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Everything you can do with QElectroTech — a powerful, free tool for creating professional electrical diagrams and technical documentation.
- ✅ 100% free — No licensing fees, subscriptions, or paywalls
- ✅ Open source — Source code available on GitHub (GNU GPL v3)
- ✅ No vendor lock-in — You own your files, can use them anywhere
- ✅ Transparent — Community-driven development
- ✅ Industrial-grade output — Used by professionals worldwide
- ✅ 8,200+ professional symbols — Electrical, logic, hydraulic, pneumatic, fluid systems
- ✅ Automatic documentation — Generate bills of materials, nomenclature, wiring lists
- ✅ Configurable reports — Customizable for your needs
Beyond electrical diagrams, QET handles:
- Plumbing & water systems
- HVAC & climate control
- Hydraulics & pneumatics
- Home automation (domotics)
- PID control systems
- Solar & renewable energy
- Facility layout & design
- And more...
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8,200+ built-in symbols covering:
- Electrical components (switches, relays, motors, etc.)
- Logic gates and digital circuits
- Hydraulic and pneumatic components
- Fluid system symbols
- Control and instrumentation symbols
- Fast search — Find components instantly
- Community elements — Access thousands of user-contributed symbols
- Custom elements — Design your own symbols with the element editor
- Drag-and-drop placement — Quickly add elements to canvas
- Smart routing — Automatic wire routing between elements
- Manual control — Full control over wire paths when needed
- Point-to-point connectivity — Precise terminal-to-terminal connections
- Automatic alignment — Elements snap to grid for neat organization
- Multi-sheet projects — Organize work across multiple pages/diagrams
- Labels on elements — Reference designators (S1, R1, M1, etc.)
- Labels on wires — Signal names, voltages, identifiers
- Free text — Add notes and descriptions anywhere
- Dynamic text fields — Auto-populate with project data (%date, %author, etc.)
- Customizable fonts — Font, size, color, rotation, alignment
- Full undo/redo — Unlimited steps, with keyboard shortcuts
- Copy/paste/duplicate — Reuse elements and sections
- Multi-select — Edit multiple objects at once
- Alignment & distribution — Professional-looking layouts
- Grid & snap-to-grid — Precise, organized positioning
- Keyboard shortcuts — Power-user navigation; every command can have a key, and you can look a key up — see Customising QElectroTech
- Toolbars your way — icon size, text under the icons, locked toolbars; choosing each toolbar's buttons and a Customise window are in review — see Customising QElectroTech
- Show / hide kinds of items — Affichage ▸ Afficher hides symbol texts, wire texts, text fields, shapes, pictures, tables or cross-references on every sheet, and leaves them out of printing and export — see Showing and hiding kinds of items
Nomenclature Report
- Automatically list all elements with reference numbers
- Count quantities of each type
- Extract bills of materials
Conductor List Report
- Document all wiring connections
- Export conductor numbering for manufacturing
- Trace signal paths throughout project
- Generate cross-reference documentation
I/O Documentation
- Summarize project inputs and outputs
- Create connectivity matrices
- Document electrical relationships
- Customizable sheets — Set headers, columns, rows per page
- Embedded titleblock editor — Add project info, author, date
- Custom variables — Store project metadata
- Page styles — Define look and feel
- Real-time table of contents — Auto-generated project index
- Professional formatting — Print-ready output
- CSV export — Export element data for parts lists, BOM
- Nomenclature tables — Configurable output formats
- Conductor numbering — Export for wiring list printers
- SQLite database — Backend for project metadata
- Search & Replace — bulk-set properties across a project (not text find/replace)
- Auto-numbering — Intelligent conductor and element numbering
- Automatic connection detection — Elements connect when aligned
- Manual routing control — Adjust wire paths for clarity
- Wire properties — Customize color, style, thickness
- Conductor types — Define phase, neutral, ground, signal lines
- Cross-reference generation — Automatic connectivity documentation
- Terminal definitions — Specify connection points on custom elements
- Master/slave relationships — Define element interactions
- Electrical properties — Track voltage, current, signal type
- Information storage — Embed metadata in elements
- Custom attributes — Store application-specific data
- PDF — Professional documents for sharing, archiving, printing
- SVG — Vector format, editable in other design tools
- PNG/JPG/BMP — Raster formats for web and documents
- DXF — CAD format for collaboration with CAD tools (export, and separate DXF-to-symbol import); symbols can be written as DXF blocks, with their texts and part data as block attributes
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The same PDF every time — with
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCHset,--export-pdfwrites a byte-identical file for an unchanged project — see Printing and exporting - Multiple simultaneous projects — Work with several files at once
- Print preview — See output before printing
- Selective export — Print specific sheets or all pages
- Scale control — Fit to page or print at actual size
- Multi-page support — Automatically split large diagrams
- Color & B&W options — Control output appearance
- Sheets (pages) — Create multiple diagrams in one project
- Types — Single-line, multiline, control diagrams
- Organization — Reorder, rename, delete sheets easily
- Cross-references — Link between pages automatically
- Customizable toolbars — Arrange tools your way
- Dockable panels — Move, hide, float as needed
- Saved workspaces — Save and restore your layout
- Fullscreen mode — Maximize working area
- Portable .qet files — Email or share easily
- Version control integration — Works with Git, SVN
- File sharing — Network drives, cloud storage compatible
- Import/merge — Combine work from multiple contributors
- Concurrent editing — Multiple users on different sheets
- 25+ languages — Interface translated for worldwide use
- Multilingual documentation — Manuals in multiple languages
- International standards — IEC 81346 compliance
- Regional variants — European, US, and other conventions
- Community translations — Volunteer translation efforts
- Customizable display — Font size, colors, themes
- Dark mode — Easy on the eyes
- Keyboard navigation — Full control without mouse
- Zoom support — Magnify interface and diagrams
- Right-click context menus — Quick access to commands
- Efficient rendering — Smooth performance with 100+ elements
- Responsive interface — No lag during editing
- Fast zoom — Instant magnification and fit-to-view
- Quick saves — Fast file I/O even for large projects
- Memory efficient — Optimized for modern computers
- Robust error handling — Graceful error messages
- Undo/redo safety — Complete action history
- Crash recovery — a copy of each changed project every 20 minutes, the last three kept; optional autosave (off by default)
- Data validation — Prevent corrupt projects
- Element editor — Design symbols visually
- Terminal definition — Specify connection points
- Graphics support — Draw shapes, lines, text, circles
- Dynamic text — Add variable fields to elements
- Package for sharing — Distribute custom element libraries
- Headless command line — Export PDF, images, BOM, wiring lists, nets and cross-references without opening a window
- Batch operations — Loop the CLI over many projects, with real exit codes
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Open XML formats —
.qetand.elmtare plain XML, so external tools can read and write them - Integration — Combine with other tools
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JavaScript scripting —
--runa script against a project, or store it as a button with an icon in the menu and toolbar; off until you allow it — see JavaScript Scripting and Script buttons - AI assistants — an assistant can place symbols so wires come out straight, route wires around symbols, score how tidy a drawing is, size sheets for A0–A5, Letter, Legal or Tabloid paper, and follow your own house style. In live mode it works in your open window and can create, open, save, close and print projects, asking before it prints. See MCP server, Live mode and Connecting an AI assistant
There is no plugin system; see Automating QElectroTech.
- Organize collections — Group related symbols
- Community repository — Access 8,200+ community elements
- Private libraries — Create company-specific elements
- Import/export — Share element sets with team
- CNC machine controls and automation
- Manufacturing equipment wiring
- Assembly line control systems
- PLC automation and robotics
- Process control diagrams
- Vehicle electrical systems
- Wiring harness documentation
- Control module integration
- Power distribution schemes
- Photovoltaic (solar) systems
- Solar thermal installations
- Power distribution networks
- Energy management systems
- Grid integration
- Home electrical panels
- Smart home automation (domotics)
- Building control systems
- KNX home automation
- RV/vehicle electrical systems
- Engineering consulting
- System design documentation
- Installation planning
- Maintenance documentation
- Student learning
- Curriculum support
- Laboratory documentation
- Training materials
- IEC 81346 — International classification system
- European standards — DIN, CENELEC compliance
- ISO compatibility — Work with standards-based workflows
- Customizable — Adapt to organization-specific standards
- XML-based — Industry-standard data format
- Open format — Not proprietary or encrypted
- Readable — Human-readable and tool-friendly
- Stable — Backward-compatible file format
- Future-proof — Your files work forever
| Feature | QET | Commercial CAD |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | $500–$5000+ |
| Source Code | Open | Proprietary |
| File Format | Open XML | Proprietary |
| Symbols | 8,200+ | Variable |
| Multi-platform | Windows, Mac, Linux | Platform-dependent |
| Learning Curve | Gentle | Steep |
| Community | 3,700+ active users | Vendor support |
| Customization | Full | Limited |
QElectroTech continues to evolve with:
- Qt6 modernization — Updated framework for better performance
- Enhanced automation — More scripting capabilities
- Better collaboration — Improved multi-user workflows
- Performance — Faster rendering and responsiveness
- Community features — More element libraries and templates
See Development Roadmap for details.
- Quick Start Guide — 10-minute tutorial
- User Manual — Complete reference
- Download — Get QET now
- Community — Meet other users
Ready to create professional diagrams?
