When Electric begins, the status area shows the current "Technology". To work with a different technology, use the popup at the top of the component menu. Once a choice is made, the component menu will be redrawn to show the primitive nodes and arcs in the new technology.

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 "New Nodes" preferences (in menu File / Preferences..., "General" section, "New 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 / Info).

Some technologies have settable options that further customize them. The "Technology" preferences (in menu File / Preferences..., "Technology" section, "Technology" tab) provides a dialog for controlling those options. More information about this dialog is available from the individual technology sections on MOSIS CMOS (Section 7-4-2), Schematics (Section 7-5-1), and Artwork (Section 7-6-1).