1. Start NetBeans 7.0 or later (these instructions do not work with earlier versions).
2. Install the Team Server Plugin:
   - Use Tools / Plugins and choose the "Available Plugins" tab in the Plugins manager.
   - In the left pane, check the "Team Server" plugin and click "Install". If it is not listed, then it may already be installed.
   - Use Window / Services to open the "Services" tab
   - Expand the "Team Server" node and check that the "java.net" Team Server is listed.
3. Download Electric Sources from java.net .
   - Use File / Open Team Project...
   - Search for "electric", select "Electric: VLSI Design System", and click "Open From Team Server"
   - Expand the "Electric: VLSI Design System" node in the "Team" tab and the "Sources" subnode
   - Click "Source Code Repository (get)"
   - Either enter "Folder To Get" or click the "Browse..." button and choose "trunk/electric" .
   - Choose "Local Folder" and select the location for Electric Sources. The default is "~/NetBeansProjects/electric~svn"
   - Click "Get From Team Server"
   - When done, the "Checkout Completed" dialog will say that projects were checked-out. Click "Open Project...", choose "electric", and click "Open".
4. Build Electric
   - In the "Projects" tab, right-click "electric" and choose "Build". The Electric project is large. If the build hangs, then it may be necessary to add "-J-Xmx2g" to the netbeans_default_options in file <NETBEANS_INSTALLATION>/etc/netbeans.conf .
5. Run Electric.
   - Use either Run / Run Project (electric) or Debug > Debug Project (electric) from the main menu.
6. Create a shortcut to start Electric from Desktop:
   - Create a shortcut to "~/NetBeansProjects/electric~svn/electric/dist/electric.jar" in Unux or to "Local Folder/NetBeansProjects/electric~svn/electric/dist/electric.jar" in Windows
   - Edit shortcut's "OpenWith" to OpenJDK or other Java distribution. Make this shortcut executable.
   - Launch Electric with this shortcut.
7. Create electric distribution for your organization (optional).
   - Copy the folder ~/NetBeansProjects/electric~svn/electric/dist (with subdirectories) to a shared location in your file system.