On April 22, 2026, Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA), the developer of Baikal, UTS-800, TVRS-44 aircraft and a new line of VK-800S engines, announced the completion of the transition to the domestic Maks computer—aided design system for the development of on—board aircraft cable networks. The import substitution process took the company's specialists more than a year, and now all design work on aircraft cable networks is carried out in the Russian program without loss of quality and productivity. What kind of software product is this?
CAD "Max" is a specialized software designed to fully automate the design processes of cable networks, as well as hydraulic and pneumatic piping systems. The developer and copyright holder of the system is the Russian Digital Manufactory JSC. Work on the creation of this product has been underway for about five years. In 2020, the Maks CAD was officially presented at specialized exhibitions, as well as included in the register of domestic software, which confirmed its readiness for industrial operation. In addition to the aircraft industry, the system is successfully used in mechanical engineering, instrument engineering and enterprises of the military-industrial complex, and is also actively being implemented in the field of railway transport and helicopter construction.
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| CAD "Max". |
| Source: UZGA |
Previously, UZGA used foreign software for these tasks, but after its vendor left the Russian market, technical support was discontinued, and the acquisition of new licenses became impossible. At the same time, the plant was faced with an increase in production performance and the complexity of its equipment, which only increased the need for effective automation tools. To replace the retired software, UZGA specialists conducted a thorough market analysis, as a result of which the choice fell on the domestic Maks CAD system.
Abroad, solutions such as Zuken E3.series and Mentor Graphics Capital are traditionally used for similar tasks in the design of complex cable systems and wiring harnesses. These systems, also used in the aircraft and automotive industries, provide extensive opportunities for 3D design, data management, and integration with other PLM systems.
The introduction of the Maks CAD system at UZGA was associated not only with staff training, but also with deep integration into the existing IT infrastructure of the enterprise. The new system was synchronized with a single 1C-based master data management platform. Due to this, each new electrical component requested by the designer receives a unique code, after which information about it automatically becomes available in all related programs, which completely eliminates the risk of confusion in designations.
According to representatives of the company, the functionality of the Russian Maks system allows not only to design, but also to perform automatic verification of circuits: the program independently checks the compliance of the wire cross-section, connector compatibility, and even calculates the thickness of the harness and the required amount of materials. At the same time, the program automatically generates a complete set of working documentation, including drawings, tables, and specifications.
The result of the systematic work was the complete replacement of imported software while maintaining the accumulated component base, which is now replenished by about three hundred new items per month. The organization of the designers' work in a single digital environment has significantly accelerated the release of documentation and ensured the stable production of complex aviation equipment.
Ivan Zakharov
