Electrical drawings

Symbols

Like architectural drawings, standard graphical symbols are used on electrical drawings to represent specific items such as:

• switches
• conductors
• relays
• lights, etc.

Using standard symbols ensures that anyone who know the standards can interpret the drawings correctly.

Australian and New Zealand Standards (AS/NZS 1102:101 to 110:1997Graphical Symbols for electrotechnology documentation), which are aligned to International Standards, apply to the symbols that are used on electrical drawings. Standards have change over time and not all countries use the International Standards, so you will encounter variations in symbols.

A sample of these symbols is shown below.

Select a title to see related symbols

Switches

Switch

Switch - double pole

Push button - spring loaded

Circuit Protection

Fuse

Circuit breaker

Windings

Winding

Winding - with magnetic core

Transformer

Winding - 3 phase star

Capacitors

Capacitor

Capacitor - variable

Capacitor - polarised

Resistors

Resistor

Resistor - variable

Resistor - light sensitive

Potentiometer

Miscellaneous

Battery

Motor

Earth

Diode