Frequently asked questions about Trikker
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Licence and activation
Install the latest version of Trikker first. Then open the program, go to the Extra tab and enter your licence code. If you see no input field, choose the option to activate with another licence code: the field appears then.
Keep the computer online while you activate, because the licence is tied to that computer in the process. After that Trikker works offline for a while, and it checks the licence with our server again now and then.
In the licence portal. Log in with the e-mail address you bought the licence with, and you see all your licences, the computer each one is linked to and its end date.
Logging in for the first time, or lost your password? Then set a password for that same e-mail address first.
No worries: your licence stays valid. The message means that this computer has to confirm the licence again, usually after an update or a reinstall.
Make sure you are online, close Trikker completely and start it again. Does the message stay? Then enter your licence code again on the Extra tab.
Is the licence already in use on another computer? Then unlink that computer first in the licence portal. One licence works on one computer at a time.
Trikker no longer uses that activation file. You now activate with a licence code that you enter yourself, which is why an older file reports that it is no longer valid.
Your licence simply stays valid, so there is nothing to buy again. Look up your licence code in the licence portal and enter it via the Extra tab.
Then the VAT number your licence is linked to is no longer active in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. Trikker falls back to the demo version at that moment, even though nothing changed about your subscription.
Usually something changed in the company: a business that stopped, a new company, a merger or a takeover. Send us the new VAT number with the company name and address, and we unblock your licence.
Yes. A perpetual licence has no end date and stays valid, with the current updates included. The move to subscriptions applies to new purchases and extra licences, not to what you already own.
Only the way you activate has changed: a licence code instead of a file. And the completely renewed version we are working on will be covered by your existing licence as well, once it is released.
Changing computer, and extra licences
You arrange that yourself, free of charge and whenever you like. Remove the old computer from your licence in the licence portal: a licence code becomes available again right away.
Then install Trikker on the new computer and activate it with that code via the Extra tab. Your drawings are stored on the old computer, so copy the files you still need across yourself.
One licence works on one computer at a time. Moving it is free and unlimited, but working on two computers at once needs two licences.
Do you work at the office and on a laptop in turn? Then take a licence per computer. A remote session to a computer running Trikker counts as a workplace too, so for a terminal server or a virtual desktop we make an arrangement that fits.
Subscription, prices and invoices
45 euro per month or 360 euro per year, per computer and excluding VAT. Every update and our support are part of it, at no extra cost.
The pricing page also shows the amounts including VAT. Working on several computers? Then the price counts per computer.
Yes. A monthly subscription renews every month, a yearly one every year, each time on the end date of the period. You keep working without interruption and the invoice follows automatically.
You find that end date and your payment method in the customer portal.
In the customer portal, yourself: log in with your purchase e-mail address and stop the subscription there.
You keep working until the end date of the period you already paid for. After that the subscription stops and nothing is charged any more. Your drawings stay on your own computer, and you can start again later whenever you want.
All your invoices are in the customer portal, ready to download as a PDF. You log in with the e-mail address you bought the licence with.
Do you need another invoicing address, or the reference of your purchase order on the invoice? Let us know and we adjust it.
Your address, e-mail address and telephone number you change yourself in the customer portal. Only the company name and the VAT number we change for you, because your licence is linked to them.
The details on your drawings come from the licence. After a change, close Trikker completely and start it again while you are online: Trikker fetches the licence at every start, so the new details come along automatically, without uploading a file.
Installing and system requirements
Updates are included, in your subscription as well as in an existing perpetual licence. Download the latest version and install it over the current one: your drawings and settings stay as they are.
On a computer with limited internet access, choose the offline installation: that one puts everything in place in a single step. After a big update, Trikker sometimes asks you to confirm your licence once more.
Trikker is Windows software, and there is no macOS version yet. On a Mac you work with Trikker through Windows, for example with Parallels or Boot Camp.
You need no special hardware: every computer that runs Windows runs Trikker too.
On a Windows tablet it does: every device that runs Windows runs Trikker too, and no special hardware is needed. A tablet with iPadOS or Android does not run Windows, so Trikker does not work there.
On an iPad the only route stays a Windows computer, for example through a remote connection. We are working on a thoroughly renewed version of Trikker, but we cannot promise a date yet.
The demo is the complete Trikker with three limits: five circuits at most, one page of situation drawing, and a watermark on the prints. That gives you a realistic picture of what the program does.
You do not have to request anything. Every installation starts as the demo version until you activate a licence code, and then those limits disappear.
Drawings, files and inspection
You load a DWG or DXF drawing as the background of your situation drawing, the same way you place an image. Trikker does not derive a single line diagram from it: you place the symbols yourself.
The other way round, Trikker writes no DWG or DXF. Print your drawing to a PDF instead: that PDF is vector based, so AutoCAD reads it in.
That is not a fault but a setting per page of the situation plan. Every page has two tick boxes: Lettering shows the circuit letter, and Numbering shows the sequence number within the circuit. Tick both to get the full marking, such as D1.
Symbols that are on your single-line diagram appear in the library of the situation plan, sorted per circuit. Do you want to place symbols that do not come from the single-line diagram? Then switch on the option Loose symbols under Extra, Configuration, Situation plan.
Your drawings are on your own computer, not with us. Trikker keeps backups of them as well: you open that folder from the Extra tab, under the settings for backups.
Does a drawing refuse to open, or did an imported background disappear? Then look there first. Include the folder in your own backup, because a file we never had is a file we cannot restore.
Such an error almost always comes from Windows and not from Trikker itself, certainly when no printer at all appears in the list, not even Microsoft Print to PDF.
Start Trikker as an administrator first: right-click the Trikker icon and choose Run as administrator. To set that permanently, right-click the icon, open Properties, go to the Compatibility tab and tick Run this program as an administrator.
Does that not help? Then reinstall the Windows PDF printer: open Turn Windows features on or off, clear the tick next to Microsoft Print to PDF, click OK and restart the computer. Tick it again afterwards.
Yes, that is what Trikker is made for: the single line diagram and the situation drawing of an installation, according to the Belgian regulations, with the symbols in their place on the floor plan.
Watch one thing: prints from an educational licence carry a watermark for educational use, so they are not an inspection document. A real file needs a commercial licence.
Example files
Yes. Every example is a complete Trikker file: the single-line diagram, the situation plan and the symbol settings that belong with them. Open a file to see how a drawing is built up, or use it as a starting point for your own installation.
The classic example is drawn entirely in Trikker; the home-automation example imports its floor plan from AutoCAD in DWG format.
The title block of a drawing is filled in from your licence details, so a new drawing carries the right name, address and company number without extra typing.
Trikker has no dedicated symbol for a transfer switch yet. You draw it yourself with the Breaker symbol, its Type property set to Contact or Rotary switch, and the free-draw option to connect it outside the standard layout.
Two downloadable examples show this in practice: one with a simple switch between two sources, one with a three-position switch (I-0-II) built from a renamed module symbol.
Yes. Next to the general examples above, these downloadable diagrams each show one specific type of installation.
Download the main distribution board example
Download the solar panels, charging station and battery example
Download the more extensive solar panels example
The symbols follow the AREI and INCERT rules. Every symbol carries properties you can set, and changing a property changes the way the symbol is drawn.
On the situation plan every symbol stays linked to its counterpart on the single-line diagram. Circuit letters and the way a symbol is drawn therefore stay in step by themselves, and Trikker can check whether every circuit is fully on the plan.
Yes. Download an example and open it in Trikker. Not installed yet? The demo version is free: you can draw up to five circuits on the single-line diagram and one page in the situation plan, and the print carries a watermark.
Schema reader
The Schema reader reads a single-line diagram and a site plan that you do not have in Trikker (a PDF from another drawing package, a scan, a photo or a plan drawn by hand) and turns them into a Trikker schema in a few minutes. The circuits are in the single-line diagram, and every symbol of the site plan sits in its place, linked to its circuit.
A second agent then checks every circuit, and what you should check yourself is listed on the result, also marked on the plan. You download the Trikker schema, open it in Trikker and finish it there.
Alan is an AI assistant (a language model by Anthropic). He reads your drawing automatically, so always check the result in Trikker.
The Schema reader is a beta, so always check the result in Trikker. After the beta it will be built into Trikker and become part of your licence.
Yes. At the top of the Schema reader, choose “Describe or dictate” and say what you see: the rooms, what goes in each room, the appliances, and what you already know, such as the address, the cables or the breakers. You can type it or dictate it, in Dutch, French or English. Alan designs a single-line diagram from it.
A value you state goes into the schema as stated; what you do not say, Alan fills in according to common practice. If he is in doubt, that circuit is listed among the points to check. A description gives no site plan: the points wait in Trikker as not placed.
Dictating works in Chrome, Edge and Safari: your browser turns your speech into text, and the Schema reader only receives the text you checked.
In a tour of a few minutes, silent and with captions, you see every feature at work: reading a hand-drawn schema and site plan, checking every circuit, the checks and more. You find it on the login page of the Schema reader.
Every customer with an active Trikker licence, a subscription as well as a perpetual licence. An educational licence gives no access to the Schema reader.
You do not need a password. Enter the e-mail address your licence is registered to, and you receive a login link by e-mail. The link works once and stays valid for 30 minutes. No e-mail? Look in your junk mail folder, and check that you used the address of your licence. Not sure which address that is? Write to info@trikker.be.
The Schema reader works in Dutch, French and English.
A PDF or an image (PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, TIFF or BMP) of a single-line diagram, with or without the site plan, in the same file or separately. A scan, a photo or a PDF from another drawing package all work, and so does a schema or plan drawn by hand. The sharper the image, the better the reading. A file can be up to 20 MB.
Are there no symbols on the site plan yet? Then the plan comes along as a background. The Schema reader does not guess any position: you place the symbols on it yourself in Trikker.
If a file does not look like a single-line diagram or a site plan, the Schema reader does not read it, and that upload does not count.
During the beta, every licence includes a number of readings per month (units, in the Schema reader). They are shared within your company: colleagues with a licence of the same company use the same allowance. At the top of the Schema reader you see how many are left this month.
A reading that fails costs nothing, and neither does a file that is not a schema. The same file again, with the same settings, usually shows the earlier reading again at no cost. A large plan with several schema pages can count for more than one unit.
Used them all? The Schema reader tells you, and from which date you can have schemas read again. Need more? Let us know at info@trikker.be.
We keep your schema and the result for 180 days; anonymised snippets of reviewed schemas (without names or addresses) are kept for 3 years to improve Alan.
Correct it in Trikker: the result is an ordinary Trikker schema. The points worth checking are on the result card, and for the site plan they are also marked on the plan.
Tell us what was wrong, or share an idea, on the forum: that helps us improve the Schema reader. Logging in or uploading does not work? Write to info@trikker.be.
Help, manual and schools
The complete manual is inside the program: open it from the Extra tab, or press F1. It follows the version you installed, so the illustrations match your screen.
We do not give individual demonstrations or training sessions: we work with a small team, and Trikker is built to be learned on your own with the manual and the demo version. On the community forum you read along with other users and ask your own question.
Yes. Schools and training institutions get a free educational licence: one code for several computers, so a whole class can draw with it. Send in the application form, and after we check it the code follows by e-mail.
The school applies, not a pupil or student individually. Prints from an educational licence carry a watermark for educational use.
Through the helpdesk form, or with an e-mail to info@trikker.be. You get a ticket number and we answer by e-mail.
Two things help us answer straight away: the e-mail address or the VAT number the licence was bought with, and a screenshot of the message you see. Is your question about a drawing? Then send the Trikker file along.