Getting started

Creating a new drawing

To create a new Capital Electra X drawing:

  • Click on Create | New drawing.
Creating a new drawing at root
Creating a new drawing at root

OR

  • Hover over any template and click New.
Creating a new drawing from template
Creating a new drawing from template

 See also 

Opening a drawing

To open a drawing:

  • Hover over any drawing on your dashboard and click Open.
Click on Open to load drawing
Click on Open to load drawing

Automatic saving

Capital Electra X drawings are automatically synchronized and saved on the cloud, as indicated at the bottom of the screen, and there is no necessity to manually save a drawing.

Drawing automatically saved in Capital Electra X
Drawing automatically saved in Capital Electra X

Automatic saving in Capital Electra (Offline version)

In Capital Electra (Offline version), you need to set the auto-save interval to automatically save your drawings.

  • Click on File | Preferences | File in the editor
  • Set the Autosave interval, eg. 1 to save periodically every one minute.

With this function, manual saving is not required.

Setting Autosave interval in Capital Electra (Offline version)
Setting Autosave interval in Capital Electra (Offline version)

Page scale

Each drawing can have multiple pages, and each page can have its own scale.

By default, a page is set to 1:1 scale, which is optimized for schematic drawings and produces a beautiful printed copy. For panel layout drawings, you may need to modify scaling to see more on a page, therefore we recommend 1:5 scale for medium sized panels, and 1:10 scale for bigger panels.

To set page scaling:

  • Click on the Scale input and enter a source unit
  • Then click on the Scale target input and enter a target unit.
Change the Scale inputs to set page scaling
Change the Scale inputs to set page scaling

 See also 

Page measurement units

Each and every page on a drawing can have its own measurement units in inches, centimeters, millimeters and pixels, where the ruler and grid will automatically change to reflect the selected units.

By default, page measurement units are set to pixels, which is great for schematic drawings. During panel layout, it is recommended to set page measurement units to millimeters (mm).

To select a measurement unit:

  • Click on the ruler, then select pixel, inches, millimeters or centimeters.
Selecting page measurement units from the ruler
Selecting page measurement units from the ruler

Stencils and drawing area

The editor is divided into drawing areas on the right and stencils on the left, where stencils are a collection of symbols which you can drag and drop onto your drawing.

Stencils and symbols in Capital Electra X
Stencils and symbols in Capital Electra X

Opening and using stencil

To open and use a stencil:

  • Click on the Stencil menu, and select a stencil.
Capital Electra X's stencil menu
Capital Electra X's stencil menu

Once a stencil is opened, simply drag and drop symbols onto drawing.

Connection points

Most shapes in Capital Electra X have connection points allowing one shape to connect to another (e.g., connecting a wire to a symbol). Although they are visible in the drawing when you attempt to connect one shape to another, they will not be visible on printed hard copies.

Connecting shapes using connection points

Positioning text

Symbols and wires in Capital Electra X have yellow control handles that allows you to reposition text easily.

To reposition text:

  • Drag on the yellow control handles to move the texts to a new position.
Drag yellow handle to move text
Drag yellow handle to move text

Selecting sub shapes in a group

Individual shapes in a group, known as sub shapes, can be individually selected and formatted. Applying specific styling and formatting (e.g., font, alignment) to the group affects all shapes in the group, whereas applying specific styling and formatting to a sub shape only affects the individual sub shape.

To select a sub shape in a group:

  • Click on a group, then click on the sub shape (not double click).
Click on sub shape of a shape
Click on sub shape of a shape

Version control

By default version control is enabled and will start versioning your drawing as you draw. Change your drawing back and forth with ease.

Capital™ Electra™ X