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A new open-source alternative to EPLAN

This is the English reading version of the Dutch news item Nieuw open-source alternatief voor EPLAN.

KoperCAD with the heat map over the cabinet: coloured spots per location with the temperature in degrees Celsius, and on the right the temperature scale with the ambient temperature at 35 °C.
The heat map over the cabinet, with the ambient at 35 °C. The program itself calls this a preview and not a solver result.
The cabinet of the example project in the 3D view of KoperCAD, with DIN rails and the placed parts.
The same cabinet in the 3D view.
KoperCAD with the example project PLC cabinet: the page tree with pages and reports on the left, the circuit with terminals, contacts and a 24 V supply on the right.
The example project PLC cabinet in KoperCAD, with the page tree on the left and the circuit on the page.

KoperCAD is a new, free and open-source program for electrical CAD. You draw schematics in it, and the program keeps the terminals, cables and reports in step with your drawing. It is meant for the work you do today in EPLAN Electric P8 or AutoCAD Electrical, but as a program that runs on your own PC, without an account and without an internet connection. It is electrical CAD, not mechanical CAD.

The program was called NovoElectric until mid-October; the maker, KoperVonk, chose the name KoperCAD on 15 October. The project was built in three weeks, with an AI model as co-author on almost every code change. As of today there is an exe file in the releases that you can download and start. The program itself is in the 45 MB zip, with run.cmd; the separate exe in that list is the canvas demo.

What is in it

  • Schematics with IEC symbols and tags, automatic numbering of wires and potentials, and cross references between coils and contacts.
  • Terminal strips, cables with cores and shields, PLC cards and I/O lists.
  • Reports that follow your drawing: bill of materials, device list, wire list, terminal and cable diagrams, with export to PDF and Excel.
  • Cabinet building: a mounting plate with rails and ducts, a check on parts that touch each other, and the cabinet in 3D.
  • Watching your circuit live, a commissioning mode with a check list, and a field mode for notes on the drawing.
KoperCAD with the mounting plate in the cabinet view: rails and ducts with the placed parts, and on the right the panel with the sizes and data of the enclosure.
The mounting plate with rails and ducts, and on the right the sizes and data of the enclosure.
KoperCAD with the report list: 22 pages, each with the page number, the title, the page group, the panel and whether the page is drawn or generated automatically.
The report list: 22 pages, most of them filled in automatically from the drawing.
KoperCAD in the commissioning mode, with the check list per project, per page and per place on the left, and the circuit on the page on the right.
The commissioning mode with the check list per project, per page and per place.

What is not in it yet

  • Windows 10 and 11, 64 bit only. The program is not signed, so Windows warns on the first start.
  • Reading or writing EPLAN files is not possible, and neither is exporting a PLC program.
  • The parts library holds only what you import yourself; no maker catalogues or EPLAN data are included.
  • Numbers that rest on a model, such as heat and functional safety, are planning values, and the program says so itself.

My verdict: I built KoperCAD from source myself and started it, and it looks well made: it opens with an example project and the workspaces are laid out logically. Whether the schematics and the electrical data work the way an EPLAN user expects, I cannot judge, because I do not work with EPLAN myself. What I can say is this: in this corner of CAD, free and open source is still rare, and this licence allows you everything, including building your own commercial product on it. It runs locally, offline, without an account and without administrator rights. Keep an eye on this site for updates and tests.

Source: KoperCAD on GitHub, with the release notes of the project.

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