Electric has the ability to view an integrated circuit in 3-dimensions, allowing a fuller understanding of the interaction between layers. When displaying 3D, you can rotate, zoom, and pan the image to get a better view. However, in 3D mode, you can no longer change the circuit.

Note that the 3D Display is based on the Java3D API, and so it will not work if this addition to Java is not installed. See Section 1-5 for details about getting this software. Also, it might not work properly if you are using MDI mode (multiple document interface, used on Windows).

To see a circuit in 3D, use the 3D Display command (in menu Window). The circuit is displayed in 3D, and mouse movements will rotate, pan, or zoom the circuit. Use the left button to rotate, the right button for panning and the middle one for zooming. When zooming, drag the middle button in one direction to zoom in, and the other direction to zoom out.

Nodes and arcs will be highlighted in the 3D view by clicking in the corresponding 2D instance, and vice versa. Furthermore, the network tool will also highlight nodes if they are displayed in a 3D view. In case of cell instances, bounding boxes will be shown in the scene graph and the interior will be displayed if cells are expanded.

To control the 3D view, use the "3D" preferences (in menu File / Preferences..., "Display" section, "3D" tab). In the 3D preferences, thickness and Z distance of each layer can be modified as well as the view mode, the scale along Z axis and control of antialiasing.

Two view modes are available: perspective (the default) and parallel. Unselect "Use Perspective" to see a parallel display. If available, antialiasing can be turned on by clicking on "Use Antialiasing". Due to performance issues, antialiasing is not on by default. If the displayed layers are too thin along the Z axis (compared to their X,Y values), use the Z Scale field to make everything thicker.

On the left side of this dialog is a list of layers in the current technology. On the right side is a cross section view of the chip, showing which layers are above which others. You can select a layer by clicking on either side of the dialog. The currently selected layer is highlighted in the list on the left and shown in red in the right-hand view.

Once selected, you can drag layers to the desired height (on the right side) or type a height value (on the left side). You can also set the thickness of a layer by typing a value into the field .