Eplan P8 vs solidwork electrical

From schematic to layout/reports/printing markers.

They both do all. No experience with SWE so can't comment on it. You should request a demo of both.

someone who use the both?

there were plenty of discussions on this subject and eplan vs autocad-e. imo, eplan is by far the most complete software for electrical engineering. but it has its price that pays off if you do lot of work. so if that is the case or if you have extra money go for eplan, otherwise there are cheaper alternatives.

Solidworks Electrical is a new product, very few people seem to use it so far. On the outside it looks nice, but this is pretty much what can be said about it.

If your company standartizes on Solidworks for the mechanical design, then it probably makes sense to look at the electrical package as well - they should integrate nicely.

LadderLogic said:

Solidworks Electrical is a new product, very few people seem to use it so far. On the outside it looks nice, but this is pretty much what can be said about it.

If your company standartizes on Solidworks for the mechanical design, then it probably makes sense to look at the electrical package as well - they should integrate nicely.

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Is there any Solidwork electrical user on this forum?

raph_rf said:

Is there any Solidwork electrical user on this forum?

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I have and use both as well as AutoCad Electrical.

AutoCAD Core is 2D Drawing software that has 3D paced on top and AutoCAD E is both of those with Electrical tools added on top of that.

Eplan is designed from the ground up as electrical design software and can do very very simple mechanical things.

Solidworks is 3D desgin software from the ground up and has 2D features of course but has electrical features added on top.

That said they are ranked in the order of Eplan, Solidworks Electrical then AutoCad Electrical.

Solidworks Electrical is very similar to Eplan in it's functions but does not have the vendor relationships that eplan has and thus has avery limited library that you will build a lot of yourself. Eplan has an huge and always growing library.

A lot depends on what kind of drawings you do and how detailed they are and how large of sets they are. Eplan is great for everything but really shows it's power on 800-1200 page drawing sets and very detailed drawings.

Solidworks is great if you do not put as much part info and detail into your drawings and if you use solidworks for your mechanical design also.

AutoCAD E is great if you do your mechanical in AutoCAD and you make 20-300 page drawings sets with minimal detail.

As with anything else they all have their pro's and con's and the price is very different on each.

if you have the Money Eplan is still king for electrical design though. It's the tool I reach for most.

I've used AutoCad Electrical 2014 (and older) and Eplan 8 and clearly Eplan is the better package. The issue is Eplan costs roughly twice as much as ACADE. If you speak Swedish, I hear elwin is pretty damn good and is around $50 or maybe free. If was in charge of the decisions at my company, I'd pay twice as much for Eplan and have 1 fewer seat and end up with better drawings that take less time to make.

ACADE is just AutoCad with some **** thrown on it, so you can actually still do 3D drawings in ACADE. We did the panel layouts in 3D just because we could.

Does anyone know if on solid works electrical you can customise the wiring and also devices based on page and a sequential number, for example 21S1 would be the first button on page 21 of the drawings.

Thanks in advance

CapinWinky said:

ACADE is just AutoCad with some **** thrown on it, so you can actually still do 3D drawings in ACADE. We did the panel layouts in 3D just because we could.

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Yes you can do 3D in AutoCAD E but 3D in AutoCad period stinks compared to Solidworks so If you plan to do a lot of 3D mechanical design Solidworks id the best fit

Don’t ask… “What is the Best Electrical CAD program”

In the world of the past, the electrical controls designers, and mangers were looking for ways to make the world of electrical CAD design more effective and streamlined. The criteria is only to generate a comprehensive ELECTRICAL only design / BOM. My past, and current employer use AutoCad Electrical for the E-design.

In the world of the past, the mechanical department had their 3-D CAD programs with 3-D, models and mechanical BOM reports. My last, and my current employer use SolidWorks for mechanical design.

Mostly, at many companies, (my current company included), there is NO correlation with the same devices between these two departments.
The result of the above scenario typically has the propensity for three recurring problems:
1. Under-purchasing of a cross-discipline device
A. Mechanical expecting Electrical purchasing
B. Electrical assuming Mechanical already purchased

2. Over-purchasing
A. The item needs to be identified in mechanical, so it gets purchased
B. The item needs to be identified in electrical, so it gets purchased, (AGAIN)

3. Cross naming, and/or multiple naming of the same device

There are three holy-grails, (in order of importance), for us controls guys to pursue, and I know it is where I want myself and our company to be…..

…..1st priority is BOM connectivity to our mechanical department. There should be a SINGLE BOM for a project. Our program/project engineers would do cart-wheels over a single BOM.

…2nd priority is a SINGLE ITEM identifying and naming nomenclature between the same mechanical device and it’s electrical representation. Mostly the device is referenced on the Section/Sheet/Line number of an electrical drawing, so we would need to back feed the Solidworks database to that identification.

…3rd priority, (lowest) would be 3-D Electrical Panel Designs/Layouts. Many but not all electrical vendors are there yet, but as an engineer, we can float boxy place holders, if the vendor does not have downloadable 3-d models.

Rate Solid Works Electrical 1-10 … Mechanical/Electrical SAME BOM dbase

Rate Solid Works Electrical 1-10 … Cross Discipline same name nomenclature/device identification

Rate Solid Works Electrical 1-10 … 3D Electrical Enclosures design

Thank You

I have been looking for some new design software. I am currently doing it all in draftsight, but would like something a bit better. I have not been able to get on Eplans website. Have they changed it? Every Eplan site that google comes up with comes up with an error. I have tried different browsers as well.

Does it work for anybody? I would like to try out a demo, and get a price.

Thanks,
Kenneth

eplan is awesome
http://www.eplanusa.com/

Huh. Thats the link i kept trying. I just tried it on my cell phone and it works. I cannot even ping the website from work. i am not sure what isnt letting it through.

Thanks.

kjacoby said:

Huh. Thats the link i kept trying. I just tried it on my cell phone and it works. I cannot even ping the website from work. i am not sure what isnt letting it through.

Thanks.

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Likely something to do with the security setup employed by IT at your company.