Electrical plan: sockets, switches, lights and circuits

In the video0:45

How to do it

Open Electrical (E) in the toolbar on the left. Pick a group – sockets, switches, lights, distribution, data and TV, smoke and heat, heating or ventilation – and then the symbol.
Click by a wall for what sits on one, such as a socket or a switch, or inside a room for what goes on the ceiling. Each takes its usual height: a socket 300 mm above the floor, or 1.1 m where it sits over a kitchen worktop, and a switch 1050 mm, beside the door. Hold Alt to place it freely.
Select a symbol to change its kind, its height above the floor or its note for the electrician, such as “for the dishwasher”, in the panel on the right.
For the circuits, select a socket, a light or the distribution board and press “Propose circuits”. The app groups the points as Norwegian practice does, as a grey suggestion you accept or discard, and “Circuits” in the Display menu shows each symbol’s circuit number beside it.
Open Drawings and press “Add electrical plan” under the list of sheets. You get a sheet per floor with the symbols, their heights and circuit numbers, a legend with the count of each, and your country’s rule for smoke alarms. “Add circuit schedule” adds a sheet listing the circuits.
Open the Rule check tab to read the advice: where smoke alarms are still missing, and any socket or switch inside a bathroom’s zones.

Good to know

Show or hide the symbols on the plan under “Electrical” in the Display menu, bottom right, and their circuit numbers under “Circuits”.
The electrical plan and the circuit schedule are for the electrician and aren’t part of the application drawings. “Update electrical plans” and “Update circuit schedule” bring the sheets up to date after a change.
Select a symbol to move it to another circuit or a new one, or to change its circuit’s breaker, RCD, cable and note; select several and press “Make a circuit”. The distribution board lists its circuits and about how many modules it needs, with room to spare.
The material list counts each kind per floor, and with circuits the breakers, the RCDs and the cable in metres, estimated along the walls. DXF puts the symbols and the circuit numbers on layers of their own, and 3D shows plates on the walls and discs under the ceiling.
Or ask the assistant: “a smoke detector in every bedroom”, “two double sockets over the kitchen worktop”, “propose circuits”. It places them as an electrician would, keeps sockets and switches out of the bathroom’s zones, and shows the circuits in grey for you to accept. See The assistant.

Questions and answers

Where must the smoke alarms go?

It depends on the country. In Norway (TEK17 § 11-12) at least one on every storey, covering the living room and the area outside the bedrooms, on the mains with a battery back-up. In Ireland a linked system in the hall and landing of every storey and in the living room, with a heat alarm in the kitchen. The app checks the rule of the country chosen in the project settings, says where it found none, and prints the rule under the electrical plan’s legend.

Can I put a socket in the bathroom?

Not in the zones round the bath or the shower: over the bath or the shower tray and, in most countries, 0.6 m beyond it, and within 1.2 m of the fixed outlet of a shower without a tray, up to 2.25 m above the floor (IEC 60364-7-701, as each country adopts it). The rule check marks a socket or a switch inside them, and values not yet checked against the country’s own text are marked as such. In Norway it also says what a light, a fan or a detector fixed in the zones needs: at least IPX4 in zones 1 and 2, and IPX5 where water jets are used for cleaning. Your electrician has the last word.

Does the app plan my circuits?

It proposes them, for your electrician. “Propose circuits” groups the points as Norwegian practice does (NEK 400-8-823): a circuit of its own for the cooker, the oven, the dishwasher, the washing machine, the dryer, the water heater, the heat pump, an EV charger and the ventilation unit – also when they stand among the furniture or the kitchen units – and for each room’s floor heating; the kitchen counter on two circuits, the bathroom and outside on their own, the other sockets room by room and the lights by area. Each circuit gets its own 30 mA RCD and the usual breaker and cable (B10 and 1.5 mm² for lights, B16 and 2.5 mm² for sockets), marked “to be confirmed by the electrician”. The electrician designs the installation and signs it off, and in Norway it is work for an authorised electrician. In other countries the app says the proposal follows Norwegian practice, for the electrician to adapt to the rules there.

What is on the circuit schedule?

A row for each circuit: its number, breaker, RCD, cable with its estimated length, what it feeds and a note, such as the stove guard on the cooker’s circuit. Under the table come the caveat, the size of the board and, in Norway, the rooms with fewer outlets than NEK 400-8-823 asks for. A long list goes on over more sheets. In Norway the installer hands over the final schedule (kursfortegnelse) with the installation; the app’s is a proposal to start from.

Can the electrician work from it?

It shows what you want where, with the symbols electricians draw (IEC 60617), the heights beside them and, if you like, a proposal of circuits: a good start for the conversation and the quote. The electrician plans the circuits, the cables and the fuse board, and in most countries the installation itself is work for an authorised electrician.