Where things stand

What works.
What doesn't.

In the works since January 2026. One person, no team. Here is how far it has come.

210,287

lines of program code

In March it was 86,576. The codebase has more than doubled since.

139,497

lines of test code

Across 4,807 checks that run on every build. In March it was 2,318 lines.

3,222

saved work steps

Over 219 days since 25 January 2026. Just under 15 a day.

Measured on 1 September 2026 Counted straight from the project, not estimated. Measured again with every workshop report. How any of this fits alongside a day job and a family is explained under Who builds this.

What already works today

Drawing

  • Canvas with adjustable grid and zoom
  • 265 symbols, based on IEC 60617
  • Auto-connect: symbols join up where terminals face each other
  • Wires with corners and T-junctions
  • Break points for page and cross references: same name, and they belong together — across structures too
  • Symbol editor for your own symbols — its own tab next to the drawing sheet, with lines, arcs, circles, text and connection points, plus mirroring, rotating, aligning and a measuring tool
  • Nine starting templates, sorted into terminals, control, field devices and power
  • A symbol you draw carries its category, sub-category and equipment-tag prefix — so Sketrix tags it correctly in the drawing too
  • A built-in check tells you what is still missing on the symbol before you save
  • Coloured layers for power, control and PE — and you can add your own

Order in the drawing

  • Equipment tags assigned automatically, following the DIN EN 81346 model
  • Wire and potential numbering across every page
  • Multi-page projects with cross references to where things sit
  • Structure boxes, based on IEC 81346
  • Contact mirrors for contactors and relays
  • Undo and redo across the whole app
  • Several projects open at the same time
  • Jumping between schematic and cabinet: right-click a device and the other view jumps to where it sits

Evaluating and exporting

  • Bill of materials, terminal plan, cable plan and connector plan — generated from the schematic
  • 2D cabinet layout with DIN rails and cable ducts
  • Workshop outputs from the cabinet: a 1:1 drilling template on A0, a cutting list for the rail lengths, and the door view with buttons and indicator lights
  • Article database with manufacturer and part data, CSV import
  • Create articles straight from a PDF datasheet
  • PLC channel plan and export

Output, labelling, handover

  • Ready-made templates for six trades — terminals, devices and equipment, bill of materials, cables, PLC and connectors; each as a plan, an overview and a label feed for the marking machine
  • Your own templates per project: add columns, rename them, drag them into order — every column says where its value comes from
  • A live preview that recalculates as you turn the screws: what is on screen is exactly what lands in the file
  • The templates that ship with Sketrix are write-protected — to change one you make a copy, so you cannot break anything
  • CSV, Excel or PDF, with a choice of separator — the default suits German Excel
  • Handing a project to another Mac — your own symbols and article data travel with it, nothing is missing at the other end
  • Cover sheets you can save as your own template

For tinkerers

  • MCP interface — 43 commands an AI tool can use to drive Sketrix from outside; the server runs locally on the Mac

The building sites

What is being worked on and what is still outstanding. No dates — just how far along each corner is.

  1. Drawing and drawing logic

    running

    The core is in place: draw the schematic, tag the equipment, pull cross references, generate the lists from the drawing.

  2. Cabinet layout

    final stretch

    Mounting plate, DIN rails, ducts and devices all work, and so do the workshop outputs: a 1:1 drilling template on A0, a cutting list for the rail lengths, and the door view with buttons and indicator lights. One limit is deliberate: if the mounting plate does not fit on an A0 sheet, the export stops rather than scaling it down — a drilling template is only any use at 1:1. The final stretch here is comfort and smoother handling.

  3. Output and export

    under construction

    PDF, CSV and Excel all work. Two old faults are cleared: mixed page formats now keep every page at its own size, and bookmarks point at the page they name again. What is left follows one pattern: what stands on screen does not reach the print everywhere yet. The dimensions from the schematic are missing in the PDF, the core marking at a potential point disappears, and printing a single page loses the structure boxes and the standard title block. On top of that the order inside the full PDF bundle cannot be set by hand yet, so the cover sheet can end up in the middle.

  4. Cleaning up the data model

    final stretch

    A review found around 60 weak spots in the data model. Instead of patching them one by one, I am working through them as a programme, one package at a time — package 15 of 18 is in progress. Most recently: deleting no longer leaves anything behind.

  5. MCP — opening Sketrix up to AI tools

    under construction

    MCP is the language AI tools use to talk to a program. In Sketrix, 43 commands already run on it: a tool can place symbols, create structures, assign articles — and the server runs locally on the Mac, nothing leaves the machine. It is not dependable yet, though. There are paths where a write silently fails, in eight places the interface rebuilds its own logic instead of taking the same route the mouse takes, and setting it up on someone else's Mac still snags. The rebuild is fully planned; it is not built.

  6. Cover sheet and project line

    final stretch

    Both are built in for good and do their job day to day. I am still not happy with them — handling and looks get another pass.

  7. Everything in one PDF folder

    final stretch

    Cover sheet, contents, drawings and lists ticked together into a single file. This works now: the selection dialog, the lists inside the folder, and mixed A3 and A4 pages can be unified to one format if you want. What is open is the order — the folder cannot be sorted by hand yet, so the cover sheet can end up in the middle.

  8. User interface

    being planned

    The whole window shell is hand-built, roughly 9,000 lines, without a single ready-made component from Apple in it. That freezes the app at its year of construction: whatever Apple improves about its windows never arrives here. So the shell is going onto Apple's own components, with Sketrix as the skin on top.

  9. PLC module

    planned, build pending

    Configure the hardware, then carry channels and terminals as one truth through schematic, cabinet, bill of materials and export. Fully planned, none of it built yet. The channel plan and export already exist today.

  10. DXF exchange

    planned, build pending

    Read drawings from AutoCAD and the like as an underlay, and hand your own drawings back out. The route is researched and decided; it gets built later.

  11. English interface

    not started

    The app only speaks German so far.

  12. iPad

    not started

    First as a companion to the Mac, later as a full editor with the Pencil. Both planned, neither started.

And the rules for the interface

What every surface has to hold up against — including the ones that do not exist yet.

Behaviour from the Mac, looks from Sketrix
Menu bar, right-click menus, settings and the open dialogs stay the ones from the Mac — nobody wants an invention there. Only the work surfaces carry the paper look. If you know the Mac, you already know half the app.
Everything at a glance
A dialog that has to scroll is a badly built dialog. If something does not fit the space, it gets condensed, not scrolled. Lists and catalogues may scroll, nothing else.
Change it where the result is
No typing into a dialog far away while something quietly rebuilds itself somewhere else. What you change, you see in the same place straight away.
Warn, do not block
Sketrix tells you when something does not add up. It does not stop you. You are the professional, not the program.
Greyed out is not invisible
A button you cannot press right now still has to be readable. Otherwise you are guessing what it used to say.
One action, one route
No function that exists in three places and behaves slightly differently in each. That is why some things take longer here.

There is no date here. One person builds this, not twenty — and I would rather say nothing than say something I cannot keep. What is being worked on right now is written up in the workshop.

Sketrix is electrical CAD (E-CAD) for circuit diagrams, control systems and switchgear — with symbols based on IEC 60617. Not a PCB / circuit-board tool like KiCad or Eagle, but the software for control cabinets, terminal plans and electrical installation.