ETAP & Tech Soft 3D

Innovative French company ETAP, formerly ALPI has more than 30 years of experience developing software for the design of electrical installations. Since its founding in 1986, the company has expanded to 100 employees across EMEA, with subsidiaries in Germany, Spain, and Burkina Faso.

ETAP’s software simplifies electrical design for customers tackling a wide variety of projects, including new and existing residential buildings, commercial facilities, airports, cruise ships, tunnels, street lighting, and other aspects of infrastructure.

“Anywhere someone needs to design an electrical installation, we want to be able to help them do it,” said Ilker Gueler, Managing Director of ETAP. “Our goal is to assist with every aspect, from low to high voltage calculation to 2D and 3D design.”

Historically, it was difficult for customers to get an end-to-end solution for their electrical design needs that touched all these areas.

“You’d have a design system, and next to it, some electrical calculation software,” said Gueler. “You’d have to create your project in the first software package, and then recreate your work in the other one. We wanted to provide one interconnected environment that eliminated that duplication of effort.”

ETAP has achieved that aim with Caneco ONE, a comprehensive software suite which offers users all the tools they need to design, operate, and test their electrical installations. The suite is capable of handling all the critical functions around electrical design, including 2D/3D modeling, low to high voltage calculation, schematics, and the exchange with BIM models in Revit.

Within the suite, Caneco Implantation is the product that allows users to create 2D/3D implantation plans, diagrams, cable routing, and project documentation. To develop this critically important piece of the suite, ETAP relied on the AutoCAD OEM software development platform.

A Custom Application Built on a Proven CAD System

AutoCAD OEM is a platform for rapidly building applications, using the world’s most proven CAD system as its foundation. The AutoCAD OEM development platform includes the AutoCAD engine and wizards that can be used to configure and customize your application.

Developing Caneco Implantation on AutoCAD OEM offered ETAP several important advantages. For starters, it allows ETAP to appeal to customers that have existing workflows that revolve around AutoCAD, providing those customers with a familiar environment.

“With Caneco Implantation, we can give customers enhanced electrical engineering functionality without requiring them to learn a completely new type of software or make a sharp break with the way they currently operate,” said Gueler. “This gives them a smooth transition from a product they already know, to an enhanced level of electrical engineering – with minimal disruption.”

At the same time, developing their own, unique application with the AutoCAD OEM platform allows ETAP to reach customers that aren’t traditionally AutoCAD shops or who use a different CAD system as their standard.

“Since the product Caneco Implantation on AutoCAD OEM is compatible with our Caneco ONE license management system, we’re still able to sell into those companies who aren’t Autodesk houses but want the enhanced functionality we provide, because no Autodesk license needs to be run separately.” said Gueler. “So, interestingly, using AutoCAD OEM helps us reach both the customers who traditionally use AutoCAD, and those who don’t.”

Gueler concluded, “The simple fact is, when you’re working on electrical installations, you shouldn’t have to enter your data in multiple different software packages. Using AutoCAD OEM to develop Caneco Implantation has allowed us to complete our comprehensive Caneco ONE software suite that solves that problem. This is a unique selling point that sets us apart from the rest of the competition and allows us to enter new markets. And the response from the market is that we are going in the right direction.”

Industry:

AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction); Building Contractors; Electrical Contractors

Challenge:

Designing electrical installations requires specifiers and contractors to use several different applications for electrical calculation and design. Non-integrated software environment forces customers to enter same information multiple times in different software packages. Strong 2D and 3D design necessary for proper implantation of wiring, cabling, and other electrical elements.

Solution:

AutoCAD OEM allows software developers to address market needs not served by existing solutions by building custom engineering applications.

Results:

Develop a full suite that includes a product for implantation of electrical material in 2D or 3D, as well as automated cable routing. Save customers time with a single integrated environment for their electrical engineering needs that eliminates duplication of effort. Appeal to both customers who traditionally use AutoCAD in their workflows, and those who do not, increasing market reach of product.