(Part of our ongoing series comparing features in Revit MEP and Design Master to make it clear why our software is better.)
Design Master Electrical has automatically sized circuit breakers in panels based upon the load since our initial release in 2001. We could not imagine what use an electrical design program would be that could calculate load for you, but not automatically size the breaker based upon that load.
Autodesk must have a better imagination than we do, because that’s what Revit MEP does. The software will calculate the load on the breaker, it will warn you if the load exceeds 80% of the breaker, but it won’t automatically resize the breaker.
Request a free demonstration of Design Master Electrical and see just how cool electrical BIM software can be.
If the load is non-continuous, why would you want to upsize?
That’s a good question, and highlights even more of the deficiencies of Revit MEP.
The NEC requires you to size the breaker to 125% of continuous load and 100% of noncontinuous load. In Design Master Electrical, you can size breakers this way, or you can size them for 125% of the total load (which is a conservative number).
But in Revit MEP, you can’t size the breaker at all (or if you can, no one will share on the linked forum article how to do it).
With Design Master Electrical, you can have the conversation about how to best size breakers and make the choice based upon your engineering judgment. With Revit MEP, the interesting questions of continuous versus noncontinuous are not even asked, because they don’t size automatically.