Support · Resources Be a Better Designer Series

Shop resources

Free tools and reference material from the Think‑PLC panel shop. Built for the jobs we run into ourselves — planning material, cutting it without waste, laying out panel legends, and finding the part number you actually need. No sign‑up, nothing leaves your browser.

Be a Better Designer Series

Things you can use right now

The Be a Better Designer Series is our set of free tools for the parts of panel design that usually get done on a napkin. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored on our servers, or shared.

Live

Cut List Optimizer

Wire duct ships in 6′ sticks and DIN rail in 1–2 m lengths; your panel does not. Drop in the lengths off your BOM and get back the exact number of sticks to buy, the order to cut them in, and a costed consumables list — kerf and keep‑length included.

Panduit duct
Phoenix Contact & Allen‑Bradley rail
Generic / your own stock
Reference pricing built in
Printable cut sheet & CSV

Open the tool Live

Custom Legend Plates

Lay out pushbutton and selector legends, yellow E‑stop collars with arc text, blank nameplates, metal tags and a UL 508A panel data plate — then send the artwork straight to us to laser‑engrave. Sized and worded to NFPA 79 and NEC 409.110 so the panel marking is right the first time.

Pushbutton & selector legends
E‑stop collars
Nameplates & metal tags
UL 508A data plate
Live artwork preview

Open the bench Live

Full-Load Amps Calculator

Motors, heaters, drives and control transformers in — and out come the three numbers a panel actually needs: the full-load amps for the nameplate, the minimum supply conductor ampacity, and the largest overcurrent device you are allowed to put in front of it. Every line shows the article it came from.

NEC Tables 430.247 / 430.248 / 430.250
NFPA 79 & NEC 670 for machines
UL 508A & NEC 430.24 for panels
Interlocked loads counted once
Printable calculation sheet & CSV

Open the calculator

Need help with a design? Panel layout, schematics, BOMs, UL 508A compliance, or a second set of eyes before it goes to build — talk to the engineers who fabricate them every day.

Reach out here

Reference

Elsewhere on the site

Part numbers, background and the fastest way to get hold of an engineer.

Standard products Duct, rail, enclosures and the panel hardware we keep on the shelf, with datasheets. Panel build services UL‑listed control panel fabrication out of Winston‑Salem, NC — what we do and how we do it. Case studies Retrofits, robotic cells and standardisation projects, written up with the numbers. PLC training Hands‑on Siemens and controls training for maintenance and engineering teams. FAQ Lead times, UL panel questions, what we need from you to quote a build. Submit a service request Something down, or a change you need on an existing system? Start here.

Missing something?

Tell us what would actually help.

These tools exist because they solved a problem on our own shop floor first. If there is a calculation, template or lookup you keep doing by hand, say so — it may well be the next one we build.

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Disclaimer. The tools and reference material on this page are provided free and as‑is, for planning purposes only. Prices, part numbers, dimensions and availability change constantly and are not a quotation. Always verify against the manufacturer’s current data and measure before you cut. Think‑PLC, LLC accepts no responsibility for mis‑cuts, wasted or short material, pricing or quantity errors, purchasing decisions, or any other loss arising from use of these pages.