Schematic software choice

[plc noob]

Hi Everyone

I know this subject has been discussed in the past but i am looking for opinions on schematic drawing packages.

Primarily in respect to choosing between Autocad electrical,Promise or Eplan

With data mostly from 2008 and 2009 installations and experience. I know in the past may here have swore by Autocad elecrical and shy away from promise. Does anyone here have experience with promise since it has been a bentley product?

I have seen articals that say promise is based on sql database and autocade is not. Is this true?. Even in newer versions of Autocad e.

I have used both in limited and trial fashions in the past.

I have no experience with Eplan

Trying to make a choice for a company i just started with and want to get this right the first time.

Thanks for all the knowledge i have attained from this site.

 

[(8{)} ( .)]

We've used Promis.e for several years now. It has been excellent for us and the support (out of GB) has also been wonderful.

The ability to build template drawings from and Excel spread-sheet made interfacing the product to our in-house development software a no-brainer.

Having the object information in a database was also a big plus for us.

Good Luck,

(8{)} .)
(Yosi)

 

[ToolGuyFred]

If its maximum productivity you're after and you don't mind the Eplan presentation of things then Eplan (bear in mind the licensing is usually thousands per seat per year). If you only need occasional electrical use and need conventional CAD too (e.g. panel layouts, mimics etc.) then regular AutoCAD will do just fine. You will have to buy or design and build a block library for AutoCAD, though. Not sure of the difference between regular and electrical AutoCAD. I have no experience of Promis.e either.

 

[Chance85]

I have used Promise-e for a few years now, it's O.K. I only use it for small projects. I wanted to get Autocad but could not talk the boss into spending the extra money.

 

[TConnolly]

Autocad Electrical

 

[bkottaras]

Autocad Electrical

One more vote for Autocad Electrical

 

[plc noob]

From my past tests of promise and autocad e. Autocad e was much more stable but promise had a more complete library of objects and a better integration to the major vendors for use with it's bom feature. Does this still stand true?

 

[bkottaras]

I'm using Autocad Electrical 2008 and it is the full package.
Full Reports, BOM, terminal strip editor, panel layout including footprints and such, connectors as well as vendor libraries and objects (vendors list selectable during installation).
Still haven't mastered it (won't any time soon) but it has a boatload of features.
More than what I'll ever need.
Haven't tried promise.
Eplan is powerfull but it will take me a while to learn and get used to it.

 

[Marshy]

Perhaps a poll should be created for this thread? I vote for Eplan only because it's the only one I've ever used! We've got a rep coming to our office this week to give us a Demo on the new P8 version.
What are the size of your projects? You can get a compact version of Eplan which is lot cheaper but limited to, i think, 40 schematic pages all the auto generated sheets: cable schedules, parts lists, terminal connections aren't included in the 40 pages

 

[plc noob]

Kinda hard to judge our drawing page sizes. Mostly we do anything from 10 to 100 pages in house and contract.

But i will also be using this to convert alot of old drawings done in standard autocad.

currently with these old drawings done in standard autocad it can sometimes be a real PITA to document changes to the machine. Lots of work. Looking to convert everything to intelligent drawings and set our vendors to draw our prints to this standard and using our package of choice.

This is turning out to be one of the hardest decisions i have had in a while.I really can not afford to get this wrong.

From a time stand point

I really do not know how to setup a poll here but that may be a good idea. Can someone help me get the poll setup?

Thanks

 

[ATU]

I see Autocad Electrical runs about $5k for the base package. With all the PLC software to keep current, I think I'll stick to Autocad Lite for the time being.

 

[nonuke]

I vote for Eplan P8.

As you can see, if you are in EU you vote for Eplan and if you are in US you vote for Autocad Electric. One is German and the other is American. ??????????

 

[mrlucmorin]

I think nonuke nailed it right on the head !

From experience, it's very difficult to get US people to recognize the quality and benefits of Eplan.

Even in areas where the time savings are obvious, I keep getting getting this attitude that AutoCAD is better.

Let's face it, one of the main reason people in the US aren't attracted to Eplan is because it would require them to start thinking in terms of DESIGN and not in terms of DRAWING. It would require them to start using standards, and this is something where EU is miles ahead of US. For crying out loud, US are still using that stupid imperial measuring system in 2009 !!! If they can't even wake up to the benefits of the metric system...

I'm a consultant and I implement EPlan in both US and Canada, and the one constant that I find about US, is their lack of constancy. Every manufacturer use its own "standards", symbols and ways of doing thing. And of course, it's always the "best way". So they keep using AutoCAD because AutoCAD will allow them to keep using their "best way" of doing things, while EPlan would have them using the "bad way" of using standards.

Bottom line is, if you want the best tool for the job, get EPlan P8. It will pay for itself after a while. And if your boss won't shell out the money, then it could be that the ROI is simply not there for YOUR company, be it because of the small quantity of drawings that you generate or other reason. Better stick with lesser products in that case.

Regards.

 

[rta53]

One more vote for Autocad Electrical

I third that for ACE.

BTW, I tried EPLAN several years ago and hated it. Maybe it's better now.

 

[jemac25]

Autocad E is a pretty good "all-around" program. You need to consider what format your prospective customers require your electrical documentation to be in. If your customer is German or European, then chances are good they are going to require E-plan. E-plan can convert an Autocad drawing package into E-plan, but not really. It basically translates the vector image, but it does not convert the intelligent information. This may be different in P8.