How to Draw Electrical Diagrams

Making wiring or electrical diagrams is easy with the proper templates and symbols:

1. Start with a collection of electrical symbols appropriate for your diagram
2. Draw circuits represented by lines
3. Drag and drop symbols to the circuits and connect them
4. Use line hops if any lines need to cross

SmartDraw has several tools and templates for making a variety of visuals for engineering and CAD design. Among these you'll find commonly used electrical drawings and schematics, like circuit diagrams, wiring diagrams, electrical plans and block diagrams. With SmartDraw's vast library of electrical symbols and easy drawing tools, anyone - apprentice or pro - can start building electrical diagrams right away.

Start with a Circuit Diagram Template

Let's start by making a circuit diagram. To find a circuit diagram template, click on the Engineering & CAD category then Circuit Panels in SmartDraw's Template Browser. Open the template called "Basic Electrical". While you'll start with a blank page, you'll notice a wide range of electrical symbols docked in the SmartPanel to the left of your drawing area. These capacitors, inductors, switches, resisters, and more will make building your circuit diagram easier.

Draw Circuit Lines

You circuit diagram will basically visualize circuits as lines and the added symbols will indicate where switches and fusers may go.

Start drawing lines by clicking on the Draw Lines tool in the SmartPanel. By default, you'll draw a segmented line with an arrow at one end.

Change Line Style

If you want to change the type of line you're drawing, select a line type from the Line Shape drop down.

If you right click on a line, you can change its line shape even after you've added it to the page and add or remove arrowheads if you need.

Line Options

If you right click on a line, you can change its line shape even after you've added it to the page and add or remove arrowheads if you need.

Add Symbols

Drag a symbol from the docked library onto the line and it will automatically insert itself. If you need to modify the symbol, you rotate it using the circular handle that appears when you select it or stretch it using the black handles around the symbol.

Moving Symbols

You can detach and move any symbol to a different position along the circuit if you hold down the Alt key. Move the symbol to the new position and let go and your drawing will adjust automatically.

Find More Symbols

Each template comes with a few relevant symbol libraries already docked. You can scroll through through them or use the carats (small black arrows to the right of the name) to expand and collapse any library.

You can also drag libraries up and down the stack to reorder them.

If you need more symbols, click on Search symbols in blue at the top of the SmartPanel. This will open the Symbols tab with a search field where you can search for additional symbols in SmartDraw's extensive collection.

If you find a library or symbol sets you want to add, click on the three dots and choose either Add result or Add library. Or you can simply drag and drop from this view.

Line Hops

If two lines must cross in an engineering diagram, SmartDraw uses a "bridge" (also known as a "line hop") to show that the lines do not intersect.

Click on Set Line Hops in the SmartPanel to show or hide line hops at crossover points and to change the size and shape of your line hops.

You can change the style of line hops from round to square. You can also change the size of the line hop.

Add an Annotation Layer

You can adda a scale-independent annotation layer to all electrical and engineering documents to help you enhance your drawings with additional information.

This annotation layer will automatically adjust its size and position as the drawing area (or paper size) changes. You can add the scale, author and other information about the design in this layer just like the "page view" in a traditional CAD program.

To add an Annotation Layer, click Add Annotation Layer in your SmartPanel.

Setting the Scale

Depending on how you prefer to work, you may want to set some defaults for your entire diagram. These settings are conveniently located in your SmartPanel. For example, if you want to create a drawing to scale, you can customize the scale or change it to metric before you start.

Line Settings

The line settings will help you draw your circuits. If the Allow Lines to Link option is selected in the SmartPanel, the lines will neatly snap to each other and can move as a unit while still remaining separate. This setting also allows lines to connect to shapes. If the Allow Lines to Join option is selected, these connected lines will become one continuous line. Having Use Snaps selected will help lines and symbols snap to the nearest grid point as you draw.