Wire references are also unidirectional, which sucks when you want to use PLC addresses for wire numbers and have to reference 'backwards' to previous sheets or else it won't work. Plus (and this is my BIG gripe), Autodesk is using Microsoft Access as it's database structure. Plus, if you want, say, a central schematic and component database and screen menu so all of your users are referencing the same parts, you have to hack a number of files to get it to work. You can do it, but it's very tedious and time consuming. Let's say you want to add a symbol for a new component. I've never used E-Plan, but ACADe is a very ' you will do things OUR way' kind of program.

The main difference between ACADe and E-Plan is that ACADe is AutoCAD with a bunch of hack-and-slash lisp routines on top of it, and E-Plan was built from the ground-up as an electrical schematic drawing package. If your company has any kind of standard that deviates from what Autodesk has decided everyone should use, you will spend a LOT of time setting up the new system. I used AutoCAD Electrical for six years, and honestly, now that I'm back on regular AutoCAD, I see very little advantage to it, especially if you have a block library already built up. I already had AutoCadd skills, so the learning curve for Electrical was much shorter, plus all our drawings were already in AutoCadd format, so I could use our existing library and do the AutoCadd Lisp magic on those drawings.Īll our customers' P&ID drawings are in AutoCadd, so using Electrical would could modify those drawings and return them in AutoCadd format. I found Eplan very expensive and difficult to learn.įor what I could buy for 1 Eplan license, I could buy 2 AutoCadd Electrical Network licenses. If you are familiar with Autocadd and have a library built up, stick with AutoCadd Electrical.ģ years ago I looked into Eplan vs AutoCadd. Something thats generates drawings, BOM's, panel layout's may be a great tool as we look ahead. We currently use Autocad Lt for our electrical drawing but now are starting to think of the best course for the future. I was wondering if members here could good give me the pros or cons on Eplan.Īlso I had mentioned Autocad Electrical as a possibly alernative but I don't know how it stacks up against Eplan.

Our company is thinking out purchasing Eplan.

Eplan p8 vs autocad electrical