EDITOR COMMANDS
Most editing commands are available in the menu, but definitely key-bindings and Mouse actions are the most effective way to build and arrange schematics, so you should learn at least the most important ones.
The basic principle in XSCHEM is that first you select something in the circuit then you decide what to do with the selection. For example, if you need to change an object property you first select it (mouse click) and then you press the edit property ('q') key. It you need to move together multiple objects you select them (by area or using multiple mouse clicks with the Shift key), then you press the move ('m') key.
EDITOR COMMAND CHEATSHEET
This list is available in XSCHEM in the Help menu
XSCHEM MOUSE BINDINGS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LeftButton Clear selection and select a graphic object (line, rectangle, symbol, wire) if clicking on blank area: clear selection shift + LeftButton Select without clearing previous selection ctrl + LeftButton if an 'url' or 'tclcommand' property is defined on selected instance open the url or execute the tclcommand LeftButton drag Select objects by area, clearing previous selection "[shift] left button drag" and "[shift] ctrl-left button drag" commands are swapped if enable_stretch is set. Ctrl + LeftButton drag Select objects by area to perform a subsequent 'stretch' move operation shift + LeftButton drag Select objects by area, without clearing previous selection Shift + Select objects by area without unselecting Ctrl + LeftButton drag to perform a subsequent 'stretch' move operation Shift + Right Button Select all connected wires/labels/pins Ctrl + Right Button Select all connected wires/labels/pins, stopping at wire junctions Alt + RightButton Cut wire at mouse position (creates 2 adjacent wires) aligns the cut point to current snap setting. Alt + Shift + RightButton Cut wire at mouse position (creates 2 adjacent wires) does not align cut point to current snap setting. Mouse Wheel Zoom in / out MidButton drag Pan viewable area Alt + LeftButton Unselect selected object Alt + LeftButton drag Unselect objects by area RightButton Context menu Shift + RightButton Select object under the mouse and if label/pin select attached nets Ctrl + RightButton Select object under the mouse and if label/pin select attached nets up to net junctions LeftButton Double click Terminate Polygon placement Edit object attributes XSCHEM KEY BINDINGS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - BackSpace Back to parent schematic - Delete Delete selected objects - Insert Insert element from library - Escape Abort, redraw, unselect ctrl Enter Confirm closing dialog boxes - Down Move down - Left Move right - Right Move left - Up Move up ctrl Left Previous tab (if tabbed interface enabled) ctrl Right Next tab (if tabbed interface enabled) - '\' Toggle fullscreen - '!' Break selected wires at any wire or component pin connection - ' ' Pan schematic - ' ' When drawing lines or wires toggle between manhattan H-V, manhattan V-H or oblique path. - '#' Highlight components with duplicated name (refdes) ctrl '#' Rename components with duplicated name (refdes) - '5' View only probes ctrl '0-9' set current layer (4 -13) '0' set selected net or label to logic value '0' '1' set selected net or label to logic value '1' '2' set selected net or label to logic value 'X' '3' set selected net or label to logic value 'Z' '4' toggle selected net or label: 1->0, 0->1, X->X - 'a' Make symbol from pin list of current schematic ctrl 'a' Select all shift 'A' Toggle show netlist - 'b' Merge file Shift 'B' Edit/add header/license metadata to the schematic/symbol file. ctrl 'b' Toggle show text in symbol alt 'b' Toggle show symbol details / only bounding boxes - 'c' Copy selected objects, 'c' and 'alt-c' commands are swapped if enable_stretch is set Alt 'c' Copy selected objects, insert wires when separating touching instance pins/wires ctrl 'c' Save to clipboard shift 'C' Start arc placement shift+ctrl 'C' Start circle placement alt 'C' Toggle dim/brite background with rest of layers shift 'D' Delete files ctrl 'e' Back to parent schematic - 'e' Descend to schematic alt 'e' Edit selected schematic in a new window '\' Toggle Full screen shift 'F' Flip alt 'f' Flip objects around their anchor points ctrl 'f' Find/select by substring or regexp - 'f' Full zoom shift+ctrl 'F' Zoom full selected elements shift 'G' Double snap factor - 'g' Half snap factor ctrl 'g' Set snap factor alt 'g' Hilight selected nets and send to gaw waveform viewer - 'h' Constrained horizontal move/copy of objects alt 'h' create symbol pins from schematic pins ctrl 'h' Follow http link or execute command (url, tclcommand properties) shift 'H' Attach net labels to selected instance ctrl+shift 'H' Make schematic and symbol from selected components - 'i' Descend to symbol alt 'i' Edit selected symbol in a new window alt+shift 'J' Create labels with 'i' prefix from highlighted nets/pins alt 'j' Create labels without 'i' prefix from highlighted nets/pins ctrl 'j' Create ports from highlight nets alt+ctrl 'j' Print list of highlighted nets/pins with label expansion shift 'J' create xplot plot file for ngspice in simulation directory (just type xplot in ngspice) - 'j' Print list of highlighted nets/pins - 'k' Hilight selected nets ctrl+shift 'K' highlight net passing through elements with 'propag' property set on pins shift 'K' Unhilight all nets ctrl 'k' Unhilight selected nets alt 'k' Select all nets attached to selected wire / label / pin. - 'l' Start line ctrl 'l' Make schematic view from selected symbol alt+shift 'l' add lab_wire.sym to schematic alt 'l' add lab_pin.sym to schematic ctrl+shift 'o' Load most recent schematic ctrl 'o' Load schematic - 'm' Move selected objects. 'm' and 'ctrl-m' commands are swapped if enable_stretch is set ctrl 'm' Move selected objects, stretching wires attached to them Alt 'm' Move selected objects, insert wires when separating touching instance pins/wires shift 'M' Move selected objects, insert wires when separating touching instance pins/wires Stretch wires that land on selected instance pins. shift 'N' Top level only netlist - 'n' Hierarchical Netlist ctrl 'n' Clear schematic ctrl+shift 'N' Clear symbol shift 'O' Toggle Light / Dark colorscheme ctrl 'o' Load schematic - 'p' Place polygon. Operation ends by placing last point over first. alt 'p' Add symbol pin ctrl 'p' Pan schematic view shift 'P' Pan, other way to. alt 'q' Edit schematic file (dangerous!) - 'q' Edit prop shift 'Q' Edit prop with vim ctrl+shift 'Q' View prop ctrl 'q' Exit XSCHEM alt 'r' Rotate objects around their anchor points shift 'R' Rotate - 'r' Start rect shift 'S' Change element order ctrl+shift 'S' Save as schematic 's' run simulation (asks confirmation) ctrl 's' Save schematic alt 's' Reload current schematic from disk ctrl+alt 's' Save-as symbol - 't' Place text alt 'u' Align to current grid selected objects shift 'U' Redo - 'u' Undo - 'v' Constrained vertical move/copy of objects ctrl 'v' Paste from clipboard shift 'V' Toggle spice/vhdl/verilog netlist - 'w' Place wire ctrl 'w' close current schematic shift 'W' Place wire, snapping to closest pin or net endpoint ctrl 'x' Cut into clipboard - 'x' New cad session shift 'X' Highlight discrepancies between object ports and attached nets - 'y' Toggle stretching wires - 'z' Zoom box shift 'Z' Zoom in ctrl 'z' Zoom out - '?' Help - '& Join / break / collapse wires shift '*' Postscript/pdf print ctr+shift '*' Xpm/png print alt+shift '*' Svg print '-' dim colors ctrl '-' Test mode: change line width ctrl '+' Test mode: change line width '+' brite colors - '_' Toggle change line width - '%' Toggle draw grid ctrl '=' Toggle fill rectangles - '$' Toggle pixmap saving ctrl '$' Toggle use XCopyArea vs drawing primitives for drawing the screen - ':' Toggle flat netlist
KEYBIND CUSTOMIZATION
changes to default keybindings may be placed in the ~/.xschem/xschemrc file as in the following examples:
## replace Ctrl-d with Escape (so you won't kill the program :-)) set replace_key(Control-d) Escape ## swap w and W keybinds; Always specify Shift for capital letters set replace_key(Shift-W) w set replace_key(w) Shift-W
SELECT OBJECTS
Objects can be selected by clicking the left mouse button when the pointer is very close to the object.
For rectangle objects the best point to select it is the internal side, close to one of the corners.
More objects can be selected by pressing the Shift key and clicking another object.
Once objects are selected they can be copied (c key), moved (m key), deleted
(Delete key) or attributes changed (q key).
Objects can also be selected by area, by dragging with the left mouse button pressed a rectangle around the objects
you want to select.

RESIZE OBJECTS
All Xschem base objects can be resized. For lines, rectangles, polygons you need to drag the mouse with left button pressed and Ctrl key pressed over one vertex/endpoint.

After releasing the mouse button the object will become selected and a subsequent move operation (m key) will move the selected vertex/endpoint.

More objects can be rezized. You can add vertex/endpoints by pressing Ctrl and Shift and dragging the mouse to enclose another vertex/endpoint. After selecting all desired elements pressing the m key will resize all objects.

Circles can be resized as well. Capture the center of the circle with the above described mouse drag operation, the radius can be changed. For arcs you can capture the center (to modify the radius) or the endpoints to change the start/end angle or the arc angle.
STRETCH OPERATIONS
An important operation that deserves a special paragraph is the Stretch operation. There is frequently the need to move part of the circuit without breaking connections, for example to create more room for other circuitry or just to make it look better. The first thing to do is to drag a selection rectangle with the mouse holding down the Ctrl key, cutting wires we need to stretch:

After selection is done hit the move ('m') key. You will be able to move the selected part of the schematic keeping connected the wires crossing the selection rectangle:

In our example we needed to move up part of the circuit, the end result is shown in next picture. Multiple stretch rectangles can be set using the Shift key in addition to the Ctrl key after setting the first stretch area.

PLACE WIRES SNAPPING TO CLOSEST PIN OT NET ENDPOINT
The (uppercase) 'W' bindkey allows to place a wire putting start (and end point, later) to the closest pin or wire endpoint, this will make it easier to connect precisely without the need to zoom in all times.
CONSTRAINED MOVE
while creating wires, lines, and moving, stretching, copying objects, pressing the 'h' or 'v' keys will constrain the movement to a horizontal or vertical direction, respectively.

Constrained horizontal move: regardless of the mouse pointer Y position movement occurs on the X direction only.

Unconstrained move: objects follow the mouse pointer in X and Y direction.