A Novel CAD Tool for Electric Educational Diagrams

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2019-02Department
Ingeniería Mecánica y Diseño Industrial; Ingeniería InformáticaSource
Applied Sciences 2019, 9, 810Abstract
Computer-aided design (CAD) is a technological revolution, very powerful and with
large applicability to problem solving. It is essential in many different disciplines ranging from
architecture to education, medicine, physics, or gaming. In this work, we propose a novel CAD
tool, called CADDi, to assist in the design of electric diagrams in the educational context. We are
applying the theory of formal languages to create WDLang, an easy-to-use, highly expressive,
unequivocal, and correct programming language for designing electric circuits. This programming
language is the cornerstone of CADDi, which automatically generates the equivalent ladder diagram
(explains the circuit operation) to the programmed circuit, offering additional features that allow
analysis of its functionality in an interactive way. It also offers a graphical interface to directly
design ladder diagrams, or to modify the automatically generated ones. The existing electrical
CAD tools are either very simple, e.g., for creating good-looking diagrams with no functionality,
or too complex, for professional systems design. CADDi is extremely useful for learning purposes.
It assists users on how to generate ladder diagrams, and on understanding the behavior of electrical
circuits. Additionally, it serves as an assessment tool for self-evaluation in the translation from
wiring diagrams to ladder ones. In order to make CADDi highly accessible, it was implemented as a
web page.