make the changes for you, and resave the drawings, one at a time. The more recent releases of AutoCAD Electrical have received some improvement in the area of project-wide updates. Some of the project-wide updates, like title block updates and wire numbering for example, are now accomplished without actually opening up the affected drawings and displaying them for you to watch. AutoCAD Electrical opens the drawings in the background and makes the changes without you watching it work. I sort of liked the old days when I could actually see each affected page open and I could watch AutoCAD Electrical make the changes for me. It just made me feel good to actually see the automation doing its thing. Admittedly though, it takes extra time for AutoCAD Electrical to display each drawing as it performs the updates. So they have increased the speed by running many of these processes in the background.
The negative aspect of database-driven programs is that, when the database gets damaged or corrupted, you can lose valuable drawing data, because the drawings are managed by the database and not the other way around. I have never seen a database of any kind that hasn't gotten corrupted at some point in time. The database-driven programs usually contain a utility that will attempt to repair the project, if something goes wrong with the database. If this doesn't work you may have to redraw some portions of the project, or recover from a backup you may have created.
I think AutoCAD Electrical is the only program in this market that is drawing-driven. And since the user interface is a familiar drafting program (I think AutoCAD has a presence in 80% of the industrialized world), those who are already experienced with plain AutoCAD can easily adapt to AutoCAD Electrical with minimal classroom training. Experienced users of plain vanilla AutoCAD can usually grasp the fundamentals of AutoCAD Electrical with a 3-4 day training course.
Like I said, all of the Electrical CADD programs have both positive and negative aspects, including AutoCAD Electrical. None are perfect and all could use a tweak or two or three here and there. The companies are all working tirelessly to improve with each release. I think you can get the job done with any program you purchase. The key is to spend adequate time actually learning to use the program correctly, rather than muddling through trying to figure it out a little at a time. I taught a class of AcadE users who had been "tinkering" with it since version 2004. During the first day of class, before lunch, I heard grown men crying because they had manually modified, one at a time, the 3,000 plus symbol files in the JIC125 folder to have a different TAG default value, not even knowing that AcadE can handle this automatically without touching the individual symbol files. This ability has existed in the program as far back as 1997, when I started using it. They didn't know that they didn't know about this particular feature. So proper training is critical no matter what program you choose.
Doug McAlexander
Design Engineer/Consultant/Instructor/Mentor specializing in AutoCAD Electrical training and implementation support
Phone and Web-based Support Plans Available
Phone: (770) 841-8009
www.linkedin.com/in/doug-mcalexander-1a77623
Please Accept as Solution if I helped you. Likes are also much appreciated.
Promis-e, like most other Electrical CADD programs on the market, is driven from the database side so the project database is an integral part of the data storage for a project. The easiest explanation is that you are editing the database when you draw, and the database writes your edits back to the screen. Basically each time you open a drawing, the database creates/refreshes the drawing for you from the information it contains. This method has both positive and negative points. One main positive has to do with project-wide changes that affect multiple pages. The database-driven program will write the changes to the database in real time without a need to open the affected drawings. The result is fast project-wide updates. The next time you open one of the affected pages you will see the changes. In the past AutoCAD Electrical needed to open all affected drawings, make the changes for you, and resave the drawings, one at a time. The more recent releases of AutoCAD Electrical have received some improvement in the area of project-wide updates. Some of the project-wide updates, like title block updates and wire numbering for example, are now accomplished without actually opening up the affected drawings and displaying them for you to watch. AutoCAD Electrical opens the drawings in the background and makes the changes without you watching it work. I sort of liked the old days when I could actually see each affected page open and I could watch AutoCAD Electrical make the changes for me. It just made me feel good to actually see the automation doing its thing. Admittedly though, it takes extra time for AutoCAD Electrical to display each drawing as it performs the updates. So they have increased the speed by running many of these processes in the background.
The negative aspect of database-driven programs is that, when the database gets damaged or corrupted, you can lose valuable drawing data, because the drawings are managed by the database and not the other way around. I have never seen a database of any kind that hasn't gotten corrupted at some point in time. The database-driven programs usually contain a utility that will attempt to repair the project, if something goes wrong with the database. If this doesn't work you may have to redraw some portions of the project, or recover from a backup you may have created.
I think AutoCAD Electrical is the only program in this market that is drawing-driven. And since the user interface is a familiar drafting program (I think AutoCAD has a presence in 80% of the industrialized world), those who are already experienced with plain AutoCAD can easily adapt to AutoCAD Electrical with minimal classroom training. Experienced users of plain vanilla AutoCAD can usually grasp the fundamentals of AutoCAD Electrical with a 3-4 day training course.
Like I said, all of the Electrical CADD programs have both positive and negative aspects, including AutoCAD Electrical. None are perfect and all could use a tweak or two or three here and there. The companies are all working tirelessly to improve with each release. I think you can get the job done with any program you purchase. The key is to spend adequate time actually learning to use the program correctly, rather than muddling through trying to figure it out a little at a time. I taught a class of AcadE users who had been "tinkering" with it since version 2004. During the first day of class, before lunch, I heard grown men crying because they had manually modified, one at a time, the 3,000 plus symbol files in the JIC125 folder to have a different TAG default value, not even knowing that AcadE can handle this automatically without touching the individual symbol files. This ability has existed in the program as far back as 1997, when I started using it. They didn't know that they didn't know about this particular feature. So proper training is critical no matter what program you choose.
Doug McAlexander
Design Engineer/Consultant/Instructor/Mentor specializing in AutoCAD Electrical training and implementation support
Phone and Web-based Support Plans Available
Phone: (770) 841-8009
www.linkedin.com/in/doug-mcalexander-1a77623
Please Accept as Solution if I helped you. Likes are also much appreciated.
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