Free vs. Paid Software for Electrical Drawings

[*rodrigp*]

Hi everyone,

I'm in search of software for electrical drawings, preferably free but also interested in paid options. Any recommendations or insights on both types of software would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[robertmee]

I've used AutoCad for 30 some years, so partial to it. You don't need Autocad Electrical, just regular old 2D AutoCad Lt. I still use 2005 to this day. You can pick up a 2010 era copy for $50 or so.

Depends on what you are going to use it for. If you're playing around, any open source free CAD package might suffice. But if you're creating drawings for installs or customers, I'd use a professional package like AutoCad. AutoCad viewer is free to download so your customers or installers or whoever can view your schematics easily. Or you can convert them to pdf. You can also create DXF files that are importable to may other packages including HMIs.

 

[parky]

There was a free one called Acad I think it was called, it was almost identical to the older versions of Autocad, a quick search did not actually find it but I did use it a few years ago, to be honest it was so much like Autocad at a quick glance you could not tell the difference, there was a blurb document that came with it talking about it being written mainly in assembler which made it very fast, perhaps the name has been changed but there are others out there. I use Autocad lite, built my own libraries for electrical drawings but find the later versions a bit slow in comparison to the older versions, to me it's a bit of a backward step although better functionality. one a collegue of mine uses is freecad but never tried it. fporgot to mention Acad could inport & save as DWG files so compatible with autocad.

 

[Puddle]

I foolishly tried to save some money by purchasing some software called Smart Draw. It's a pig to use, but probably works ok if you're using imperial measurements as that seems to be what it's designed for. Tries to do electrical, mechanical, architectural, floor plans, Gantt charts and everything all in one. It's not great at doing any, but functional enough to get something legible.

We now have SEE Electrical for electrical and BricsCAD for mechanical. Both quite cheap for what they are (though still four-figure prices) and have permanent licences rather than subscription.

 

[JesperMP]

We are using EPLAN 2023. Very expensive and a very high learning curve.
And we are using DPS PCSchematic. Far less expensive, far easier to use, and has almost the same functionality as EPLAN. But since EPLAN is the industry standard, we are forced to use it.

 

[parky]

I was wrong on the name it's called A9cad
Here is a video of it, for those used to the older Autocad look how close the look of it is

a9cad - Search Videos

www.bing.com

Edit: I have just downloaded it, many adverts before downloading & prompts to download many others but downloaded, checked for viruses ok, & it is pretty fast, this version is an upgrade from one I tried many years ago so impressed, however, as I have ACLT I will stick with that for the time being.

 

[robertmee]

I was wrong on the name it's called A9cad
Here is a video of it, for those used to the older Autocad look how close the look of it is

a9cad - Search Videos

www.bing.com

Edit: I have just downloaded it, many adverts before downloading & prompts to download many others but downloaded, checked for viruses ok, & it is pretty fast, this version is an upgrade from one I tried many years ago so impressed, however, as I have ACLT I will stick with that for the time being.

Lol...I can tell your OCD let that bug you all night. You probably dreamed about it. I'm exactly the same way, bothers the hell out of me when I can't remember something. Thanks for the update

 

[OkiePC]

If you are an AutoCAD user, check out NanoCad. There is a free (older) version or it's a $249/year subscription for the latest full version which is much less expensive than Autodesk licensing. The free version is fully functional but missing a few useful things like publish (batch plot) and find and replace is limited. I've been using the full version for around seven years now.

 

[Ken Moore]

I used full blown Autocad, for around 30 years, I developed a lot of custom LISP (lost in senseless parathesis), programs to make day to day stuff faster. After much "leaning", I was the only guy left. aka Electrical Eng, Instrument Eng, DCS engineer. Later, I worked at places that had dedicated designers, and engineers only had access to Autocad LT. Since I have retired, I too have been using NanoCad. Well worth the price. And similar enough to reduce the learning curve. They have a one year free licenses, but you need to renew each year.

 

[parky]

Actually, I do loose sleep sometimes thinking about things, not in this case though, many a time in the past before I retired, if I was on a project & there was something I was struggling with I would try to solve it while in bed, on a few occasions I would get up & solve it ready for visit to site the next morning, usually meant using up the complementary coffee in the hotel room with a visit to the night porter for a few more.

 

[Ken Moore]

Parky,
Do we need to call someone?

 

[robertmee]

Actually, I do loose sleep sometimes thinking about things, not in this case though, many a time in the past before I retired, if I was on a project & there was something I was struggling with I would try to solve it while in bed, on a few occasions I would get up & solve it ready for visit to site the next morning, usually meant using up the complementary coffee in the hotel room with a visit to the night porter for a few more.

Some of my best inspirations have come from semi dream state noodling over a problem.

 

[*rodrigp*]

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your contributions! I really appreciate the recommendations and insights shared. I'll be sure to look into the software options suggested and see which one best fit my needs.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[parky]

Perhaps men in white coats lol

 

[ryangriggs]

Its UI is quirky, but SkyCad is free and has a lot of features that are useful for making electrical schematics (i.e. one-line drawings). I've been tinkering with it recently. The paid versions also have panel layout features etc. I will repeat: the UI is quirky. You have been warned.