Schematic Editor

# Canvas & Navigation

The canvas is an infinite 2D workspace where you design your schematics. It displays a configurable grid and an A4-equivalent document frame that acts as a visual boundary for your design.

Zooming

Zoom in and out using the mouse scroll wheel. The zoom level is displayed in the status bar and toolbar. You can also use the zoom controls in the toolbar to zoom to fit, zoom in, or zoom out.

Panning

Navigate around the canvas using any of these methods:

• Middle mouse button — Click and drag to pan
• Alt + Left click drag — Alternative pan method
• Trackpad gestures — Two-finger scroll to pan (configurable scroll direction in Settings)

# Selection & Editing

ProtoFlow provides powerful selection and editing capabilities for working with schematic elements.

Selection Methods

• Click — Select a single element (component, wire, annotation)
• Rectangular selection — Click and drag on empty space to draw a selection rectangle. All elements within the rectangle are selected.
• Add to selection — Hold Shift and click to add/remove elements from the current selection
• Select all — Use Ctrl+A / Cmd+A to select everything

Editing Operations

Auto-Alignment Guides

When moving components, ProtoFlow displays red alignment guides that snap to the center and edges of nearby components. This helps you maintain clean, organized layouts without manually measuring positions.

# Grid & Snapping

The grid system ensures precise component placement and alignment across your schematic.

Grid Display

The grid is visible on the canvas by default with a configurable grid size (default: 10.0 units). Toggle grid visibility from the toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut G.

Snap-to-Grid

When snap-to-grid is enabled, all placed components, wires, and annotations automatically align to the nearest grid intersection. This ensures clean connections between pins and wires.

• Toggle snap-to-grid with Shift+G
• Grid size is configurable in Settings
• The grid alignment tool can automatically snap all off-grid elements (see Design Analysis)

# Undo & Redo

ProtoFlow provides unlimited undo/redo with a checkpoint system for fine-grained control over your design history.

• Undo — Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z
• Redo — Ctrl+Shift+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z
• Checkpoints — The AI Copilot creates checkpoints before making changes, allowing you to roll back AI edits to a known-good state

The undo/redo buttons are also available in the toolbar with visual indicators showing whether undo/redo actions are available.

# Multi-Tab Editing

Work with multiple schematics simultaneously using the tab system. Each tab is an independent schematic with its own undo/redo history.

• Open multiple schematics from the Project Explorer panel
• Tabs appear above the canvas — click to switch between schematics
• Unsaved changes are indicated with a dot on the tab
• Right-click a tab for options: Close, Close Others, Rename
• Drag tabs to reorder them
• The AI Copilot can be scoped to work on one or multiple open schematics