How does Eplan compare to AcadE?

[hwhite]

Is anybody familiar with Eplan and how it might compare with AcadE? My boss is looking at both and I'm trying to persuade him to go with AcadE. Any input would be a big help.

[pmccutcheon]

haven't looked at this guy for a while.
I think we bought it at our old company, about 4 years ago.
never really used it.

To be fair to eplan, part of the problem was we had a big library of autocad drawings. Since we were always in a rush (and who isn't?) the quickest thing to do was invariably to tweak the old autocad drawings. Also a bit of poitics involved - the manger's pet got the project

In a way I thought AE (VIA at the time), was less powerful -- but in hindsight, I think AE would have been a better choice for us. (easier learning curve, more compatible with existing dwgs.)

One irritation of other drawing packages is you have to learn to draw all over again, annoying when you already know acad


At the time eplan had some stability problems. I recall we somehow mangaged to destroy/delete several weeks work.

I've been told that a lot of people who are happy with eplan are actually using an older product. At some point eplan switched to a new database engine -- and it was this underlying engine that was causing grief.

We looked at the following packages
Eplan
PromisE
IGE+XAO
ElecDes -- out of New Zealand, a refreshing change from the Euros

[hwhite]

Thanks for the input. From what I've seen so far, E-Plan will be a good deal more expensive and you have to buy modules in order to do most of the things ACADE does right out of the box. I'd be interested in anyone else's insights on this subject. I am biased, but I'd like to make the best recommendation possible, so I'm open to other points of view. Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

I am also biased toward AcadE. Several years ago after looking at several other packages, I decided on what is now AutoCAD Electrical, and have never regretted that decision. Some of the things that were important to me is that it is fully AutoCAD with all of ACADs power, customizable (menus, symbols, PLC build, etc), easy to use, it was best suited for my work environment, and it actually works. There may be some "nay-sayers" who will jump into this discussion, but they usually have some personal interest in whatever product they say is better. I, like many others in this forum, am just a plain user, with nothing to gain or lose personally by what I say.

[dougmcalexander]

All of the ECAD programs have certain features that others may not have, but from a view of the big picture, ACADE does more of the day-to-day tasks with ease. ACADE is also the most adaptable to a multitude of user preferences. I started using what is now called ACADE back in 1997 and have also never regretted the switch. There are plenty of other ECAD programs that run on top of AutoCAD, but I prefer the one that IS AutoCAD!

[hwhite]

Thanks for the opinions and information guys. I've got another month to gather information and this is really helping speed things along.