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diy solar

What design and drawing tools do you like (or dislike)

Tinker-E

New Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
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Hi Everyone. I have been solarcurious since purchasing an off grid cabin last year. I have a design outlined and a power worksheet mostly done.

My question is: what do you all like for system diagrams and why?

Me...I have too many drawing tools and none really appeal to me because...they feel like work. I have Visio, Concepts, Nebo, OneNote, all have pros/cons. Before I spend some real time on design, I would like your feedback.

TIA. -E
 
Well after reviewing my needs, using schematics.com would allow me to create a BOM and name the PINS for a wiring diagram. I think that's a better solution if you need to share a diagram that someone else needs to wire.
 
I think there are certain features of a diagram software that are important.
  • PIN/Wire Naming and setting the location
  • Having a Bill of Materials
  • Ease of Sharing so others can see and edit without having to buy a license
  • Ability to move components around without having to re-wire
So far I've tested Draw.io, Visio, Schematics.com, circuit-diagram.org, LibreOffice Draw, GIMP, KiCad and narrowing down to Schematics.com.
Kicad is excellent however the learning curve to make custom components is quiet long.


So I'm going to stay with schematics.com as I can make the diagram like bellow

1609556368529.png
And it also creates me a BOM that I can export and edit in Excel:
1609556458410.png
 
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