Dictate a single-line diagram: how do you speak an electrical installation into PlanElec?

Yes, PlanElec lets you dictate your electrical installation: in the studio you tap the microphone in the AI assistant, speak Dutch, French, German or English, and the recognised text lands in the input field. Speech recognition knows Belgian technical terms such as AREI, RGIE, XVB or single-line diagram. You read the text, correct it if needed and only then send it – nothing goes out automatically. The PlanElec assistant then carries out the instruction in the project model: devices on the floor plan, circuits and protective devices in the topology, modules in the distribution board. The single-line diagram follows the circuit model, so you never redraw it. After every change the server checks the whole project with the AREI/RGIE self-check, and every change can be undone in one step. You need a PlanElec account, a browser with microphone access and an internet connection.

AREI (Dutch and German) and RGIE (French) are the two names of Belgium's general regulation for electrical installations; the keuring is the mandatory conformity inspection by an accredited body.

How do I dictate a single-line diagram in PlanElec?

In PlanElec, "dictating a single-line diagram" means describing the installation – room, devices, dimensions, circuits, protection – while PlanElec builds the model that produces the single-line diagram, the situation plan and the distribution board. You dictate content, not lines. Here is how:

1. Open the project in the studio and show the Activity & assistant panel: use the bot button in the header (tooltip Open PlanElec assistant), ⌘J on a Mac or Ctrl+J on Windows and Linux. On narrow screens the panel opens as a sheet.
2. Place the cursor and tap Dictate. The Dictate microphone button sits on the right of the input bar. The first time, your browser asks for permission to use the microphone.
3. Speak. Level bars and a timer show Recording. A recording lasts up to two minutes; ten seconds before the end, the timer announces the automatic stop.
4. Choose Use recording (tick) or press Enter. After a short Transcribing …, the recognised text appears at the cursor position.
5. Review and send. Fix a misheard word directly in the field, then send with Send message or Enter.

Discard recording (X) or Esc stops the recording without any text. While recording, the input field is read-only and sending is blocked – half a sentence never goes out by accident. You can dictate several times into the same message and type in between; each new piece of text is inserted at the cursor.

Which sentences does the assistant understand – and what happens next?

Dictation is an input method for the PlanElec assistant. Anything you can type to it, you can also say. The table shows typical site-survey sentences and the result in the project.

Say dimensions the way you think of them on site: the assistant converts centimetres and millimetres to metres, and PlanElec computes the exact position from the wall geometry. "North wall" is the wall facing north as seen from inside the room; if no north direction is set, plan-up counts as north and the result says so. How corner, offset and height are interpreted in detail is covered in the help article Activity and the assistant in the studio.

Which languages can I dictate in?

All four PlanElec languages: Dutch, French, German and English. Speech recognition works in the language of your interface. To dictate in French, switch the interface to French; replies, action cards and status messages then appear in French too.

That matters in Belgium's multilingual teams, in Brussels and along the language border: every colleague dictates in their own language into the same project. German-speaking installers in East Belgium get the interface, the assistant and the technical vocabulary fully in German, with Belgian terms such as AREI rather than German national standards.

Does dictation recognise terms like XVB, residual current or single-line diagram?

Yes. With every recording, PlanElec passes a technical vocabulary to the speech recognition, which it recognises preferentially – up to 50 terms per language. Abbreviations and cable types apply to all languages; the trade terms are maintained per language:

XVB, EXVB, XFVB, VOB and VTMB are cable and conductor types common in Belgian installations. A technical vocabulary raises the hit rate; it does not guarantee it. That is why the text sits in the field first: if recognition writes "XVB" as "X V B", you fix it with two keystrokes.

What happens before my project changes?

Between your sentence and the change in the project there are up to three checkpoints:

1. The text. Dictated text is never sent automatically. Only Send message turns it into an instruction.
2. A preview on request. Unsure about a dimension? Say "show me a preview first": for a row of boxes on a wall, the assistant returns a readable summary without placing anything. For circuits, the automatic installation proposal calculates consumers, circuits, protective devices and placement per board, again without changing the model. Later, exactly that proposal is applied; if the project has changed in the meantime, the proposal expires and has to be recalculated.
3. Confirmation when more is at stake. Unambiguous, reversible changes – placing a socket, creating a circuit, routing a cable – run as soon as you send. Actions with wider impact, such as deleting rooms, removing circuits, changing walls or switching the earthing system, are put to you with Confirmation required. You choose Confirm and run or Reject and cancel run. The approval applies to exactly that action with exactly those values.

If a value does not fit – the position falls inside a door, a box already sits there, the height exceeds the room height – the assistant places nothing and tells you why. Nothing is moved silently. And every executed change can be reverted from its action card with Undo.

Can I dictate whole project changes in one sentence?

Yes. The PlanElec assistant works with more than 100 planning commands across the whole project model: floor plan, rooms, devices, circuits, switching chains, cables, distribution board, automation and KNX, PV strings and lighting control. Besides single commands it calls PlanElec's automatic planning – standard room equipment, circuit assignment, routes for all open cables, filling the distribution board and phase balancing.

A sentence such as "Create a standard installation for this project, then route all cables and distribute the circuits across the board" therefore triggers a chain. Each executed action shows up on its own card with status and requester and stays individually reversible. Before changing anything, the assistant reads the project structure, check findings and device catalogue – it plans on the state you are looking at. It acts with your project permissions: anyone who may only view a project cannot change it by dictation either. Deleting projects is not among its commands.

What else the assistant does, how it answers technical questions with sources and how your team sees its changes is covered in AI assistant for electrical planning.

Does the AREI self-check run after dictation?

Yes – after every change the assistant carries out from your dictated instruction. The server then checks the whole project with the same AREI/RGIE self-check that the check report uses. An action only counts as complete once that check has run. The action card shows Applied and checked and Validation: … resolved, … new, … remaining. So you find out while still on site whether the new circuit affects a protective device or a cross-section – not at export time.

Dictation itself changes nothing: as long as the text only sits in the input field, the project stays as it is. Which rules the self-check covers and where its limits lie is explained in the guide What does the PlanElec AREI self-check verify?

The self-check assesses the supported rules against your input. Measurements and on-site conditions belong to the conformity inspection before first use, carried out on site by an accredited body; it covers administrative checks, visual checks, tests and measurements (AREI, section 6.4.1). No measurement, no acceptance: inspection stays with the accredited inspection body.

Does dictation work on a tablet or phone on site?

Yes, as long as the browser supports microphone recording. PlanElec runs in the browser without installation and can be installed as a web app; on tablet and phone the interface adapts. PlanElec only shows the Dictate button when the browser can record. Recordings from Safari and from Chromium or Firefox browsers are converted on the device into the same format, so they are all processed alike. For the microphone, PlanElec requests echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain control from the browser.

Two things to plan for on site:

• Internet connection. The recording goes through the PlanElec server to speech recognition. No connection, no dictation. Open projects can be edited offline as a pilot feature; dictation and the assistant are available again once you are back online. Details in the guide Use PlanElec offline.
• Microphone permission. If the microphone is blocked, a notice appears below the input field. Allow access in your browser's site settings.

Where does my voice data go?

After Use recording, your browser sends the recording to PlanElec. PlanElec forwards it through the AI service OpenRouter to the speech recognition model Scribe by ElevenLabs and receives only the recognised text back. The request requires providers that neither store the data nor use it for training.

PlanElec stores neither the recording nor its text. Only the instruction you send is stored – as part of the conversation history, so you and your team can trace changes. The operations log holds one line per recording with language, duration and status, without content, user ID or project ID. Discarded recordings never leave your device.

Transcription counts against your AI allowance, like every AI feature. If it is not enough for a recording, a notice below the input field tells you. During Early Access, PlanElec – assistant included – is free.

From site survey to PDF dossier: what does a workflow look like?

This is how an electrical contractor uses dictation on a renovation, from the first visit to the documents for the keuring:

1. Prepare the floor plan (office). Import the architect's plan as PDF, DXF or image, review the AI proposal with walls, rooms and openings, and apply it. The steps are in Turning a PDF, scan or Trikker export into a floor plan.
2. Open the project on site. On a tablet or phone, with a connection, and show Activity & assistant.
3. Dictate room by room. One sentence per room with wall, offset, height and device. Review the text, send.
4. Check the action cards. Read Applied and checked and the check result. If something is wrong: Undo and dictate again.
5. Define the circuits. "Show me the automatic installation proposal for the main board", review the proposal, have it applied. The single-line diagram follows the circuit model.
6. Finish in the office. Work through open findings, add missing data such as cable lengths, fill the distribution board – by dictation, keyboard or mouse.
7. Export the documents. In Export mode, generate the single-line diagram, situation plan and self-check report as PDFs with your installer details, optionally assembled into a dossier. More in Exporting documents.

Under AREI, the person responsible for carrying out the work draws up the single-line diagrams and situation plans; if the installation conforms, that person and the accredited body sign them (AREI, subsection 3.1.2.1 a). PlanElec gives you the basis; responsibility for the content stays with you. What a single-line diagram must contain is explained in Creating a single-line diagram.

Dictating, typing or drawing: which fits when?

All three routes write into the same project model. You switch as the situation demands.

What are the limits of dictation?

• Text after you stop, not live. Recognition processes the finished recording; the text appears once you use the recording.
• Two minutes per recording. Dictate longer instructions as several recordings into the same message.
• Interface language. Mixing languages within one recording is not supported.
• Many recordings in a short time are throttled; after a moment you can continue.
• Rows of boxes on a wall: at most five boxes per frame with a fixed 71 mm centre distance; the assistant places push buttons one by one.
• No substitute for measurement and keuring. The self-check assesses the supported rules against the captured data; the conformity inspection is carried out on site by the accredited body (AREI, section 6.4.1).

Frequently asked questions about dictation in PlanElec

Is dictated text sent automatically?

No. The text appears in the input field, and you decide with Send message whether and when it becomes an instruction.

Do I need an app?

No. Dictation is part of the assistant in the browser. You can install PlanElec as a web app, but you don't have to.

What does it look like on the home page?

The dictation demo on the home page walks through choosing a room, dictating, reviewing and applying on a simulated example; the page records no audio. In the studio you then dictate into your own project.