Wiring & Routing

# Drawing Wires

Wires connect component pins together to form electrical nets. ProtoFlow enforces orthogonal (horizontal and vertical) wire segments for clean, professional schematics.

How to Draw a Wire

1. Press W to activate the wire tool
2. Click on a component pin or empty space to start the wire
3. Move the cursor — the wire follows in orthogonal segments (horizontal then vertical, or vice versa)
4. Click to place a waypoint (bend in the wire)
5. Double-click or click on another pin to finish the wire
6. Press Escape to cancel the current wire

Wire Drawing Modes

# Smart Routing (A* Pathfinding)

ProtoFlow includes an A*-based smart routing engine that automatically finds the best path between two points while avoiding obstacles.

How Smart Routing Works

The routing engine uses the A* pathfinding algorithm with the following optimizations:

• Obstacle inflation — Components and existing wires have an inflated boundary to prevent overlaps
• Bend penalty — The algorithm minimizes unnecessary bends for cleaner routes
• Grid-based pathfinding — Routes are computed on the grid for consistent alignment
• Existing wire avoidance — New routes avoid crossing or overlapping existing wire segments
• Orthogonal constraint — All routed segments maintain 90-degree angles

Auto-Routing Status

The status bar shows the current auto-routing status. When smart routing is active, you'll see an indicator confirming the routing engine is processing.

# Automatic Connection Detection

ProtoFlow automatically detects and manages connections between wires and component pins, ensuring accurate netlists without manual effort.

Connection Features

• Pin snapping — Wire endpoints automatically snap to the nearest pin when drawn close enough
• Wire-to-wire junctions — When a wire endpoint touches another wire, a junction is created automatically
• Intersection detection — ProtoFlow distinguishes between wire crossings (no connection) and wire junctions (connection)
• Component attachment — When you move a component, wires attached to its pins move with it
• Net extraction — Connected pins and wires are grouped into nets using BFS (Breadth-First Search) connectivity analysis

No-Connect Markers

Press N to place a no-connect marker on an unused pin. This tells the DRC that the pin is intentionally left unconnected, suppressing floating pin warnings.

# Wire Editing

Modify existing wires by editing their segments and waypoints without deleting and redrawing.

Editing Operations

• Segment dragging — Click and drag a wire segment to move it while maintaining orthogonal constraints
• Waypoint manipulation — Adjust bend points to change the route of a wire
• Wire deletion — Select a wire and press Delete to remove it
• Wire cleanup — The auto-cleanup feature removes redundant wire segments and optimizes routes
• Dead-end removal — Orphaned wire segments that don't connect to anything are detected and can be removed automatically