Upcoming Update

[Stephan Rose]

Hey everyone,

still alive! I have an update upcoming soon for the schematic portion
of my EDA app.

Here's a list of current editing features...am I missing anything?

- Objects can be Rotated, mirrored X, mirrored Y
- Wires automatically create junctions during placement (not during
any other action however, we found that taking this too far makes it
too easy to make errors).
- Parts will automatically create wires between pins when the pin
endpoints are placed on to of the pin endpoints of another part. (See
screenshots on website for example).
- Wires will automatically maintain connections when moved to pins and
other wire endpoints.
- Parts will automatically maintain connections to wire endpoints when
moved.
- Wires can be named

Some other features non-editing related

- Ability to import tango scm files
- Ability to import p-cad files (ascii, can not currently import
ports)
- Ability to create projects and schematics for that project (limited
support)


Things that are in immediate planning, but may not make it to the 1st
update I'm gonna put online (some of this stuff may, some of it may
not).

- Save/Load projects
- Save/Load native schematic files
- Undo capability
- Auto numbering and grouping of parts
- Design Rule Check

This is where things stand right now. Things are coming along nicely!

Now I do have one question to everyone...when writing my p-cad
importer, I ran into ports. Now, we never used these. We just name the
wires...appears that ports essentially are just a fancier way of
naming wires? Can anyone clarify this for me?

Thanks,

Stephan
www.somrek.net

 

[James Jackson]

RE: - Parts will automatically create wires between pins when the pin
endpoints are placed on to of the pin endpoints of another part.

Be sure to thoroughly test this feature.

I personally know of two Schematic Capture programs out there that do not
handle this properly.

Where they get 'bitten' is when doing a 'Copy/Paste' of circuits using
this - and the Auto-generated Netname... gets confused.

This causes 'shorts', as the same netname is created across identical
circuits.

Difficult to explain via e-mail.

As a rule, I _never_ butt schematic symbol endpoints together, for this very
reason.

Regards,

James Jackson
Oztronics

"Stephan Rose" <ker-spam-mos@kermos-no-spam-reversed.net> wrote in message
news:8f4l70lh6i6o7qqjoftpkbln8q75ttohdm@4ax.com...

Hey everyone,

still alive! I have an update upcoming soon for the schematic portion
of my EDA app.

Here's a list of current editing features...am I missing anything?

- Objects can be Rotated, mirrored X, mirrored Y
- Wires automatically create junctions during placement (not during
any other action however, we found that taking this too far makes it
too easy to make errors).
- Parts will automatically create wires between pins when the pin
endpoints are placed on to of the pin endpoints of another part. (See
screenshots on website for example).
- Wires will automatically maintain connections when moved to pins and
other wire endpoints.
- Parts will automatically maintain connections to wire endpoints when
moved.
- Wires can be named

Some other features non-editing related

- Ability to import tango scm files
- Ability to import p-cad files (ascii, can not currently import
ports)
- Ability to create projects and schematics for that project (limited
support)


Things that are in immediate planning, but may not make it to the 1st
update I'm gonna put online (some of this stuff may, some of it may
not).

- Save/Load projects
- Save/Load native schematic files
- Undo capability
- Auto numbering and grouping of parts
- Design Rule Check

This is where things stand right now. Things are coming along nicely!

Now I do have one question to everyone...when writing my p-cad
importer, I ran into ports. Now, we never used these. We just name the
wires...appears that ports essentially are just a fancier way of
naming wires? Can anyone clarify this for me?

Thanks,

Stephan
www.somrek.net

 

[Stephan Rose]

Thanks for the input James.

As this can only happen during a part movement, no other action will
trigger this, hence this wouldn't affect copy/paste actions.

Even if this weren't so, I won't be auto generating netlist names
until you actually tell it to do so, at which point in time all prior
generated names are thrown away. This alone makes it impossible for an
auto generated netname to exist twice in two seperate circuits.

Thanks again,

Stephan


On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 11:38:58 -0500, "James Jackson" <JOJ@Texas.net>
wrote:

RE: - Parts will automatically create wires between pins when the pin
endpoints are placed on to of the pin endpoints of another part.

Be sure to thoroughly test this feature.

I personally know of two Schematic Capture programs out there that do not
handle this properly.

Where they get 'bitten' is when doing a 'Copy/Paste' of circuits using
this - and the Auto-generated Netname... gets confused.

This causes 'shorts', as the same netname is created across identical
circuits.

Difficult to explain via e-mail.

As a rule, I _never_ butt schematic symbol endpoints together, for this very
reason.

Regards,

James Jackson
Oztronics

"Stephan Rose" <ker-spam-mos@kermos-no-spam-reversed.net> wrote in message
news:8f4l70lh6i6o7qqjoftpkbln8q75ttohdm@4ax.com...

Hey everyone,

still alive! I have an update upcoming soon for the schematic portion
of my EDA app.

Here's a list of current editing features...am I missing anything?

- Objects can be Rotated, mirrored X, mirrored Y
- Wires automatically create junctions during placement (not during
any other action however, we found that taking this too far makes it
too easy to make errors).
- Parts will automatically create wires between pins when the pin
endpoints are placed on to of the pin endpoints of another part. (See
screenshots on website for example).
- Wires will automatically maintain connections when moved to pins and
other wire endpoints.
- Parts will automatically maintain connections to wire endpoints when
moved.
- Wires can be named

Some other features non-editing related

- Ability to import tango scm files
- Ability to import p-cad files (ascii, can not currently import
ports)
- Ability to create projects and schematics for that project (limited
support)


Things that are in immediate planning, but may not make it to the 1st
update I'm gonna put online (some of this stuff may, some of it may
not).

- Save/Load projects
- Save/Load native schematic files
- Undo capability
- Auto numbering and grouping of parts
- Design Rule Check

This is where things stand right now. Things are coming along nicely!

Now I do have one question to everyone...when writing my p-cad
importer, I ran into ports. Now, we never used these. We just name the
wires...appears that ports essentially are just a fancier way of
naming wires? Can anyone clarify this for me?

Thanks,

Stephan
www.somrek.net

 

[James Jackson]

Stephan,

Another question...

Which Version of ACCEL ASCII are you supporting?

Version 6.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 17)
Version 5.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 16)
Version 4.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 15)
Version 3.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 14)
....
you get the idea.

Also, will it support the new release of P-CAD, when it comes out later this
year?

Regarding 'Ports' in Schematic, I believe Ports are used to make Netnames
appear across Schematic Pages (or the same page). How do you currently
handle this?

Taken from the P-CAD 2002 online help...

"Ports indicate connectivity between sub-nets of the same net. In other
words, ports provide a visible means to connect contiguous portions of a net
in different locations of the design without having to wire them together
directly. Ported sub-nets may be on the same or different sheets. "

Do you have a copy of the latest ACCEL ASCII document? This would be a good
place to start.

Regards,

James Jackson
Oztronics


"Stephan Rose" <ker-spam-mos@kermos-no-spam-reversed.net> wrote in message
news:51jl70dqu8q9cb7rcn3epakmjkeme7ihch@4ax.com...

Thanks for the input James.

As this can only happen during a part movement, no other action will
trigger this, hence this wouldn't affect copy/paste actions.

Even if this weren't so, I won't be auto generating netlist names
until you actually tell it to do so, at which point in time all prior
generated names are thrown away. This alone makes it impossible for an
auto generated netname to exist twice in two seperate circuits.

Thanks again,

Stephan


On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 11:38:58 -0500, "James Jackson" <JOJ@Texas.net
wrote:

RE: - Parts will automatically create wires between pins when the pin
endpoints are placed on to of the pin endpoints of another part.

Be sure to thoroughly test this feature.

I personally know of two Schematic Capture programs out there that do not
handle this properly.

Where they get 'bitten' is when doing a 'Copy/Paste' of circuits using
this - and the Auto-generated Netname... gets confused.

This causes 'shorts', as the same netname is created across identical
circuits.

Difficult to explain via e-mail.

As a rule, I _never_ butt schematic symbol endpoints together, for this
very
reason.

Regards,

James Jackson
Oztronics

"Stephan Rose" <ker-spam-mos@kermos-no-spam-reversed.net> wrote in
message
news:8f4l70lh6i6o7qqjoftpkbln8q75ttohdm@4ax.com...

Hey everyone,

still alive! I have an update upcoming soon for the schematic portion
of my EDA app.

Here's a list of current editing features...am I missing anything?

- Objects can be Rotated, mirrored X, mirrored Y
- Wires automatically create junctions during placement (not during
any other action however, we found that taking this too far makes it
too easy to make errors).
- Parts will automatically create wires between pins when the pin
endpoints are placed on to of the pin endpoints of another part. (See
screenshots on website for example).
- Wires will automatically maintain connections when moved to pins and
other wire endpoints.
- Parts will automatically maintain connections to wire endpoints when
moved.
- Wires can be named

Some other features non-editing related

- Ability to import tango scm files
- Ability to import p-cad files (ascii, can not currently import
ports)
- Ability to create projects and schematics for that project (limited
support)


Things that are in immediate planning, but may not make it to the 1st
update I'm gonna put online (some of this stuff may, some of it may
not).

- Save/Load projects
- Save/Load native schematic files
- Undo capability
- Auto numbering and grouping of parts
- Design Rule Check

This is where things stand right now. Things are coming along nicely!

Now I do have one question to everyone...when writing my p-cad
importer, I ran into ports. Now, we never used these. We just name the
wires...appears that ports essentially are just a fancier way of
naming wires? Can anyone clarify this for me?

Thanks,

Stephan
www.somrek.net

 

[Stephan Rose]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 12:29:14 -0500, "James Jackson" <JOJ@Texas.net>
wrote:

Stephan,

Another question...

Which Version of ACCEL ASCII are you supporting?

Version 6.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 17)
Version 5.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 16)
Version 4.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 15)
Version 3.0 (ACCEL EDA Version 14)

Judging by the file headers, 3.0

...
you get the idea.

Also, will it support the new release of P-CAD, when it comes out later this
year?

Well, all I have is a trial copy of 2001 that I used to convert some
files that I could get my hand on, namely sample files and libraries
from their site.

I can load the libraries no problem, tested like 150+ library files.
Though I am aware of a few things that might cause some problems (some
of the pin styles that haven't appeared in any files yet, so I can
only guess at the token names).

Regarding 'Ports' in Schematic, I believe Ports are used to make Netnames
appear across Schematic Pages (or the same page). How do you currently
handle this?

Just by giving the wire a name. Any named wire is assigned to a net by
that name. So by doing that, you can connect nets on the same sheet by
just giving two wires the same name, and therefore placing them and
anything connected to them on the same net. The same applies for going
across multiple sheets.

If I understand it correctly and read the text below correctly, which
is the same as the 2001 help, the ports achieve the same thing. But,
look a bit fancier maybe.

However, I will definitely look into implementing ports on my end as
well.

Taken from the P-CAD 2002 online help...

"Ports indicate connectivity between sub-nets of the same net. In other
words, ports provide a visible means to connect contiguous portions of a net
in different locations of the design without having to wire them together
directly. Ported sub-nets may be on the same or different sheets. "

Do you have a copy of the latest ACCEL ASCII document? This would be a good
place to start.

I wish!! I'd love to get my hands on that. Of course, the best thing
to still have are...files to test. Particularly for this format.

Here's how my importer currently works when it encounters things that
it doesn't know what to do with...

Some data either I have no use for at all and it has no real impact on
what I'm loading (Text styles for instance). Other data, I will need
in the future, but currently can't do anything with (pattern info in a
symbol library for example). And then there's some things that I will
never need and those just are due to differences how I and p-cad
handle things.

If any of those tokens are encountered, they and their sub-tokens are
ignored...but don't raise an exception since they're knowingly being
ignored.

If any tokens are encountered that it does not know how to load, and
it does not specifically know to ignore it...then, an exception is
raised and the user is notified where it happened, what the data token
was. If that happens, simply tell me about it and I will gladly extend
the loader to handle the unknown data.

Thanks,

Stephan