INSANE PROJECT (yes.. in caps even) :)

[Renic Gunderson]

I have been working on an insane project for the last 2 weeks straight (hardcore straight, like 6-7 16h days each week).

Acro Electric (mostly me, but the company rightly owns it) is developing a web based program that automates creating of electrical diagrams (outputs pdf).

It's been mind bending, but I am pretty proud of it so far. It reduces the time to create electrical diagrams (and verifying them for accuracy which takes us the longest) by better than 95%, and it uses a simple list of questions to calculate and draw everything!

basically, anyone who can read a sales report can generate the electrical diagrams.

If I can get it universal enough (as in handling all the different modules and inverters, and equipment brands for service panels and such) I am considering making a service out of it. $x/month and unlimited diagrams.

Do any of you think it would be feasible? Does it seem exciting to you? I spent some time looking for software to automate our electrical diagrams, but there wasn't anything that was solar specific (and the existing options were bloated compared to the simplicity of solar) - so I convinced the boss to let me make one.

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Renic,

Sounds very interesting! Maybe you can post a few output samples to get some idea of what the software produces.

Is this specifically for the RE market? Or a general purpose electric diagram making program?

The reason I ask is because the market for RE is currently so limited. On top of that, almost all the RE pros I know don't make their living with RE alone. Most are electricians, doing regular work 'on the side', or if you prefer, they are doing RE on the side. That (sadly) means they would place little value on your software. My perspective may be wrong though, this is Canada, and the parts of the US with decent RE incentives may be a good market for your software!

Having said all that, I would love something that can make diagrams quickly. It would sure beat my current practice of using Visio (looks good, but is slowwww). Of course, it will all depend on price and since I have very few customers that require diagrams my willingness to pay big bucks for it is limited. For shops that make lots of diagrams that's an entirely different story.

Possibly you can make multiple tiers of service, ie. XX diagrams a month for YY, or a price per diagram (if it's Web based this may be feasible), where the price goes down rapidly when volume ramps up. It's all about how the product is marketed.

Something to keep in mind is that successful software has a tendency to take over your life. It is a LOT of work to keep up with bug-fixes, updates, tech support, marketing etc. It can quickly become more than a full-time job. You have to ask yourself if that is what you want to do, preferably before you start selling your product, before there are customers involved.

I should tell you that my previous career was in making software. I used to own a series of small software businesses over the past 20+ years, so this is profession that is near-and-dear to me. Some of my work was custom software, the last 12 years was a single mass-market product. It started out as $19 shareware and ended up as a tiered product with a limited functionality version for $49 and the full product for $350. It did (and still does) very well.

-RoB-

[Renic Gunderson]

It's solar specific at the moment - and will likely stay that way (nice and simple).

Maintaining software does become troublesome quickly. I tend to produce a lot of custom tools that are just used in our office, and maintaining them for a small staff is time consuming (to say the least).

What programming languages do you know/use?

Hi Renic,

Sounds very interesting! Maybe you can post a few output samples to get some idea of what the software produces.

Is this specifically for the RE market? Or a general purpose electric diagram making program?

The reason I ask is because the market for RE is currently so limited. On top of that, almost all the RE pros I know don't make their living with RE alone. Most are electricians, doing regular work 'on the side', or if you prefer, they are doing RE on the side. That (sadly) means they would place little value on your software. My perspective may be wrong though, this is Canada, and the parts of the US with decent RE incentives may be a good market for your software!

Having said all that, I would love something that can make diagrams quickly. It would sure beat my current practice of using Visio (looks good, but is slowwww). Of course, it will all depend on price and since I have very few customers that require diagrams my willingness to pay big bucks for it is limited. For shops that make lots of diagrams that's an entirely different story.

Possibly you can make multiple tiers of service, ie. XX diagrams a month for YY, or a price per diagram (if it's Web based this may be feasible), where the price goes down rapidly when volume ramps up. It's all about how the product is marketed.

Something to keep in mind is that successful software has a tendency to take over your life. It is a LOT of work to keep up with bug-fixes, updates, tech support, marketing etc. It can quickly become more than a full-time job. You have to ask yourself if that is what you want to do, preferably before you start selling your product, before there are customers involved.

I should tell you that my previous career was in making software. I used to own a series of small software businesses over the past 20+ years, so this is profession that is near-and-dear to me. Some of my work was custom software, the last 12 years was a single mass-market product. It started out as $19 shareware and ended up as a tiered product with a limited functionality version for $49 and the full product for $350. It did (and still does) very well.

-RoB-

[Rob Beckers]

What programming languages do you know/use?

I'm most familiar with C/C++ and C++ Builder (a Borland quick-prototype tool). Over the years I've worked in Pascal, Fortran, Basic, Z80/8080/8086/PDP11 assembly, Perl, DBase-III, Clipper. Probably a few more I'm forgetting right now. For many projects it was simply a matter of "what language is it made in" and then learn whatever was needed...

-RoB-

[Renic Gunderson]

I haven't heard someone mention pascal in years :)

I'm most familiar with C/C++ and C++ Builder (a Borland quick-prototype tool). Over the years I've worked in Pascal, Fortran, Basic, Z80/8080/8086/PDP11 assembly, Perl, DBase-III, Clipper. Probably a few more I'm forgetting right now. For many projects it was simply a matter of "what language is it made in" and then learn whatever was needed...

-RoB-