Wire numbering

When a schematic has dozens of wires, you need a reliable way to identify them. Wire numbering helps you with that — either automatically while you draw, or all at once on a finished drawing.

Automatic numbering while drawing

Open the settings F12 - Document - Wire numbering and check enable wire numbering. From then on, every new wire gets its number automatically.

To keep the numbers neatly aligned (e.g. 001, 002...), check pad with leading zeros and set the number of digits you need.

Numbering a finished drawing at once

If you prefer to draw first and number later, leave automatic numbering off. When the drawing is finished, use the command Edit - Renumber wires and the program numbers all wires at once.

Where the numbers appear in the drawing

The Show wire numbers group decides where a label is placed:

• no — no labels in the drawing; the wires stay numbered and the numbers still appear in reports,
• just loose ends — a label only where a wire does not continue,
• both ends — a label at both ends of the wire.

Two labels would not fit on a short wire. That is what the just in the middle of the wire for the wires shorter than limit is for — shorter wires get a single label in the middle instead.

Appearance and placement of the labels

For vertical wires, choose in the Labels of vertical wires group whether the label is written horizontal (easier to read) or vertical along the wire (takes less room).

The Place labels over the wire option puts the number directly on the wire instead of beside it.

Moving an individual label

If the placement of one particular label does not suit you, grab it with the mouse and drag it. A label moved this way remembers its position — it is stored with the drawing and no longer follows the automatic placement.

The three values a, b and c in the settings set the default distances of the label from the wire, in millimetres; the preview inside the dialog shows which distance is which (see the picture above). The permitted ranges are 0.1–5 mm for a, 0.1–15 mm for b and 0.1–5 mm for c.

💡 Pro tip: Before labels could be dragged with the mouse, everything was tuned through a, b and c. Today the order is the other way round: leave the values at something that suits most wires, and fix the occasional clash with a symbol by dragging that one label.