H Insert - Gate

L Draw - Polyline
M View - Grid
N Insert - Label
R Draw - Rectangle
P View - Pan document area
S Insert - Wire
T Insert - Text
U Draw - Line
Z Draw - Rounded rectangle
Esc Go to selection mode
space bar Instant search for symbols
backspace During drawing lines and wires, cancels the last segment of the
line

mouse and keyboard program control overview:

Shift + drag object moves object and disregards the snap

Ctrl + drag object cloning

Ctrl + click adds object to the selection

Ctrl + Shift + click adds or removes object to/from the selection

mouse wheel zoom

Shift + mouse wheel horizontal shift of the drawing

Ctrl + mouse wheel vertical shift of the drawing

Ctrl + Shift + mouse wheel smooth zoom

holding Ctrl while drawing

orthogonal drawing mode
rectangles, ellipses and lines

pressing the cursor keys (arrows) moves selected objects by 0.1 mm

ProfiCAD gallery
ProfiCAD gallery, which can be found at //gallery.proficad.com, is an Internet service for
ProfiCAD program users.

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On the ProfiCAD gallery website you can find symbols and diagrams, which have been
created by other ProfiCAD users. You can share symbols and diagrams you created
with others, just send them to the gallery.

Panels
ProfiCAD provides several panels that facilitate common tasks. These panels can be
dragged and docked to any side of the working area. They either auto-hide to conserve space
or they can be pinned.

There are two small buttons in the top right hand corner of each panel. You can use the first
one (pin) to pin the panel to switch off the auto-hide feature. The other button closes the panel
completely. It can be re-opened by menu command Show - Panel or using the Panels
toolbar.

The panels toolbar contains these buttons:

1. documents

2. symbols graphically

3. symbols textually

4. favorites

5. explorer

6. properties

7. integrated circuits

8. layers

9. pages

10. search

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Documents
The Documents panel allows you to preview documents without opening them.

The panel shows documents from a directory (path) which is listed in the F12 - paths tab.
The panel does not show documents that are located directly on the specified path. You
need to create subgroups (directories) for each group of documents.

For example, if the path to the documents is "D:\drawings\", you need to create several
subdirectories, e. g. "D:\drawings\Project1\", "D:\drawings\Project2\" etc. and place your
drawings into them.

A document can be opened by clicking on the thumbnail of the document.

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drawings templates
A right-click menu appears with the item create a similar document. If you often create
similar documents, you can create a document as a template and then create documents as a
copy of the template.

Symbols and favorites

Panel Symbols is used to insert symbols into the document. It has two parts: the upper part
shows groups of symbols. The lower one shows symbols of the active group.

How to add a symbol to the favourites panel:

a) Select a symbol in the "symbols textually" panel and drag it over the heart icon of
the favourites panel.

b) Right-click a symbol in the "symbols graphically" palette and select menu item add to
favourites.

How to remove a symbol from the favourites panel:

Use the Del key on the keyboard to delete a symbol from the Favourites panel.

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 Explorer

Panel Explorer facilitates work with large documents. It

makes it easy to select small object that would be difficult to
select using the mouse.

With Explorer it is possible to discover some errors - for

example having two symbols in the same position, a line that
is too short and therefore cannot be seen etc. Removing such
objects from the document reduces its size and makes
ProfiCAD work faster.

Layers
Layers can be seen as transparent films to draw individual parts of the drawing on. For
example, one layer can be used for brickwork, another for wiring, another for heating, etc.

The Layers panel is used for switching through layers. Select the active layer (currently
used in the drawing) from the list.

Buttons:

1. moves a layer up.

2. moves a layer down.
3. adds a layer.
4. renames a layer.
5. deletes a layer. Only empty layers can be deleted.

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Properties

When an object is selected (by mouse or from the Explorer

panel), its properties can be set from the Properties panel.

Positions of objects are shown in tenths of mm. Line style

is selected from a list. You can define custom line styles.

If two components with the same hatching type are

displayed next to each other, it is necessary to ensure that
the hatching of the components is not linked. This can be
ensured by modifying the setting of these two values (or
just one of these values). The upper picture shows an
incorrect setting of hatching, the lower picture shows the
correct setting.

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Integrated circuits
You can use IC panel to set up properties of integrated circuits.

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 Pages

The Pages panel allows you to create multipage documents. The icon of the panel represents
a drawing in a spiral binding.

Buttons of the Pages panel:

1. moves a page up
2. moves a page down
3. adds a page
4. deletes a page
5. shows list of pages
6. copies a page to the clipboard
7. pastes a page from the clipboard
8. adds a report

Double-clicking a page displays a dialog box, where properties of the page can be set.

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Each page has a short name (recommended length is 4 characters) that appears in the panel
"Pages" and in the cross references. If a title block is enabled, it is displayed on all pages.

Where to enter data for the title block:

data common for all pages (e.g. data for a particular page (e.g. title,
author, company etc.) supplementary title)

F12 - Document - Data fields double-click the page in the Pages panel

In the title block you can use new system variables generated automatically by the program.

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Search

The Search panel allows you to search for symbols, texts and graphic objects (if they
contain text).

Type in the search term in the search box (1). You can switch to the results area (2) using
the arrow down key. The object that you select in the search results area will be highlighted
in the drawing.

Search is performed in all pages and in all layers of the drawing. This differs from
the Explorer panel, which displays only the objects from the current page and layer.

Search Symbols
Pressing the space bar brings up a dialog box. Enter the search term into the text box (1).
Symbols and folders containing the search term will appear in the list (2).

Double click a symbol to insert it into the drawing. Double click a folder (yellow rectangle)
to display its contents. The name of the selected folder will appear at the top of the window
(3). The button (4) switches to the parent folder of the current folder.

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Right-click to display a context menu that allows two actions:

• view the folder of the symbol

• add a symbol to the Favorites panel

How to draw electrical diagrams

1. Choose the size of the drawing and set it in the print settings and page size dialogues.
2. insert title block (if not already inserted) using command program settings ( F12 - title
block)
3. if you will need multiple layers, prepare them in the Layers panel a name them accordingly to
their intended use
4. if you want to use a scanned floor plan, insert it in the lower layer
5. for the coarse objects placement start with snap 10 mm and decrease it when needed
6. insert the symbols and other objects and place them to their final positions. Leave some space
at the edges of the drawing to allow for the possibility of printing on a different printer.
7. Before you draw connections (wires), make sure that the symbols are properly placed (at least
the most important ones). It is possible to move symbols with wires attached to them, but only
for short distances. The shift of already wired symbols may break their connections.
8. Use the "s" key to switch to the wires drawing mode and start drawing wires. Start with the
major wires crossing the entire length of the drawing. If any connection was started the wrong
way and you are not able to continue, you can cancel the latest diversion by pressing the
backspace key. You can end a connection in the air by pressing the right mouse button.
9. you can use the function File - List of wires to verify all wires have been attached correctly
10. make sure no texts, symbols nor wires overlap

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How to insert symbols
There are four ways to insert a symbol into a drawing:
from the "Symbols Graphically" panel

Click on the symbol you want to insert into the drawing.

from the Symbols Textually panel

from the Favourites panel

from the search symbols window

Transformers and Gates: Select Insert - Transformer or Insert - Gate. Now click in
the drawing where you want to place the symbol. After you switch to the select mode (by
clicking the Esc key), you can set up properties of the symbol by right-clicking it.

Symbols properties
Every symbol has two basic properties: reference and type.

The reference is a unique identification of

the symbol in the drawing.

The type defines electric properties of the symbol,

e.g. resistance in Ω, capacity in pF, transistor type,
etc.

For each symbol you can also set the position of the
labels describing the reference and type properties.
The units are tenths of mm. The easiest way to set the
position of these labels is to drag the text by mouse.
If you need to set up the label position more precisely
set the position by numbers.

When a diagram contains a symbol, which is not in

your library (you obtained the diagram from
someone), you can save it (by clicking on the Save
a copy link) and update your symbol library.

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