I recently took an introductory electrical motor control class at the local community college. Here are some shapes that I made for class to help me draw the motor control ladder diagrams we had to design.
First drop the full page size ladder shape and then place control devices on the appropriate line and connect them with a line shape to represent wires connections
Hi Bork,
is this supposed to have any functionality or is it just to draw schematics?
cheers
hl
No, it is just to draw schematics; I leave the possibility of using it as a simulator up to you programmers. Many of these shapes are in the Pro version of Visio, but I was not able to modify them for my usage because they are locked, so I built my own.
My fellow students at the community college used paper and pencil to design their own circuits for the motor control class. May be an opportunity for a Visio programmer to build a Visio app to draw schematics and then allow it to run as a as simulator.
There are drafting programs like Auto Cad and Solid Works for engineers and draftsmen, but those programs are too expensive and detailed for people learning a trade like electrician, motor control repairman, welder, etc. Many of those tradesmen work in small businesses and almost of of them still use paper and pen to sketch out their work. Visio would be much better for them due to its ease of use. Training companies like Cengage that provide documentation and physical simulators for trade training could be the best place to start.
Hi Bork,
ok, you can wait for programmers ;)
Motors may be checked against rotating fields, delay relays have to be programmed... (how in Visio)? I guess that there are tools for it available (but I didn't use them).
Check Fluid sim or PiSpice.
In the meantime you can check the relay simulation tool. (here in user submitted stuff)
There is no motor and all lamps and relays are supposed to be connected to "minus" but it's working.
Maybe your class are interested to equip your stencils with the functionality of it. It's not so sophisticated.
For just drawing schematics it's very helpful. If I have to draw a fluid or status- diagramm (over time) I would use Excel.
cheers
hl
LTSPICE is a professional grade, circuit simulator presently provided by Analog Devices. It's free. You draw the schematic, set values / parameters, decide on simulation, e.g., dc, AC, noise, transient and view results. Did I say it's free? Here's link: https://www.analog.com (https://www.analog.com)