It may sound too good to be true, but John Wood, of Claymont Pty, has designed low-cost software that does away with cable calculations at the push of a button - enabling a 'one-man-band' to go head-to-head with the biggest engineering firms. Brendan Coyne reports.
According to Wood, Solutions Electrical Version 8 is the first generation of intelligent software for cable calculations. It consists of four oneclick buttons: 'Installation Design', 'Earth Loop Impedance', 'Three-Phase Schematics' and 'Parts List'.
The software will automatically design the entire installation for you - simply key in the length of cable runs and load currents then select the method of installation and cable material.
Click 'Installation Design' and in five seconds the installation has been completely designed with all voltage drops and cable sizes worked out - with results placed into a table producing the cable schedules.
Single-line drawings have also been generated and are fully marked up - and short circuit calculations performed with results entered into the drawings and cable schedules.
Press 'Earth Loop Impedance' and the software tests every cable in the design for earth loop impedance compliance - placing results in separate table and providing another set of single line drawings.
By clicking the third button, 'Three- Phase Schematics', the program takes all the single line drawings and instantly converts them to three-phase schematic diagrams in full colour. Both the single line and three-phase schematic diagrams can be saved as an AutoCAD extension and reloaded for modifications or extensions.
Button four - 'Parts List' - creates a list of all the cables, fuses, circuit breakers, conduits, switches, etc. and loads it into a table ready to order. And that's the job done, quickly and accurately, by one person.
One-man band
Wood says the program was designed to take people out of the loop. "Because the more people you have to rely on the greater the likelihood you will be let down," he says. "Using the software you only need your own personnel - so a one-man band can take on the biggest job no matter what it is."
"Where you might have had a team of up to 10 people designing a shopping centre with 800 cables - spending weeks on it - you now have just one guy who can sit in an office and press buttons."
Wood claims those with the software have a distinct advantage over those who do not. He says if you're up against the software there is no way you can beat it: "We can't design in five seconds - it takes us weeks. Even a small installation with a hundred cables would take me five days to design and I'm an experienced design engineer. Even then I would need a draughtsman for the drawings - adding another day. Then there are the schematics, the short circuit calculations, the earth loop impedance testing - you can see that even a small installation is going to take two to three weeks.
"But with V8 an installation of that size will take a leisurely hour and a half. Wood claims the software is unique: "None of the competition has anything like it. They have talked about it for the last five years but talk doesn't get the job done. I have actually done this. I spent all last year on R&D, teaching the computer to design like a design engineer at the top of his game. And now it's there." Another unique aspect is the software's price. At US$809 - including free technical support and no annual fees - it bucks the market trend.
"I see the competition and their fancy prices starting at US$5,800 - and I have never understood that smash and grab mentality: trying to take as much money as possible. But you can only grab 10 or 15 per cent of the potential market using that method.
"It's far better if you price the software so that 90 per cent of the market can afford to buy it - and if that happens you are the industry standard and you've got upgrades for the rest of your natural life."
Industry standard?
Wood admits it will take an element of luck and much contact nurturing to become the industry standard. But if current sales (over 4,000 units in Australia alone) are anything to go by, it has every chance of success.
"Sales are meteoric," he claims. "In the first three weeks of June we have sold six Version 5's and four version 6's. And we have sold 94 Version 8's. And when people you don't know and have never met before give you their credit card details over the phone and spend about $800 there must be good reason."
Wood's sales technique is very simple, "I take people's specifications over the phone, enter them into the software, press four buttons and then print off professional looking documents - with all the design drawings, schematics and fault levels - and fax them back.
And they pull out their credit cards like guns!
But it's hardly surprising - they all have competitors to beat. And if you are tendering for a job with Version 8 you will coast it. It has the opportunity to save the electrical industry hundreds of millions of pounds right now. If, for example, you had Canary Wharf to build, Version 8 could design it with a tenth of the staff and in a hundredth of the time. So who wouldn't want to use it?"
"Or for example, if you are tendering for a 100-cable job with five other contractors:
You receive the specification and then everyone goes home to beat their heads against the wall for the next week getting the design and everything else ready. That is, everyone except you. You cruise home, stop for a coffee, then key in the specifications. Before lunch the same day you are handing back drawings, schematics, the cable schedules, fault levels, the earth loop impedance testing and complete list of everything in the design. Who do you think the client is going to give it to?
He's not going to give it to the guy who took seven days..."
Wanted: distributors
Claymont guarantees customers will master any of its software within 15 minutes - because it was put together by an end-user. And he says everyone who has seen it demonstrated has bought a copy - from the King of Jordan and the United Nations to small electrical firms.
The company has just finished a Version 8 for the American market and now seeks distributors globally. If the software proves as popular as Wood believes it will, there is a clear opportunity for sales partners.
He says he would even offer exclusive rights to market the software - leaving him to get on with the next version. "I would offer the rights because I really want to see the software fly - just as long as they the keep price down so that the average electrician can buy it."
http://www.cablecalc.com/
© Middle East Electricity 2004
