AI assistant for electrical planning: what does the PlanElec assistant do in your project?
The PlanElec assistant carries out plain-language instructions across the whole project – from floor plan and circuits to the distribution board. Every change runs through the AREI/RGIE self-check and is a single undo step.
AuthorStephan BehmThe PlanElec assistant is the AI assistant in the PlanElec studio: you describe in your own words what should happen in the project, and it applies the change across the whole project model – floor plan, devices, circuits, cables, distribution board, KNX, PV strings and lighting control. Clear, reversible changes run straight away; risky actions wait for your confirmation. After every change the server checks the entire project with the same AREI/RGIE self-check used by the report, and you undo any change in one step. It answers technical questions with verified sources from the AREI text and the PlanElec help centre. During Early Access the assistant is free for every signed-in account.
PlanElec is built for electrical planning in Belgium, so the rules referred to here are the Belgian AREI (in French: RGIE).
What is the PlanElec assistant?
The PlanElec assistant is a language model that works through PlanElec's own planning commands. It does not draw freely on your plan; it works with the same commands as the interface: more than 100 planning commands covering the floor plan and situation plan, rooms, devices, circuits, switch chains, cables, distribution boards, automation and KNX, PV strings and lighting control. It also creates projects and floors and navigates the interface for you.
Before it changes anything, the assistant reads the project: overview, structure, current check findings and the device catalogue. It plans with exactly the state you have in front of you – not a copy or a guess.
The assistant acts with your project permissions. Someone who may view a project but not edit it cannot change it through the assistant either.
What can the assistant do in a project?
The assistant covers the planning workflow from an empty project to a populated distribution board. The table shows typical instructions per area. The wording is illustrative – write the way you would brief a colleague.
| Area | Example instruction | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Project and floors | "Create a new project and add a first floor." | Project and floor are created; the assistant can take you straight there. |
| Floor plan and rooms | "Split the living room into a lounge and a dining area and name both rooms." | Room geometry and names are updated in the floor plan. |
| Devices | "Place three socket outlets in the kitchen." | The outlets appear on the floor plan, ready for a circuit and the single-line diagram. |
| Standard equipment | "Create a standard installation for this project." | Rooms receive a proposed basic set of devices that you then adjust. |
| Circuits | "Add a dedicated cooker circuit with protection to the kitchen." | Circuit and protective device are created in the topology and appear in the single-line diagram. |
| Switch chains and lighting | "Control the hallway spots from the two switches by the doors." | The switch chain between switches and light points is built. |
| Cables | "Create a cable route for every cable that does not have one yet." | Missing routes follow the walls; existing routes stay as they are. |
| Distribution board | "Lay out the circuits in the distribution board and balance the phases." | Modules are placed on DIN rails and loads are spread across the phases. |
| KNX and automation | "Assign the living-room lights to free channels on the KNX switching actuator." | The KNX actuator channel assignment is set and documented in the single-line diagram. |
| PV | "Propose the PV strings for the inverter." | Strings are assigned to MPPT inputs; missing data remains visible. |
| Check findings | "Explain the current validation findings in this project." | The assistant reads the self-check findings and explains cause and affected items. |
| Technical question | "Which AREI rule applies to residual-current protection? Show me the source." | An answer backed by verified sources from the AREI text and the PlanElec help centre. |
Many of these instructions use PlanElec's deterministic automation behind the scenes – room equipment, circuit assignment, cable routing or board layout. The assistant translates your instruction into the right commands and parameters. How the automation itself works is covered in the guide Using and reviewing automatic planning.
How do you open the assistant and give it an instruction?
Open a project in the studio. There are three ways in:
- The bot button in the header (tooltip Open PlanElec assistant).
- ⌘J on a Mac or Ctrl+J on Windows and Linux.
- The command search with ⌘K or Ctrl+K: type your instruction and choose Send to assistant: "…". Your search text goes straight to the assistant as an instruction.
The input field shows the example "For example: Place three socket outlets in the kitchen …". Describe the result you want and send it with Send message or Enter; Shift+Enter adds a new line. While it works, the assistant shows its status ("Working", "Running an action"). Cancel stops a running instruction; changes already applied stay in place and can be undone one by one.
A good instruction names the place and the result: "Add a splash-proof socket outlet next to the washbasin in the bathroom" is more precise than "Finish the bathroom". If something is missing, the assistant asks, or the action card reports More information or evidence is required.
The activity column, its filters and the history are explained in the guide How do I use activity and the assistant in the studio?.
How does PlanElec check every change the assistant makes?
After every change the server checks the entire project with the same AREI/RGIE self-check that the report uses. An action only counts as complete once that check has run. The action card shows the result right away:
| Shown on the action card | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Applied and checked | The change is saved and the self-check has run afterwards. |
| Validation: … resolved, … new, … remaining | How this change shifted the check findings. |
| Target reached / Target not reached yet | Whether the outcome you asked for is actually present in the project. |
| Affected items: … | How many items the change touched. |
| Confirmation required | The action is waiting for your approval (see next section). |
The assistant reports new findings in the conversation. You see straight away whether an extra circuit affects, say, a protective device or a cable cross-section, rather than discovering it in the final report. Which rules the self-check covers is listed in What does PlanElec's AREI self-check verify?.
Every change the assistant makes is exactly one undo step. Undo on the action card reverses it completely; with several instructions, one at a time, starting with the most recent. The card then shows Undone.
Which actions do you have to confirm explicitly?
Clear, reversible changes – placing a socket outlet, renaming a room, creating a cable route – run immediately. Actions with wider impact are put to you for approval: the action card shows Confirmation required together with the planned parameters. You choose Confirm and run or Reject and cancel run.
A confirmation applies to exactly that action with exactly those values. If the instruction changes, a new approval is needed. The assistant cannot delete projects – that decision stays with you.
How does your team see what the assistant changed?
Every action appears in the Activity & assistant column as an action card with tool, status and the person who gave the instruction. In the project history, saved changes made by the assistant carry a bot tile and the note Assistant · on behalf of … with the name of the member who gave the instruction.
That keeps it clear across the team who asked for which change, even when you are looking at a colleague's history. The Assistant filter collects the assistant's conversations and actions; the Team filter shows every project change, including instructions your colleagues gave the assistant.
How does the assistant answer questions about the AREI and PlanElec?
The assistant answers technical questions with sources. It searches the PlanElec help centre, the full AREI/RGIE text (Book 1) and the PlanElec blog, and lists the references under Verified sources. The server matches each reference against the actual texts; quotations that do not appear there are discarded.
That makes every answer checkable: you see which article or help section a statement comes from and can read it yourself. Good questions to start with are "Which AREI rule applies to residual-current protection? Show me the source." or "Why does the self-check flag a finding on the bathroom circuit?".
Where is your data processed?
The language model runs in the EU region. The AI provider does not store your requests and does not train on them. PlanElec routes requests only to providers with zero data retention; data collection by the provider is switched off. The AI service providers involved are listed as sub-processors in PlanElec's data processing agreement.
PlanElec itself stores your project and the assistant's conversations and actions so that you and your team can trace instructions and changes later.
What does the assistant do – and who is responsible for design and inspection?
The assistant does the work inside the planning model: placing devices, building circuits, routing cables, populating the board and explaining findings with sources. Professional responsibility for the design stays with you as the electrical contractor or designer; the official inspection (keuring) is carried out by an accredited inspection body.
The self-check assesses the supported rules on the basis of the project data you have entered. Measurements, on-site conditions and manufacturer evidence are checked by you on site and by the inspection body during the keuring. A project without findings therefore means: no errors in the supported rules that can be checked from the data – and a well-prepared basis for your own review and the inspection.
Frequently asked questions about the PlanElec assistant
Does the assistant work in Dutch and French?
Yes. You write in Dutch, French, German or English, and the assistant replies in your language. The interface, action cards and status messages are available in all four languages as well.
Can the assistant delete my project?
No. Deleting projects is not one of the assistant's commands. Risky changes inside a project only run after Confirm and run, and every applied change can be reversed with Undo.
What does the assistant cost?
During Early Access the PlanElec assistant is free, like the rest of PlanElec. You need a PlanElec account and a project in the studio. AI features draw on your account's AI allowance; the share still available is shown in the user menu.
Who can use the assistant?
Every signed-in account, in the studio. No separate activation or special plan is required. Changing a project requires edit rights for that project.
Does the assistant replace automatic planning?
No, it uses it. Automatic planning delivers traceable, rule-based proposals; the assistant picks the right functions and parameters for your instruction and combines them with targeted individual changes.
Can I bring in a floor plan from the architect or from Trikker?
Yes, through AI recognition in the project files. How a PDF, scan or Trikker export becomes an editable floor plan, and how to capture an existing distribution board from photos, is explained in Turn a PDF, scan or Trikker export into a floor plan. For a feature comparison with Trikker, see Trikker alternative PlanElec.