Electrical layout software Advice?

[Whoey]

Wondering if anyone has any suggestions for electrical schematic/mapping software. I basically want to map out all my wiring in my apartment and possibly redo a large chunk of it (most is without ground wires!). Everything is run through channels and junction boxes that are accessible in each room and I already have a cable runner.

I have read in several places that it's a bad idea to run CAT5/network/phone cabling in with the regular electrics. It would be nice to clear out of sight some of the various network/phone cables running all over the place if possible. Anyone give me any advice on this as well?

Before you say hire a licensed electrician, I did some advanced wiring in my electronics course in High School before I studied Electronics Engineering Technician in College (and worked for several years in electronics manufacturing). We did have an electrician in at one point, and he said it'd be expensive to do where it was basically something I can do myself (his words). I have experience using CAD and 3D Studios and similar in the past, but would like to stick to something basic. I'd rather not do it all on paper as it makes it more involved to remap.

This is something I'm feeling needs to be looked at soon as some wiring has gone bad and needs replacing. It is unfortunate that our building was constructed before the new standards were implemented leaving me stuck with non standard plug and switch boxes in the walls... something I dread if I need to replace, as it will probably be a very messy fix. 

anyone?

[Sparky415]

The only advice I can give you is to keep the Data cables away from the mains cables
I try to keep my runs atleast 2'/50cms apart obviously this isn't always possible 

I'm not sure I can give you any other advice as your regulations and wiring will be different to over here 

[Whoey]

well, where phone/cable channels exist vs existing electrical I have no idea. I guess that means sharing is out. thanks!

[BlueDot]

Don't know how practical it is for your situation, but the more you can go wireless, the fewer wires to deal with.
My brother spent a lot of money running extra coax & CAT5 cable to every room while they were building his house, then ended up with wireless router and some kind of streaming cable TV box. 

3D CAD seems like a good option for this.  Basic sketches should suffice?  Easily changed later to keep it accurate.

You definitely want to have good grounds...

[Whoey]

Well, the whole place is a pretty basic setup in general. There are only 4 breakers for the entire 2 bedroom apartment.

1 x10A is most of the lighting in the whole place... and the TV/Fridge (they are on the side of the room originally meant to be lamps/lights only I guess) This one is guilty of causing the power to cut quite frequently if we have a couple big appliances plugged and running simultaneously (we try to make an effort to not do this!)...
1 x 25A is kitchen vitro ceramic/oven
1 x 16A is kitchen microwave/dishwasher
1 x 16A is washing machine and the rest of the alternate plugs throughout... this is the one most of the PCs run on.

There is a separate conduit for phone/tv cable, but it only reaches the living room, and with our recent upgrade from ADSL to Cable internet, the new router is there, whereas I have a phone line that extends from there running along the trim into the office where our PCs are. So I now have even more CAT5 cables running back and forth... as it is, I have 1 that runs from the office to the TV PC, one that runs from the router to the switch here in the office, and then the various PCs, NAS etc in the office from the switch. Wireless would be doable I suppose, but I would not get full speed with my current wifi cards. I suppose I could setup some wifi routers in a bridge mode to connect the two areas of the house where PCs are... guess the old netgear will be coming back out of storage! This will probably also solve the issue of the multiple wired connections required on our av unit (TV/Bluray/PVR PC/console...)

[Caress of Steel]

Just a quick thought on CAT5 and other low voltage cabling...its almost always impossible to avoid 110/220v electrical wiring in any environment....one key is to avoid any low voltage cabling being in parallel with the electrical...induction is your enemy.  The "twist" in the CAT5 and similar networking cables is supposed to "shield" out unwanted noise/interference but that doesn't guarantee anything.  I do a lot of structured cable installations and a lot of audio and video cable installation in commercial environments...even in new construction...you can't avoid the electrical...you can however cross its paths at 90 deg/right angles and avoid a lot of issues.

John

[Whoey]

Still sounding like a bridge is my best bet with regards to the networking. There are only existing media (with no electrical) channels to the living room from the entrance. Past that, it's all external running along the trim and up and over the door frames... as it is now. Part of me would rather have the hard line rather than wireless as the speed on wireless is about half our broadband actual connection... I suppose I could look into some new 802.11n wifi cards since the new router is capable. I should think about replacing my 10/100mb switch with a 10/100/1000mb one since everything on it has GB network cards...

Any way, electrical sorting is more of a priority atm as we have the network running fine albeit a tad unsightly.