How can you document your electrical design process more effectively?

First, the customer defines what needs to be designed. For example, if it is a project for a residential facility, the electrical engineering project must be synchronized with other projects that affect that facility. In general, it is mandatory to use IEC or ANSI standards, depending on the area. The same applies to the electrical diagrams so that it is easily recognizable by the users/contractors of the facility.

This is true. You need to established a minimum requirement of documents needed by which clients or end-users. Are they within your company (Internal) or are they customers who bought your products or services (External). A matrix for specific sets of documents for each specific clients is very essential. Standardization for these line of work will help you maximize your time and focuses your efforts to meet your clients' demands. Siting an example: A machine assembler will need a complete set of an electrical design drawings & an I/O list from the Electrical Design Engineer for them to build a machine (Internal). Once commissioned to a manufacturing production line, only a Schematic Electrical Drawing is appended in the machine (External).

Documenting your electrical design effectively is crucial to ensure clarity, accuracy, and ease of communication throughout the design and construction process. With a clear and comprehensive schematic diagram that illustrates the entire electrical system. Use standardized symbols for components and connections. Effective documentation is essential for project success and for future maintenance and modifications. It helps reduce errors, improve communication, and ensures that your electrical design can be understood and implemented accurately.

it should be documented with comprehensive details to understand the scope of design, which is beneficial for the end user or any client. who can be a stakeholder? define your goal and purpose.

Yes I agree documentation should be standardized for clarity of thought and ease of use and it should be based on the audience. For internal use it should be more technical and calculations based. For external use should be output based with easy to understand and illustrative schematics for ease of troubleshooting.Machine's advanced and correct usage documentation made should be easy to understand by any Customer both techy and non-techy.

The importance of consistent numbering & naming of documentation expands beyond personal organizational of your files. Consistent numbering & naming is critical to revision control, especially during the design phase when project scope is being defined and bill of materials are estimated/quoted. Recently I worked on a project where equipment was ordered based on a set of drawings & stakeholders confirmed we were working from the same set based on the date. Unfortunately it was later discovered additional changes had been made and the revision date of the drawings was not updated properly each time. In the end poor revision control resulted in a significant financial impact due to change notices that had to be implemented.

One point that makes documentation easy to read is avoiding at any cost "forward references": Never use concepts, definitions or results that will be defined or reported further in the document. In addition, this forces to define a clear document organisation and a rigourous sequencing.

Consistent naming and numbering should be one of the highest priorities in electrical design. Motor A and B should not be mixed up with MOTOR 1 and 2. You may think it's not a big deal, but when there is confusion or stress during an emergency, those little things can prevent significant mistakes. Moreover, a consistent process helps to bring trust in people who will use your design.

In summary, consistent naming and numbering systems provide clarity, organization, traceability, and standardization across projects and workflows. They enhance communication, facilitate collaboration, support scalability, and improve overall efficiency and productivity.

I have seen and worked with schematics that use a ladder style numbering index to number components as they appear within the schematic based on the row number they fall upon. While this is a very schematic method, it is extremely difficult to work with if you need to add components. For example a relay that falls on row 220 will be CR220, however if you need to add another relay in series, it falls in the same row and you have to start using odd numbering schemes like CR220a or CR2201. This method will also cause problems if you need to restructure the layout of the schematic, as all component numbers will then need to change to correlate with their location on the schematic. A better method is to not tie component tag names to location.

Clear and accurate schematics are indispensable in electrical design as they play a key role in understanding system layout, ensuring safety, enabling design validation, facilitating communication, supporting compliance, and enhancing system maintenance and modifications. It provides a valuable visual representation and documentation of the electrical system, enabling reliable operation. In one of my recent projects, we have faced difficulty due to misunderstanding some documents related to interconnection schemes, and end of the day it caused a delay in project completion. So I would say clear and accurate schematics are one of the most important attributes in Electrical design.

Any changes during testing and commissioning stage must be updated and drawings revised accordingly, and client is informed, aware and approve the changes to avoid any dispute in later stages.

Redline drawings, known as mark-up drawings or record drawings, are an important aspect of electrical design and construction projects. They play a crucial role in documenting changes made during the construction or modification phase. All the activities performed during testing and troubleshooting should be a part of the change management procedure and the procedure needs to be approved by all the stakeholders of the project well before starting the activity.

One way to document testing is to use the original schematics and highlights the findings which is the Red line mark up, which to be submitted to the designer to prepare the as built documents

For a high volume electrical design documents, it is very essential to have a reliable, large-capacity storage devices (e.g. hard disk drives) on your computer system for the safe-keeping of these documents. A-must-have alongside with this back-up systems, is the good 'ol UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). It will prevent your precious saved files as well as your current electrical designs in-progress from the damages incurred by power fluctuations and outages.

One thing I have found helpful also is to use comment reply sheet to track the changes and summerise the change from revision to another

In the past, I was working with an engineering firm. I was part of a team of electrical engineers working diligently on a critical project. Responsible for designing the electrical systems for a large industrial facility which involved complex schematics, equipment layouts, and power distribution plans. One fateful day disaster struck. A power surge caused a catastrophic failure in the server room, wiping out all the digital files related to the electrical design project. Months of hard work, countless hours spent fine-tuning the design, and crucial deadlines were now in jeopardy. Fortunately, the team had implemented a robust version control system and maintained regular backups of their design files. This proved to be a lifesaver.

Proper procedure to updating and supersede outdated document shall be in place to prevent other party using outdated document or drawing in their design. Suggest to put supersede stamp on outdated document and place it in different folder with proper label in the server.

In order to keep our Documentations and experience updated, we should bear in mind that they are executionable on sites. Designs are perfect when ends perfect on sites.

When writing design documentation, I try to keep in mind that I don't write for myself only and I don't write for now. Documentation must contain everything for other people and for my future self to understand. When writing, I have all the context in mind and I may be tempted to skip the introductions. But others may not have the context, and in years from now, I may not remember that context.

Please remember opportunities for patenting novel solutions. This proactive approach will allow you to protect intellectual property, contribute to the organization's innovation, and generate additional value through patent licensing or sales.