The electrical plan

What you'll do

Draw the house's electrical plan in the model: outlets, switches and panels on the walls, lights and sensors on the ceiling. Each device is a real electrical element in the IFC file, with its tag, circuit and load, and switches remember the lights they turn on.

Place devices

1. On a level, open Build and choose Electrical.
2. Choose the device: outlets, switches and sensors, lights, a junction box or a panel.
3. Type a Circuit if you know it (any name: 1, 2, A-3). Leave Mounting height blank for the usual height of that device.
4. Click on the plan. Outlets, switches and panels go on the face of the nearest wall, facing into the room; lights, sensors and junction boxes go on the ceiling where you click.

Devices are tagged as you place them: R for outlets, S for switches, L for lights, M for motion sensors, J for junction boxes, P for panels. Devices on a wall move with it when you move the wall.

Link switches to lights

1. Pick a switch (or a motion sensor) and click Link lights in Properties.
2. Click each light it turns on. Click a linked light again to unlink it.
3. Press ReturnEnter or click Done.

The plan draws a dashed curve from the switch to each of its lights. A light's Properties shows which switches turn it on.

Change and list them

Pick a device to change its tag, circuit, load (watts) and mounting height. Pick several to put them all on one circuit at once. Press fn DeleteDelete to remove one; a deleted light is taken off its switches.

In Schedules choose Electrical devices for every device with its level, circuit, load, height and the lights each switch turns on, or Circuits for each circuit's devices, total load and current. Both are on the drawing set's schedule sheet too: see Elevations, sections and sheets.