The primary focus of Promis.e is as a tool for drawing electrical schematics. This includes schematics for control, power, single lines, wire diagrams, terminal plans and even pneumatic and hydraulic control. It also has functionality for layout and physical design of the control enclosures. BUT It is not a simple drafting tool. Every wire, every connection, every component, and every piece of information about those items, and the different ways you may need to combine that information is maintained in a database. Connection information, cross referencing, technical specifications, ordering and pricing information, mounting layouts, and component labels and nameplates -- all of this is encompassed by the software and provided in the form of drawings, lists, reports and databases. And all of this output, because it is computer-based, can be provided with greater speed, efficiency, and accuracy than was possible previously.
Originally, people used CAD software for layout and schematic drawings and word processors and spreadsheets to generate lists and other documents. This was an improvement in efficiency over pen and paper, but a person still had to study printouts looking for errors, doing manual cross references, consulting catalogs and spec sheets, and making changes with a pencil before going back to the computer for another round of editing.
With Promis.e, the software is intelligent enough to take over some of these formerly-manual tasks. For example, when creating a schematic, the software can prompt a unique ID tag for each symbol so that user doesn't have to keep track of these assignments. The software also automatically cross references the location of related symbols in real time so that the user instantly knows where each ID is used. Wire numbers can be assigned automatically, again freeing the user from having to remember which numbers have been used. Should the user attempt to re-use an existing ID or wire number, error-checking functions immediately flag the situation. The Promis.e software is able to provide this intelligence by grouping work into projects.
With Promis.e, all the drawings and lists associated with a given job are associated with a project that was created for that job. To better organize the work, projects can be subdivided into installations and locations. Each component and wire, therefore, belongs not only to a project but also to a specific part and sub-part of the project.
The drawings are individual DWG or DGN files, but all of the information is also held in the Promis.e project database. One advantage of the project organization is that the software can perform cross referencing across a great number of pages. The software knows which pages are related to the same job and therefore which ones to scan automatically for the existence of similar signal and symbol IDs. This allows Promis.e not only to fill in cross referencing information on the drawing but also to make this cross reference a "hot link" which can be selected to jump to the referenced page.
Another benefit of projects is that reports can be generated automatically for an entire project or for a portion of a project. And the portions can be released for purchasing and construction somewhat independently.
The software allows information contained in a project to be presented in different forms. Parts lists, panel layouts, wiring diagrams and terminal plans are all different ways of seeing the control system optimized for different purposes.
Because Promis.e has an integrated parts database, the user can assign part numbers to each symbol. This makes it possible for the software to automatically generate a variety of lists, such as bills of material, based on what is in the schematic.
Panel layout drawings show the physical mounting positions of control system components. By accessing the parts information contained in the schematic, Promis.e can prompt layout symbols, one after another, for each item in the schematics. All the user has to do is select a position on the panel drawing for each symbol. The ID and part number for the symbol are automatically carried over from the schematic.
In a similar fashion, wiring diagrams can also be generated from the schematic. These are diagrams that show all the connections for each component. The software places this connection information automatically based on an analysis of the schematics.
The software can also generate graphical terminal plans automatically by analyzing the schematic drawings and producing drawing pages that show each terminal strip and connection information for the individual terminal blocks. Cable plans can also be produced.
Another aspect of documentation is language text. This is a function that allows the text on control system designs to be displayed in different languages according to the intended audience. The user can make a single setting that displays these strings throughout the project in the desired language or languages.
Along with all of the functionality already sited for the day-to-day task of the electrical engineering groups, Promis.e has a wide assortment of additional modules and features that go beyond what is usually required in an Electrical drafting tool.
There are a number of methods in Promis.e that can be used to automatically generate drawings.