cofaso MurrCAD is a software tool which is used for designing of decentralized machine concept projects created with Murrelektronik’s I/O systems. It was developed on cofaso platform as an add-on module for Murrelektronik.

cofaso MurrCAD is a software tool which is used for designing of decentralized machine concept projects created with Murrelektronik's I/O systems. It was developed on cofaso platform as an add-on module for Murrelektronik. It provides the state-of-the-art engineering tool to Murrelektronik application engineers for creating the most efficient solution for their customers.

Until the year of 2021, Murrelektronik engineers had been using Microsoft Visio to draw the IO-Link projects. The slowness of running speed, needing to do lots of manual interventions and creating the part lists and bill of materials manually were the main reasons of why there was a need of another solution. In the context of digitalization, the target in the MurrCAD software project was enabling Murrelektronik to increase the efficiency and to improve the productivity through the electrical CAD software cofaso and cofaso eSchematic.

Due to its superiority in the field of electrical engineering design, cofaso already had the know-how and technological background to develop such solution as MurrCAD. The application engineers at Murrelektronik needed a software solution to design their projects to connect actuators and sensors of a system first, then generate the part lists and bill of materials automatically from the same design.


What was done and developed in the software?

 creating a module in cofaso as MurrCAD
 creating symbol libraries (visual symbols, front views) for devices
 connection point definition of the devices
 development of automatic cable feature
 creating the macro libraries for devices
 after selecting a part for a device: the part number and technical characteristics of the product is shown automatically on the designing page on the symbol of the device
 after selecting a part for a cable: the part number of the cable is shown automatically on the designing page on the cable
 creating part libraries for devices and cables
 defining the cables
 development of a configuration feature for the configurable products
 generating the part lists and bill of materials automatically from the designed project
 development of the automatic part selection feature: to select the wanted product in a second in thousands of parts
 development of smart PDF feature
 entering directly to Murrelektronik Online Shop after clicking to the device in the PDF printed project

Next generation of electrical engineering with cofaso

cofaso platform enables users to design their electrical engineering and mechatronics (low voltage, power distribution and PLC automation) projects, panel layouts and generate intelligent reports automatically such as terminal plan, cable plan, terminal connection plan, wiring list, device list, part list, bill of materials and benefit a lot of automatic features. The system enables to do the error and consistency checks automatically as well.

When we go a few steps further in the engineering, the schematic configuration module cofaso eSchematic of cofaso platform comes our way. cofaso eSchematic's concept is to standardize the circuits and create a knowledge database and also configure the schematics instead of drawing them over and over using by symbol libraries (IEC, NFPA etc.) or macro libraries. Especially the features which were developed for configuration of the schematics in cofaso eSchematic have provided a basis to develop MurrCAD solution.

Object orientation was the key to define and create intelligent symbol libraries of Murrelektronik devices. So that the system could learn which connection points can be connected and which cannot. Creating intelligent E-CAD symbols provides also a solid basis to plan later on next generation features in MurrCAD. The target behind of these features is to automate most of the control circuit designing process and to reduce the projecting time and cost even more also for the machine manufacturers.

cofaso MurrCAD was developed by cofaso engineers and is now used by many application engineers in Murrelektronik to create the optimum solution with their I/O systems for their own customers.

Murrelektronik GmbH

Murrelektronik is a global leader in the development, manufacture and distribution of automation solutions. The products can be divided into four core lines: power supplies and control, interfaces, cables/connectors and IO systems. Murrelektronik serves with more than 3000 employees in 50 countries in the field of industrial automation.