Building on their extensive Capital product capabilities for the design, manufacture, and service of electrical/electronic (E/E) systems Siemens‘ acquisition of Radica Software Sdn. Bhd., based in Ipoh, Malaysia expands its Capital™ E/E systems software portfolio. This new cloud-based E/E solution named Electra™ X brings a modern, browser-based electrical design SaaS solution to SMB and individual electrical designers with the mobility, and collaborative benefits of the cloud.
Radica Softwares‘ Electra® Cloud was developed specifically with E/E systems design acceleration, automation, and collaboration in mind. The secure cloud-based tools‘ UI and design canvas were designed specifically to be intuitive such that engineers could hit the ground running with little to no training. With time-saving automation, many of the mundane and repetitive tasks in E/E systems including tagging, reuse, and annotating are reduced or eliminated through what Radica describes as smart automation.
What is smart automation?
Electra Cloud starts with a comprehensive set of built-in IEC, JIC, and NFPA-compliant electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic symbol libraries as well as reuse symbols that can be located per spec and then quickly dragged and dropped directly onto the design canvas. Once symbols are placed, historically time-consuming tasks including circuit wiring, splitting, tagging, numbering, and cross-referencing along with other organizational tasks are automated. According to Radica, the tool’s existing user base spanning more than 50 countries worldwide has reported seeing a 3X to 5X reduction in design time using their solution.
In addition to automation the cloud-based E/E solution provides users with a fully customizable team-based dashboard with permissions that can be set with team members, clients, vendors, and stakeholders. Another unique and powerful capability of the tool is its JavaScript object-based API. This capability lets users insert scripts and formulas that customize the tool to their specified workflow requirements and automate tasks that reduce development cost and shorten design cycles. The tool also generates project documentation including bills of material (BOM), terminal listings, and panel layouts.
What‘s my take?
With this acquisition, Siemens removes the financial barrier to entry for SMBs and independent engineers to a modern automated SaaS-based E/E systems design platform. With a modern UI and intuitive operations, automation and customization, this solution enables smaller companies to create electrical schematics quickly. As a browser-based platform users also have the ability to review and address designs remotely with stakeholders and partners and make changes that are automatically synchronized.
Additionally, Electra™ X fits naturally into Siemens’ open digital business platform Xcelerator that aims to accelerate digital transformation by providing companies of all sizes a comprehensive and integrated portfolio of engineering software, services, and an application development platform access to the digital technologies that will help transform the way SMB’s and independent engineers compete, collaborate and connect.
