Control.com - Nerds in Control

Hi,

I'm wondering what kind of Electrical Design Software are your guys using. Cause we are using a mechanical software--MicroStation for the design. But it can't provide any electrical information. I'm just wondering is there any professional software for the electrical engineer to do the electrical design like schematic and wiring diagram? I know for electronics guys, OrCAD or Protel are the softwares they are using for circuit design and PCB drawing. Is there any software like OrCAD but more suitable for Electrical design?

Thanks!

I use Eplan, i think its the most common CAE software. And I heard others names like: ElectroCAD, Autocad Electrical

ePlan appears to be the best at the moment, based on my recent review of their latest offerings.

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What Makes eplan better than Autocad electrical? In which is what our company uses. Does eplan have demo software?

Hey, can ppl give their opinions on their electrical CAD software? My company is looking for a good package and i have been researching them and all are similar. Elecdes, Eplan, Wscad, Promis.e & autoCAD Electrical are the best so far.

In my opinion the best one is eplan.
it is standalone, you don't need a drawing package for it to sit on, this can be disadvantage when the cad package upgrades you then have to upgrade the electrical package.
Also Autocad are pulling support from all other packages from May 06 due to them having Autocad Electrical. Also EPLAN has a new product out later this month I am told that will be the new front runner in this market, i also think they are the longest standing in this market since about 1984. Others packages i used don't seem as easy to use, the ones on cad not that clever as they have to load each page so very slow. just my opinion.

Maybe in the case of being Promis-e it is negative to be an Autocad add-on, but Autocad E will always be supported.
The new ePlan product just seems to be a jump to get some $$ from the mid-range customers. If it doesn't sell, do you think ePlan will support this venture, or stick with it's champ?

Hi,
This is sheer speculation. The Autocad project is a moneymaking venture, (anyone who _has_ to use it will confirm this), when it ceases to make money, it will dissapear, unless, of course, the company goes the way of Worldcom,
Enron, Texaco etc. first.

Now, where's the support number I had for Visicalc?

Marc Sinclair

Hi all,

Following applies to Eplan 5.70 NOT Eplan 21 (a totally different product aimed at the US market)

We've been using Autocad with extensive VBA for some years, recently we evaluated Eplan 5.7, Elecdes, PromisE and Autocad Electrical as replacements. Essentially in the Australian market place we have either Eplan or the ACAD plugin competitors available with local support.

A subsidiary firm of ours had been using Elecdes for some time, but were somewhat lost in maintaining the configuration as subsequent Autocad releases arose and were not using it for much more than simple Xrefing, as a result they recomended against continuing with it.

At the end of the evaluation period my department selected Eplan, at the same time a (distantly) related company in the same building selected Autocad Electrical for very similar work.

18 months later and they are now looking to switch.

Eplan has proved very simple to use once you get over its Germanic menu structures (its a bit like learning to program Siemens when you're used to Rockwell). At the end of a 3 day training course our department was producing drawings more accurately and quickly than after 3 years of Acad.

A key advantage it has is its speed, the thing would run on a 486 if it had to. Its backend model treats all drawings in a project as a single application, avoiding the Acad Electrical page/project loading issues. Page loads in eplan are effectively instantaneous.

This goes hand in hand with the excel generator plugin which allows you to generate sets of drawings from a spreadsheet. We find that engineers love making spreadsheets and compiling drawings from them is insanely quick - a 200 page drawing set can be generated in less than 90 seconds on an average cad workstation, although working off a network drive stretches this out to around 5~10 minutes. Finished project file sizes are also insanely small - this same project will end up as a 400k zip file of Eplan native file format.

Typically though you would just hit the print to pdf button (pdf publishing comes for free in Eplan) and email a pdf of the entire project, including parts lists xrefed to pages straight to the cabinet builder. This has been a lovely feature as we don't want to put Acrobat writer on peoples PCs.

A further advantage has been its _lack_ of code customisation, you can configure pretty much anything you want, but there's no easy to access the API - thus we've spent all our time configuring and been able to take advantage of every hotfix and service pack without any custom code compatability issues (I used to write reams of VBA for every version of Acad....). So far its been able to do everything we want without having to get to the backend programatically - unlike our related company who have been fighting ACAD all the way, they're now in touch with the US development team for some of their issues.

Its not all perfect though: the cabinet layout component is weak in the base model; the file structure it creates is archaic; there is a learning curve going from ACAD to Eplan as many things are quite different; the BOM import/export is very old fashioned using ascii control codes (although still easy to use I must admit); and out of the box its preconfigured for IEC style drawings with DIN style device references (the device referencing is _awesome_ by the way if you use IEC 61346 style tagging).

For us here in Australia that's fine, for most of Asia its fine, anyone in Europe its perfect - but for the US market its best to get your Eplan rep to set up a JIC based build with ladder style page set ups for you as part of the conditions of sale.

Cheers,
Ben

I am agree with all and can only add the remark:
ELCAD has the same functionality as EPLAN and even more.

Mike Virgiliev.

You have not seen the newest versions of Eplan. If you would, youwould not say that Elcad has more features...

Roland

Probably, you are write at the time. I recently got detail description Of EPLAN21, and according it's content, EPLAN has the same functionality.
I plan to see on EPLAN at nearest time personally, hopefully, I will get detail information and final opinion.

Mike Virgiliev.

its all horses for courses.

ive used eplan from 4.11 so i am biased for eplan.

theres plenty of products out there do plenty of research.

do you supply equipment ot people it may be easier in the long run to go with there ecad system if not?

are you in a particular industry what do your competitors use?

1) get the reps in to do there smoke and mirrors presentation

2) go away and think about what you want the package to do

3) get the reps back in and make them do what you want there and then put them under pressure

4) find out what the after sales and subscription services are like

some of the products out there

eplan
acade
promis e /aka rs wire
elocad / aka ruplan
wscad
ige-xao
elecdess
ec3

they all have websites. take your time.

I have used ePLAN from it's 5 to right now 5.7 and above. Being in Industrial Desinging, eplan is easy to understand and put the designs in actual.

I have been testing AutoCAD Electrical 2007 for some time now, and it is also very handy to use.
The most common thing btw both is ACE-2007 and eplan is they have good symbol libs.
Both have good report generating facility and that too customised ones..

Only thing is files system for eplan is indigineous and very common DWG file sytems is used by ACE. Having said that, if somebody want to do the modification with the soft coipes of the project, they need to have EPLAN installed with the hardware lock. For ACE with higher version, somehow it seems to be difficult since DWG versions are getting upgraded with the releases. But with prior releases dwg's can be opened. Also if u buy the ACE version it autocad comes as a free package since based on autocad only.

Choice is urs

I have read the reviews here and it seems that the German solutions for electrical design are the most advanced. I tried a demo copy of Engineering Base and found it slow to undo and I seemed to be waiting around all the time. Eplan demo was good but didn't look like a full Windows product. E3 Series looked the best and easiest to use. I couldn't believe how easy it was to customize and get the output I was looking for.

I couldn't get the demo from the manunfacturer so I downloaded it from http://www.caetek.com

SK

Try ELCAD, and forgot others.

Mike Virgiliev.
mailto:mikev@peterlink.ru

We are a professionally managed company situated in New Delhi - India. We are looking for a demo version of EPLAN software in English version. We will be getting a big project from overseas. It this suits us we will going to purchase the software.

This is for official company purpose - info@moak.in. Expecting +ve results.

hello,
Yes there is a software available i.e EPLAN for electrical wiring .its quite good n i am using it .

Email- royalvirgo@rediffmail.com

Autocad Electrical is the ONLY way to go...

Alright mate,
in my experience the best electrical CAD package is WSCad, I learned to use it in only a couple of days and it has all the features I've ever needed. The standard libraries are extensive and cover all the proprietary kit you are likely to use, whilst you can also easily add or edit devices as they arrive on the market. I believe there is a "lite" version of WSCad available for around £400 ($580?) and a full version for which I don't know the cost. It originates from Germany but has multi-language features. I reckon a Google search would reveal your local supplier or the originator. Good luck!

Has anyone investigated Engineering base??? Am doing a review on it - comments appreciated

Cheers from: Jeremy Pollard, CET The Caring Canuckian!
www[.]tsuonline.com

Control Design www[.]controldesignmag.com
Manufacturing Automation www[.]automationmag.com

Hiya,
I checked this out, sadly I couldn't get the trial software to work on my PC, it's not cheap either, considering you need to install about 300 euros of support software on a bare PC to get it working! The full version uses a dongle so more trouble there, I just don't need these problems in business

Colin

I'm from china, have the same question with u, eplan is sending TRIAL version in china now, it seemed it's the best one in europe; another is ENGINEER BASE, also come from germany, it do not have watermark, and working in VISIO, it has chinese help, i like it!

electrical based on AUTOCAD is not a good choice, u will find there is still many things u need to do...

Please feel free to back up the comment with some facts of what Autocad Electrical is lacking?

It's standardized globally, has great cross referencing (so you spend most of your time designing and not checking drawing sets manually for changes), it's easy to use if you have ever used Autocad, easy panel layout creation and tons more.

Also...eplan is toying with a crippled version of their product to try and sell to the masses. Good luck finding support for that in 5 years.

Hi,

If it is 'standardised' why can't I open this years drawings on last years autocad? (Drawing file was created by an incompatible version)

Marc

The big Mercedes Benz has a lot going for it too. Unfortunately I get to drive a Daimler Dodge.

Regards
cww

Autocad electrical even 2006, simply children toy comparing ELCAD and EPLAN.

Mike Virgiliev.

Have you had a look at CADdy++/SEE Electrical?
http://www.caddy-electrical.com
With its three level Basic, Standard and Advanced, you can select the package which fits the best your requirement

Yes.
You can use E3 software.
http://www.e3-series.de

Hello, a little late but maybe it helps.
I guess the main issue is if you want a dedicated electrical eng. software (e.g. E3series, Eplan, Elcad) or if you would rather go with an autocad add on. The first group offers specific functions and features that the second group will never be able to offer, due to lack of data structure.

After 20 years in the business I would always go for a software from the first group, specifically for E3series, seeing that also DaimlerChrysler, BMW and may others have choosen to do so.

Cheers, Felix

You can use Elecdes Design Suite software for Electrical design. You can get more information at http://www.elecdes.com

hi,
try elecdes software. it has got autocad to microtation conversion tool and it is pretty good.

Try Solutions Electrical for speed and accuracy. You can find out more at http://www.designelectricalpro.com

Many programs, some really good, and others not often used, but all in all I wouldn't work without it now.

Has anyone tried or tested EPLAN Electric P8???
From what I could see, this tool not only proves to be fast, accurate and most of all user friendly, but the features seems to be mind blowing. To be able to modify and track everything on your schematic pages without having to go hunting individually, page by page, wasting precious time, I believe is reason enough to give it a go ahead. I have been using it for about a year and a half now, and with only draft experience under my belt, I can spit out schematic pages and report of all sorts, faster than any other AutoCAD expert. On top of it, with the Schematic Generator, using a simple excel sheet I can pump out a big project in NO time...I haven't seen any other tool nor any other user that can boast or do this. With EPLAN P8 they even prove it!!! Also to see some people charge, starting at $25 a schematic page with a multitude of goodies, such as modifying your information throughout your project via the reports page and affect your entire project as well as the Smart PDF t
hat you can send to your customers to redline.......I can go on and on...
Seems that the choice would be crystal clear...no? I mean if anyone prefers to waste time instead of make more money...I mean go ahead and get the rest of the tools that can only do 10% of what P8 can do...as for me...I am blown away with this tool, and it keeps on getting better and better....

My Mexican cousins are using it and at the price they charge and at the speed they go, with the free trade act, no wonder all the big jobs are heading south of the boarder...why???

They are using EPLAN Electric P8...that's why...

;)