Sag Tension Software 1

[racobb]

I am looking into the purchase of sag tension software. To date seems the options are:

SAG10
ETAP
PLS-CADD

Appears that Sag10 might be the best option. The full PLS-CADD version is a bit pricey, so I would like to get responses from folks who have experience with either of these or all three.

I have demos of the SAG10 and ETAP although the ETAP demo has no sag/tension capability. Am waiting on a demo of PLS-CADD.

Also is there a package out there that I have missed?

Thanks in Advance!

Alan

 

[dpc]

We use SAG10 - mainly because the cost is lower than PLS-CADD. It is an old program and does not integrate with CAD software at all. It does work, however.

If we were doing a lot of transmission line design on a full-time basis, I would look at PLS-CADD.

I don't know anything about ETAP's capability in this area.

David Castor

http://www.cvoes.com

 

[racobb]

Thanks! dpc

Alan

 

[bacon4life]

PLS-CADD is great for large complex things, however SAG10 has an advantage if you are doing very simple things or trying to create general design practices. Since PLS-CADD is designed to model how everything interacts, you have to model everything and then trick it a bit to have it create a conductor sag table comparable to SAG10.

 

[racobb]

Thanks! bacon4life....It appears to me that I have to "trick" them all to be sure of the results! I guess it is just that I don't trust any software to much until I can verify the results.

Thanks Again

Alan

 

[latticetower]

Have you looked at PLS-CADD LITE? It costs less than SAG-10 and doesn't require you to build a model to get sag-tension results.

 

[racobb]

latticetower:

If it is to be PLS-CADD it would be the lite version at a little less than half the price of SAG10. Still waiting on the demo.

Sounds like you have used both? Have any more pros or cons for either?

Thanks

Alan

 

[lookintomyeyes]

I have used both Alcoa (now Southwire) Sag10, as well as PLS-CADD.

For the design of a full transmission line (from line routing, to prelim and detailed design, to checking and making quick field changes), PLS-CADD is supreme. I've been using it for 3 years as part of a large utility, and it's fairly easy to learn. It uses the same conductor coefficients as Southwire Sag10, so if used properly, they should give the same result.

If you are doing plain sagtension calculations, I'd personally suggest against Southwire Sag10, and recommend PLS-CADD Lite.

Last I checked (which admittedly was over a year ago, Southwire Sag10 still had some known bugs that they had NOT fixed. For your own peace of mind, be VERY aware about how it calculates load and creep - it automatically takes the heaviest load case to be the one causing 'final after load', (compared to PLS-CADD where you can choose which is your 'load' case. This is useful to us as we have some cases where we design the tower for 1" ice, but the sag clearances for less than that.)
Also, read this article - it has some good points to read about creep vs load.

http://www.powline.com/products/creep.html

Oh, and for anyone using PLS-CADD lately, it seems at least one of the Southwire PLS wir files on the PLS website had an incorrect value for the RBS of the conductor (by a few thousand pounds!).... so 'caveat emptor' and always check your conductor properties before creating a sag chart!

 

[racobb]

Thanks a bunch to all! I have purchased PLS-CADD Lite and so far so good.

Alan