Trindera Engineering is a top-tier provider of electrical and control systems engineering and consulting services. They offer a full spectrum of services "from the utility down," including switchboards, motor controls, power distribution systems and building systems across the municipal, industrial and commercial sectors.
Currently Trindera employs twenty-five people, about half of whom are engineers. Its engineers are licensed in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, California, Arizona, Alaska, Texas and Wyoming. The firm’s well-established reputation for customer satisfaction and superior service quality is exemplified by its ISO 9001:2008 certification.
Angie Hester, CAD department manager at Trindera, has been working with Design Master Electrical since the company first purchased the software in 2005. "We rely on Design Master Electrical mostly in our commercial division, because of the complexity of those designs," says Ms. Hester. "When we first started doing commercial projects we wanted to work as efficiently as possible. The owner of our company learned about Design Master, and based on a demo decided to give it a try. We’ve been using it ever since."
"Trindera now does the design-build of all the electrical systems and equipment for all kinds of commercial work, especially larger projects like nursing homes, churches, condominiums, as well as unusual jobs like girl scout camps and golf course clubhouses," adds Ms. Hester. "These projects involve pulling in lighting, receptacles, lots of equipment, and so on. Design Master helps streamline our design process so we can accomplish more work in less time, with greater accuracy and improved team coordination."
"Design Master is definitely much faster and more efficient than conventional methods of pulling equipment and other details into the design," Ms. Hester continues. "It also helps enormously anytime we need to make major changes and/or last-minute changes to meet client needs."
"Design Master also supports the quality review of a design. It inherently structures the design process in a way that helps both designers and engineers make sure they’ve included all the information they need and have all the bases covered by the time the design is done. It’s also easier to spot errors and fix things that don’t look right," says Ms. Hester.
Ms. Hester explains: "Design Master helps streamline the overall project flow because, compared with traditional manual methods, it guides the engineers to provide more information to the designers and drafters. This is especially helpful for designers who are new to electrical engineering projects, because the software ensures they get a full overview of how things work. Using Design Master is a great way to train new people. It ensures they understand what they need from the engineers and what they need to put into the design, across all phases of a project.
"For example, Design Master guides you on how to size things properly, and brings up key questions like what code will be used, what information is needed from mechanical and architectural perspectives, and so on. The software helps you recognize what you need as the design moves along. New hires understand the whole electrical engineering design process after they do a project or two with Design Master.
"Thanks to Design Master, the whole design/build process at Trindera is easier to coordinate and the overall project outcome is better. This is true for two reasons. First, the designers know what’s going on with their projects – we’re all on the same page. Second, Design Master enables designers to shoulder more of the total work of doing the design, which frees engineers to use their time in other ways."
