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A visitor to the site asked what program I used to create the electrical system drawings. Here is what I told him:

I like the simplest and cheapest solutions, so I looked for programs that I already owned, and knew how to use. I used ClarisWorks, now known as AppleWorks - sort of a Microsoft Works, jack-of-all-trades program that came free with my Mac. I used the drawing tools, set up a grid pattern of 20 per inch, and told it to force everything to conform to the grid. Each time I needed a new component (i.e. new type of switch, etc) I drew one up, grouped it together as one element, then copied it to a file I used to save all my symbols. It was then a simple matter to copy and paste it next time I needed it. The grid forced everything to line up, so the lines for the wires naturally lined up with the right places on the switches, etc. You could probably do the same thing with any program that has simple drawing tools.

I could have made the first pass at each drawing quicker with pencil and a set of traceable templates. In fact I started out that way. But once I started making changes they became a mess quite quickly, as the erased lines were still partially visible, and it was a lot of work to make major changes due to the large number of elements to move. So I quickly realized that the computer solution was the right answer for me, as it is easy to grab large chunks of the drawing and move them around as necessary.