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Pros
Eplan is very robust and neat electrical design software and also the eplan envirenment is so helpful as the digital twin it makes cost estimationt very easy and reduce site modification.
Eplan NL was very helpful when downgrading from Professional to Select version, to save money on yearly costs. Used the PLC integration with Siemens Step7 in the past and that worked very well.
It is an amazing tool to pass the knowledge of the device to the technical personal. You can stablish mounting locations, you can clarify where have to be installed a device.
It facilitates the work to design and draw electrical and pneumatic diagrams. The ease of creating BOMs and reports automatically from the schematics is a great advantage.
Cons
There does not seem to be a standard for the symbols regarding size and functions. All symbols seem to be based on IEC which does not work well for NFPA projects.
The after service is horrific with little to no answers. Sloppy attitudes towards the client.
Poor service, product is not what was sold to us.
Some macros are damaged, and many others are not easy to find. I do not see any more factors against him.
Showing Most Helpful
Showing 16 of 16 reviews
"Amazing design tool"
Pros: The best part is to create a data base with all the parts you will need in your designs. You have to invest some time creating the data of each part, but once you have it done can be used for any other projects. You can create "macros" of these parts, using symbols, images, connection points and more, just to do it easy to understand. It is an amazing tool to pass the knowledge of the device to the technical personal. You can stablish mounting locations, you can clarify where have to be installed a device. If you invest time adding correctly parts to your data base, you'll be able to generated a BOM automatically, without mention you can generate a very different types of report that will help in your designs.
Cons: Requires a lot of training, but it is completely a good invest of time and money.
""Empowering Electrical Design: Exploring the Key Features and Benefits of EPLAN Electric P8""
Overall: Businesses utilizing EPLAN Electric P8 can solve various electrical design challenges, such as improving design efficiency, ensuring compliance with industry standards, reducing errors, streamlining collaboration, and enhancing documentation accuracy. These benefits lead to optimized design processes and increased productivity.
Pros: Automation and Macros,Data Management, easy to use ,EPLAN Electric P8 facilitates seamless integration with manufacturing processes. It allows for data exchange between the design software and manufacturing systems, such as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
Cons: there are a few areas where some users may feel that certain features could be improved or added Improved integration with PLC programming, expanded symbol libraries, advanced design validation, enhanced user interface customization, and improved performance are potential areas for improvement in EPLAN Electric P8 based on user feedback and industry discussions.
"Features I like"
Overall: Not happy. Consider it a waste of money
Pros: The one benefit I like is the parts database. Panel layout is a challenge.
Cons: The software is extremely difficult to use and there is no clear documentation explaining the features and methods to setup the software to make it easier to use. Symbols are not correct for NFPA standards and I need to modify them constantly. Parts downloaded from Data Portal do not always have the correct macro or symbol associated with it. There does not seem to be a standard for the symbols regarding size and functions. All symbols seem to be based on IEC which does not work well for NFPA projects.
Vendor Response
"Vastly increased productivity"
Overall: We've seen improvements in time-to-produce schematics.
Pros: My first engineer who we got using ePLAN came from a company with exclusively used AutoCAD Electrical. Within a couple of months, the engineer feels they can work 2-3x faster in ePLAN, access to the parts portal is a massive saving for us, as new products are generally available from the parts portal and do not require us to create a new intelliegent block.
Cons: It feels like there are a lot of "options" which come at a great cost. Full migration to use ePLAN is going to take us multiple years due to the software investment.
Vendor Response
"Using eplan electric p8 on a daily basis raise productivity"
Overall: Eplan is very robust and neat electrical design software and also the eplan envirenment is so helpful as the digital twin it makes cost estimationt very easy and reduce site modification
Pros: I really like how eplan has a massive library from electrcal component OEM and how it integrates with the software and also as automation project go eplan has cut the developing time to half when using TIA portal as it brigns your tags directly to eplan
Cons: Eplan does not calculate the section of the cables and the harmonics to compaire with the predesign calculation which will be really handy to prepare quotations for clients on the fly
"Opportunity for a fresh start"
Overall: It took several months but now the automation features are working for me instead of against me.
Pros: The Data Portal integration and library of manufacturer provided macros.
Cons: The learning curve is steep and there are many options that are not well documented.
"Complete Software Package for Electrical Engineering"
Overall: We use the software for the engineering of electrical installations of our own production machines. They vary from a few to over 500 schematics pages. (that's without the generated pages) It works well in small and big projects.
Pros: You can automate various things. Good integration when using article database in SQL Server. Eplan NL was very helpful when downgrading from Professional to Select version, to save money on yearly costs. Used the PLC integration with Siemens Step7 in the past and that worked very well. The auto connection of the various components and the various checks you can do.
Cons: It has so many possibilities that in my opinion you definitely need a 1..2 week training to use this software the right way.
"Eplan - Amazing tool for design"
Overall: It is an incredible tool to easily create your pneumatic and electrical schematics. The automatic creation of reports and BOMs reduce the time to carry out projects. Cross-references are created automatically, allowing you to create high-quality and well-detailed layouts.
Pros: Eplan P8 is incredible software, a real tool. It facilitates the work to design and draw electrical and pneumatic diagrams. The ease of creating BOMs and reports automatically from the schematics is a great advantage. In addition it is possible to obtain macros and a lot of part information just by importing the part in a few steps.
Cons: To have good reports it is necessary to register the parts beforehand and have a good database management. In order to be able to use the various functionalities of the tool, training is necessary, as the program's help is not very accurate. Without training, it is very difficult to obtain the best results in creating projects.
"Powerful, expensive"
Overall: EPLAN definitely eases the process of reusing designs. Copying completed designs into new projects is easier.
Pros: 1. Getting data exported out to Excel is easy and powerful. We create different types of reports for ordering parts, labeling parts and wires, and machine tagging. 2. Electric P8 makes it easy to upconvert projects to a newer P8 version, but they are not backward compatible.
Cons: 1. This is our department's largest expense. 2. Converting from a non-P8 platform to P8 is not trivial. For this reason we do not upgrade EPLAN 21 and EPLAN 5.7 projects into P8 3. Once they stop supporting a version, hope that your databases don't become corrupted.
"Good Potential, But Obnoxiously Bad Documentation and User Interface "
Overall: To be honest, if I wasn't required to use this software for my job, I would NEVER use EPLAN and would rather learn how to use AutoCAD for electrical designing. That is how poor my experience has been.
Pros: There is not much positive I can say about this software, other than that it has potential.
Cons: To put it bluntly, the documentation of this software is atrocious. I've seen better documentation from college students. As a new user, I would expect clear documentation for simple processes, like changing T-Nodes into Daisy Chain connections, how to incorporate crossover connections to clear up wires crossing, or how to smart connect with devices that don't align neatly with the grid. There is no documentation for simple things like this, and it is like they expect you to know everything about the software from the get go. On top of the lack of documentation, the navigation of the user interface is simply not user friendly. Whether it be creating parts, importing parts, or changing settings, the application is needlessly complicated to navigate.
"EPLAN Electric P8, an excellent electrical design software."
Overall: The ideal electrical design tool for designing machine and plant systems is EPLAN Electric P8.
Pros: The Eplan Electric P8 features a calculating function that is easier to use and is directly integrated into your design. It also has a tool for cable planning that allows you to connect extra cables and determine voltage drop. Additionally, a 3D tool for planning control cabinets is available.
Cons: EPlan Electric P8 requires extensive training, but it is definitely a worthwhile investment of time and money.
"Perfect electrical design tool for control panel schematics design"
Overall: EPLAN Electric P8 is perfect electrical design tool for control panel design.
Pros: Electrical design re-use is easy achieved by macro functionality, easy to replicate the identical circuit which saves lot of time to generate the circuit. Easy to insert symbols to schematics from symbol library. Reports related to electrical schematics is instantly generated.
Cons: User interface is not comfortable for usage, time to learn the tool is more.
"Good product with little to no support and incompetent staff"
Overall: Poor service, product is not what was sold to us.
Pros: There is so much you can do with it that could potentially better the way you design
Cons: Cannot use more then 20% of what the software is capable of due to a lack of information shared from the staff to the client due to incompetence or a mind set that once the software is sold, they stop assisting. The after service is horrific with little to no answers. Sloppy attitudes towards the client
"ePlan opinion"
Overall: With this software I spend less time for doing my job.
Pros: This software allows you to create electric schemes easilier than others. Moreover, you can create your own data base with differents articles for making the purchase list automatically.
Cons: You must to have enough knowledges about this special field for knowing how does it works and not makes mistakes.
"Tool for making electrical drawings"
Overall: Electric plans for delivery
Pros: I can make electrical drawings, describing the position of each component. There is also the possibility of downloading macros from the well-known brand components such as Siemens, Weidmuller, Omron ...
Cons: Some macros are damaged, and many others are not easy to find. I do not see any more factors against him.
"Good software and support"
Pros: It was pretty easy to integrate into our existing database.
Cons: I didn't like switching from the previous software and learning new.
Vendor Response