CablePilot

Why CablePilot

Electrical departments draw the same information many times: the schematic, then the terminal plan, the cable list, the wire list, the BOM, the cabinet layout, and a drawing set for the customer. CablePilot keeps one source of truth, the schematic, and generates everything else from it, live. Change a device in one place and every list, cross-reference and drawing follows.

• Standards, with sources. IEC 60617 symbols, IEC 81346 designations, IEC 61082 documents, IEC 60204-1, cable sizing to IEC 60364-5-52, IEC 61439 assemblies. Every rule and table value cites its clause; values not yet verified are listed openly in docs/to-verify.md.
• Your files stay yours. One documented JSON file per project that diffs well in Git; PDF, DXF, CSV and XLSX out, DXF in. No account, no cloud, no lock-in.
• Honest, optional AI. Bring your own Claude, OpenAI or Gemini key. Every change it proposes is a preview you accept or reject; every claim shows its source; electrical values are labelled as suggestions. The app is fully usable without it.

Features

Area	What you get
Schematic	Multi-page projects, IEC symbols, automatic designations, orthogonal wires with junctions, potentials, single-line and multi-line pages, black boxes and connectors, macros, a symbol editor
Devices	A coil and its contacts as one device, contact images, cross-references (8.3 or 08-E3), parts from the library, nested assemblies
Wires and reports	Wire numbering by potential, page and column, sequence or rung; terminal diagrams, cable, wire and pin lists, BOM, legends, nameplates, markers, all live
Checks and revisions	A continuous electrical rule check with one-click fixes; issued revisions, a generated cover sheet and revision comparison
PLC	Racks and cards as devices, addresses by your scheme, an I/O overview, tag lists for TIA Portal and CODESYS
Sizing and warehouse	Breakers, contactors, overload relays and cables sized from the schematic, proposed from your own stock list
CAD workspace	Ribbon, command line with the usual aliases, typed coordinates, object snaps, window and crossing selection, layers
Cabinet layout	Devices at real size on DIN rails and ducts, a suggested layout, dimensions, side view, duct fill, wire lengths, 3D view, drilling DXF
Panel Designer tools	Insert a symbol on a wire to split it, auto-wire, ladder pages (NFPA 79 style), project history with daily backups
ERP link	Items and stock over REST or OData, pick parts from the warehouse, send reservation requests back (docs/erp-link.md)
Drawing set	Cover sheet with sheet index and revisions, data sheets, legends, terminal and cable pages, layout, BOM, in your frame and title block, as a vector PDF

Three complete sample projects ship with the app (a conveyor, a pump station and a 110 V DC battery charger), so every feature can be tried without your own drawings. See them in the short videos.

Install

The first release is being prepared. When it is out, download the file for your computer from the latest release:

Computer	File
Mac with Apple Silicon	CablePilot-mac-arm64.dmg
Mac with Intel	CablePilot-mac-x64.dmg
Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)	CablePilot-win-x64.exe
Linux (64-bit)	CablePilot-linux-x86_64.AppImage

The builds are not signed yet: on a Mac open the app the first time with right-click > Open; on Windows choose More info > Run anyway. Until then, run it from source (below). Then follow Getting started.

Every feature is free for 30 days on each computer, with no account. After the trial CablePilot asks for a licence key (CP1-…), one per user or seat: see Pricing (prices are not set yet; request a key in GitHub Discussions). Your projects and exports stay yours and stay readable without a key.

Run from source

npm install
npm run dev

Command	What it does
npm run typecheck	Strict TypeScript for main, preload and renderer
npm test	Unit tests (Vitest): connectivity, numbering, reports, checks, file format, i18n, ERP, AI tools
npm run test:e2e	Builds the app and drives it with Playwright, one test per workflow
npm run check:licenses	Lists every dependency's licence; fails on GPL or AGPL
npm run check:library	Every file under library/ has its source and required fields
npm run dist	Packages the app for this computer into dist/ (electron-builder)
npm run build:site	Regenerates the website in site/ from the docs, the roadmap and the library

Releases are built by .github/workflows/release.yml when a v* tag is pushed.

Documentation

• Getting started · How numbering works · Project file format
• ERP link · Cabinet layout exchange · Demo walkthrough
• For contributors: brief, roadmap, decisions, progress, values to verify, website. All in docs/.

Contribute in 30 minutes

1. Fork the repository and run npm install and npm run dev (5 minutes).
2. Pick something small:
   • fix or add an Italian text in shared/i18n/it/ (the test in tests/i18n.test.ts tells you which are missing);
   • add a library data file under library/ with its source and run npm run check:library;
   • add a unit test for a function in shared/;
   • improve a text in scripts/site/texts.mjs and run npm run build:site.
3. Run npm run typecheck && npm test (2 minutes).
4. Commit and open a pull request. By contributing you agree to the contribution terms in LICENSE.md section 7 (see CONTRIBUTING.md). Issues labelled good first issue are a good place to start.

Questions, training and custom features for companies: GitHub Discussions and the page for companies.

Status

Milestones M0 to M7 and the first two parts of M8 are done (see docs/roadmap.md and docs/progress.md). Release 1 is next: installers, the end-to-end tests of every workflow and the launch checklist. Phase 2 adds electronics (KiCad file formats).

Folders

app/main (Electron main), app/preload (typed API), app/renderer (UI), shared (model, connectivity, file format, reports, checks, i18n), library (symbols, parts, macros as data), samples, docs, site (the generated website), scripts, tests, e2e, build (app icon).

Licence

CablePilot is source-available, not open source: the code is public so you can read it, check what it does with your drawings, build it and contribute.

What	Licence
The app (this repository, except below)	CablePilot License 1.0: source-available, free 30-day trial with every feature, then a licence key
library/ (symbols, parts, terminals, cables, frames, title blocks, macros as data)	CC BY 4.0
shared/fonts/	SIL Open Font License 1.1
Your drawings	Yours: open JSON format and PDF, DXF, CSV and XLSX exports, usable without the app and after the trial

Versions up to commit 01271c2 were released under the Apache License 2.0 and keep that licence. Copyright Mojtaba Amini; see also NOTICE. Third-party licences are listed in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md, generated at build time.