The target of the electrical tools (dare I call it CAD?) is the creation of an electrical control enclosure (aka panel). The market and demand for these products has changed dramatically over the last ten years.
The biggest player current in this space is Eplan, owned by the same parent company as Rittal. Based on the way Eplan is marketed, sold and maintained, the typical company that uses Eplan also uses SAP. So, it’s not for a small shop or someone starting out. Big commitment, very long startup time to get it configured to the business workflow.
The AutoCad electrical tool is pretty much dead, AutoDesk hasn’t touched the code base for years. It grew out of a Unix based program from Germany originally named Promis-E which was renamed to Adept-E. The company had an office in the US and that group saw the writing on the wall with AutoCad reaching critical mass in the US in the mid-nineties. They brokered a deal between the parent company in Germany and AutoCad electrical was born. It was a buggy, expensive piece of ugliness, IMO. While I had the opportunity to jump to the AutoCad version, I stuck with the native Windows version of the product and while it had some worts, it worked for my company and our workflow.
Solidworks Electrical is a modernized knock-off of the AutoDesk product as is their Draftsight product upon which the electrical tool is built. Don’t expect anything different between the two contenders, they both do pretty much the same thing in the same way.
The biggest features of these tools is:
Real time cross references of parent/child relationships. Example: contacts of a relay tied to the coil.
Point to point connection list (similar to a pcb net list)
Cable plans connecting terminals to terminals
Tie part physical properties to schematic representation (part database with link to 2d/3d drawing)
Semi-automated panel layout
Some of these functions are somewhat similar to what you can do with KiCad and similar programs but ultimately if your project is anything but trivial, you’ll be spending a lot of time driving square pegs into round holes.
I’ve been working in this world for thirty years. Full disclosure, I was the original author of the shortest wire connection panel layout algorithm for the AutoCad product. I’d be happy to share what I find works and what doesn’t. Tell us what your goals are for the automation of the project and I’d be happy to share my experiences. PM is fine as well if you don’t want aspects of your effort public.