JWC Environmental reaps the benefit of moving to AutoCAD Electrical

Ever hear of the Muffin Monster?  No, it’s not a kitchen experiment gone horribly wrong, but a dual-shafted wastewater grinder produced by JWC Environmental of Santa Ana, California. Started in 1973, JWC Environmental invented the first dual-shafted wastewater grinder that they eventually named the Muffin Monster. Today they manufacture over 200 versions of grinders and screens for sewage and sludge processing.

To design their grinders, JWC Environmental relied on several different software platforms including VersaCAD, ExpertCAD, and Pro-E. To consolidate their solution, they worked with local Autodesk reseller, KETIV, and made the move to Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical, and AutoCAD Electrical. The story of that move is documented here. 

We pick up their story on the Electrical side of the house. As for any machinery, JWCE had to create control schematics to operate their machines. They originally used VersaCAD to create their electrical schematics, but learned quickly that, with Autodesk, they had access to AutoCAD Electrical for this purpose. There were several advantages JWCE saw in using AutoCAD Electrical for their electrical schematic design, including

-        BOM generation

-        Convenient cross referencing between parts

-        Ability to quickly move, shift and add components

The JWCE team appreciated the built-in intelligence that AutoCAD Electrical brought to the table, especially being able to break and reattach wires to components. It was a more productive, less error-prone method than basic 2D schematic drawing.

Consistency is also important to JWCE and, with AutoCAD Electrical, they now create standard templates for their schematics. As more of their team moves to AutoCAD Electrical, the plan is to modify the current manual transfer of BOM information into their ERP system, and eventually make the process automatic.

As the team ramps up on learning the product, Rob Sabol, Director of R&D at JWCE, sees nothing but faster design creation, iteration, and productivity over the coming months as the team moves to using AutoCAD Electrical as a standard for their schematic design.  KETIV has been instrumental in support and training classes to bring their engineers up to speed on the Autodesk products, especially AutoCAD Electrical. Standardization is important to Rob’s team as it builds consistency, a repeatable process and makes for easier modification of designs.  We will certainly  follow-up with Rob and JWCE towards the end of the year to see how the experience has been for them.

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Comments

[sap project management]

This is great and far from being a gadget. I can see a bright future for visual codes in CAD drawings (as soon as we will be able to use standardized format)