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Welcome to Electra Help
Concepts
Relationship between symbols and components
Drawings and the component database
Getting started
Creating a new drawing
Opening a drawing
Automatic saving
Page scale
Page measurement units
Stencils and drawing area
Opening and using stencil
Connection points
Positioning text
Selecting sub shapes in a group
Version control
Using the dashboard
Personalized dashboard
Customizing your dashboard view
Expanding and collapsing sections
Using folders
Creating folders
Refreshing folders
Renaming folders
Moving folders
Trashing, restoring and permanently deleting folders
Finding drawings and folders
How to find a drawing's location
Export drawing in the dashboard
Import PDF to the dashboard
Create and manage drawings
Selecting multiple drawings
Creating a new drawing
Renaming a drawing
Moving a drawing
Trashing, restoring and permanently deleting drawings
Understanding trash permissions
Duplicating a drawing
Pinning a drawing to the top
Saving and opening an offline drawing
Create and manage teams
Understanding team permissions
Understanding inheritance
Sharing a team drawing
Creating a team
Inviting team members
Managing team permissions
Renaming a team
Leaving or deleting a team
Sharing and collaborating
Sharing a drawing
Sharing with email (requires signup)
Sharing with a public link (no signup required)
Managing access and invites
Sharing to social media
Publishing a drawing
Real time collaboration
Viewing who is online
Chatting with team mates
Viewing notifications
Integrating with Slack
Creating a team from your Slack channel
Sharing a drawing to Slack
Electra options
Accessing Electra options
Automatic in/mm/cm/meters resize
Automatic wire propagation and detection
Split wires when dropping terminals
Automatic adjust and straighten wire
Automatically manage connection dots for wires
How page prefix works
Enable page prefix on references
Enable page prefix on wires
Page prefix separator for wires
Automatic wiring when dropping symbol
Automatically Place Layout Symbols on Rails
Initial Placement Offset
Location zone options
Location format
Creating your own title blocks
The anatomy of a title block
Title block creation process
Inserting title block zones
Inserting static text and graphics
Inserting automatic text
Creating and inserting user data
The create title block window
Using a custom title block
Editing the title block icon
Fit the title block to page margin
Symbols and components
One intelligent symbol
Placing and duplicating symbols
Intelligent inheritance
Intelligent automatic numbering
Editing symbol reference
The reference window
Displaying pin names
Automatic pin names
Modifying pin sets
Understanding symbols and components
Assigning components
Managing components
Selecting a component
The component database
The autolocation shape
Creating your own symbol
Symbol creation process
The anatomy of a schematic symbol
The create symbol window
Editing the symbol icon
Modifying existing symbols
Wires
A variety of wires
Difference between a line and a wire
Connecting and manipulating wires
Editing wire name
The wire window
Customizing wires
Automatic wire name detection
Wire name propagation
Automatic wire connection
Wire links
Wire buses
Assigning Cables
Managing Cables
Selecting A Cable
Arranging Cable Cores
The Cable Database
The Cable Tag Symbol
Assigning Components To Wire
Re-using circuits
Intelligent copy and paste
Prefab circuits
Creating prefab circuits
Using and sharing prefab circuits
Intelligent terminals
Terminal status detection
Automatic wire splitting
Using and generating terminals
Manually assigning terminal numbers
Jumping to linked terminals
Using terminal blocks
Organizing multitier terminals
Generating jumpers
PLC shapes
The PLC symbol
Customizing the PLC symbol
Creating a single PLC using multiple symbols
The connector symbol
Customizing the connector symbol
The ladder zone shape
The ladder zone symbol
Using ladder zone
Panel layout
The panel layout process
Preparing a page for panel layout
Inserting plates, cable ducts and rails
Dimension shapes
Generating panel layout
Using guides to place layout shapes
Using Automatic Placement on Rails
Disabling Automatic Placement
Using 3D layout shapes
Making your own layout shapes
Generating and exporting reports
Generating reports
Cross reference report
Material reference report
Importing material reference
Bill of materials report
Cable reference report
Connections (From/To) report
Cable bill of materials report
Exporting reports
Exporting bill of materials report to OpenBom
Exporting component database
Importing component database
Exporting cable database
Importing cable database
Exporting symbols on drawing
Importing symbols on drawing
Export wires on drawing
Import wires on drawing
Generating Table of Contents
Importing and Exporting in Electra Cloud
Importing DXF and DWG files
Exporting as DXF/DWG
Exporting component database
Importing component database
Exporting cable database
Importing cable database
Exporting symbols on drawing
Importing symbols on drawing
Export wires on drawing
Import wires on drawing
Purchasing and licensing
Find the perfect plan for your project
Payment method
Assigning licenses
Payment history
Change payment methods
Add payment methods
Retry charge
Electra E9 license activation
Cancel subscription
Frequently Asked Questions
If I share and move a drawing to a folder, will it affect other users?
What happens if a user trashed the drawing I shared to them?
Can a user create a new drawing from shared drawing?
How to check if the drawing belongs to personal or team in the editor?
Can Electra generate a From/To report?
I already have CAD symbols in AutoCad, can I import them into Electra?
How to import drawing from Electra Cloud to Electra E9 and vice versa
How to use an existing drawing as a template in Electra E9?
Preferences and settings
Setting the language
Setting the keyboard increment
Automatically resize symbols to snap on grid
Play sound when chat message is received
Play sound when collaborator joins editing
Notification settings
Enable or disable desktop notifications
DWG/DXF settings
Enable or disable Import dimensions and Import layers
Basic shape operations
Selecting a drawing tool
Selecting shapes and sub shapes
Drawing squares, rectangles and rounded rectangles
Drawing lines, arcs, curves and freeforms (paths)
Modifying paths
Moving path points
Extending or joining paths
Adding path points
Deleting path points
Rotating shapes
Resizing shapes
Maintaining aspect ratio
Resizing shapes from the center
Resizing with proportional stroke or line weight
Setting stroke widths or line weight
Setting text stroke width
Setting line style
Understanding line style format
Setting line end (arrow)
Setting line end (arrow) sizing
Modifying stroke linecap
Setting stroke linejoin
Using connectors
Using elbow connectors
Using straight connectors
Using jump connectors
Resizing connectors
Using connection points
Adding connection points
Deleting connection points
Moving connection points
Connecting shapes using connection points
Locking shapes
Adding hyperlinks
Advanced shape operations
Grouping shapes
Ungrouping shapes
Grouped shapes with text
Flip vertical
Flip horizontal
Fragment shapes
Union shapes
Difference shapes
Intersect shapes
Flatten shapes
How flattening works
Trimming shapes
Joining paths
Outline text
Converting shapes to path
Why convert to path?
Using stencils and symbols
Opening and using a stencil
Creating a new stencil
Collapse all stencils
Icon Size
Understanding stencil permissions
Editing stencil properties
Closing a stencil
Deleting a stencil
Arrange stencils
Moving stencils
Sharing stencils
Using symbols
Creating a new symbol
Editing a symbol
Copying a symbol
Pasting a symbol
Pasting a symbol's name, description and tags
Editing a symbol icon
Refreshing a symbol
Deleting a symbol
Collapsing a stencil
Arranging symbols in a stencil
Finding symbols
Downloading a stencil
Importing a stencil
Modifying fonts and text
Setting font family
Adding your own web fonts
Adding your own custom fonts
Setting font sizes
Setting text alignment
Positioning text
Modifying text padding
Creating text
Outlining text
Find and replace text
Setting rich text styling on text
Using flow text
Create flow text
Offset flow text
Revert flow text
Arranging and aligning shapes
Arranging shapes using back, backward, front and forward
Aligning shapes
Creating guides
Deleting guides
Attaching shapes to guides
Moving guides
Hiding and showing guides
Clearing (deleting) all guides
Using the color picker
Single click to set most recent color
Setting text stroke color
Using default colors
Setting colors quickly
Customizing colors
Customizing gradients
Add more stops to a gradient
Remove a stop from gradient
Saving customized gradients
Resetting saved gradients
Using colors and gradients across multiple devices
Using painter
How to use painter
How to use multi-mode
Using format painter
Using color painter
Using formula painter
Using json painter
Applying shadow, bevel and other effects
Applying effects
Drop shadow
Inner shadow
Bevel
Blur
Glow
Deleting an effect
Effect on text
Shape properties and formulas
Viewing Shape properties
Adding a field
Removing a field
Entering values
Entering units and expressions
Locking aspect ratio
Viewing and entering formulas
Deleting a formula
Editing formulas on the mini editor
Automatically minimizing Shape properties
Viewing text properties
Editing text line spacing
Assigning name to shapes
Automatically incrementing shapes
Resizing line end (arrow)
Repeat Transformation
Page size, scaling and units
Displaying the page setup dialog
Selecting a page sizing
Setting a custom page size
Selecting page orientation
Fitting a page to a drawing
Selecting a measurement unit
Page scaling
Page margin
Multiple pages
Adding a new page
Renaming a page
Selecting a page
Page reordering
Deleting a page
Using templates
Creating a template
Creating a new drawing from a template
Editing a template
Using Electra template
Browsing Electra templates
Exporting shapes and drawings
Exporting shapes
Exporting the entire drawing
Exporting as JPG
Exporting as PNG
Exporting as PDF
Exporting as DXF/DWG
Exporting as SVG
Importing files
Importing images into Electra (PNG, GIF, JPG, SVG, AI)
Auto-resizing and clipping of imported image
Importing Visio documents into Electra
Importing AutoCAD (DWG/DXF) into Electra
Importing Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files into Electra
Creating and using layers
Displaying the layers dialog
The default layer
Creating new layers
Creating non printable, hidden or comment layers
Renaming layers
Selecting an active layer
Assigning shapes to layers
Inheriting layers
Deleting layers
Selecting all shapes in a layer
Showing or hiding shapes in a layer
Changing the z-order of layers
Add custom data
Using version control
Save a version
Reverting drawing version
Add custom data
What is custom data?
Add custom data
Use custom data
Add custom menu
Viewing custom menu
Understanding custom menu
Selecting a custom menu
Rearrange custom menu
Example of custom menu
Using dark mode
Viewing dark theme and light theme
Using Clip Path
Create clip path
Text clipper
Remove clip path
Plugins
What are plugins?
Personal plugins
Team plugins
Public plugins
Accessing and using plugins
Running a plugin
Automatically running plugins when drawing loads
Stopping an automatically run plugin
Organizing and closing plugins
Creating a plugin
Editing the plugin script
Renaming and editing a plugin
Editing plugin icons
Refreshing a plugin
Sharing a plugin to other teams
Keyboard shortcuts
List of keyboard shortcuts
Import drawings or stencils from Electra E6/E7/E8
Steps to import drawings from Electra E6/E7/E8 to Electra Cloud/Electra E9
Steps to import stencils from Electra E6/E7/E8 to Electra Cloud/Electra E9
Tools
Renumber
Renumber ladder zones
Google Drive Integration
Create Google Files from Vecta dashboard
Google Files Functions
Google Files Ownership
Deleting Google Files
Piping and Instrumentation Diagram
What is P&ID?
P&ID instrument symbol design
To create tank with more inlets and outlets
Assigning component, piping or signal
No results found
Concepts
Relationship between symbols and components
Drawings and the component database
Getting started
Creating a new drawing
Opening a drawing
Automatic saving
Page scale
Page measurement units
More...
Stencils and drawing area
Opening and using stencil
Connection points
Positioning text
Selecting sub shapes in a group
Version control
Using the dashboard
Personalized dashboard
Customizing your dashboard view
Expanding and collapsing sections
Using folders
Creating folders
More...
Refreshing folders
Renaming folders
Moving folders
Trashing, restoring and permanently deleting folders
Finding drawings and folders
How to find a drawing's location
Export drawing in the dashboard
Import PDF to the dashboard
Create and manage drawings
Selecting multiple drawings
Creating a new drawing
Renaming a drawing
Moving a drawing
Trashing, restoring and permanently deleting drawings
More...
Understanding trash permissions
Duplicating a drawing
Pinning a drawing to the top
Saving and opening an offline drawing
Create and manage teams
Understanding team permissions
Understanding inheritance
Sharing a team drawing
Creating a team
Inviting team members
More...
Managing team permissions
Renaming a team
Leaving or deleting a team
Sharing and collaborating
Sharing a drawing
Sharing with email (requires signup)
Sharing with a public link (no signup required)
Managing access and invites
Sharing to social media
More...
Publishing a drawing
Real time collaboration
Viewing who is online
Chatting with team mates
Viewing notifications
Integrating with Slack
Creating a team from your Slack channel
Sharing a drawing to Slack
Electra options
Accessing Electra options
Automatic in/mm/cm/meters resize
Automatic wire propagation and detection
Split wires when dropping terminals
Automatic adjust and straighten wire
More...
Automatically manage connection dots for wires
How page prefix works
Enable page prefix on references
Enable page prefix on wires
Page prefix separator for wires
Automatic wiring when dropping symbol
Automatically Place Layout Symbols on Rails
Initial Placement Offset
Location zone options
Location format
Creating your own title blocks
The anatomy of a title block
Title block creation process
Inserting title block zones
Inserting static text and graphics
Inserting automatic text
More...
Creating and inserting user data
The create title block window
Using a custom title block
Editing the title block icon
Fit the title block to page margin
Symbols and components
One intelligent symbol
Placing and duplicating symbols
Intelligent inheritance
Intelligent automatic numbering
Editing symbol reference
More...
The reference window
Displaying pin names
Automatic pin names
Modifying pin sets
Understanding symbols and components
Assigning components
Managing components
Selecting a component
The component database
The autolocation shape
Creating your own symbol
Symbol creation process
The anatomy of a schematic symbol
The create symbol window
Editing the symbol icon
Modifying existing symbols
Wires
A variety of wires
Difference between a line and a wire
Connecting and manipulating wires
Editing wire name
The wire window
More...
Customizing wires
Automatic wire name detection
Wire name propagation
Automatic wire connection
Wire links
Wire buses
Assigning Cables
Managing Cables
Selecting A Cable
Arranging Cable Cores
The Cable Database
The Cable Tag Symbol
Assigning Components To Wire
Re-using circuits
Intelligent copy and paste
Prefab circuits
Creating prefab circuits
Using and sharing prefab circuits
Intelligent terminals
Terminal status detection
Automatic wire splitting
Using and generating terminals
Manually assigning terminal numbers
Jumping to linked terminals
More...
Using terminal blocks
Organizing multitier terminals
Generating jumpers
PLC shapes
The PLC symbol
Customizing the PLC symbol
Creating a single PLC using multiple symbols
The connector symbol
Customizing the connector symbol
The ladder zone shape
The ladder zone symbol
Using ladder zone
Panel layout
The panel layout process
Preparing a page for panel layout
Inserting plates, cable ducts and rails
Dimension shapes
Generating panel layout
More...
Using guides to place layout shapes
Using Automatic Placement on Rails
Disabling Automatic Placement
Using 3D layout shapes
Making your own layout shapes
Generating and exporting reports
Generating reports
Cross reference report
Material reference report
Importing material reference
Bill of materials report
More...
Cable reference report
Connections (From/To) report
Cable bill of materials report
Exporting reports
Exporting bill of materials report to OpenBom
Exporting component database
Importing component database
Exporting cable database
Importing cable database
Exporting symbols on drawing
Importing symbols on drawing
Export wires on drawing
Import wires on drawing
Generating Table of Contents
Importing and Exporting in Electra Cloud
Importing DXF and DWG files
Exporting as DXF/DWG
Exporting component database
Importing component database
Exporting cable database
More...
Importing cable database
Exporting symbols on drawing
Importing symbols on drawing
Export wires on drawing
Import wires on drawing
Purchasing and licensing
Find the perfect plan for your project
Payment method
Assigning licenses
Payment history
Change payment methods
More...
Add payment methods
Retry charge
Electra E9 license activation
Cancel subscription
Frequently Asked Questions
If I share and move a drawing to a folder, will it affect other users?
What happens if a user trashed the drawing I shared to them?
Can a user create a new drawing from shared drawing?
How to check if the drawing belongs to personal or team in the editor?
Can Electra generate a From/To report?
More...
I already have CAD symbols in AutoCad, can I import them into Electra?
How to import drawing from Electra Cloud to Electra E9 and vice versa
How to use an existing drawing as a template in Electra E9?
Preferences and settings
Setting the language
Setting the keyboard increment
Automatically resize symbols to snap on grid
Play sound when chat message is received
Play sound when collaborator joins editing
More...
Notification settings
Enable or disable desktop notifications
DWG/DXF settings
Enable or disable Import dimensions and Import layers
Basic shape operations
Selecting a drawing tool
Selecting shapes and sub shapes
Drawing squares, rectangles and rounded rectangles
Drawing lines, arcs, curves and freeforms (paths)
Modifying paths
More...
Moving path points
Extending or joining paths
Adding path points
Deleting path points
Rotating shapes
Resizing shapes
Maintaining aspect ratio
Resizing shapes from the center
Resizing with proportional stroke or line weight
Setting stroke widths or line weight
Setting text stroke width
Setting line style
Understanding line style format
Setting line end (arrow)
Setting line end (arrow) sizing
Modifying stroke linecap
Setting stroke linejoin
Using connectors
Using elbow connectors
Using straight connectors
Using jump connectors
Resizing connectors
Using connection points
Adding connection points
Deleting connection points
Moving connection points
Connecting shapes using connection points
Locking shapes
Adding hyperlinks
Advanced shape operations
Grouping shapes
Ungrouping shapes
Grouped shapes with text
Flip vertical
Flip horizontal
More...
Fragment shapes
Union shapes
Difference shapes
Intersect shapes
Flatten shapes
How flattening works
Trimming shapes
Joining paths
Outline text
Converting shapes to path
Why convert to path?
Using stencils and symbols
Opening and using a stencil
Creating a new stencil
Collapse all stencils
Icon Size
Understanding stencil permissions
More...
Editing stencil properties
Closing a stencil
Deleting a stencil
Arrange stencils
Moving stencils
Sharing stencils
Using symbols
Creating a new symbol
Editing a symbol
Copying a symbol
Pasting a symbol
Pasting a symbol's name, description and tags
Editing a symbol icon
Refreshing a symbol
Deleting a symbol
Collapsing a stencil
Arranging symbols in a stencil
Finding symbols
Downloading a stencil
Importing a stencil
Modifying fonts and text
Setting font family
Adding your own web fonts
Adding your own custom fonts
Setting font sizes
Setting text alignment
More...
Positioning text
Modifying text padding
Creating text
Outlining text
Find and replace text
Setting rich text styling on text
Using flow text
Create flow text
Offset flow text
Revert flow text
Arranging and aligning shapes
Arranging shapes using back, backward, front and forward
Aligning shapes
Creating guides
Deleting guides
Attaching shapes to guides
More...
Moving guides
Hiding and showing guides
Clearing (deleting) all guides
Using the color picker
Single click to set most recent color
Setting text stroke color
Using default colors
Setting colors quickly
Customizing colors
More...
Customizing gradients
Add more stops to a gradient
Remove a stop from gradient
Saving customized gradients
Resetting saved gradients
Using colors and gradients across multiple devices
Using painter
How to use painter
How to use multi-mode
Using format painter
Using color painter
Using formula painter
More...
Using json painter
Applying shadow, bevel and other effects
Applying effects
Drop shadow
Inner shadow
Bevel
Blur
More...
Glow
Deleting an effect
Effect on text
Shape properties and formulas
Viewing Shape properties
Adding a field
Removing a field
Entering values
Entering units and expressions
More...
Locking aspect ratio
Viewing and entering formulas
Deleting a formula
Editing formulas on the mini editor
Automatically minimizing Shape properties
Viewing text properties
Editing text line spacing
Assigning name to shapes
Automatically incrementing shapes
Resizing line end (arrow)
Repeat Transformation
Page size, scaling and units
Displaying the page setup dialog
Selecting a page sizing
Setting a custom page size
Selecting page orientation
Fitting a page to a drawing
More...
Selecting a measurement unit
Page scaling
Page margin
Multiple pages
Adding a new page
Renaming a page
Selecting a page
Page reordering
Deleting a page
Using templates
Creating a template
Creating a new drawing from a template
Editing a template
Using Electra template
Browsing Electra templates
Exporting shapes and drawings
Exporting shapes
Exporting the entire drawing
Exporting as JPG
Exporting as PNG
Exporting as PDF
More...
Exporting as DXF/DWG
Exporting as SVG
Importing files
Importing images into Electra (PNG, GIF, JPG, SVG, AI)
Auto-resizing and clipping of imported image
Importing Visio documents into Electra
Importing AutoCAD (DWG/DXF) into Electra
Importing Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files into Electra
Creating and using layers
Displaying the layers dialog
The default layer
Creating new layers
Creating non printable, hidden or comment layers
Renaming layers
More...
Selecting an active layer
Assigning shapes to layers
Inheriting layers
Deleting layers
Selecting all shapes in a layer
Showing or hiding shapes in a layer
Changing the z-order of layers
Add custom data
Using version control
Save a version
Reverting drawing version
Add custom data
What is custom data?
Add custom data
Use custom data
Add custom menu
Viewing custom menu
Understanding custom menu
Selecting a custom menu
Rearrange custom menu
Example of custom menu
Using dark mode
Viewing dark theme and light theme
Using Clip Path
Create clip path
Text clipper
Remove clip path
Plugins
What are plugins?
Personal plugins
Team plugins
Public plugins
Accessing and using plugins
More...
Running a plugin
Automatically running plugins when drawing loads
Stopping an automatically run plugin
Organizing and closing plugins
Creating a plugin
Editing the plugin script
Renaming and editing a plugin
Editing plugin icons
Refreshing a plugin
Sharing a plugin to other teams
Keyboard shortcuts
List of keyboard shortcuts
Import drawings or stencils from Electra E6/E7/E8
Steps to import drawings from Electra E6/E7/E8 to Electra Cloud/Electra E9
Steps to import stencils from Electra E6/E7/E8 to Electra Cloud/Electra E9
Tools
Renumber
Renumber ladder zones
Google Drive Integration
Create Google Files from Vecta dashboard
Google Files Functions
Google Files Ownership
Deleting Google Files
Piping and Instrumentation Diagram
What is P&ID?
P&ID instrument symbol design
To create tank with more inlets and outlets
Assigning component, piping or signal
Electra Cloud