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Manual / Electrical & Wiring

Electrical Symbols - Placing electrical symbols

Place electrical symbols (switches, relays, fuses, motors and more) from the Electrical library into a circuit drawing.

What it does

MCAD 2026 includes 240 electrical symbols drawn by MET to IEC 60617: contacts, push buttons, breakers, contactors, relays, motors, drives, sensors, PLC modules, terminals and more. Use them to draw control circuits, power circuits and panel layouts. Each symbol is drawn vertically on a 2.5 mm grid, and its insertion point is pin 1 (the top pin).

Where to find it

  • Ribbon: Insert › Electrical › Symbols Library
  • Content Browser palette › Group = electrical

Content Browser, electrical group, contactors category, next to a conveyor control circuit
Content Browser, electrical group, contactors category, next to a conveyor control circuit

Categories in the electrical group

actuators, contactors, drives, earthing, indication, motors, outlets, passive, plc, power supply, protection, push buttons, relays & timers, sensors, switching, terminals, wiring (17 categories)

The same Content Browser also has the pneumatic group (ISO 1219 valves, cylinders, air treatment and vacuum) for the pneumatic side of a machine.

Steps

  1. Open Insert › Electrical › Symbols Library.
  2. Set Group = electrical and Category = switching (or type a name in the Filter box, for example push button).
  3. Click a symbol, then click a position on the drawing. Press R to rotate it 90° before you place it.
  4. Turn on grid snap (SNAP 5) to keep the terminals in line with the wires.
  5. Draw the wires with LINE or PLINE (turn on Ortho with F8).

Switch NO, Switch NC and Isolator 1P placed on a horizontal wire with Rot 90
Switch NO, Switch NC and Isolator 1P placed on a horizontal wire with Rot 90

Note: To make your own symbol, draw it and run BLOCK <name>. Add a tag with ATTDEF, or keep the DXF file in a folder and use Browse drawing folder....

Try it: Conveyor start/stop circuit with E-stop

The classic control circuit of a belt conveyor: fuse, E-stop, stop and start buttons, a contactor coil that holds itself in, and a green RUN lamp. It is drawn the IEC way, with vertical current paths between a +24V rail at the top and a 0V rail at the bottom, so every symbol goes in upright with Rot 0.

  1. Type SNAP 5 and press F8 for Ortho.
  2. Rails: L 0,120 → 120,120 (+24V) and L 0,0 → 120,0 (0V).
  3. Current path 1 at X 20, from the top: Category protection › Fuse at 20,105; Category push buttons › Emergency stop at 20,85, Push button NC at 20,65 (Stop) and Push button NO at 20,45 (Start); Category contactors › Contactor coil at 20,20. Each symbol is 10 long, so its bottom pin is 10 below the point you click.
  4. Hold-in contact: Category contactors › Auxiliary contact NO at 50,45. Wire it in parallel with the Start button: L 20,50 → 50,50 → 50,45 and L 50,35 → 50,30 → 20,30.
  5. Current path 2 at X 90: Auxiliary contact NO at 90,85 (the KM1 contact) and Category indication › Pilot lamp GN at 90,20.
  6. Join the symbols with L, snapping to the pins: 20,120 → 20,105, 20,95 → 20,85, 20,75 → 20,65, 20,55 → 20,45, 20,35 → 20,20, 20,10 → 20,0, and 90,120 → 90,85, 90,75 → 90,20, 90,10 → 90,0.
  7. Labels with DT, Text height 3: F1, S0 E-STOP, S1 STOP and S2 START to the right of each symbol, KM1 at the coil and at both contacts, H1 RUN under the lamp, and +24V and 0V on the rails. The coil and the lamp already show KM and GN inside the symbol.

Conveyor control circuit: F1, S0 E-stop, S1 stop, S2 start, KM1 coil with hold-in contact, and H1 run lamp
Conveyor control circuit: F1, S0 E-stop, S1 stop, S2 start, KM1 coil with hold-in contact, and H1 run lamp

Challenge: Lengthen the rails and add a third current path at X 120 with Category protection › Overload NO 97-98 and Category indication › Pilot lamp RD as a red fault lamp. Number the wires afterwards with TCOUNT.

See also