Siemens Brings SaaS to Electrical Design Software

As the amount of electrical content in products rises, there’s a pressing need for accessible, affordable electrical design software—a market Siemens Digital Industries Software is trying to court with a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering.

Siemens’ Capital Electra X, part of its Capital electrical design software platform, is a SaaS offering aimed at small teams or individuals who require affordable, yet still powerful electrical design solutions. The Capital Electra X pitch is to offer users sophisticated electrical design capabilities with lower cost of ownership and shorter time-to-productivity compared to traditional on-premises platforms. The reason: Standard enterprise electrical software design solutions are usually expensive and overly complex, which puts the capabilities out of reach for many small- to- mid-size companies, smaller design teams, or even individual electrical engineers.

The lack of accessible electronics design software creates a functionality gap given that more and more types of products feature sensors along with an expanding roster of other electronics. Take cars, as one example. Estimates are that there are roughly 1,000+ chips in a non-electric vehicle and twice as many in an electric car.

Even run-of-the-mill consumer appliances like washing machines, televisions, and refrigerators are now loaded up with electronics.

“Many products across multiple industries are differentiated via increasingly sophisticated electrical content, driving rapid adoption of commercial electrical design tools,” said Frances Evans, senior vice president, Integrated Electrical Systems, for Siemens. “A browser-based SaaS solution designed for ease of use, rapid adoption and with minimal training requirements will enable them to create electrical schematics easier and faster, using any device, for a low monthly fee.”

Capital Electra X is based on technology Siemens acquired from its acquisition of Radica Software last summer. The software was built from the ground up to support design team collaboration, touting features like a team-based dashboard, fully customizable access control, a real-time collaborative editor, and built-in version control. Team members stay in the loop via desktop and app notifications, and there’s a built-in chat system so stakeholders can easily communicate at every project stage.

With Capital Electra X, electrical engineers can simply drop symbols next to another, and the software automatically wires them to the next sequential wire without any sort of manual intervention. Radica officials claim that the auto wiring feature enables design teams to be up to three times faster with fewer errors compared to manual wiring, and the functionality works for both JIC/NFPA and IEC60617, horizontal and vertical circuits.

For a brief introduction on Capital Electra X, check out this video.