Drawing

Schematics are drawn on a 4 mm grid. Hold Alt while moving or drawing for a 1 mm step. The arrow keys move the selection one grid step.

Symbols

The Symbols tab holds the IEC 60617 library, grouped (contacts, coils, protection, machines, sensors, terminals, PLC, interruptions and potentials…), with a search field. Click a symbol and click on the page to place it; each click places another copy with the next free tag (-K1, -K2…). Esc stops.

The library has three sections, Electrical, P&ID (see P&ID) and Fluid power (see Fluid power). Click a section or group heading to fold it; the number beside it tells how many symbols it holds. Collapse all and Expand all fold or open everything, A–Z sorts the symbols of each group by name. Only the section of the page's type is open (electrical on a schematic, P&ID on a P&ID page, fluid power on a fluid power page) until you open another. Recently used on top keeps the last twelve symbols you chose. While you search, every group with a match is open.

• R rotates by 90°, M mirrors, while placing or with symbols selected.
• Each symbol has connection points with designations (A1, 13, L1). A connection point that no line of the symbol reaches is shown as a small circle.
• Double-click a symbol, or press Alt+Enter, for its properties dialog; quick changes go in the Properties panel.

Wires

The Wire tool (W) draws a wire from a connection point: click the start, click the corners, click the end on another connection point or wire. Double-click ends it at a free point. Backspace takes back the last corner, Esc cancels.

• One wire per connection point. To connect three points, branch off a wire: start the new wire on an existing wire or automatic connection, and a junction point is made there.
• At a junction (T-node), the through line is one connection and the branch connects to one end of it. The junction shows which: the branch meets the through line with a slant toward that end. To turn it, select the junction (or several) and press R, or pick Branch to in its properties. This decides the wire markers, the order in the connection list, the wire lengths and the routes on the panel layout. Dot in the junction properties draws it as a dot; the direction stays. On P&ID and fluid power pages junctions are dots.
• Drag a wire segment to move it. A selected wire has handles at its ends: drag an end onto another connection point (it is marked while you drag) to reconnect it. Or pick the point in From / To of its properties: all points of the symbol at that end are offered; a terminal's points are named by its number and side, -X1:3 top, -X1:3 bottom. A point of the same symbol that has a connection is marked swap: the two change places (an automatic connection there becomes a drawn wire). Onto a taken point of another symbol an end does not go.
• A wire has a colour and a cross-section (Properties panel).

Jumpers (T-node)

Jumper (Insert menu and toolbar) draws like the wire tool: draw from a wire to a connection point (or the other way), and the branch point becomes a jumper T-node, drawn without its dot. Its branch is a jumper, not a wire, and goes to the nearer end of the line (Branch to in the junction properties). Click a branch point with the tool to make it a jumper or a plain junction again; the junction properties have a Jumper box too.

A jumper is made with a jumper part, not cut from wire: it has no length, no route on the panel layout and no wire markers, and it is not in the wire list. The Connections table shows it as Jumper; between two terminals it is in the Jumpers column of the terminal table. Jumpers between neighbouring terminals of a strip are made as before with Add jumper on the selected terminals.

Automatic connections

Two connection points that face each other on one line, with nothing between them, are connected without a wire: place a contact right below another and they join. The line is drawn for you and follows when you move the symbols. A point with a drawn wire does not take automatic connections.

To keep two facing points apart, use Insert → Connection break and click the automatic connection.

Click an automatic connection to select it. Its properties show where it goes from and to, its number, colour and cross-section. Changing the colour, the cross-section or an end (to another free point of the symbol), or Draw as wire, makes it a drawn wire between the same points; the page looks the same. It cannot be deleted: move a symbol, or put a connection break on it.

Potentials and interruption points

Place them with Potential point and Interruption point (Insert menu and toolbar): give the name once (the last one is offered, the project's names are in the list), then click to place points of that name one after another; R turns, Esc ends. A new potential point takes the wire colour and cross-section of the points of its name.

• A potential point (L1, N, PE, +24V, 0V) names the net it is connected to. Potential points of the same name are one net across all pages, so a supply rail can end on one page and start again on the next. With "Name wires of potentials after the potential" in the project properties, those wires are marked with the potential name instead of a number.
• An interruption point continues a line on another page: points with the same name are connected. Each one shows where the line goes on (/5.2); F jumps there. With three or more points of one name, the references form a chain or a star (project properties).

Location box

Location box (B) draws a rectangle that gives a function and location to the symbols inside it, e.g. a field device +FIELD on a cabinet page. Its codes are shown once in its corner; tags inside it are shown without them.

Text and graphics

Text (T), Line (L), Rectangle and Circle are on the toolbar and in the Insert menu. Texts have a size and turn with R; lines have a weight and can be dashed. Graphics have no electrical meaning.

Wire numbers

How wires are marked is set in Project properties… → Wire numbering:

New projects name each wire by its two ends, -K1:A1/-X1:3, written once along the middle of the wire: right of an upright wire, above a level one, made smaller on a short wire and broken after the / when it is still too long. A wire to an interruption point is named after the device on the other side of the point, as in the wire list.

The numbered modes give one number to each net. Number wires numbers new nets and keeps the others; Renumber all wires numbers them all again. A number typed by hand in the Number column of the Connections table is kept.