As a fire alarm designer who has pretty much simplified fire alarm design, I’ve decided to make a handful of super hero symbols that resemble fire alarm symbols for autocad.
Understand that I can’t really use all of their symbols, and I can’t really figure out how to make them all relate.
So I stuck with the basic symbols.
Pull station = The Flashish looking
Smoke Detector = Supermanish looking
Waterflow = Wonder Womanish looking
Strobe = Captain America-ish looking
Horn Strobe = Green Lanternish looking
Duct Detector = Dare Devilish looking
Smoke/Heat Combo – Dead Poolish
Tamper SWitch – Thor Hammerish looking
……And a few more
Of course the symbols do not look exactly like the actual character’s logos. That would just be weird. It’s kind of nice having them resemble the real deal.
Feel free to use these when messing around. These are not to be sold because… Well you know. Neither of us is Marvel or DC.
These autocad block for fire alarm design are also not NFPA 170 (and likely ahj) approved symbols. These do not come with any guarantee of passing plans review at all. They do come with guarantee that I doubt they will pass but I won’t bet on that.
They are however in their own blocks and can be dropped right in your autocad template for messing around.
Enjoy.
Here’s some more free fire alarm blocks for autocad
If you’d like to see more of my work go to firealarmdwg.com For a large bundled set of Fire alarm symbols and blocks. About ten years of work.
Comment below if you have any requests or suggestions.
I have been in the fire alarm industry for many years and layout all my systems for drafting by others. I recently set out to get up to speed to draft my own systems so Im not outsourcing this step. There are several options like AlarmCAD etc but looking for a lower cost and simple alternative to get up to speed quickly and curious if you can share. I’m interested in your input and or products that would allow me to start drafting my own projects. I look forward to your response.
Thanks
At the lower section of the article I offer a look at firealarmdwg.com
Which is my other website where I sell tools I have created for fire alarm design.
Mostly blocks and templates, which help several people in the industry to design.
It used to be free and I used to get lots of thank you messages for it. But at one point I put lots of focus into making it better, and downsizing the file to reduce bloat.
and I have been updating my tools frequently ever since.
Well long story short I ended up putting way too much effort into it, to give it away for free.
but I do sell what I have for a very low low cost.
I’ve seen prices of anything close to my tools, and they are shockingly high. So I keep my design tools inexpensive and easy to use.
I have instructions with them that will help launch some people in the right direction to design on their own and begin making their own tools.
While competing products prevent you from learning, mine help some people learn what they have not learned yet.
I can’t really say what it will do for you in particular because I do not know what you already know and how you learn or how fast.
but my instructions have helped quite a few begin their own work and using my blocks for start until they grow their skills on their own.
Yes i saw your tools for sale. I have extensive fire alarm system layout experience but have others draft to create the plan for submittal. I would like to eliminate that step and draft it myself. I don’t have CAD experience but work with Visio and some Illustrator. I was curious if you recommend getting CAD or nanocad what version etc along with your tools and see if i could pay you to help me accelerate getting up to speed with a session or 2 or to consult me through getting things underway.
As much as I would love to help with this, I am neither licensed or certified for training people with drafting software.
Nor do I plan to be in any near future time.
I myself do run an outsource fire alarm design company, and am connected with two other outsource design companies and am very busy in my field.
I would never have the time to do this type of work or inclination to imagine a fee for such services.
Ok. Is NanoCad a good option or go with AutoCad with your tools?
NanoCAD,Bricscad and progecad all work, just function is different. like in autocad you double click some things and get an editor. In bricscad the editor just looks different, nanocad you will get more of an options menu where you can see all text in the block. you can edit the text right there and not even have to use an editor. Though nanocad has an editor, they have found a text editor that doesn’t destroy the blocks. Kind of cool, unless you wanted to edit the block. Then it’s a hassle. Well a learning curve.
Autocad works the best. This was all made with autocad. and then edited to work with other tools. I did have to remove some of the original features I had a couple years ago since they didn’t work in other design software, and I just haven’t the time to show people how to make them work.
If you get anything other than autocad, I also bundle items that work in excel, which tend to give issues in nanocad and proge cad. That will be the voltage drops and battery calculations. They do work, and they work well, but you have to be pretty proficient in the use of the software to get them to work properly . So I have made excel alternatives. The excel battery calculations work great in the field on your phone or tablet, when estimating a bid to keep you in check on how many boosters you will need and if your selected panel can handle that many devices. Well for me it does. Not sure if others have found this yet.
Ok. Thank you for your input.
I have not had any complaints.
I can send you some basic cad files and see if you can get them to work.
Or , can you use tables? and can you use files with attributes ?
Can you get all of these files to work?
Free Fire Alarm Symbols