This design kit is intended only for tutorial use in demonstrating the general creation of designs destined for PCB layout. It can also be used as a template for creating your own design kit more directly suited to your application.
IMPORTANT: You should not use this design kit to create a serious design for production use. It does not have any settings, netlists or error checks set up for any particular PCB package. Choose a design kit more directly suited for your target system before proceeding with a major design.
Custom Menus
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This design kit defines a number of custom menu commands under the Generic PCB title.
Generate Netlist - This generates a simple, generic netlist format from the current design. This netlist does not match any known industry format and is intended only as a demonstration.
Generate Error Report - This runs an error check on the current design and generates a report of any errors encountered. Errors that have previously been "marked as OK" (see below) will not appear in this report. The checks run include:
- no package code
- inconsistent package codes in devices sharing a package
- duplicate pin numbers
- bad pin numbers
- bad device names
- bad signal names
- duplicate signal names
Mark Errors as OK - This command marks as OK all errors currently showing as errors (i.e. that would appear if you ran the Error Check report). This means that they will not appear in subsequent reports.
Unmark All - This removes all Mark as OK settings in the current design. That is, all circuit objects will be checked by the Error Check command.
Enter Package Code - This puts up a simple prompt box allowing you to enter a package code into all selected devices in the current circuit. This value entered is placed in the Package attribute field and is not check for validity.
Open ReadMe - This command opens this file in SimpleText.
Running ErrorScript
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An interactive error checking script is provided that performs the same checks as the Error Check report, but interactively. This allows you to locate the items found one at a time and selectively mark them as OK if desired. To use it:
- Select ErrorScript in the Tools menu.
- Select the General PCB Errors script.
Attribute Fields Used
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Name
Package
Part
Value
Ground
Power
Non-standard attribute fields required:
SigSources
Symbol Libraries
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This design kit uses the standard DesignWorks PCB symbol libraries.
DesignType Value
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The value "GPCB" is placed in the DesignType attribute field to identify Generic PCB designs. This value is checked by the netlist generator.
