EPLAN Electric P8 Reviews

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.

Requires a lot of training, but it is completely a good invest of time and money.

The one benefit I like is the parts database. Panel layout is a challenge.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

EPlan Electric P8 requires extensive training, but it is definitely a worthwhile investment of time and money.

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.

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.

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.

User interface is not comfortable for usage, time to learn the tool is more.

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.

You must to have enough knowledges about this special field for knowing how does it works and not makes mistakes.

There is so much you can do with it that could potentially better the way you design

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

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 ...

Some macros are damaged, and many others are not easy to find. I do not see any more factors against him.

It was pretty easy to integrate into our existing database.

I didn't like switching from the previous software and learning new.