Electrical or electronic cable system design tool

A system for furnishing insulated electrical cables for a job, the job involving the electrical connection, by a plurality of cable runs each having respective predetermined characteristics, to each of a plurality of devices to at least one connection point spaced from the remote devices, the system comprising:

• a relational database storing a plurality of cable types, each cable type having associated therewith a plurality of characteristics;
• the relational database further including a job plan record for the job, the job plan record relating, for each device in the job, a cable type to be used to connect the device to the central point and at least one of a device name and a device location;
• a display for viewing by a user;
• a graphical user interface operable by the user;
• a processor linked to the display, the graphical user interface and the relational database, the processor programmed to receive from the user via the graphical user interface a specification of each device which is to be connected in the job, the processor, display and graphical user interface enabling the user to select, from the plurality of cable types, a respective cable type to be used to connect to the last said device;
• a memory linked to the processor for storing a label template for each of a plurality of labels to be affixed to respective containers for each cable type to be furnished for the job;
• the processor programmed to retrieve, from the relational database, each device for which a cable type will be used in connecting the device to said at least one connection point, the processor retrieving at least one characteristic from the stored characteristics associated with the cable type, the processor generating, from the label template and for each cable type, at least one container label image which includes therein said at least one retrieved cable type characteristic and a list of all devices for which the cable type is to be used;
• and
• a printer linked to the processor for printing the cable container labels from the generated images.