Free vs. Paid Software for Electrical Drawings

[01101]

Another quirky but useful program is Rootcad pro. It is free to use but a lot of the extra features are locked. I bought a subscription for $130 for 2 years which allows me to export to DWG for Autocad.

 

[WhinnieThePooh]

You might check out QElectrotech. I used it for a few years. I will also warn you that it is a bit quirky and updates are slow to come. I really can't complain to much though because for a free software it works pretty well. If interested I can share an example project.

We eventually migrated to CMS Intellicad with CADprofi electrical addon. CMS version 12PE+ is about $330 for a perpetual license.

 

[imtiredboss]

If you are experienced with autocad but cant stomach the price, ProgeCad is an almost identical replacement that looks and feels just like autocad, but at and affordable price ($399), and its yours, no yearly fees. I worked for a couple of years at a local utility cadding projects for substation controls. Our boss got tired of the autocad license issues and switched us over. They have a 30 day free trial if you want to test drive. Another free software I like is QElectroTech. For a free software it works really well, and has good support. If you have ever worked with Eplan, it functions similarly. Drag and drop components. Wires auto-connect and I believe device and wire labeling can be automated.

 

[ojz0r]

Unfortunately the free ones seldom come with dwg support due to the propriety nature of it, allthough many offer dxf instead.
I've been trying QElectrotec out (not in sharp project) and it seems nice for open source.

 

[robertmee]

I would just buy an older version of Acad LT, and call it a day. You can get them cheap and in many respects it's better than the newer bloatware. You can exchange drawings still between those that have newer versions...they can read yours and can save theirs in Acad 2000 format.

 

[durallymax]

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.

+1 for SkyCAD, relatively straightforward for simply projects. A bit quirky, decent help videos. I don't use the layout features though, usually do that in F360.

 

[bill4807]

I was using autocad 2d LT 2007 for the longest time. Until we switched to a subscription, now I use 2023 or 2024 autocad LT. Not much of an upgrade but what I found very difficult with 2007 was batch plotting to pdf. It would make the document huge, where you couldn't even scroll through the pdf
Now with 2023 I can make a set of prints 60-70 pages and fly through them, no lag even on my layout pages.

So I am happy.

I'm interested to where I could buy an older version of LT like 2010 or 2012 for cheap, just for my personal use. Like Robertmee mentioned above.

 

[busarider29]

Everybody wants something for free. Well, like most anything, you get what you pay for (except that rule doesn't apply to Rockwell products ).

For electrical drawings, you're much better off getting something that is tailor-made for electrical. In other words, I would not use AutoCAD if I had the choice. Can it be done in AutoCAD? Sure, but then again it could be done in MS Paint too. We used to do our electrical prints in AutoCAD LT, and, well....it "worked". But we spent a lot of time micro-managing everything. Over the course of an entire set of prints (say 30+ pages), it is a lot of time spent in manual managing of everything from wires to components, BOM, etc. It's just not a good tool for electrical prints. Tailor-made software specifically for electrical prints pays for itself in time saved in micro-managing everything.

There are others out there that are likely better, but we use Capital Electra, which is now a product of Siemens. We bought the product back in 2016 when the developers of it were just a small software outfit out of China. The product has since become much better and now that it's Siemens-owned, I suspect it will continue to improve even more.

Here is a sample screenshot. The components available out-of-the-box are plentiful, plus you can create your own, which many in this screen shot and in the "Beckhoff_New" library to the left are user-created by me. There are components for electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic layouts The software is extremely easy to learn and use. Not much of a learning curve, compared to some others I've seen. Auto manages everything behind the scenes - BOM, components, wire numbers, cables, etc...

 

[DwSoFt]

We have used Bluebeam just for asbuilt redlines and such and ive built prints with it in the past but you are much better off to use ones built for electrical for that. Electrical department uses Autocad now.

 

[robertmee]

I was using autocad 2d LT 2007 for the longest time. Until we switched to a subscription, now I use 2023 or 2024 autocad LT. Not much of an upgrade but what I found very difficult with 2007 was batch plotting to pdf. It would make the document huge, where you couldn't even scroll through the pdf
Now with 2023 I can make a set of prints 60-70 pages and fly through them, no lag even on my layout pages.

So I am happy.

I'm interested to where I could buy an older version of LT like 2010 or 2012 for cheap, just for my personal use. Like Robertmee mentioned above.

Well, after posting, I did some research, and according to forum posts at Autodesk, they have now terminated licensing any versions before 2017. Doesn't matter if you're the original owner or not. I have two boxes of 2005 and if I ever had to reinstall them now, they won't work. That seems criminal. How does a company nerf a legitimate product that was advertised as perpetual and that I paid for from Autodesk. Fortunately mine is installed on a virtual machine so it will last forever, but still...

 

[busarider29]

Well, after posting, I did some research, and according to forum posts at Autodesk, they have now terminated licensing any versions before 2017. Doesn't matter if you're the original owner or not. I have two boxes of 2005 and if I ever had to reinstall them now, they won't work. That seems criminal. How does a company nerf a legitimate product that was advertised as perpetual and that I paid for from Autodesk. Fortunately mine is installed on a virtual machine so it will last forever, but still...

Get used to it. That's the business model that more and more software companies are moving to. Siemens is doing the same with Capital Electra. I have a perpetual license that we purchased in 2019, that I now have to install on a new laptop. I'm crossing my fingers it works without issue. Still, if I'm forced to purchase a new yearly subscription license, we'll do it. The time saved with micro-managing everything when using something like AutoCAD LT pays for the license on just one project.

 

[d x l]

Try to be aware what your customers might be using, in case there is going to be a future demand for compatible files. That will help you decide if you want to try a cheaper brand. If you pay for cheaper software, then a big project for an important customer demands that you get Eplan or AutoCAD Electrical, then you've gotten into a situation where you have to pay twice.

 

[robertmee]

Guess I should start telling my customers their PLC code will expire every year unless they pay me ransom.

 

[Rson]

The long and short of it:

There are some nice software programs out there that have nice features to make electrical drawings.

However, be aware that in "the industry" you won't get away from DWG. It just won't happen. You need, at a bare minimum, some way to edit & create DWG files.

I've used all kinds of software from PC Schematic, EPlan, AutoCAD electrical, SkyCad, Electra, Elwin, etc. They all have automation features to create drawings but are poor at editing existing DWG. (some won't even edit DWGs)

If you want good DWG software but don't want to pay the subscription AutoCAD wants, I'd recommend looking at BricsCad. Their basic software does 2D and it has all of the same command-line functionality of AutoCAD without the subscription cost. Any learning investement you put into BricsCad will transfer to the industry-standard AutoCAD. I'm not sure what it costs now - it used to be about $300-400 for the basic 2D drafting package (that was almost 10 years ago)

EPlan is making a push in some idustries - but it is too prohibitive cost-wise to ever become the standard so almost no one in North America will know what it is or accept their files.

 

[Elcan]

Another vote for SkyCAD.