Where to Start

This is a loaded question. Christian Holbrook, Chief WireCAD Guru has written a white paper that poses some of the questions you will need to answer before starting any design. Assuming that you have an idea of how to present your project based on those that will be reviewing it, let's start by creating a new project.

Probably the first thing you want to do in WireCAD is to create a new project (XL users will skip this step). What constitutes a project and what is contained within the project is subjective. Here are some guidelines:

1.	Projects are autonomous. One project cannot connect intelligently to another

2.	There is only one (1) current project.

3.	Projects can contain any number of drawings, systems and cable numbers.

4.	Projects cannot, without user intervention, duplicate cable numbers.

Projects can be moved, but there should only be one active copy of the project for data integrity purposes. This means that if you have the project on your laptop and desktop, decide which one is the active (read: most accurate and up-to-date) project. Use the other one for viewing purposes. Make the permanent changes to the active copy.

WireCAD does not have a facility to maintain which of a given project has the most recent changes and is therefore the most accurate. Please build a business process to manage your workflow.

Once you have created a new project you will need to add drawings to the project. Use the File>New Drawing function.

Once you have a new drawing, you will need to add equipment to the drawing. Use the Tools>Equipment>Equipment Library function.

Once you have added equipment to the drawing you will need to add cables. Use the Tools>Cables>Add Cables function.

You may also want to check out some of the different work flows that you can use to complete a project