EPLAN Alternative: multi-manufacturer DIN rail board planning
What EPLAN is, and what it does well
EPLAN Electric P8 is the industry-standard electrical CAD suite for industrial control panel documentation. It is built for engineering departments: multi-page schematics, macro-driven engineering, PLC and I/O documentation, cross-references, revision control and a deep ecosystem of connected tooling and manufacturer part data. For a company that documents industrial control panels as its core output, it is a serious piece of engineering software and it is not the thing you replace casually.
Panelworks does not compete with that. It is aimed at a narrower job.
Where the scopes part company
The difference is scope and setup cost, not quality.
EPLAN is designed around a documentation standard and an engineering workflow: part libraries, macros, templates and project structures that pay for themselves across many projects and several engineers. That investment is the point of the tool.
A small shop laying out a DIN rail distribution board has a different problem. The board has to physically fit, and three documents have to come out the other end: wiring diagram, bill of materials, board schedule. The apparatus that makes EPLAN powerful across a department is overhead when the deliverable is one board.
Panelworks is built for that second case. You place real DIN rail devices at real module widths, connect terminals, busbars and distribution blocks, reserve ways and mark trunking, and the diagram, BOM and board schedule are generated from the model.
Side by side
| EPLAN Electric P8 | Panelworks | |
|---|---|---|
| Catalogue scope | Broad manufacturer part data, not limited to one brand | Multi-manufacturer library: Schneider Electric, ABB, Hager, Siemens, Eaton, Legrand, CHINT, Noark, IWAGO, Hyundai, Doepke; described as growing |
| Outputs | Full industrial control panel documentation set, including multi-page schematics and PLC documentation | Wiring diagram, bill of materials, board schedule; four views of one model (panel, wiring, single line, schematic) |
| Where the data lives | Within the EPLAN platform as deployed in your organisation | Cloud, worked on in the browser |
| Price | Not published; quoted by EPLAN | Free plan for one board; Pro EUR 19 per month |
| Who it suits | Engineering departments documenting industrial control panels | A small shop or contractor laying out DIN rail distribution boards |
Switching, honestly
There is no import path from EPLAN. If you move a board across, you lay it out again: enclosure, rails, devices, connections.
What you do not re-enter is the paperwork. Once the board is modelled, the wiring diagram, bill of materials and board schedule are generated, and they follow the board when a device changes.
For most shops the realistic answer is not a switch at all. It is running the straightforward distribution boards through a lighter tool and keeping EPLAN for the work it was built for.
When EPLAN is the right answer
Most people reading this should stay on EPLAN. Three cases where that is clearly correct:
You document industrial control panels. Control circuits, PLC and I/O lists, terminal plans, cross-referenced multi-page schematics, wire numbering schemes carried through a whole project. Panelworks does not do this work. It models a DIN rail board and produces board-level documentation.
Your engineering is macro-driven and templated. If your value is in reusable macros, project templates and a maintained parts database that lets an engineer assemble a documented panel quickly, that is precisely the investment Panelworks has no equivalent for. Leaving would mean discarding it.
You sit in an ecosystem. EPLAN connects to a wider toolchain and to manufacturer data services, and customers, machine builders or a parent company may require project files in that format. Interchange requirements decide the tool regardless of preference.
Add a fourth, quieter one: an engineering department already fluent in EPLAN is fast in it. Familiarity is a real advantage and it should not be given up for a lighter tool that solves a smaller problem.
FAQ
Can Panelworks open EPLAN projects?
No. There is no import from EPLAN; a board is laid out in Panelworks directly.
Does Panelworks do multi-page schematics and PLC documentation?
No. It produces board-level documentation: wiring diagram, bill of materials and board schedule, in four views of one model.
Can I use it alongside EPLAN rather than instead of it?
That is the common case: simple DIN rail distribution boards in Panelworks, industrial control panel projects in EPLAN.
What does Panelworks cost?
There is a free plan covering one board. Pro is EUR 19 per month.
Which manufacturers are in the library?
Schneider Electric, ABB, Hager, Siemens, Eaton, Legrand, CHINT, Noark, IWAGO, Hyundai and Doepke, in a library described as growing. More detail is on the distribution board design software page.
Try it on one real board before deciding anything: start designing free.