Switching to EPLAN with migration from ELCAD and WSCAD

Anyone moving from ELCAD or WSCAD to EPLAN Electric P8 usually has solid reasons. Customers or group standards require EPLAN, new designers bring EPLAN with them, or extensions become too laborious in the old system. Choosing the new system is the smaller part. The real work lies in deciding what happens to the existing documentation.

Not every existing plant has to move to EPLAN straight away. A staged approach is often more economical. New projects start in EPLAN from day one, existing plants are transferred when a larger change is due anyway and are maintained in the old system until then. Plants that hardly change any more may also stay there permanently.

The starting point is the EPLAN standard with its designation structure, article master data, macros, forms and page layout, not the first migrated project. Developing this standard during the transfer carries every ambiguity across, and every further project multiplies it. We also clarify whether the existing designation system is kept or converted to IEC 81346. A migration that touches the entire documentation anyway is the right moment for that.

For transfers from ELCAD there are tools that convert schematics into EPLAN projects. They save drawing work but do not replace checking. Cross-references, article references, terminals and cables must be right in the result, otherwise the reports produce wrong lists. Whether a plant is converted or re-engineered in a structured way is decided plant by plant, by scope, the state of the documents and how long the plant is to keep running.

Because we work in all three systems, we can accompany the transition completely. We maintain the existing documentation in ELCAD or WSCAD, build the EPLAN standard, transfer projects and train your team in EPLAN workshops. You have one contact throughout, from the first overview of the existing documentation to the last transferred project.