Electrical CAD Software

Jon R · Apr 10, 2008

Hi,

I know there have been discussions on this before, but I am currently trying to get my employer to shell out for an electrical CAD program but I nearly fell of my chair when I was told that Autocad was nearly £4k.

I know there are others out there such as EPlan and Promis~e, but does anyone have any knowledge of how the prices of the alternatives compare and which one is the best as Autocad is definately out at that price.

Jon.

tragically1969 · Apr 10, 2008

We used e.promise a few years back and it was £1500 to buy as i recall, it was also far too controlling and inflexible for use in the real world on small scale stuff so we binned it and went back to an Autocad clone package.

robertmee · Apr 10, 2008

For electrical drawings, you don't need the full blown ACAD. Go with AutoCad LT 2008 which is around $700 US. I still do all my drawings on LT 2000.

Jon R · Apr 10, 2008

I use Autocad at the moment for electrical and mechanical, but for the electrical drawings I do I wanted to get an electrical version of a CAD program.

tragically1969 · Apr 10, 2008

I wouldnt bother, unless you are turning out 20 or 30 schemes a week that is, the time to set it up correctly in detail just isnt worth it, thats IMHO of course

robertmee · Apr 10, 2008

Jon R said:
I use Autocad at the moment for electrical and mechanical, but for the electrical drawings I do I wanted to get an electrical version of a CAD program.

Not sure I follow. What do you consider an 'electrical' version of CAD? Are you wanting something that auto-generates terminal drawings, cross references, etc.? In my experience they are way more effort than they are worth and I agree with the previous poster, not worth it.

downey18 · Apr 10, 2008

Does anyone use the panel layout or terminal layout options of the promis.e? My company was considering investing in it and that was a big draw for them.

bara_hence · Apr 10, 2008

Try the full version with some delays and when you want to buy it´s almost for free

http://www.3xm.se/index_eng.html

According to me its a great cad program for creating new drawings, you cannot change old autocad drawings... But you can export your new drawing as autocad format or pdf..

STL??? · Apr 10, 2008

I had the same issue with AutoCAD Electrical, Ended up with WSCAD http://www.leonardo-cad.co.uk/wscad5/wscad_overview.htm

nonuke · Apr 10, 2008

We used autocad, than 5 years ago we changed to Eplan 21 and now to Eplan 8, and we are very happy with it. our DWG's have an average of 70 pages each.

504bloke · Apr 10, 2008

I had loads of problems with WSCad, threw it in the bin in the end, there support is about as good as a chocolate teapot when you need a brew!

Used to use ACad, now gone over to EPlan and havent looked back, cant remember but i think its around £1000/£1200 for the 40 page version. The course is £750.

Contact Rittal and arrange a demo of EPlan, its free.

kolyur · Apr 10, 2008

tragically1969 said:
I wouldnt bother, unless you are turning out 20 or 30 schemes a week that is, the time to set it up correctly in detail just isnt worth it, thats IMHO of course

I agree 100%. We have Autocad Electrical here (formerly VIA-WD) so I use it but I could easily get by with regular Autocad or LT. Really the only functions I use are the wire numbering and PLC modules. I've looked at the other functions--there are many--and frankly the time it would take to learn them just isn't worth it for me. I suppose if I was churning out prints every week I'd take the time to learn it. We are also fortunate to have Solid Edge (3D CAD) for mechanical work so I use that for my panel drawings. You can get more creative with your component layouts when you're not restricted to 2 dimensions.

plc noob · Apr 10, 2008

I am also looking at buying a package soon. Does anyone have any recommendations on electrical symbol packs for AutoCAD I have acad lt . And I have never done electrical drawings before. Just looking to buy one or more symbol packages?

Michael Bell · Apr 10, 2008

bara_hence said:
Try the full version with some delays and when you want to buy it´s almost for free

http://www.3xm.se/index_eng.html

According to me its a great cad program for creating new drawings, you cannot change old autocad drawings... But you can export your new drawing as autocad format or pdf..

I agree, I tried it out and bought it. It maybe isnt as sophisticated as Autocad and others, but for the price (about £30) it works pretty well. One or two minor quirks as it is translated from Swedish. Email support is good. It is uses a database of symbols that can easily be added to. The free download is the full package with delays between some functions. When licensed the delays are removed. It is licensed for the PC you install it on only.

moggie · Apr 10, 2008

I use Aucotec's Elcad, I have tried WSCad and Eplan but Elcad very easy to use and the tech support is good as well.

Electrical CAD Software

Jon R

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tragically1969

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robertmee

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Jon R

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tragically1969

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robertmee

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downey18

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bara_hence

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STL???

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nonuke

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504bloke

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kolyur

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plc noob

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Michael Bell

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moggie

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