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 Tools / Network). This will highlight all arcs on the currently selected networks, and it will also "cross-probe" by highlighting networks that have the same name in other views of this cell. If a cell instance is selected but no individual port is selected (such that there is no single network selected) then all wired ports will be highlighted. 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 Tools / Network) highlights every network in a different color (useful if there are not too many nets).

There are many commands in the Tool / Network menu that give information about the networks in a cell: