Circuit diagram
Circuit diagrams need a real symbol set: a resistor drawn as a rectangle with no standard notation is just a rectangle. Both the draw.io electrical libraries and TikZ's circuitikz give you correct symbols.
Which to pick depends on whether the schematic will be edited by hand or generated alongside a document.
#When to reach for one
Hardware documentation and design notes.
Teaching material where the symbols themselves are the subject.
Explaining a circuit in an engineering wiki without attaching a CAD file.
#How to draw it in Capable
Route | Use when |
|---|---|
draw.io | Electrical shape libraries, laid out by hand. |
TikZ | LaTeX-quality schematics generated from text. |
#Symbols you will reach for
Passive components: resistors, capacitors, inductors, with values.
Active components: diodes, transistors, op-amps, with part numbers.
Power and ground, with the correct ground symbol for the context.
Connectors and test points, labelled to match the physical board.
#A few things that catch people out
Ground symbols are not interchangeable; earth, chassis and signal ground mean different things.
Label component values. A schematic without values documents topology only.
For anything that will be manufactured, the diagram supplements the CAD file rather than replacing it.
#Related
Approximately right is wrong here.
