Electric has the concept of a current technology which is shown in the status bar. This technology affects many things, including the selection of nodes and arcs in the component menu. There are a number of ways to affect the current technology, both manual and automatic.

You can change the current technology by selecting it from the popup at the top of the side bar (either the "Components" or "Layers" tab). Electric automatically switches the current technology to match the cell being edited. If there are multiple cells being edited from different technologies, this switching can become annoying. To disable automatic technology switching, use the Nodes Preferences (in menu File / Preferences..., "General" section, "Nodes" tab), and uncheck "Switch technology to match current cell".

To see a list of primitive nodes and arcs in the current technology, use the Describe this Technology command (in menu Edit / Technology Specific). To see a detailed description of the current technology, use the Document Current Technology command.

Some technologies have settings that further customize them. The Technology Project Settings command (in menu File / Project Settings..., "Technology" tab) lets you control many general and specific technology settings. The bottom part of the dialog is specific to the MOSIS CMOS technology. More information about this can be found in Section 7-4-2. |

The Defaults section at the top of the dialog has these controls:

- "Startup technology" controls the technology that is used when Electric first begins. It is also used when reading old libraries that are missing some technology information.
- "Layout technology to use for Schematics" sets the technology to use for real geometry (an integrated circuit technology, not a schematics or artwork technology). The default layout technology is used to give further information about schematics components (see, for example, Section 9-4-3).
- "PWell process in Layout Technology" declares that the layout technologies are PWell, and therefore the PWell spacing and minimum width rules should be ignored by the design-rule checker. Since Electric displays both wells, users might be concerned with filling in notches in the PWell, but in these processes it is not necessary.

| Other settings are found in the Technology Preferences dialog (in menu File / Preferences..., "Technology" section, "Technology" tab) For the difference between Preferences and Project Settings, see Section 6-3. Layout Technology preferences are discussed in Section 7-4-2. Artwork controls are discussed in Section 7-6-1). Schematics controls are discussed in Section 7-5-1 and Section 3-11-2.