Spend a dollar to save a dime

[scritz]

This program needs a lot of work, its not a difficult program but it seems to make you take too many steps to get what you want done.

it needs right click options more specific to what device you clicked on, for example, if I select 15 receptacles I should be able to right click and select something like Homerun and then I'd get a list of all available 120v panels starting with the ones closest to the devices and I should be able to tell it to alternate receptacles on 3 circuits and its done, homerun and callout created automatically.

and...

Connecting an unassigned device should be as simple as clicking the device then a button or right click option and a device already circuited up.
Why is the default wire type Aluminum?
Removing devices from a circuit should be as simple as selecting the wiring and pressing delete!!
Why are the electrical options under both Basic and Electrical?
and putting in keynotes and callouts is more difficult than the design.

This program has the potential to be great if they put more thought into it.

[Steve_Stafford]

Remember, this is the first release. The focus of this release was obtaining engineering data.

You made some nice observations. Are you submitting your ideas and critiques to the support team so they can log them? It would be great if you did!

[Martin__Schmid]

Hi Scritz--

I'd have to guess that Aluminum is the default wire Material when creating a new wire Type because Aluminum comes before Copper alphabetically! I have put in a request to make Copper the default.

The reason objects aren't removed from a circuit when deleting wiring is because wiring doesn't define the circuit... it is annotation. There are many designers that are in the practice of not showing wiring at all... that is why the workflow of creating and deleting wires has no effect on the circuit property of the object.

With regard to the Basics / Electrical Design Bars, you may note that everything on Basics is repeated elsewhere. This Design Bar merely lets you lay out multiple object types to create a quick multi-discipline layout. If you don't find this Design Bar useful, you can hide it (right-click in the Design Bar area).

Thanks for the comments!
Martin Schmid, P.E.
Autodesk Consulting