FREE ELECTRICAL CAD
Free AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN Courses for Electrical Engineers
AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN are the two tools panel shops name in job posts. Here is what each is used for, how to get the software legally for free or on trial, and a free course for each.
A free AutoCAD course for electrical engineers is only half the job; you also need the software. Eligible students and educators get Autodesk software, including AutoCAD Electrical, free for a year; EPLAN gives students a free Education licence; others can use Autodesk's 15-day AutoCAD trial. EDWartens runs complete free AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN courses, with an optional certificate.
Checked 26 September 2026. Licence terms below come from Autodesk's and EPLAN's own pages on that date, listed under Sources.
What these tools do in a panel shop
A control panel starts as drawings: power circuits, control circuits, PLC I/O sheets, terminal plans, cable lists, a bill of materials and a panel layout. The customer approves the drawings, the workshop builds from them and the commissioning engineer fault-finds with them years later. Electrical CAD tools exist to keep all of those consistent.
AutoCAD Electrical is AutoCAD with electrical intelligence. Wires carry numbers, components carry tags and catalogue data, PLC modules are inserted with addressed I/O, and reports such as the bill of materials, wire list and terminal plan are generated from the drawing. It works in DWG, which suits shops whose customers and consultants already exchange AutoCAD drawings.
EPLAN Electric P8 is built around a project database. You place devices rather than lines; macros carry whole circuit blocks with their parts; terminal strips, cables and PLC cards are managed as objects; and reports update from the data. With Pro Panel, the same project drives a 3D panel layout and wiring information. EPLAN is common with European OEMs and larger panel builders, and many tenders name it.
Neither tool is better in every shop. The right first tool is the one your target employer, or its customers, already use.
Getting AutoCAD Electrical legally for free
If you are a student or educator. Autodesk's education plan gives eligible students and educators free, one-year, single-user access to Autodesk software for educational purposes, and it is renewable each year while you remain eligible. Autodesk verifies status: eligible people meet a minimum age and are enrolled at, employed by, or contractors of a qualified educational institution. AutoCAD Electrical is on Autodesk's education product list.
If you are not a student. Autodesk offers AutoCAD free for 15 days as a trial, and its trial page says every AutoCAD subscription includes seven industry toolsets, the Electrical toolset among them. Fifteen days is short, so do the course's early modules (reading the interface, project setup, symbols) by watching and taking notes, then start the trial when you are ready to draw every day.
Education licences are for learning. Drawings you sell to a customer need a commercial licence.
Getting EPLAN legally for free
If you are a student or trainee. EPLAN provides free Eplan Education for Students licences for private use to pupils, trainees and students. The package includes Eplan Electric P8, Preplanning, Pro Panel and Fluid, access to the Eplan Data Portal for real manufacturer parts, and free eLearning. The limits, from EPLAN's FAQ:
- Schematics are limited to 40 pages.
- It may not be installed on company or school computers, only your own.
- The licence cannot be extended; you request a new one while you are still enrolled.
- There is no hotline support.
Forty pages is plenty for learning. A complete small machine panel usually fits.
If you are not a student. EPLAN's software downloads page says a licence is required to download chargeable applications, and we did not find a public trial on EPLAN's own pages. If you work for a panel builder, ask whether you can learn on the company's licence; otherwise contact your local EPLAN office about evaluation options.
A free EPLAN course and a free AutoCAD Electrical course
The free EPLAN Electric P8 and Pro Panel course covers project structure, plot frames and title pages, symbols and devices with their properties, terminal strips, cables and PLC I/O, macros, parts through the Data Portal, reports and PDFs, 2D and Pro Panel 3D layout, and wiring data. It assumes you can read electrical drawings.
The free AutoCAD Electrical for Control Design course starts with no CAD experience and covers templates and title blocks, schematics with intelligent wires and wire numbers, tagged components, PLC modules with addressed I/O, the catalogue and reports, Excel exchange, and single-line, panel and house-wiring drawings.
If your target employer runs SOLIDWORKS for mechanical design, the free SOLIDWORKS Electrical course is the third option. And if you have never built a panel, take the free control panel design and building course alongside the CAD course, so you know why the drawing says what it says.
Practise on one project
The fastest way to learn either tool is to draw one small, real panel from start to finish, then do it again faster. This one fits comfortably inside EPLAN's 40-page student limit.
Keep the PDF. A clean, consistent drawing set of your own is worth more in an interview than any certificate, including ours.
Standards and conventions to learn alongside the tool
The software is half the skill; the other half is drawing the way the customer expects. Both tools ship with symbol libraries for the common standards, and a course teaches you to use them. What you need to understand is why they exist:
- Symbols. Much of the world draws with IEC symbols, collected in the IEC 60617 database of more than 1,500 graphical symbols for electrotechnical diagrams. North America has its own conventions. Both tools let you choose the symbol library per project.
- Reference designations. Every device gets a tag that says what it is and where it is, so a technician can find the contactor on sheet 12 and in the panel. Use one system for the whole project, usually the one your customer specifies.
- Cross-references. A relay coil on one sheet must point to its contacts on others, and back. Both tools generate these; a good drawing never makes the reader hunt.
- Wire numbering. Pick a scheme (by sheet and line, or by potential) and apply it to the whole project.
- Title blocks and revisions. Every sheet needs the project, the sheet number, the revision and who approved it.
If you are joining a company, ask for one of its finished projects and copy its conventions exactly. That single habit makes you useful in your first week.
What a checker looks for in your drawings
Panel shops usually have one experienced engineer who checks every set before it goes to the customer. These are the things they catch most often, so check them yourself first:
- Every device has a tag, a part number and a location.
- Every wire has a number, and the same number appears at both ends.
- Terminal numbers in the schematic match the terminal plan.
- PLC addresses in the drawing match the PLC program's I/O list.
- Cross-references work in both directions.
- The bill of materials has no parts without an order number.
- The panel layout leaves room for ducts, heat and future spares.
Learning to check your own drawings is the fastest way to be trusted with a customer project.
What the certificate costs, and what it is
Every electrical CAD course on EDWartens is free in full: video lessons from independent YouTube creators (credited on each course page), written notes with worked examples, a practice task per module and one final assessment. That assessment has 15 questions from the whole course, a 60% pass mark and three attempts, then a 24-hour wait and a fresh paper. A free account keeps your progress. No card and no trial.
The only paid item is the optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion. The AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN courses are beginner level, so the certificate is a small one-off fee, from US$2.99, and checkout shows your price. It has a unique code and a QR code that anyone can check at edwartens.com/verification. It is not an Autodesk or EPLAN certification, not a university qualification, and not accredited.
See every tool on the free electrical CAD courses page, follow the electrical design engineer path, or create a free account and start drawing.
Take the free course
Questions
Is there a free AutoCAD course for electrical engineers?
Yes. The AutoCAD Electrical for Control Design course on EDWartens is free in full, from project setup and intelligent wiring to PLC I/O, reports and panel drawings. The certificate is optional and paid.
Can I get AutoCAD Electrical free?
Eligible students and educators get free one-year access to Autodesk software, including AutoCAD Electrical, for educational purposes, renewable while eligible. Others can use Autodesk's 15-day AutoCAD trial; every AutoCAD subscription includes the Electrical toolset.
Is EPLAN free for students?
Yes. EPLAN provides free Eplan Education for Students licences for private use, including Electric P8, Preplanning, Pro Panel and Fluid. Schematics are limited to 40 pages and the licence cannot be installed on company or school computers.
Should I learn EPLAN or AutoCAD Electrical first?
Learn the one your target employer or its customers use. EPLAN is common with European OEMs and larger panel builders; AutoCAD Electrical is common where drawings are exchanged as DWG. The drawing principles transfer between them.
Is the certificate from Autodesk or EPLAN?
No. It is an EDWartens Certificate of Completion, issued after you pass the final assessment and checkable by code at edwartens.com/verification. It is not an Autodesk or EPLAN certification and is not accredited.
Sources
- Autodesk: Education software access and FAQ
- Autodesk: AutoCAD free trial and toolsets
- EPLAN: Eplan Education for Students
- EPLAN: Education for Students FAQ
- EPLAN: Software downloads
- IEC: IEC 60617 database, graphical symbols for diagrams
Written by the EDWartens engineering team for general education. Product names are trademarks of their owners; mentioning them does not imply endorsement. Prices and terms of other providers were checked on the date shown and can change.
