PC Electronics Plus 3/PC Electronics Plus 3.iso/qr15r3us/manual.doc

Text File | 1993-02-18 | 16KB | 374 lines

1  Introduction
---------------
This help section is a tutorial style introduction
to the basic features of Quickroute 1.5 for DOS. There is
enough information in this section to get you started, and
it would be a good idea to try out the features as they are
introduced.

2  Running Quickroute
---------------------
Normally Quickroute will chose the most appropriate
graphics mode for your computer automatically. However,
you can force Quickroute to use a specific mode
using a command line option. Run quickoute using
QR /? to find out the current list of options.

The Quickroute window is split into 4 main areas; the main
design area which is always coloured black, the standard
drop down menu bar at the top of the window from which
you can select all Quickroutes major functions, the status
line at the bottom of the screen which shows the current
cursor position and memory usage, and just below the
menu bar the 'button bar'.

3  The Button Bar
-----------------
The button bar allows you to select the type of object which
you are going to place onto the design, and provides quick
access to 'block' and 'pick and place' editing.

Moving from left to right, the first four buttons select the
object type. This can be a pad, a track, an integrated circuit
pin out, or a symbol. To place an object onto the design,
move your mouse to one of the buttons (for example the
pad button), and click the left mouse button. Notice that the
object type shown in the status line at the bottom of the screen
changes to show the current object selected. Next, move the pointer
onto the design area and click the left mouse button. A pad, or
other object type, will then appear at the cursor position.

The cursor position is always shown as an X,Y co-ordinate
in the status line. The units are in inches (default) or cm
depending on the Cursor Imp or Cursor Met setting (see
later).

4  Select Window
----------------
You can change the type or size of the object you are
currently using by clicking on the select button, which has
a question mark on it. A window will then open showing the
range of object types available.

To select a new size of pad, point the cursor at the desired
pad, and click the left mouse button. The select window will
then close and you will be able to use the new pad
size/shape.

The default size of an object, can be changed whilst the
select window is open by moving the cursor to point at the
object you want to change and clicking the right mouse
button. You will then be prompted to enter the new size in
the status line. This will be a diameter in the case of pads
or a width in the case of tracks.

5  Objects
----------
There are five types of object which you can place onto your
design; pads, tracks, integrated circuit pin outs (IC's),
symbols, and graphic primitives. Pads correspond to
regions on your PCB design to which component leads will
be connected and tracks are the copper 'wires' which
interconnect the pads.A range of Track types exist
including filled polygons for large copper areas.
Graphic primitives are a set of shapes including text,
circles, ellipses, arcs, etc which you can use
to build up more complex graphic designs. Symbols are
combinations of all the object types, which are stored as a
single unit for convenience. Symbols include, surface
mount designs, connector pin outs, etc. The final object
type is IC's, a set of 32 different dual in line (DIL) designs
are available.

Changing between the different object types is just a matter
of selecting the appropriate button, or in the case of the
primitives, pulling down the Tools menu, and selecting the
appropriate primitive. The following sections look at each
object type in turn, and shows how you can use them
effectively.

Pads
----
Pads are small regions of copper through which holes are
usually drilled, and component leads are soldered. In the
case of integrated circuits, an arrangement of pads will be
designed, to suit the pin-out of the particular chip. There
are 3 groups of pad types; circular, square and oval. Each
type is available in 16 different diameters, and with or
without a central hole to guide drilling.  In generally use the
circular pads for discrete components, square pads for
surface mount components and edge connectors, and the oval pads
for integrated circuits.

To place a pad on your design just move the mouse cursor
to the Pad button on the Button Bar, click the left mouse
button, and move the cursor to the position on the design
where you want your pad. Click the left mouse button. You
can then continue placing the current style of pad on your
design, changing it using the Select Window as required.

Tracks
------
Tracks are the copper wires on a PCB which connect pads
or other objects. A range of widths are available and in
general you should use thicker tracks where larger currents
are being carried, eg. power rails. Four Track types are also
available, namely Normal (Norm), 45 degree (45), Polyline
(Plin) and Polygon (Pgon).

To place a track onto your design first click the mouse
cursor on the Track button on the Button Bar. Next move
the cursor onto the design area and click the left mouse
button. Moving the cursor will then 'rubber-band' a track so
that you can see exactly where it will be placed. Click the
left mouse button when you are happy with the position, or
the right mouse button to quit. If the Track type is set to 45,
then tracks will be made up of segments with node angles which
are multiples of 45 degrees automatically.

Polylines and polygons are entered as strings of tracks in a
sequential fashion. In each case click the right mouse
button to quit entering lines. Note that the first and last
nodes of polygons will be joined together, and the resulting
shape will be filled. This feature is particularly useful for
entering large copper areas.

Integrated Circuits
-------------------
There are 2 types of DIL integrated circuit pin out which
can be placed onto the design with a single mouse click.
The first type is a simple square pad design, and the second
type uses rounder pads and automatically places a silk
screen identifier onto the design. The two types are
available with 8 different pin combinations and can be
either horizontally or vertically aligned.

To place an IC onto your design just move the mouse
cursor to the Integrated Circuit button on the Butto Bar,
click the left mouse button, and move the cursor to the position
on the design where you want your IC. Click the left mouse button.
You can change the design or style using the Select Window button
as required.

Symbols
-------
Symbols are simply groups of pads, tracks, graphic
primitives, IC's and other symbols, which are stored as a
single unit. They can then be stored in a symbol library,
and used at any stage in your design. Symbols can be
rotated/translated before they are placed onto your design,
using the symbol Translate option. Typical symbols include
edge connector pin outs, surface mount designs, and
transistor pin outs. You can create your own symbols, and
store areas of an existing design as a symbol.

To place a symbol onto your design just move the mouse
cursor to the Symbol button on the Button Bar, click the
left mouse button, and move the cursor to the position on
the design where you want your symbol. Click the left
mouse button. You can continue placing symbols onto your
design, changing the design or style using the Select
Window button as required.

Graphic Primitives
------------------
Graphic Primitive are a range of basic shapes which you
may wish to use on your designs. They include ellipses,
rectangles, arcs, and text. See the reference section on the
Tools menu in chapter 3 for more details.

6  Using Zoom and Pan
---------------------
The Quickroute design area that you see within the window
is in fact a small part of the maximum possible design area.
PCB and schematic designs can be over 30"x30" in size and
to allow you to move around your total design area there
are a range of pan, zoom and scroll options.

First of all try loading the demonstration PCB design called
'DEMO.PCB'. This should be installed in the same directory
as Quickroute. You can load it by selecting the File menu,
and clicking the mouse on the Open... option. You will then be
prompted to enter a file name. Enter 'DEMO.PCB' and press the
return key.

The PCB will then be displayed in the main window. Move
the cursor to the centre of the design area and press the
numeric key marked '5'. The design will then zoom in
around the cursor. It is now drawn at a scale of X2.0. Move
the cursor to the bottom right of the window, and press the
right mouse button. The PCB will then be redrawn, with the
region selected at the centre of the window. This is the pan
option.

A range of preset zooms exist from X0.1 to X10.0. You can
select these by pulling down the View menu, selecting
Zoom, and clicking the mouse on the required zoom. The
numeric keys '1' to '8' are hot keys which correspond to the
various zooms as shown on the menu. There is also a
Custom Zoom feature which allows you to enter a positive
zoom.

Note that the cursor step is selected using Cursor Imp
(imperial measurements) or Cursor Met (metric
measurements)and that the currently selected step is
maintained in real terms no matter what the zoom level is.

7  Cursor Step
--------------
As you move around your design, you will notice that the
cursor always locks onto a fixed cursor step, by default this
is 0.1 inches. No matter what the zoom is, the step will
always correspond to 0.1 inches in the 'real world'. To
change this cursor step just pull down the Options menu
and select Cursor Imp. You can chose any of the steps from
0.001 inch, up to 1 inch. Note that you must increase the
zoom level (for example to X5.0) to use the smaller cursor
steps though, otherwise your cursor will not appear to
move. Similarly, only use large cursor steps in small zoom
levels (for example X0.1).

For many applications, an imperial measurement system is
preferable as many integrated circuits and discrete
components have pin spacings which are in imperial
measurements. However, in certain circumstances you may
wish to use metric measurements and this can be done by
pulling down the Options menu and clicking on Cursor Met.

8  Turbo Draw and Grid Operations
---------------------------------
When you are using a lot of zoom and pan operations it is
useful to select the accelerated or 'turbo' graphic feature,
which can be toggled on and off by pulling down the
Options menu and selecting Turbo. When on, all tracks and
pads are drawn as outlines, showing the correct size but
being unfilled. Where detail is required, simply toggle the
feature off.

The Grid feature is also toggled on and off from the Options
menu. Once on a grid is drawn on the screen, providing a
useful reference. Note that turbo draw and grid can also be
toggled on/off by pressing 't' and 'g' respectively.

9  Rounded Tracks and Quick Zoom
--------------------------------
One of the new features of Quickroute 1.5 for DOS, is that
all tracks are drawn with rounded ends. This gives a better
appearance when thicker tracks are joined together. The
negative side is that tracks take longer to draw. Therefore
the option of turning on/off the feature is available by
toggling Rounded Tracks on the Options menu.

Quick Zoom can also be toggled on/off on the Options
menu. When turned on, an attempt is made to calculate as
much of the scaling as possible using integer arithmetic.
This has the effect of reducing redraw times, especially on
computers which don't have a numeric co-processor.

For minimum redraw speed use Turbo ON, Quick Zoom ON,
Grid OFF, and Rounded Tracks OFF. For maximum quality
redraw use Turbo OFF, Quick Zoom OFF, and Rounded
Tracks ON.

10  Editing Designs
-------------------
Once you have entered your design it is highly likely that at
some stage you are going to want to edit it! This is where
the real power of computer based design systems comes to
the fore. Quickroute gives you two types of editing feature;
block based editing for groups of objects, and 'pick and
place' editing for single objects.

Block Based Editing
-------------------
The Button Bar gives you fast access to the block based
editing features. The sixth, seventh, and eighth buttons
from the left allow you to copy, move, and delete
rectangular regions of a design. Load the demonstration file
'DEMO.PCB' into Quickroute, and select the copy block button. Move
the cursor onto the design area and click the left mouse
button. Move the mouse cursor until the rubber-banded
box outlines a region of interest and click the left mouse
button again (you can click the right mouse button to quit
incidently). Any objects that are fully contained within the
rectangle are selected (except for graphics primitives). As
you move the cursor now, a rectangle which is the same
size as the selected region will move with the cursor
allowing you to judge positions easily. Click the left mouse
button to copy the highlighted objects to the new position.
Move and delete work in a similar manner.

Pick and Place Editing
----------------------
When using the block editing features you will notice that
only objects (tracks, pads, etc) that are entirely within the
rubber-banded rectangle are 'selected'. For more precise
selection of objects, the pick and place editing feature can
be used. In order to use this move the cursor to the tenth
button along the Button Bar and click the left mouse
button. Move the cursor onto the design area, and move the
cursor as close as possible to the object you want to select.
Click the left mouse button to 'pick' the object, it should
then be highlighted with a cross. Note that in the case of a
track, the cross will appear towards the centre point of the
track, so make sure the all the track is on screen.Note also
that polygons and graphic primitives (circles, ellipses, etc)
can not be picked.

Once an object is 'picked' you will be asked to select to
either move, copy or delete the object. Enter the required
option or '0' to quit. In the case of move and copy you will
be prompted to move the cursor to the new required
position. Click the left mouse button to copy or move the
object to the new position.

11  Saving, Loading and Printing
--------------------------------
To load a design into Quickroute, simply pull down the File
menu and select Open... You will be prompted to enter a
filename. Note that you can use Directory to check the
contents of the current directory.

Parameters such as the Zoom setting and the position of
the design in the window will also be automatically set to
those which were used when the design was originally
saved. Similarly, you can also Save a file. You will be
prompted to confirm the current filename in the status line.

The File menu also contains the Print and Plot functions.
Print and Plot are used to output hardcopy of your design
in the current Zoom or scale, and with the same top left
hand corner co-ordinate. Thus you can chose which bits of
a design are to be printed.

12  Advanced Features
---------------------
This tutorial has covered the basic features of Quickroute,
but there is much more to explore. In particular the
autorouter Tool which is included has not been mentioned,
as well as the Library features for designing and editing
symbols and including them in custom or standard
library's. All these functions are detailed in the manual
which you will be sent when you register.

13 Registration
---------------
To register your copy of Quickroute, just send a cheque payable
to POWERware, for 60 US dollars to


POWERware, 14 Ley Lane, Marple Bridge, Stockport, SK6 5DD, UK.



We will then send you,

1 - The latest enhanced version of Quickroute for DOS
2 - All the latest printer and plotter drivers
3 - The latest symbol libraries
4 - The full A5 size, quality manual with tutorial and reference
    sections.
5 - The POWERware technical help phone number.

Thankyou for registering.      Copyright (c) 1993 Dr I R Frost