Radica Electra: Uses Microsoft Visio for drawings. Make sure you have drawings only you touch for this reason. With multiple people using it – drawings can get cluttered very quickly and ‘broken’ if people accidentally purge. I would never buy or use this if it were my choice for that reason alone. The cost is prohibitive, IMO, because it is now subscription only – a huge turnoff for me. It has the most options by far, and you can create nearly any kind of drawing with it, but it will take time to get it set up. The stock libraries need tweaking to get nice drawings, IMO. The symbols are ok – but made for a ‘D’ size drawing, and if you print it out on ‘B’ size paper (11x17) it is almost illegible IMO.

Here are my thoughts on a couple that stand out:Īutocad Electrical: I currently use this because our work has it. I have tried many software programs over the last few years. If you really want to appreciate ACADE, then try out DesignSpark Electrical. Manufacturers favor ePlan too much, but the ePlan Portal isn’t worth learning a whole new software suite while projects are stacking up. (Edit to say, a GOOD store with relevant and typical symbols to the industry) But, that is not likely to ever happen. Now, if Autodesk would introduce a store like ePlan Portal to download different symbols and footprints, then that would be YUGE. The nice thing too is that mechanical guys can help you with the commands as it is mostly the same as ACADM. It only works with/for you after you have setup your own template, library, numbering conventions. For example, drawing wires was not very apparent until I read the tutorials.ĪCADE is OK out of the box. Some things that should have been straight forward to do was more complicated than ACADE. What I gathered from the brief trial of ePlan is that it locks you into drawing in a specific way. I used ACADE and have tried ePlan as I too was wondering if the grass was greener elsewhere.

Draftsight electrical symbols