Electric is able to read and write circuits in a number of different formats. This is done with the Import and the Export commands (in menu File). See Section 3-9-2 for more on Import; see Section 3-9-3 for more on Export.

To properly control translation, use the many Preferences dialogs for the different file types, (in menu File / Preferences..., "I/O" section).

Unfortunately, many of these formats are pure geometry with no information about the circuit connections. When read, they appear as pure-layer nodes. This means that transistors, contacts, and other multi-layer nodes are not constructed properly. Although the cell appears visually correct, and can be used to export the same type of file, it cannot be analyzed at a circuit level. The node extractor can be used to convert these pure-layer nodes to true Electric components (see Section 9-10-2).

The next few sections describe control of different I/O formats.