Ping Terry Pinnell: CM2000 snap grid...

[Pimpom]

After we talked about CircuitMaker 2000 earlier this month, I
decided to try out the Pro version and haven\'t noticed any
difference except a small one recently.

I always use \'snap to grid\' in Preferences for drawing
schematics. While that still works for placing new components, it
no longer does when moving or copy-pasting components or blocks
of schematic. Instead, the copied elements move smoothly with the
cursor pixel by pixel.

I don\'t want to have to uninstall and re-install the non-Pro
version just to find out if this is due to the difference in
versions.

What\'s your experience please?

 

[John Doe]

Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

After we talked about CircuitMaker 2000 earlier this month, I
decided to try out the Pro version and haven\'t noticed any
difference except a small one recently.

I always use \'snap to grid\' in Preferences for drawing
schematics. While that still works for placing new components, it
no longer does when moving or copy-pasting components or blocks
of schematic. Instead, the copied elements move smoothly with the
cursor pixel by pixel.

I don\'t want to have to uninstall and re-install the non-Pro
version just to find out if this is due to the difference in
versions.

Making copies of Windows (your primary drive) with Macrium Reflect is
immensely useful. That is an example use.

 

[Pimpom]

On 8/25/2020 5:31 PM, John Doe wrote:

Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

After we talked about CircuitMaker 2000 earlier this month, I
decided to try out the Pro version and haven\'t noticed any
difference except a small one recently.

I always use \'snap to grid\' in Preferences for drawing
schematics. While that still works for placing new components, it
no longer does when moving or copy-pasting components or blocks
of schematic. Instead, the copied elements move smoothly with the
cursor pixel by pixel.

I don\'t want to have to uninstall and re-install the non-Pro
version just to find out if this is due to the difference in
versions.

Making copies of Windows (your primary drive) with Macrium Reflect is
immensely useful. That is an example use.

I\'ve always kept a ghost backup of my whole C: drive for at least
20 years. My current ghost file of Windows 7 with all installed
programs is about 6GB and takes about 3 minutes to restore.

Uninstalling and re-installing CM 2000 takes just seconds.
However, it takes considerably longer to set it up just the way I
want it - preferences, paths, extra models and footprints,
colours, defaults......

 

[John Doe]

Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

John Doe wrote:
Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

After we talked about CircuitMaker 2000 earlier this month, I
decided to try out the Pro version and haven\'t noticed any
difference except a small one recently.

I always use \'snap to grid\' in Preferences for drawing
schematics. While that still works for placing new components,
it no longer does when moving or copy-pasting components or
blocks of schematic. Instead, the copied elements move smoothly
with the cursor pixel by pixel.

I don\'t want to have to uninstall and re-install the non-Pro
version just to find out if this is due to the difference in
versions.

Making copies of Windows (your primary drive) with Macrium
Reflect is immensely useful. That is an example use.

I\'ve always kept a ghost backup of my whole C: drive for at least
20 years.

Yep! I started by Windows 98 if not 95. Made a world of difference.

My current ghost file of Windows 7 with all installed
programs is about 6GB and takes about 3 minutes to restore.

Uninstalling and re-installing CM 2000 takes just seconds.
However, it takes considerably longer to set it up just the way I
want it - preferences, paths, extra models and footprints,
colours, defaults......

Besides developing the Windows installation, installing and
configuring programs is why I make copies with Macrium Reflect.

If you can afford a motherboard with two NVMe slots (instead of like
I have with one on the motherboard and one on an add-in card),
apparently you can cut the restore time to a fraction even from
outside of Windows.

I just find something else to do when doing a restore.

 

[Pimpom]

On 8/25/2020 8:33 PM, John Doe wrote:

Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

John Doe wrote:
Pimpom <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

After we talked about CircuitMaker 2000 earlier this month, I
decided to try out the Pro version and haven\'t noticed any
difference except a small one recently.

I always use \'snap to grid\' in Preferences for drawing
schematics. While that still works for placing new components,
it no longer does when moving or copy-pasting components or
blocks of schematic. Instead, the copied elements move smoothly
with the cursor pixel by pixel.

I don\'t want to have to uninstall and re-install the non-Pro
version just to find out if this is due to the difference in
versions.

Making copies of Windows (your primary drive) with Macrium
Reflect is immensely useful. That is an example use.

I\'ve always kept a ghost backup of my whole C: drive for at least
20 years.

Yep! I started by Windows 98 if not 95. Made a world of difference.

My current ghost file of Windows 7 with all installed
programs is about 6GB and takes about 3 minutes to restore.

Uninstalling and re-installing CM 2000 takes just seconds.
However, it takes considerably longer to set it up just the way I
want it - preferences, paths, extra models and footprints,
colours, defaults......

Besides developing the Windows installation, installing and
configuring programs is why I make copies with Macrium Reflect.

I have a reason for not relying on backup images for certain
installations. Some programs are frequently updated - by the
maker or by the user such as my Spice models and footprints.
Setting preferences can change with changes in the user\'s usage
pattern.

 

[Don Y]

On 8/25/2020 9:03 AM, Pimpom wrote:

I have a reason for not relying on backup images for certain installations.
Some programs are frequently updated - by the maker or by the user such as my
Spice models and footprints. Setting preferences can change with changes in the
user\'s usage pattern.

My machine images are just about 500GB (compressed). As I image to an external
drive (narrow pipe), restores take a couple of hours. I only image once, after
my initial build of a machine. I also keep a text log of the build process
IN (and alongside!) the image to make note of authorization keys, etc.

To address the \"update and restore settings\" issue, I DON\'T rely on the image
as it contains the old binaries -- and, there\'s no guarantee that the update
won\'t OVERWRITE portions of my existing settings.

Instead, I frequently dump a copy of the pertinent registry keys to a text
file and squirrel that away to be manually reinstalled (double click), later.
This has the added benefit of making it easy/convenient to visually examine ALL
the settings in text form -- something that most executables obfuscate behind
innumerable dialogs.

It\'s also much easier to compare the \"new settings\" with those preserved.
Even if \"new\" and \"preserved\" are for the same version of the application!

The downside is that often there are parts of settings scattered elsewhere
in the hive. And, even some programs that rely on vestiges of INI files.
So, you have to tailor your \"dump/restore\" efforts to the application\'s
specific implementation.

Once I\'ve determined that I want to preserve the updated form of the
application, I\'ll create a VM for the new \"system\". This lets me keep
many LIVE copies of different versions of applications. And, makes it
relatively easy to roll back -- or forward -- in a matter of *seconds*.
(I can even run multiple versions simultaneously in different VMs).
So, if I later discover that some aspect of the updated application is
hosed, I\'m not stuck trying to find an old image to bail me out.

I\'ve been screwed by trustingly updating EDA tools, in the past.

[I\'ve got 16T of \"hot images\" on my ESXi server and even more on cold volumes.
I\'m convinced that this is the \"right\" way forward and have been building
VMs for all of the disk images I preserved going back to DOS3.31 -- what do
you do when you need to resurrect an app that\'s been obsolete for 30 yrs??]