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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3
M
Macman Offline OP
Junior Member
Greetings Everyone! I just joined the ECN forum and wanted to post a message concerning some free items I have available on my web site. I've been doing electrical work in Nebraska since 1984. I received a Class B Journeyman license in 1988, a Class A Journeyman license in 1989, a Class A Master's license in 1990, an Electrical Contractor license in 1998, and engineer intern registration in 1999, and a professional registered electrical engineer license in 2002.

In the course of my career, I've created many items of interest to electricians on computers. The latest group of them is available on my web site at www.dcengineers.com/downloads.html. This is what is available:

1) An Excel spreadsheet based feeder calculator that determines the minimum size conduit for most common wire types in almost any type of conduit.

2) Pre-made feeder tables in PDF that show number of conductors, conduit, and ground (if needed) for single and three phase services, feeders, and motors.

3) 1-phase and 3-phase panel schedules with convenient check boxes for voltage, subfeed lugs, feed thru lugs, top feed, bottom feed, and many other fields in PDF. Perfect for keeping written records of panels during field survey of existing conditions.

4) An Excel spreadsheet based version of the panel schedules mentioned above. More than just an electronic schedule, these spreadsheets perform load calculations and can link panels together so that you can "model" the load of an entire installation. Add circuits to any panel and see the resulting load change on the MDP.

5) CAD sizing chart in PDF. Just a handy little chart of paper and text sizes if you dabble in computer aided drafting.

6) Design & Construction Engineers' electrical symbol legend in PDF. Drawn from industry and local Midwestern standards, these can form a basis for creating your own standard.

7) OPPD (the local utility in Omaha, Nebraska) and ANSI transformer information in PDF showing common sizes, weights, and short circuit information. There is also a page explaining OPPD's transformer marking codes.

I hope you find these tools to be of interest and use to you. My contact information is available on the web site if you have comments or questions concerning the files.

Todd Stahlnecker


[This message has been edited by Macman (edited 06-16-2004).]

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 599
N
Member
Macman,
I just tried your excel panel schedule and all I have to say is WOW! [Linked Image] That is awesom. I have been looking for something like this for a long time. It OLE's into CAD very well too. My only comment is that the CAD insert page should show the loads too shouldn't it? Most building Departments would want to see that info on the construction documents. Or do you show that somewhere else?
My hats off to you! Great job.

Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3
M
Macman Offline OP
Junior Member
Nick,

Believe me, that question got debated quite a bit during the development of the spreadsheet. In the end, we decided that we would not put the loads on the construction documents for the following reasons:

1) It would make the schedule larger. Right now, they will fit onto 8.5x11 and we didn't want to make it so large that it was not possible to show changes to it on an 8.5x11 sketch.

2) Showing the circuit loads would require more sketches to be issued when change orders were made. Right now, we can add several receptacles to a circuit and not have to show changes to the panel.

3) We figure that we can send the whole panel printout to a code official if they question our sizing. Sort of a "let sleeping dogs lie" approach. If they don't ask, don't tell them, and that means fewer things for them to challenge.

I think that the one thing that I would consider putting on the drawings would be the load calc table found in cells K26...S41. I haven’t tried but OLE should be able to show that pretty easily.

Todd Stahlnecker


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