PD Power Distribution
Import your LV cable schedule, place the rooms and risers on the drawings, send each cable through its riser and draw its route along the containment. The tool then lists the cables in every riser, room and containment section, with a section ID for your drawings, on a plan, an elevation and a 3D view, and in a printed report and an Excel export.
This tool is part of the Engineering Toolkit. Your projects are saved in your account, so you can come back to them from any computer.
v1.52.0 · Verified
BS 8519:2020 clauses 7.1 and 7.3 for the checks on life safety supplies (diverse routes for the primary and the secondary supply; a dedicated support system). The tool lists the cables in each section for sizing in PD Tray to BS 7671.
- 25,286automated checks of the drawing and routing on 24/09/2026, each against an independent calculation
- 331equipment names read from the schedule against the owner's naming rules
- 35,560lines of wording shown in the tool read against the house rules
- 13levels of the test project aligned by grid names within half a unit of the owner's own alignment
- Last reviewed
- September 2026
- Data basis
Show the full record
Cable overall diameters and weights are read from PD Cable Database, as in PD Tray. Steel wire armoured (SWA), aluminium wire armoured (AWA), FP200, FP400, FP500 and FP600 cables are matched by family, size and cores where their “Cable Type & Size” cell is written like 4Cx35mm² SWA/XLPE/Cu, with the family straight after the size. A cable not matched to a row has no overall diameter in the tool. It is sent to PD Tray as a Custom cable, where its overall diameter and weight are entered. Everything else is read from your cable schedule and drawn on your drawings.
- Validated against
01/11/2026 (1.52.0): where high-level and low-level routes share points, each set has its own sections, sized from its own cables; where a section becomes two, one or both parts take another ID. A cable with no riser chosen whose shortest route goes up a riser it does not start or end in counts in section fill but has no route length until one is chosen. “Use the shortest route” sets the cable’s risers. A “Save” button beside “Undo” saves, as the reminder does. On the Plans tab, a sheet whose file name names another level, or one not lined up, is noted.Show the full record
- 31/10/2026 (1.51.0): cable diameters and weights are now from PD Cable Database, as in PD Tray; the tool's copy is removed. Opening a project gives each cable its PD Cable Database diameter, or none where no row is matched. A note on the Overview tab and in the printed report lists each type whose saved diameter differs, with the number of cables. Saving to a file or your account, or pressing “Close this note”, removes the note. No result is shown until PD Cable Database loads. Its notes on figures to check are shown in the 3D view and printed report.
- 30/10/2026 (1.50.0): a route not yet drawn (a straight line) is now put in the set of the sheet shown, high-level (HL) or low-level (LL), when you add, move or delete a point on it, its group or its section. Before 1.50.0 it was put in HL whichever sheet was shown, so an LL section on its path was sized without its cable. Those low-level routes stay in HL: draw them again with the LL sheet shown. A drawing read from your account for a project saved before 1.49.0 is now shown only if it is the file saved with the project.
- 29/10/2026 (1.49.0): saving to your account overwrites a newer save only if you choose. Drawings in this browser are kept by project, not name. A drawing loaded from 1.49.0 on is shown only if it is the file saved with the project. Markups go into the plans PDF as you choose. The site's personal data export lists projects and drawings, not PDF files; erasure deletes all. A drawing that would take the site's total for stored drawings over its limit stays in this browser, not your account. A message states when sign-in has ended. The Cable Tray tool is now PD Tray.
- 28/10/2026 (1.48.0): fire alarm and emergency lighting panel supplies have their own Cable Tray runs. Riser tray widths can now be shown where a cable had no diameter in PD Cable Tray. 16 FP600 sizes match the Prysmian datasheet GB00; 9 changed, narrower or wider. 39 FP200 and FP400 sizes are added. Saved projects keep their diameters until a cable's type is set or the schedule is imported again. Diameters typed in earlier versions are cleared, so a section fill can change. The copied cable list now has "Source of the diameter" before its last two columns. Route lengths are unchanged.
- 26/10/2026 (1.47.1): after a plans or elevation PDF export, any notes are counted in the message and listed in Recent messages, which opens and stays open. Each kind of note is explained once, then its items are listed, by level for the plans. On the Elevation tab, printed Elevation and elevation PDF, an item fed twice in its room or riser floor, secondary feed listed first, may be drawn above the item on its other feed. Guide step 3 needs a drawing and a scale for each level with cable ends in rooms or risers. Route lengths and section fill are unchanged.
- 25/10/2026 (1.47.0): you can export the Elevation tab as a PDF drawing, with “Export the elevation (PDF)” in the Export menu. The drawing shows the tab's services, view, line style and order of floors and risers. You choose a size from A3 to A0 that holds it, or Automatic for the smallest. Each sheet shows every floor. A drawing wider than a sheet is split left and right. A message after the export names any text left off or printed over another. The Elevation tab, route lengths, section fill, the checks, the printed report, the plans PDF and other exports are unchanged.
- 24/10/2026 (1.46.5): on the Elevation tab, each riser floor's cable counts read LV, P or S, with the same numbers, and are drawn within the riser's outline, clear of its cables. P (primary feed) and S (secondary or other life safety cable) are explained in the key wherever they show; the key is printed below the Elevation drawing. Riser tray widths are shown only from PD Tray 2.19.2 or later. This website runs PD Tray 2.19.2 or later, so the widths are shown as before. Route lengths, section fill, the checks, the printed report and “Copy the cable list” are unchanged.
- 24/10/2026 (1.46.4): in a project edited outside the tool, the page no longer freezes on positions too large for the computer to hold. An unreadable position is dropped: an item, a route, or a room or riser outline returns to its automatic position, and a scale line is removed. A cable count that is not a number of 1 or more is set again from the cable type and size. Cable Refs for busbar levels from the schedule show with the characters they hold. Projects saved by the tool open with the same drawings, route lengths and section fill as in 1.46.3.
- 23/10/2026 (1.46.3): riser tray widths from PD Tray's calculation are shown in the Elevation tab and riser floor panel. Floor opening names are now allowed for where printed on plans PDF sheets, so some section IDs become short tags, and vice versa. Reference sheets whose alignment is not a set of numbers are shown as not lined up. The “Remove this sheet” question and hover text now say its areas marked to keep clear are deleted. Since 1.46.2, the plans PDF message about a moved name says “overlaps something else”. Other calculations, the printed report and “Copy the cable list” are unchanged.
- 22/10/2026 (1.46.2): areas marked with “Mark an area to keep clear” on the Plans tab are saved with the project, not printed. In the plans PDF, labels, the legend, the PD Power Distribution title block and the schedule of items may be placed over the drawing outside them, each label on a white rectangle. To keep the drawing's own title block or legend clear, mark it. Labels of items inside an area are stacked round it with leaders. The printed report ends with guidance and brand lines. Calculations, report files and the plans PDF of a sheet with no area are unchanged.
- 21/10/2026 (1.46.1): editing a rising busbar that stays in a riser keeps cable routes, and its points inside the riser on its levels. A tap-off outside the new “Busbar from level” and “Busbar to level” has no route length but counts in section fill. Deleted floor openings stay deleted. Steel and aluminium wire armoured (SWA and AWA) and FP400 2.5 mm² 3 core figures, 47 new SWA sizes included, match the Cable Tray tool's cable list. Saved diameters are kept until the schedule is updated or a cable's type and size is changed. The wording shown says “manually”. Calculations are otherwise unchanged.
- 19/10/2026 (1.46.0): route lengths through a level such as LG, a level out of number order or a numbering gap are not known until you confirm the place or enter the height, older projects included. The scale for every level is used on a sheet of another page size only once confirmed. Minus levels, two-place Locations and Riser cells not read in full are listed. At an Update, the schedule's riser is used; one chosen in the tool is kept, except for such cells in older projects. Imports stop at two possible columns per field unless only one has the template heading.
- 17/10/2026 (1.45.1): the tool's own program files are now sent only to a visitor signed in to an account that holds the Engineering Toolkit subscription. These are the JavaScript files that hold the tool's method: route lengths, section fill, the checks, the import and the report. A visitor without the subscription is refused and gets no part of any file. Before 1.45.1 these files could be downloaded without the subscription. A request from a page on another website is refused even for a subscriber. The calculations, the wording shown in the tool, the printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- 17/10/2026 (1.45.0): moving, turning or aligning an item moves only its own cables' ends at it. Moving a riser moves its items and only the old centre points of cables going up or down through it. The message after the edit names other cables with points left in place. Dragging a cable's floor crossing point moves no other cable's point. An item moved inside two or more room or riser outlines keeps its room. “Draw them on one line” leaves out cables of a different “Separate containment”. “Pick lines” and “Align items” now leave out PDF mark-ups. The calculations are unchanged.
- 16/10/2026 (1.44.0): renaming keeps an item's kind. After an import, Update or opening a project saved before 1.44.0, cables of types such as MICC or PH60 count as life safety until confirmed under “Errors and gaps”. This includes cables set to LV manually before 1.44.0. Section fill and BS 8519 checks can change. Supplies to FIRE PANEL, FA PANEL or ELDB items get their own line, not the BS 8519 sharing line. A changeover switch with “fire alarm” in its description now has BS 8519 checks. Changeover questions show under “Not checked yet” and in the printed report. Route lengths are unchanged.
- 16/10/2026 (1.43.1): route lengths were too short through a storey with no floor height above 0 m, or on a route with a riser and a link joining two levels. They are now not known, as are those with floor crossing points over 0.5 m apart. Those cables' length checks, within or over before, give no verdict. Items in their own riser now have drop allowances, so checks can change from within to over. Heights of 0 m or less are now refused. The box after “Send to a Cable Tray report” states what was sent. Test project check results are unchanged.
- 15/10/2026 (1.43.0): after an edit or Update import, a route not matching the cable is listed to draw again. Until it is drawn again or kept, the cable's length check gives no verdict. Routes drawn before 1.43.0 are tested; some whose cable an earlier Update import reconnected may be missed. Routes off their cable's levels are listed to delete, for cables through containment, or with both ends in one place (not fed from a rising busbar). For the latter, the route length can now be shorter, changing the length check figure. Listed routes are not counted in route lengths, sections or checks.
- 09/10/2026 (1.42.0): for changeover switches (ATS), ticked places are asked about again when any part of either feed's stretch there lies over 0.5 m from where it ran when ticked, and once if ticked on plans before 1.42.0. Feeds with no route, and an ATS with no pair of feeds, are listed under "Not checked yet". Feeds through a floor without a riser are now listed there. When the 3D view is square to a face, click a triangle beside the view cube to turn 90 degrees. Test project routes are unchanged.
- 08/10/2026 (1.41.0): the exported schedule and "Schedule template" have a header: Project, Document Number, Revision, Status, Date, Issued by and Contact. "Issued by" and "Contact" are your account's name and email. Items with a level but no room or riser can be placed on their level's plan. Rooms and risers deleted from 1.41.0 on stay deleted at an Update. At import, the visible sheet with the most cable rows is read. On the test project, the printed report, routes and route lengths are unchanged; the Word, Excel, CSV and text report files now include the busbar feed level sentence.
- 08/10/2026 (1.40.0): you can turn boards and loads with "Rotate items" and line them up with "Align items", as in Revit. You can run a route along picked lines and draw a section's cables on one line. On a riser floor of the Elevation tab, an item is drawn above its supply there, unless moved by hand. Import messages name the rows not read, and 3D view notes name the levels and items not drawn. The printed report changes only in the sentence about busbar feed levels, which is printed once. Routes, lengths and sections change only where you use these tools.
- 07/10/2026 (1.39.0): a cable can change riser and enter or leave its board through the floor. A cable ending at an item in its own riser needs no route on that level and has no drop allowance there; at a changeover switch, the check of the two feeds no longer lists that level as not checked. On the test project, six cables gain route lengths; no other length changes. In the 3D view, rising busbars have no end feed unit at 100, 500 or 800 A and no tap-off outlets marked; one of unknown rating is drawn see-through, not at 630 A.
- 07/10/2026 (1.38.0): an item named like PV ARRAY is now read as a photovoltaic (PV) inverter. With "BS 8519 applies here" ticked, fire alarm supplies sharing a run with voice alarm or emergency voice communication supplies now have a line (BS 5839-1:2025 clause 35.5). Where a rising busbar's feeding cable has no Level (fed to), choose the level of its feed position once; until then, that cable now has no route length. Otherwise, routes and sections are unchanged where no item is a PV inverter, battery energy storage system (BESS), cut-out or central battery, or has an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) upstream.
- 07/10/2026 (1.37.0): on a crowded plans PDF sheet, sections are labelled with short tags. The PD logo is on the plans PDF and Excel exports. In the printed report, the sentence about more than one supply is printed once, "routed" is now "with the route drawn", and empty "Earlier section IDs" and "Separate containment" columns are not printed. Help on labels and headings now also shows with the Tab key. On a phone, the side panel opens under the plan. In "Save to my account", the project box is now "Account project". The calculations, routes, section IDs and exported data are unchanged.
- 07/10/2026 (1.36.0): dragging a section's point no longer moves other cables' routes. A changeover switch's feeds no longer snap to each other's routes. A cable is now selected and in view after "Show on the elevation", "Show on the level ... plan" or choosing it from an item's panel on the Plans tab. The "Delete" button now deletes a selected route or area on the plan. An Update from the tool's export no longer adds an empty riser for one renamed in the tool. In projects already opened in 1.33.0 or later, the calculations, printed report, plans PDF and exports are unchanged.
- 06/10/2026 (1.35.0): one press of Ctrl+Z now takes back one change. With a tool on the Plans tab open, Ctrl+Z and "Undo" take back its last click and the tool stays open. The message after Undo names the change. After "Save as a new reference", later saves go to the new reference, even after Undo. The newest 20 copies of your projects are in the "Project" menu, under "Earlier copies in this browser". When the project is saved in another tab, "Keep this tab's copy" is now highlighted. The calculations, routes, sections, printed report, plans PDF and exports are unchanged.
- 04/10/2026 (1.34.1): on a phone, the row with the tabs and the "Undo", "Redo" and "Delete" buttons was wider than the screen, so the page could be moved sideways. The buttons are now shown on a line under the tabs when there is no room beside them. On a phone, the lines shown by "Show the parts" on the Sections tab now start at the left of the table, wrap within its visible width and stay in view when the table is scrolled sideways. The calculations, routes, sections, printed report, plans PDF, exports and the wording shown in the tool are unchanged.
- 04/10/2026 (1.34.0): the Plans tab shows one Align button, replacing "Align drawings" and "Align this sheet". With the small power, lighting or general arrangement (GA) sheet chosen in the Sheet box, it reads, for example, "Align the small power sheet". With the high level (HL) or low level (LL) sheet chosen and drawings on more than one level, it reads "Align the levels". If the project is saved in another tab or window, saving stops in the tab with the older copy until you choose which copy to keep. The calculations, routes, sections, printed report, plans PDF and exports are unchanged.
- 30/09/2026 (1.33.1): on the Projects tab of the account page, the wording shown to a subscriber with no project saved from this tool now states that "Save to my account" and "Open a saved project" are in the "Project" menu of the toolbar. They have been there since 1.30.0. The wording shown in the tool, the calculations, the routes, the sections, the drawings, the printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- 30/09/2026 (1.33.0): a section now runs from one junction to the next, and a cable that only crosses it no longer divides it. Lines of one service within 50 mm are joined only in the two cases on the Sections tab. A section ticked "Separate containment" is not joined with lines drawn near it. A joined section is given a typed identifier (ID), otherwise that of its longest part, and the other IDs are listed as earlier IDs. "Send to a Cable Tray report" sends the cable's "To" as the Description. No route is changed.
- 27/09/2026 (1.32.0): in the plans PDF, labels and title block now read the right way up and print at 7 pt or more on A3, labels have a white outline round their letters and are placed clear of each other, and a legend replaces the key. Each sheet has a schedule of its items. Exported files are now named as in other PD tools. With an Update from the schedule, the link to the saved reference is kept. Apart from these changes, the calculations, the routes and the content of the printed report and exports are unchanged; the served files matched the release and the page was read.
- 27/09/2026 (1.31.0): the Cables tab and the "Cable routes" table of the printed report and of the files from "Export the report" have two new columns, "Drop allowance (m)" and "Length check". The drop allowance is the total of the drops from the containment to the item at each end of a cable where no local run is entered, with the heights used in the 3D view; it is not measured, so it is never added to a route length. In the length check, the route length and the drop allowance together are compared with the schedule length, and a route length is now shown in red only where the two together are longer, with the Length check column showing by how much; before, a route length was shown in red where it alone was longer, so more route lengths can now be shown in red. No drop is allowed where a local run is entered or at a rising busbar, and on a level with no floor height entered, a drop from high level containment is worked out with the level taken as 4 m high and is marked with an amber tag. The box "Local run to the containment (m)" is now always shown in the panel of an item. A route length is now shown only where the route is drawn in full on plans that have a scale, so a cable with both ends in one place has none until then, and its "Route length (m)" cell in "Export the schedule (Excel)" is blank; before, its schedule length was given as its route length. A schedule length of 0 is now treated as not given, and in "Export the schedule (Excel)" a note such as TBC in the schedule length cell of a cable changed in the tool is now kept unless its length was changed there. With an Update from the schedule, the choices made for an item under "Serves", "Panel of", "Rating" and "Shape", and in the tick box "Double charger, which can have two separate supplies", are now kept; before, they were reset. Where a riser is given the outline and the position it has on the parent level or on a level already aligned, with "Align this riser on every level" or "Align every riser on every level", its outline on each other level now stays where it is on the building when the drawing of that level is aligned with "Only the drawing moves" not ticked, until the outline is moved or reshaped there; before, it moved with the drawing. In a project saved before 1.31.0, this applies once "Align every riser on every level" is pressed again on the parent level. The printed report has two new sections, "Primary and secondary feeds" and "Cables with both ends in one place"; every table in it is now also in the files from "Export the report"; Section IDs and cable, item and room references are no longer broken at a hyphen at the end of a line; and the heading row of a table is printed again on each page it runs onto. For a changeover switch set to business continuity or resilience, the wording now states that diverse routes for its two feeds are "recommended as PD good practice", and the wording on aligning a riser on every level now states that the riser "is given the outline and the position". Apart from these changes, how a route length is worked out, the routes, the sections, the check of the two feeds, the BS 8519 checks, the counts, the drawings, the plans PDF and the 3D view are unchanged; the served files matched the release and the page was read.
- 26/09/2026 (1.30.0): the buttons "Start again" and "My saved projects" are replaced by "Start a new project" and "Open a saved project" in a new "Project" menu, with "Save to my account", "Import a cable schedule (Excel)", "Import a project file", "Export the project file" and "Schedule template"; the buttons in the header bar are now that menu, the "Export" menu, "Print the report" and "Recent messages", and the bar is one row in a browser window 1280 px wide. After a project is cleared with "Start a new project", the window to choose the cable schedule of the new project is now opened at once. When another project is open and a saved project is opened, you are now asked first, with the choice to save the open one; before, the open project was replaced with no question and no "Undo". When the page is reloaded, the tab that was shown is now shown again, and on the Plans tab the same level is shown at the same zoom and scroll position. This card is now shown on the Overview tab and no longer on the other tabs. In the guide, opening the "Project" menu and opening the "Export" menu are now actions of their own. The message "There is no project open." is now shown when "Export the project file" or "Print the report" is pressed with no project open. In the reminder "Save your work", pressing "Save to my account" now saves the open project in your account at once, whether or not it is already saved there, and no panel opens; before, the save panel opened and "Update" or "Save to my account" had to be pressed in it as well. Apart from these changes, the calculations, the checks, the counts, the routes and their lengths, the drawings, and the words of the printed report and the exports are unchanged; the served files matched the release and the page was read.
- 26/09/2026 (1.29.3): a riser outline copied to the other levels with "Align this riser on every level" or "Align every riser on every level" is now counted as placed, so the riser is no longer listed under "Rooms and risers not placed yet"; a project saved before 1.29.3 is corrected when it is opened. On the Plans tab, each time the space bar is pressed, a selected board or other item is now turned a quarter turn anticlockwise on the plan and in the 3D view; pressing "Turn it a quarter turn" in its panel now turns it anticlockwise too, and pressing "Undo" turns it back. In the panel of "Save to my account", the project that a reference is filed under is now chosen in the list "Project", so pressing "Update" no longer files it under the first project in the list, and the panel still opens when the list of projects cannot be read. A drawing already stored in your account is now kept when the record of a new copy cannot be written, and after an error page from the server the message now ends "The request did not go through." The name of the tool in the header bar is now the main heading of the page, and on projectdesign.io the headings inside the tool are shown in the tool's own size, weight and colour. Several notes and messages, most of them on saving and exporting, were rewritten in plain UK English, and the note that begins "BS 8519 applies in this area" now quotes the words of BS 8519:2020 clause 1. The green for a pass, the amber for a point to check or a warning, and the grey for a neutral mark are now darker, so that any white text on them meets the 4.5:1 contrast that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 require at level AA for text of 12 px; this change applies only to the colours, not to any calculation, result, wording or layout. Apart from these changes, the calculations, the checks, the counts, the route lengths and the words of the printed report and the exports are unchanged; the served files matched the release and the page was read.
- 24/09/2026 (1.7.0 to 1.8.8): eighteen releases were published, each from the owner's use of the tool on project 26004 and checked live. On each build, 25,286 automated checks were run against an independent calculation, with the nine findings of 23/09/2026 (lines crossing a board on the level 11 elevation), which predate these releases. On the live site, a Cable Tray report was opened with its five cables, a two-page PDF was refused, and the list of saved projects, empty from 1.7.0 to 1.8.6, was corrected. The wording shown in the tool was read against the house rules on every build: 335 checks, no finding.
- 23/09/2026 (1.0.1): the first release on the site, from local version 0.75.0. Before it, a full scenario audit of the tool: 25,281 automated checks of the frame of each level, the aligning of drawings by grid names, by two points and by turning, the risers and rooms pushed apart on the elevation, the lines kept clear of boards, the room name leaders, the riser parts in the 3D view, the section IDs through route edits, and the 3D model, each against an independent calculation; 331 scenarios of equipment kinds read from the schedule; 35,560 lines of wording shown in the tool read against the house rules; every check is first given a known bad case and must catch it. The nine remaining findings are lines crossing a board on one level in crowded layouts, which do not occur in the owner's project. The owner walked the tool on his own 26004 project on 23/09/2026.
Scope and limits
- Each Project can be saved with new reference. Each Version can have one cable schedule, initially imported using the PD schedule template. With "Save as a new reference", a user can have several project versions, for example the consultant's design and a copy developed as the Stage 5 design.
- User can load to each Floor Plan a one-page PDF background drawing. HL (high-level containment) and LL (low-level containment) sheets are used to set the scale. All loaded drawings can be aligned. User has an option to also load the GA (general arrangement), lighting and small power drawings as a reference background, these will be aligned to the containment sheet with the Align button for each sheet, for example "Align the small power sheet".
- Drawings are stored in the browser they were loaded in and, when you save with "Store the drawings in my account too" ticked, in your account: 25 MB per drawing, 1 GB of drawings per account. Each saved reference retains its own copy, all within that 1 GB. The drawings are not in the file saved with "Export the project file".
- The 3D view is not a coordinated model. Heights are assumed. Levels line up only where their drawings are aligned with each other.
- Spacing and weight: cable run sections can be sent to PD Tray with "Send to a PD Tray report".
What's changedhigh-level and low-level routes that share points have separate sections, so some section IDs change. A cable with no riser chosen whose shortest route goes up a riser it does not start or end in has no route length until one is chosen. A "Save" button is next to "Undo".
- high-level and low-level routes that share points have separate sections, so some section IDs change. A cable with no riser chosen whose shortest route goes up a riser it does not start or end in has no route length until one is chosen. A "Save" button is next to "Undo".
- cable diameters and weights are now from PD Cable Database, as in PD Tray; the tool's copy is removed. When a project is opened, its cables are given PD Cable Database diameters; a note lists each type whose saved diameter differs. No result is shown until PD Cable Database loads.
- a route not yet drawn (a straight line) is put in the set of the sheet shown when you add, move or delete a point on it, its group or its section. Low-level routes shaped this way before 1.50.0 are in HL: draw them again with the LL sheet shown.
- saving to your account overwrites a newer save only if you choose. Drawings in this browser are kept by project, not name. Markups go into the plans PDF as you choose. Personal data export lists projects and drawings, not PDF files; erasure deletes all. The Cable Tray tool is now PD Tray.
- a Cable Tray report of a section has a run for each service its cables include, up to six. Each cable of the cable data is sent with the diameter and weight of its row. The panel of a section sent from 1.48.0 on lists what has changed since.
- after a plans or elevation PDF export, notes are listed in Recent messages, which stays open. On the Elevation tab, printed Elevation and elevation PDF, an item with its secondary feed listed first may be drawn above the item on its other feed. Route lengths and section fill are unchanged.
- from the Export menu, you can export the Elevation tab as a PDF drawing on A3 to A0 sheets, with every floor on each sheet, a key and the title block. Wider drawings are split left and right. The Elevation tab, route lengths, section fill and printed report are unchanged.
- on the Elevation tab, each riser floor's cable counts read LV, P or S, with the same numbers, and are drawn within the riser, with a key. Riser tray widths are shown only from PD Tray 2.19.2 or later. Route lengths, section fill and the printed report are unchanged.
- in a project edited outside the tool, the page no longer freezes on positions too large for the computer to hold. Cable Refs for busbar levels show with the characters they hold. Projects saved by the tool open with the same drawings, route lengths and section fill as in 1.46.3.
- riser tray widths from PD Tray's calculation are shown in the Elevation tab and riser floor panel. With floor opening names allowed for, some plans PDF section IDs become short tags, and vice versa. Route lengths, section fill, the checks, the printed report and "Copy the cable list" are unchanged.
- on the Plans tab you can mark areas to keep clear. Outside them, plans PDF labels, on white rectangles, may cover the drawing; those of items inside an area are stacked round it with leaders. Two new lines end the printed report. Calculations and plans PDFs without areas are unchanged.
- editing a rising busbar that stays in a riser keeps cable routes. Tap-offs outside a busbar's new from and to levels have no route length. Deleted floor openings stay deleted. SWA, AWA and FP400 2.5 mm² 3 core figures match the Cable Tray tool's cable list. The wording says "manually".
- named levels, levels out of number order, numbering gaps and scales across page sizes are confirmed or entered before lengths count. Minus levels, two-place Locations and part-read Riser cells are listed. Older projects' risers chosen for such cells can be replaced at Updates. Imports can stop at two columns per field.
- the tool's own program files, which hold its method, are sent only to a visitor signed in to an account that holds the Engineering Toolkit subscription. Before 1.45.1 they could be downloaded without the subscription. The calculations, the wording shown in the tool, the printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- moving, turning or aligning a board or load moves only its own cables' ends at it. Moving a riser moves its items and only the old centre points of cables going up or down through it. The message then names other cables with points left in place. Calculations are unchanged.
- renaming keeps an item's kind. After an import, Update or opening a project saved before 1.44.0, cables with a type such as MICC count as life safety until confirmed. Section fill and BS 8519 checks can change. Changeover questions show under "Not checked yet". Route lengths are unchanged.
- route lengths through a storey with no floor height above 0 m were too short and are now not known, with no length check verdict. Items in their own riser now have a drop allowance, so a check can change from within to over. Test project check results are unchanged.
- after Update imports or edits, routes not matching the cable are listed to draw again. Routes off their cable's levels are listed to delete, for cables through containment, or with both ends in one place (not fed from a rising busbar). For the latter, those routes no longer count in route length.
- changeover switches' ticked places are asked about again when any part of either feed's stretch there lies over 0.5 m from where it ran when ticked, and once if ticked on plans before 1.42.0. Feeds with no route are listed under "Not checked yet". Test project routes are unchanged.
- the exported schedule and "Schedule template" have a header: Project, Document Number, Revision, Status, Date, Issued by and Contact. Items with a level but no room or riser can be placed on their level's plan. At import, the visible sheet with the most cable rows is read. The printed report, routes and route lengths of the test project are unchanged.
- you can turn and align boards and loads, run routes along picked lines and draw a section's cables on one line. Items on riser floors of the elevation are drawn above their supply unless moved by hand. In the printed report, the sentence about busbar feed levels appears once. Routes, lengths and sections change only where you use these tools.
- a cable can change riser on its way and enter or leave its board through the floor. A cable ending at an item in its own riser needs no route on that level. In the 3D view, no tap-off outlets are marked on a rising busbar, and one whose rating is not known is drawn see-through, not at 630 A.
- an item named like PV ARRAY is now read as a photovoltaic (PV) inverter. Fire alarm supplies sharing a run with voice alarm or emergency voice communication supplies now have a line. Where a rising busbar's feeding cable has no Level (fed to), choose the level of its feed position once; until then, that cable now has no route length.
- on a crowded plans PDF sheet, sections are labelled with short tags, and the PD logo is on the plans PDF and Excel exports. In the printed report, the sentence about more than one supply is printed once. Help on labels and headings now also shows with the Tab key. The calculations, routes and section IDs are unchanged.
- dragging a section's point no longer moves other cables' routes, and a changeover switch's feeds no longer snap to each other's routes. A cable is now selected and in view after "Show on the elevation" or "Show on the level ... plan". In projects already opened in 1.33.0 or later, the calculations, printed report, plans PDF and exports are unchanged.
- one press of Ctrl+Z now takes back one change; with a tool on the Plans tab open, Ctrl+Z and "Undo" take back its last click and the tool stays open. The newest 20 copies of your projects are in the "Project" menu, under "Earlier copies in this browser". The calculations, routes, sections, printed report, plans PDF and exports are unchanged.
- on a phone, the lines shown by "Show the parts" on the Sections tab now start at the left and wrap within the table's visible width, and the "Undo", "Redo" and "Delete" buttons are under the tabs, so the page fits the screen. The calculations, routes, sections, printed report, plans PDF, exports and wording shown in the tool are unchanged.
- the Plans tab shows one Align button for the sheet chosen in the Sheet box, replacing "Align drawings" and "Align this sheet". If the project is saved in another tab or window, saving stops in the tab with the older copy until you choose which copy to keep. The calculations, routes, sections, printed report, plans PDF and exports are unchanged.
- on the Projects tab of the account page, the wording shown to a subscriber with no project saved from this tool now states that "Save to my account" and "Open a saved project" are in the "Project" menu. They have been there since 1.30.0. The wording shown in the tool, the calculations, the printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- sections now run from one junction to the next, and lines of one service within 50 mm are joined only in the two cases on the Sections tab. A joined section is given a typed identifier (ID), otherwise that of its longest part. "Send to a Cable Tray report" sends the cable's "To" as the Description. No route is changed.
- in the plans PDF, labels and title block now read the right way up and print at 7 pt or more on A3. Each sheet includes only what the Plans tab shows on its level, with a legend and an item schedule. Exported file names begin with the saved reference name. The calculations are unchanged.
- the Cables tab, the printed "Cable routes" table and the "Export the report" files have two new columns, "Drop allowance (m)" and "Length check". A route length is now shown in red where it plus the drop allowance exceeds the schedule length. With an Update from the schedule, the choices under "Serves" are now kept.
- the buttons "Start again" and "My saved projects" are replaced by "Start a new project" and "Open a saved project" in a new "Project" menu. When another project is open, you are now asked before a saved project is opened in its place. The calculations are unchanged.
- pressing the space bar or "Turn it a quarter turn" now turns a selected item a quarter turn anticlockwise on the plan; before, pressing the button turned it clockwise. A riser outline copied with "Align this riser on every level" is now counted as placed. The green, amber and grey marks are now darker.
- in the room of a changeover switch (ATS), and its riser on the level of the switch, the check that begins "Both supplies to" is no longer shown for that switch. The panel "Primary and secondary feeds" now reads "should be separated", as in BS 8519:2020 clause 7.3.
- in the 3D view, the first tap-off outlet on a rising busbar is now 763 mm above the floor from 500 A and 865 mm below 500 A: the heights in the Schneider Electric Canalis KSR catalogue. Notes and guide steps now match the tool and BS 8519:2020.
- a busbar in a riser is now drawn in the 3D view as a rising busbar, to the Schneider Electric Canalis KSR catalogue sizes (100 to 1000 A). Each busbar has a new "Rating" list, used only for the 3D view. The printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- on the Overview tab, the cables under "Cables with both ends in one place" are now grouped, with the connections to check first. The button "Passes through the floor at a hole…" now reads "Add a floor opening for this cable". The printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- the supply to a fire alarm, voice alarm, emergency voice communication or emergency lighting panel is taken out of the BS 8519 checks, as BS 8519 gives no recommendations for installations to BS 5839-1, BS 5839-8, BS 5839-9 and BS 5266-1 (BS 8519:2020 clause 1). Each load and UPS now has a "Panel of" list.
- only the wording shown in the tool has changed. For a changeover switch (ATS) that serves life safety or other critical systems, the paragraph on the 120 minute fire-rated enclosure now reads "shall be separated"; before, it read "must be separated".
- each changeover switch now has a "Serves" list: life safety, other critical systems (BS 8519:2020 clause 3.6), or business continuity or resilience, not life safety. A cable to or from a switch serving life safety or other critical systems now counts as life safety, whatever its service in the schedule. The route lengths are unchanged.
- the controls of the earlier links method are taken out, because cable routes are now the only method. The Risers and links tab is now called Risers and rooms. A project saved with links still opens. The calculations, the route lengths and the section IDs are unchanged.
- a cable is now shown as "Routed" only once its route is drawn on every level it passes; until then, one with its riser chosen, or no riser needed, has the new state "Route not drawn yet". The route length of a cable set to "no riser, through the floor" now includes the floor height.
- a double-click on the Elevation tab now opens the board editor of the board under the pointer, and deletes the route point under the pointer on the line of a selected link. In 1.23.0 these double-clicks did nothing. The calculations, the printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- a cable's route length is now the route drawn on the plans, with the riser floors, a floor it passes through and the local run at each end. It is shown once the route is drawn on every level the cable passes and each of those levels has a scale.
- boards and equipment are now drawn to size: on the plan, each board, changeover switch, UPS, generator, transformer, cut-out and EV charger has an outline of its standard size, and in the 3D view each has its shape. The plan exported as a PDF shows the outlines. The calculations are unchanged.
- with an Update from the schedule, only the fields changed in the tool are now kept as your changes; the schedule's other revisions are still taken. Where a cable reference is repeated, each row now has its own cable, named C1, C1 (2) and so on. The calculations are unchanged.
- the warnings no longer list what has been settled in the tool, such as an item put in a room by hand. The width check is removed; a section's cables can be sent to the Cable Tray tool with "Send to a Cable Tray report". The calculations are unchanged.
- the messages on moving a floor opening now say whether it moves on both levels or one. A cable between two levels again goes through a riser where the route starts or ends at its own board inside that riser's outline and neither board is in that riser, as in 1.19.3.
- a double-click on the plan now deletes the route point or corner under the pointer, on a cable, a section, the ticked cables or a room or riser outline. In 1.20.0 these double-clicks deleted nothing. The calculations, the printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- floor openings are now round: on the plan an opening is a circle at its true size, at least 300 mm across. Where both levels' drawings are the same sheet size and scale, an opening moved on one level is moved on the other too. The calculations are unchanged.
- the panel of a section now names its two ends in the direction of supply: "It runs from" the end the cables are fed from, "to" the end they go to. Before, a section could read the wrong way round; the calculations and the exports were right.
- "Start again" is harder to press by mistake. You are now asked first, with the choice to save, and the project is cleared only once you tick that you want to clear it. Pressing "Bring it back" restores the cleared project, even after the page is reloaded.
- the top of the Plans tab is two rows shorter. Once the sheet shown has a drawing, the Sheet box and the drawing buttons are folded away, and are opened and folded with "Show the drawing buttons" and "Hide the drawing buttons". On a level with no drawing, all are shown.
- drawing a route works again: from 1.9.3, no more points could be added with "Draw its route" after the first click. The search box above the plan now lists boards, loads, rooms, risers, sections and cables as you type. Choosing a result opens the plan at its level with the item selected.
- in the check of the two feeds of an ATS, the gap is now the typical gap along the stretch, for example "about 0.21 m apart for 7.5 m". Before, it was given at the closest point, which beside a crossing or a joint could read "within 0.03 m". Nothing else changed.
- the two feeds of an ATS are now checked in its own room; before, feeds side by side in a large plant room were not reported. Only the final connection is left out: the part of each feed within 2 m of the ATS, and the final rise into the ATS riser.
- feeds into a changeover switch are now shown as primary (blue) or secondary (red), and other cables as life safety (red) or LV (charcoal). The two feeds of each ATS are now checked for separation (BS 8519:2020 clauses 7.1 and 7.3): places where they run within 1 m or cross are marked in red.
- a route point dragged on the plan now snaps to a board, a riser, or a nearby point or line of another route. A section's panel now lists the cables beside the whole of it, within 0.3 m, with a button to join the ticked cables to it. Nothing else changed.
- some cables on a section can now have their route adjusted on their own: tick them and press "Adjust the route of the ticked cables only". On the plan exported as a PDF, room and riser names not moved now print at the top left of their outline. Nothing else changed.
- the word "(pinned)" is no longer shown in riser and room names. A board or load name can now be moved on its own: double-click it on the plan, then drag it. The plan exported as a PDF shows moved names where they are, and boards and loads now print above the routes.
- a cable is now drawn on a level it only crosses. A cable's route on the Cables tab, in the report and exported schedule now reads, for example, "AB2-014 to R14 (B2), then riser R14, then R14 to A0L-024 (0L)", in place of the tool's own link numbers.
- the "Line on the elevation" part of a section or cable panel names its two boxes, Line shape and Line style, each starting at "as on the Elevation tab", and names the stretches it applies to by their two ends (for example "from AB2-014 to R14 on level B2") instead of the tool's own link numbers. Nothing else changed.
- a floor opening can now be made in two ways: select a section or cable, press "Passes through the floor at a hole" and click the hole on the drawing; or right-click the hole, choose "A cable passes through the floor here", tick the cables and press "Make the floor opening here". Nothing else changed.
- a floor opening can now be made at a drilled hole: right-click the hole on the upper level, tick the cables and press "Make a floor opening here for the cables ticked". Floor openings are listed on the Risers and links tab, as a schedule of penetrations to be fire stopped.
- when a schedule is imported into an open project, the changes an Update would make are now listed before anything is changed, with "Apply the update" or "Cancel". When a board is placed outside any room and the room number typed already exists, that room can now be moved to the point.
- on the Risers and links tab, the riser and room lists each have a search box and can be sorted by their headings. While a room number is typed, the name of an existing room with that number is shown, with "Show it". The Distribution tab is now a table.
- each cable's panel now has "What this cable connects", where the board it is fed from and the board it feeds are chosen from a list. With an Update from the schedule, changes made in the tool to a cable, and cables deleted in the tool, are now kept.
- a panel that lists cables now opens wider, up to 600 pixels, with the reference, From and To of each cable on one line. Its width can be set with a grip on its left edge, and a double-click on the grip switches between wide and normal. Nothing else changed.
- a reminder to save is now shown every 15 minutes while the project has changes not saved in your account, with "Save to my account", "Not now" and "Stop the reminders", and a choice of 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes or 1 hour.
- every cable panel now has a comment box and a tick "A change to the original design". The Cables tab has filters "With a comment" and "Design changes", and cables with a comment can be marked with "Highlight". The exported schedule has columns PD comment, PD design change and PD comment date.
- the panel of a selected section now lists "Other cables along this section", nearest first. Tick the ones that run this way and press "Follow this section with the cables ticked": each is given the section's path, and the rest of its route is kept. Nothing else changed.
- a cable with both ends on one level no longer goes up one riser and down another to reach the far end: where no link joined the two risers on its own level, that link is now added. The drawing panel on the Plans tab is taller. Nothing else changed.
- a board or load can now be moved with the right-click menu on a plan: "Move a room, riser or board here" also lists the boards and loads of the level. A board is put on the point clicked, and its routes move with it. Nothing else changed.
- the four export buttons are now one "Export" button with a list. In "Align drawings" the two buttons now read "Mark this level as checked, next level" and "Close the wizard, changes kept (Esc)". On the Elevation tab, a line leaving a board is now drawn round a board stacked under it. Nothing else changed.
- in "Align drawings", the tick "Only the drawing moves" now says to use it when the risers are right on the building and only the drawing under them is out. With "Move a room or riser here" on a pinned room, you are now asked "Unpin it and move it here?". Nothing else changed.
- the top of the Plans tab is tidier: each label is on one line with its box, the file name and its note share a line, with "Move it to" and "Remove this sheet" on a line of their own, and the zoom buttons and key are on the line below. Nothing else changed.
- "Set the scale" shows its two ways as two boxes side by side, both shaded: "1. From a dimension you know", marked as the one waiting for your clicks, and "2. From the title block". One Cancel serves both. Nothing in the calculations changed.
- "My saved projects" lists the account's projects again. From 1.7.0 the list came back empty, because the code that added the account total to the answer returned nothing. Nothing else changed.
- a PDF with more than one page is no longer loaded; the message names the page count and says to export the sheet on its own as a one-page PDF. The page box beside the file name is removed. Sheets already loaded stay as they are.
- on the Plans tab, "Move it to" now lists other levels as well as this level's other sheets, and a sheet can be taken off a level with "Remove this sheet". "Align drawings" has a new tick, "Only the drawing moves", for when only the drawing under the risers is out.
- "Align this riser on every level" and "Align every riser on every level" now work from a level with no drawing: on every other level without one, the riser is given the same outline and position. A building with typical floors can be set up on blank sheets and the drawings loaded later.
- "Set the scale" names its two ways as options 1 and 2: from a dimension you know (click its two ends on the drawing and type the length, as before), or from the scale in the title block. Both were there; the first read as plain text beside the second. The "Move it to" box is narrower. Nothing else changed.
- the Sheet box on the Plans tab is now shown before any drawing is loaded, so you choose the sheet (HL or LL containment, GA, lighting or small power) before pressing Load. A sheet loaded as the wrong one can be moved with "Move it to".
- each level's Sheet box now lists HL, LL, GA (general arrangement), Lighting and Small power. A GA, lighting or small power sheet is drawn at its own size and placed with "Align this sheet". A right-click on the drawing now opens "Move a room or riser here".
- a selected section has "Send to a Cable Tray report": the section is saved in your account as a Cable Tray report with its cables filled in. Once drawn from its PDF, a sheet reappears in about a second in the same browser. Your account now holds 1 GB of drawings, not 300 MB.
- on the Plans tab, a GA, a lighting and a small power sheet can now be loaded on a level with a drawing, with "Load a reference sheet (PDF)", and shown faint under the HL or LL sheet, so the containment can be placed against walls, luminaires and outlets.
- the plan markup PDFs now look like markups: the sheet is washed out to 30 %, the routes are heavier, and a PD title block at the bottom right states the project, level, set, reference, date and tool version. The drawing limits are 25 MB per drawing and 300 MB per account.
- a drawing already in the account is not sent again on the next save (the account keeps the file name with spaces made into hyphens, and the check read that as a different drawing). Nothing else changed.
- the report can now be exported as Word, Excel, CSV or text with "Export the report"; the drawings and 3D pictures stay in the printed report. With "Export this plan (PDF)", the sheet shown is exported as a markup, and with "Export the plans (PDF)", every level with a drawing is exported in one PDF.
- each level can now have two drawing sets, chosen in the Sheet box: HL (high-level containment) and LL (low-level). In the 3D view, HL routes are at the floor height less 300 mm (never under 2700 mm) and LL routes 100 mm above the floor. Section IDs now show the set, for example CS-B2-014-HL-001.
- the drawings can now be stored in your account: with the tick in "Save to my account", on by default, every drawing loaded is stored, up to 40 MB each and 600 MB per account. When a project is opened from the account, its drawings are loaded on any computer.
- the project chosen when saving is now shown on the account page. With a reference already saved, "Save to my account" has "Update", which replaces it, and "Save as a new reference", which keeps both. "Print the report" opens a window of its own, without the site's header, menu and footer. Nothing else changed.
- Undo, Redo and Delete have moved out of the file toolbar into a group of their own at the right of the tab bar, so the editing buttons sit apart from the file, account and print buttons. Nothing else changed.
- the two project-file buttons read "Export the project file" and "Import a project file". Nothing else changed.
- in "Save to my account" the box under Project is now called Reference name, and the list of saved projects has a Reference column. Two buttons are renamed: "Export the project file" (a file on your computer, without the drawings) and "Import a project file". Nothing else changed.
- the scale can now be set from the title block: type the ratio and the sheet size it is stated for, and a 1:100 A1 drawing saved as an A3 page is read as 1:200. When a drawing is swapped for another sheet size, the old scale is dropped and a message says so.
- the cards, the walk, the picker's list and the messages the tool opens now sit in front of the site's header, which stays at the top of the page as you scroll and was covering them. Nothing else changed.
- when you press "Save to my account", you are now asked which project the schedule belongs to, from the same list of projects as on your account page, or a new one. The saved copy is listed under that project in the PD Power Distribution card of the account page.
- the tool is now called PD Power Distribution, and its address is projectdesign.io/power-distribution/ (the old address forwards to it). The "Show me how" walk, the question boxes, the board card and the messages have their own styling on the site again.
- on the account page the Power Distribution Routes projects are listed above the reports, where they are seen without scrolling, and the Saved date is shown in UK time (a project saved after midnight showed the day before). Nothing else changed.
- the projects saved from the tool are listed on the account page as well, under My Projects, each with an Open link; until now they were listed only inside the tool. After "Save to my account" the list of saved projects opens, with the project just saved marked, so the save is seen. Nothing else changed.
- one drawing can now be used for several levels: with "Use this drawing for other levels", the levels ticked are given the drawing with its scale and alignment. A riser can now be aligned on a level with no drawing. The site pop-ups, which had failed since 1.0.0, open again.
- a cable can now be sent through a different riser from the plan: drag the blue square at the end of its drawn route away from its board into another riser outline. The cable's card on the Plans tab now has "Change the riser", as on the Cables tab. Nothing else changed.
- when no level has a drawing scale, a message inside the 3D view now says so and says to set the scale on the Plans tab; before, the view was blank. The cable picker on the Plans tab has dark lettering. The calculations are unchanged.
- the Find box and the cable picker on the Plans tab are readable again; before, under the site's own styling, the Find box font was larger and the picker lettering was faint. The calculations are unchanged.
- the tool header and the tool card on the Tools page now show the same version number. Until now the header showed the tool's own number (0.75.0) and the card the plugin's (1.0.5); from this release there is one number. Nothing else changed.
- a drawing can now be loaded on the site: the two files of the PDF reader are now .js files, not .mjs. The buttons in the tool have dark lettering again, and a button that cannot be pressed yet is shown faded. The calculations are unchanged.
- the lettering on the two buttons shown to a visitor is now white. The rule in 1.0.3 named the buttons as if they sat inside the tool's wrapper, and they sit on it, so it matched nothing. Nothing in the tool changed.
- the address of every file loaded for the tool now changes with the plugin version as well as the tool version, so a browser that has an older copy fetches the new one. Nothing in the tool changed.
- the tool's header on the site had white lettering on a white band, because the colours the stylesheet uses were left behind when it was scoped to the tool. They now travel with it. The calculations, the wording shown in the tool, the printed report and the exports are unchanged.
- the plugin could not be activated on the site, because its internal names began with PDPR, which the PD_Projects plugin already uses. Every internal name now begins with PDRT. Nothing in the tool changed.
- this is the first version on the site, for Engineering Toolkit subscribers. You can import an LV cable schedule, place rooms and risers on the drawings and draw cable routes along the containment. The cables in every riser, room and containment section are listed with a section ID, in the printed report and Excel export.
