A collection of electrically connected components defines a network. Networks may span many arcs, or they may reside on only a single export on a single node. Because networks are stored in the Electric database, they can be immediately accessed when needed.

Whenever a port on a node is selected, the highlighting indicates the entire network that is connected to that port. Another way to see an entire network is to use the Show Network command (in menu Tool / Network). This will highlight all arcs on the currently selected networks. Repeated use of this command causes the network to be highlighted at successively lower levels of the hierarchy.

If the design is very dense, you can select one or more networks by name with the Select Object... command (in menu Edit / Selection). The Show All Networks command (in menu Tool / Network) highlights every network in a different color (useful if there are not too many nets).

There are many commands in menu Tool / Network that can be used to get information about the networks in a cell: