Design Master May 2015 Newsletter

Table of Contents

• Electrical Beta Testing
• Circuit Length Calculations in Takeoffs
• Customer Story: No More “Monkey Business” at Pennell Consulting, Inc. Thanks to Design Master Electrical
• Support Articles from May Archives
• New Wishlist Requests

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Electrical Beta Testing

We are going to start beta testing the next release of Design Master Electrical later this month. The focus of this release is on the one-line diagram feature. Reply to this email and let me know if you would like to get early access to the new features.

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Circuit Length Calculations in Takeoffs

I am looking for customers who have experiences using the circuit length calculations in our takeoffs, particularly regarding comparisons with the actual amount of wire used. If you use our takeoffs to calculate total wire lengths, please reply to this email to let me know. I would like to talk with you briefly about how it has worked for you.

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No More “Monkey Business” at Pennell Consulting, Inc. Thanks to Design Master Electrical

Pennell Consulting, Inc. (PCI) provides electrical and electronics system design to architects, contractors and government entities on a wide range of projects including correctional, educational, health care, manufacturing, public facilities and retail/office buildings. The firm currently has eight employees, six of whom use Design Master Electrical. PCI first purchased Design Master Electrical in 2006.

Read more about Pennell Consulting, Inc.

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Support Articles from the May Archives

General

Project and Database Management Webinar: A general webinar covering how your drawing and database file interact. Recommended for all users.
Changing the Scale of a Drawing: How to change the scale of a drawing that you have already done work in.
Multiple Scales on a Single Drawing: Sorry, the answer is still to use two drawings. Vote for the request on the wishlist if you would like to see us work on this in a future release.

HVAC

Exporting Light Fixtures or Diffusers for Reflected Ceiling Plan: Creating a RCP that is disconnected from your Design Master database.
Curved Walls: How to insert curved walls for building load calculations.
Modifying Room Outline: How to modify the outline of a room once it is inserted on the drawing.
Inserting Vertical Ducts Going Up or Down: How to insert vertical ducts.
How to View Hidden Lines: How to view ductwork hidden lines.
Partition Above and Below Floor: How to create a space that has a partition above and below it.

Electrical

DM Electrical 8.3 New Features Webinar Recording: A webinar covering all the changes in DM Electrical 8.3, except for the feeder and
Feeder and Service Calculations Webinar: A webinar covering the new feeder and service calculations added in DM Electrical 8.3.
service load calculations. Those are handled in the other webinar.
Electrical Customization Webinar: A webinar covering the options available for customizing DM Electrical.
Loads on Circuits Do Not Appear in Panel Total: Typically caused by the "General Lighting Circuit" value being set to "Yes."
Setting the Phase of Single-Phase Loads on Three-Phase Switchboards: How to use the "Starting Phase" option.
Layers Used for Circuit Loops: An explanation of all the different places we look to determine what layer to use for loops between devices.
Exporting Light Fixtures or Diffusers for Reflected Ceiling Plan: Creating a RCP that is disconnected from your Design Master database.
Loads on Phases Change in a Transformer: Loads rotate when they go through delta-wye transformers.
Show Rooms on Lighting and Power Plans: How to share rooms between drawings.
Motor Load Calculations: How the largest motor on a panel is determined.
Footcandle Levels Inside Building Outlines: How to keep 0 FC values from being displayed inside buildings.
Indoor Lighting Coefficient of Utilization: How the CU is calculated.

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New Wishlist Requests

Below is a list of recent ideas on our wishlist.

Customers regularly share ideas about what they would like us to add to the software. What we don't know is how many other people are interested in the idea. If you see something that looks interesting to you, vote for it. We prioritize features based upon the number of votes and the difficulty to implement. Knowing whether other people are interested in an idea or not helps us know if we should spend development time on it or on something else.

General

Handle schedules for TI work better
Add justification options to labels

Electrical

Separate information in equipment callouts with commas
More custom load types

HVAC

Lock airflow value in diffusers