ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Software for Electricians

Anybody have experience with the Volts program by Dolphins Software. It was awarded the EC&M software "product of the year" and it looks like a pretty good program but $500, yikes!, a bit pricey for me. Anybody know of anything out there in the shareware arena that does what this does for less $$$?

Here's the link to the Volts software description: http://www.dolphins-software.com/

Yeah, I would like to see someone post a reply with link to good shareware program too.

I was actually thinking of writing a program like that (tired of not using my C.S. Bacholors Degree ). $500 doesn't sound like a lot for a program like that, considering the limited market it has. Programming takes a lot of time so they need to recover their costs somehow. Though, I do know that $500, is a lot of money to us poor working folk.

Strange that they don't offer a "basic" version, that has some of the basic modules for a cheaper price.

I looked around for something similar, but didn't find anything.

Try www.flashworks.com to see if this will work for you.

Electric Ian
What is it that you want the program to do?
After looking at the program you listed $500
seems like a good price. It provides a lot of information. It may be more info that you need.

Yes, it probably provides more than I want/need. I'm looking for something that does the following:
-Conductor ampacity
-Conduit fill
-box fill
-motor fusing
-single family dwelling calculation
-voltage drop
And I want it for under $100. If that sounds to good to be true maybe I'll write it my self and sell it for $50

Actually, Volts has taken just over two years to write and has just over a half a million line of code. With the next version, you'll be able to layout a circuit either from the worksheet grid, or the Panel Layout module, or a new, interactive one-line diagram module. Any modification or addition to any of the 3 modules will automatically update everything in Volts. From there we'll be adding dxf export for CADD users, short circuit analysis, motor protection coordination and arc flash analysis. Although this version of volts will be selling at a higher price, it will still be cheap considering the time that it saves you. Volts currently prints all the reports, drawings and schedules that you need for licensing, inspection and PE approval. With an average job taking about a half and hour to complete, $500 is a very cheap price and should pay for itself in the first or second job.

Our goal is to produce the most powerful design build software available (more powerful that the $10,000 - $15,000 software products currently available) at as reasonable a price as possible.

I'd like to also note that NEC Digest reviewed Volts last September.

If you’d like, now that I’m registered with this board, I’d like to stick around and see if I can help anyone out.

Thanks,
Diver Dan
Dolphins Software Team Member

Dan
If Ian could get some other members interested, how many would it take to get a good discount?

Hi Bob,

With a purchase of 10 seats, I will drop the price $100 USD per seat. If you are interested please contact me personally either by phone or email. Contact information is available at www.dolphins-software.com.

I'd like to add that many PE's that charge electricans for these reports...use Volts to generate them.

[This message has been edited by DiverDan (edited 03-10-2005).]

Gentlemen, this is headed into a infomercial type of thread, since all of you have your e-mail addresses available to each other I ask that you continue your correspondence through that means.

All are welcome to use the Classified Adds Area for advertising there products or goods.

Thank You

Roger

[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 03-11-2005).]