start => gschem_ug

« Schematic and symbol pages | gEDA gschem User Guide | Editing actions »

## Viewing schematics

When loaded, schematic and symbol pages are shown in the central schematic view area of the gschem main window.

### Changing the view

There are several ways to change the view:

- To pan the view, click and drag with the middle mouse button anywhere on the schematic, or use the cursor keys (⇦⇧⇨⇩). You can also press `X` to center the view on the mouse pointer.
- To zoom in, press `Z` or scroll the mouse wheel upwards.
- To zoom out, press `Shift`+`Z` or scroll the mouse wheel downwards.
- To focus on a particular part of the design, press `W` to start drawing a box containing a region of interest. Then left-click with the mouse to expand that area to fill the view.

Zooming operations will always zoom towards or away from the current location of the mouse pointer.

You can also select View→Zoom Extents to set the view to show everything currently on the page, or View→Zoom Full to display the entire workspace.

### Color maps

Colors of objects in a schematic or symbol are set using a limited color palette, with the various colors having particular meanings. For example, nets (which have electrical meaning) are drawn in a different color from lines (which are simply graphical). A color map is used to choose which color to draw a particular object in.

There are several color maps provided with gschem, and you can switch between them from the View menu. It is also possible to change the default color map or create your own. For more information, see Configuring gschem.