A wire will not connect

What counts as a connection, and why a pin sometimes refuses one.

Watch where you are landing

While you drag a wire, the pin or hole under the pointer gets a ring and its own name beside it. If no ring appears, there is nothing there to land on and letting go will not make a connection.

Zoom in. At a low zoom a 0.1 inch pitch is a few pixels, and the pointer is between two holes rather than on one.

The layer is locked

Press L for the layers panel. A locked row cannot be selected or dragged on the canvas, and that includes starting a wire from a part in it. Unlock it and try again.

A hidden row is the other half of the same trap: the pin is still there and still simulating, but you cannot see it to aim at it.

You are watching, not editing

If you opened somebody else's project, or joined a live room with a watch link, the editor is read-only. Run, zoom, fit and the grid still work, because none of them writes to the document, but Add, Undo, Redo and drawing a wire are off.

A viewer in a room gets a Watching pill beside the project title with an Ask to edit button on it. See watch links and edit links.

The part is not in the breadboard

Dropping a part near a breadboard is not the same as dropping it in one. Its pins have to land in holes. Pick it up and place it again, watching for the holes to highlight.

You do not need a wire at all

Two pins in the same breadboard strip are already one net. A strip is five holes; the rails run the length of each side; the two halves either side of the center channel are separate. A wire between two holes of the same strip is harmless but does nothing.

The wire went somewhere unexpected

Wires are routed, not drawn as straight lines: out square from the pin, one turn, in square to the far pin, on the grid, in a lane no other run is using. If the shape is not what you wanted, drag a corner. The connection is decided by the two ends, never by the path between them.

Escape cancels

Half way through a wire and changed your mind? Press Escape.

Wiring covers drawing, color, labels and layers in full.