Two years ago RS Components launched its DesignSpark Mechanical software package and has already been downloaded and activated 175,000 since then. It is a success that the company hope to replicate with the third member of the family, DesignSpark Electrical.
Peter Smith, applications manager for automation & control at RS Component was bought into the company two and a half years ago at the inception of the DesignSpark Electrical project. He commented: “Existing CAD packages were both high cost and complex – even the learning time is prohibitive.”
The concept behind the DesignSpark software, launched with DesignSpark PCB back in 2010, is that it should be free, easy to learn and easy to use. It can be an alternative to other commercial CAD packages or sufficiently intuitive to be used by novices. The PCB package has 230,000 activations to date.
From its own research the company believes that approximately two thirds of designers are not using electrical packages at the moment and such is the complexity of those that are being used that development times are slow and results can be inaccurate.
As with the other DesignSpark packages, all the user needs to do is register as a member of the community and then download the software for free.
Unlike other CAD packages which require the user to build up their own product libraries, DesignSpark Electrical users get a start-up library of 250,000 parts with what Smith describes as ‘robust and verified’ data on each one. 85,000 of these in the RS Components portfolio, which has the advantage of availability checking and easy ordering, and it also includes 80,000 parts from Schneider who is a launch partner for the project.
In this age of multinational design teams, one interesting feature is that all information can be displayed in two languages (with a current choice of 14) which could be ideal, for example, if a design team in the UK is outsourcing manufacture overseas.
Other interesting highlights include the real-time cross-referencing to assure design validity throughout the design process. There is also a very neat device for automating tasks such as device and wire numbering. Smith claims his customers will: “save hours a day from these two features alone”. Another feature is automated report generation and also the ability to create accurate 2D panel layouts so that the right cabinet can be selected for the project.
These may be tools that are incorporated in other electrical CAD packages, but these packages come at a cost both in terms of time and money. Smith claimed: “You will get the same outcomes [using DesignSpark Electrical] but less complexity. There is nothing, or not much, that other packages can do that our will not be able to.”
Beyond the introduction of this Electrical package, the DesignSpark family is evolving, and the second revision of the Mechanical package is underway with release planned for next year. But it will not stop there. Mike Brojak, technical marketing manager for RS, commented: “Our ultimate goal is create a suite of engineering software across the board, so there is something applicable to whatever the engineer is doing at any given time.”
