RJWSoft Schematic Publisher  Version 1.0 HTML Help

• Getting Started
• Schematic Editor Menus and Toolbars
• Drawing Tool Overview
• Creating Components
• Adding Components to a Schematic
• Connecting Components Together
• Automatic Component Numbering
• Getting an Accurate Wiring Net List
• Getting an Accurate Parts List
• Additional Features for Web Publishing
• Importing and Exporting Parts Library and Copy Buffer

Getting Started

Two not so intuitive things are these: to delete a selection you need to press Ctrl (or Shift) and Del at the same time. And to edit the text of a composite (like a schematic component) you need to select the composite and then press control while you Right-Click the text.

Schematic Publisher takes full advantage of MFC framework interface elements like tool tips and explanatory text in the status bar to help you become productive right away with a minimum of reading help files.

Schematic Editor Menus and Toolbars

This is the File Menu, the only non familiar element here is Schematic Properties. This menu item brings up a dialog that lets you enter properties that apply to the schematic in general:  Project Name Company Name Drawing Number Drawn By Date Show Properties on Schematic Show Border on Schematic Use "Print Setup..." to select paper sizes other than 8.5" x 11." The virtual drawing page will assume the dimensions and orientation of the selected paper.

This is the Edit Menu, the only things you need to be aware of here are these:  All editing actions are applied to all selected elements of the current page. Note: that you must press Ctrl Delete to delete elements. The delete key alone will not delete selected elements. To select elements you can: Hold shift and left click on individual elements to toggle their selection state.  Lasso a group of components by left clicking and dragging the mouse. When you release the mouse button the components contained in the selection rectangle become selected. You can do a Select All.  Undo is page specific and is five levels deep (i.e. you can undo the last five edits made to each schematic page).  The copy buffer for schematics spans all schematic pages, meaning, you can copy from one page and paste into another. The copy buffer for the Component Creator is separate.  You can add up to fifteen schematic pages to a schematic.  Deletion of pages is not undoable, once you delete a page its gone.

This is the View Menu.  In this menu you can switch between Component Creator mode and Schematic Editor mode and turn the grid view on and off (all drawing actions are still "snapped to the grid"). Notice that Schematic Editor mode may be invoked with the hot key Alt-s. This is useful when wiring components because switching between Connection Path mode and Editing mode occurs frequently. "Dots at Co-Endpoint Vertices" requires a bit of explanation. When you place components in the schematic and then connect them together (by dragging connection paths between connection points) there are times when the vertice of one wire is on the path of another wire that goes to the same place. By showing a dot at the vertice it is apparent that the wires are "connected". Schematic Publisher uses the convention that a dot indicates a connection. After you work with the tool for a while you will see the difference between toggling this feature on and off.  "Connection Verifiers" are circles drawn around the endpoints of connection paths that terminate on a connection point. Once you get the hang of connecting things with wires you can turn this feature off most of the time.  Both "Dots at Co-Endpoint Vertices" and "Connection Verifiers" affect window scrolling performance. That's why they are optional.

This is the Drawing Tool menu. It is fairly self explanatory.  Connectors can only be added in Component Creation mode.  Off Page References are used to connect schematic components that reside on separate pages.  Connection Paths are used to connect schematic component connection points together. Notice that Connection Path has a hot key (Alt-w). This is useful when you are wiring components and need to switch between Connection Path mode and Editor mode frequently. Typically you will use most of these elements when you are creating schematic components but you can create a wide variety of drawings with the tools and save or print them.

New Document
Open File
Save Current File
Print
Undo
Cut
Copy
Paste
About
Edit Mode
Magnify Mode
Component Creation Mode
Schematic Editor Mode
Current Page
Add New Page
Generate and Display Wiring Net List
Generate and Display Part List
Current Schematic Page to Bitmap in Clipboard
Current Wire or Part List to HTML in Clipboard
Current Wire or Part List to XML in Clipboard

Line Tool
Rectangle Tool
Dashed Rectangle Tool
Ellipse Tool
Bezier Tool
Lined Polygon Tool
Filled Polygon Tool
Text Element Tool
Connector Tool
Mirror Selection
Flip Selection
Rotate Selection Left 90 degrees

Start New Component
Put Component in List (add the component currently being edited to the component list)
Component Selector (for selecting a component for editing or deletion)
Edit Selected Component
Delete Selected Component
Display the Schematic Component Properties dialog

Note! The component list is saved along with the schematic.

Connection Path Tool
Off Page Reference Tool
Component Selector (for selecting components to add to the schematic)
Add Component button (adds an instance of a component to the schematic)

Drawing Tool Overview

Connection Paths, Off Page References and Connectors

Drawing Connection Paths
Connection paths are used to connect components together and to connect components to Off Page References. To use the tool select it and then click and drag changing directions as necessary. The tool constrains the line to be horizontal or vertical and depending on how fast you drag normalizes the line to the direction you are going. So it is best to click and pull the tool to a vertice and then change direction pull to a vertice and change direction, etc. This is to avoid needless jogs in the connection paths if your hand moves while you are connecting components. A selected connection path is shown below to highlight the fact that you can edit any vertice.
!!! Note that you must press the CTRL key prior to dragging an object handle.

Drawing Off Page References
You can only add Off Page References when in Schematic drawing mode. Select the Off Page Reference Tool and then click in the drawing page. Off Page References can be used to connect components on the same page or on separate pages (or both). Off Page References are equivalent if the text shown in their bubbles is the same. You can have more than one Off Page Reference with the same text on any page (or group of pages), Schematic Publisher considers all of them as one connection point.

Drawing Connectors
You can only enter Connectors when in Component Builder mode. To do so click the Connector tool and then click and drag on the drawing page. More information is presented under "Creating Components."

Connecting Components With Connection Paths
You must connect connection paths to schematic component connection points or to Off Page Reference connection points and not to other wires or wire end points. Of course connecting connection path end points to the same schematic component connection point is entirely appropriate and correct. Correct connections are necessary for an accurate wiring net list. If you do not care about generating wiring net lists you can draw the schematic in any manner that your heart desires.

Note: You can connect schematic component connection points together.

To summarize, to get an accurate wiring net list.

DO THIS

• Connect schematic component connection points together.
• Connect schematic component connection points to Off Page References.
• Connect schematic component connection points together via connection paths.
• Connect schematic component connection points to Off Page References via connection paths.

• Connect connection path end points to connection path mid-points
• Connect connection path end points to connection path end points (except if they both terminate on a schematic component connection point)

Editing Drawing Elements
Select the drawing element you want to edit by left clicking it. If elements overlap repeated left clicks will cycle through the overlapping elements selecting each in turn. 

Selecting Elements:

• Lines: Click on a segment of the line
• Rectangles/Dashed Rectangles: Click within the rectangle
• Ellipses: Click within the ellipse
• Beziers: Click within the imaginary polygon defined by the points of the Bezier.
• Lined polygons: Click within the polygon.
• Filled polygons: Click within the polygon.
• Text Elements (in Schematic Components): Press CTRL and Click the text
  !!!Note that to drag the text you must have the CTRL key pressed. To edit the text you must select the text element and then (while continuing to hold the CTRL key) right click the text. The text will then be able to be edited in an in place text control.
• Text Elements (in Component Builder): Click the text
• Connectors: Click within the imaginary rectangle encompassing its parts (but not on one of the text elements or you will select it)
• Schematic components: Click within the imaginary rectangle encompassing its parts (but not on one of the text elements or you will select it)
• Connection Paths: Click on a segment of the Connection Path
• Off Page Connectors: Click within the imaginary rectangle encompassing its parts (but not on the text element or you will select it)

When selected an element's handles (if they exist and are editable) will become visible. Press CTRL and then click and drag the handles to change the shape.

To perform an operation on a group of elements lasso them while in Edit mode. All elements that are completely inside the lassoed selection rectangle will become selected.

Editing and Moving Text Elements
For text elements that are not contained in a schematic component left click the text element you want to edit in order to select it. Once selected, right click the text element and it will become editable. To move a text element (not contained in a schematic component) just click and drag it.

For text elements that are children of a schematic component (they move with the schematic component when the schematic component is moved) you must press the CTRL key prior to clicking the text element and you must continue to hold the CTRL key while you right click a selected text element in order to make it editable. You must also press CTRL prior to clicking and dragging a schematic component child text element. This is so when you click a schematic component and then drag it you don't end up selecting a contained text element and drag it instead of the entire schematic component.

Editing Connection Paths
Connection Paths are a special case in that they are constrained to keep their segments horizontal or vertical. You will notice that as you move a vertice that the connected segments and vertices will adjust. If a Connection Path becomes full of unnecessary vertices and/or segments just delete it and try again.
Remember that you must press the CTRL key in order to move any component's handles.

Creating Components

Description, Value and Designator
Enter a Description, Value and Designator in the Schematic Component Properties dialog. You can change these values later if necessary.

Every schematic component created has an associated Description, Value and Designator. Typical values for these would be:

• Description: CD4081 14 pin Quad AND Gate
• Value: CD4081
• Designator: IC1-A

• Description: General Purpose NPN Transistor
• Value: 2N2222
• Designator: Q4

• Description: Operational Amplifier
• Value: val???

Designator: des???

Later when a component is added to the schematic these values can be changed as necessary. Most of the time Description remains the same but Value and Designator are changed regularly. For example you might have multiple resistors with different values and designators but they might all have the description "1/4 Watt 5% Resistor". The example showing the Value and Designator as question marks (??...) would remind anyone adding the component to a schematic that they needed to assign values to them. Component auto-numbering is discussed later in this document.

Component naming in relation to accurate part lists is discussed later under "Getting an Accurate Parts List."

Include this component in parts list?
In Schematic Publisher all schematic elements are created as schematic components including power supply connections, ground, power pins, etc. If you do not desire a component to be listed in the parts list simply check "No."

Visible options
At times components do not need to have Value and Designator displayed so the option to suppress displaying them is available.

After pressing OK you are ready to start creating your component

When in "Edit" mode you can click and drag elements to move them into position. Remember it is necessary to press CTRL when you wish to click and drag component handles.

Add graphic elements as necessary to create the component. To do this click the desired tool and then draw (See Drawing Tool Overview). 

Adding Connectors
Connectors are used to define the "pins" or "leads" of your schematic component. They are the points you connect together with Connection Paths when "wiring" you schematic.

Each connector is drawn as a "wire and dot", a pin number, and a pin token. The dot is where Connection Paths are connected to the Connector. The Connector properties dialog is shown below. After selecting the Connector Tool click and drag to add a connector to the schematic component. once a connector has been added you can click any of its parts to edit them.

Displaying the Connector Dialog
Select the connection node by clicking in the imaginary rectangle that would encompass it (but not directly on the line, dot, or text elements). When it is selected a gray dotted line appears around it. If you right click within the dotted rectangle the Connection Node Properties dialog is displayed.
 

Pin Number
The pin number for the pin. In Schematic Publisher every component's leads are identified with a pin number (even resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc.). This is to support wiring list generation. In some cases you will not need to see the pin number (or token) so you can turn off their visibility. You can enter a letter for the pin number if you want to for cases such as diodes where 'a' and 'k' might be appropriate or 'e', 'b', 'c' for a transistor. The pin number value is shown in the wire list but the pin token is not.

Pin Token
The pin token is used when you want to show a name for a pin (e.g. 'Q', '/Q' or '+ Input', or 'RST', etc.). When you don't need the token you can turn off its visibility.

In the Wire List show this connector as...

"Comp-Desig pin N"
Typically the wire list shows a pin as IC1 pin 2, or R1 pin 1, or Q1 pin b. If this radio button is on then the wire list will show the connector in this fashion.

Alternate Text
For cases where "IC1 pin 2" is not appropriate (for example a ground or other power connection) you can tell Schematic Publisher to use your text when listing the connection in the wire list. For a ground element you might enter GND or for a power supply  element you might enter +12V. Remember to check the radio button next to the text input box if you want to use this feature or you will get the "IC1 pin 2" style listing.

Creating a typical component
Below a typical component is shown being created. One of the Connectors is shown selected  to illustrate how "invisible" tokens look when selected. Remember to select a Connector, click in the imaginary rectangle that would encapsulate all of its parts (and not directly on any of its parts), then right click within the dotted rectangle to bring up the Connection Node Properties dialog. When you are finished drawing the component, click the "Put Component in List" button.

Editing a Component
Enter Component Builder mode and select the component you wish to edit in the component list. Click the Edit Selected Component button. You are warned that the current contents of the Component Builder will be be deleted and, if you press OK, the selected component is shown in the drawing area.

At this point if you change your mind just press the Edit Selected Component button again and the edit will be canceled and the drawing area will be cleared. Otherwise, you now have complete drawing control to edit the component.

When you are finished editing the component click the Put Component in List button and you will be presented with the Schematic Component Properties dialog. You can enter a new name for the component or just click OK to overwrite the component you just edited. If you choose to overwrite you are warned (just in case you didn't really mean it) and if you press OK your are told that the component was placed into the list. If you cancel the component is not added.

Deleting a Component
Enter Component Builder mode and select the component you wish to delete in the component list. Click the Delete Selected Component button. You are appropriately warned that this means good-bye for the component and you can select OK or Cancel.

Editing Schematic Component Properties
There are two ways to bring up the Schematic Component Properties dialog. If you left click in the imaginary rectangle that encompasses the Designator and Value text elements you are in effect selecting the Schematic Component. You will know you selected it if a dotted box appears around both text elements and they become highlighted. You can also click the Schematic Component Properties button. When the dialog is open you can change the properties of the displayed component.

Note that once schematic components are placed into the schematic, deleting them from the component list or editing components in the component list HAS NO EFFECT ON THE ONES ALREADY IN THE SCHEMATIC. This is by design. Make sure you are happy with your components before you use hundreds of them in a schematic and then decide they need another pin.

Saving Schematic Components
Schematic components are stored with the schematic when it is saved.

Once you have created a component and added it to the component list you can begin using it in the schematic.

Adding Components To a Schematic

Adding Schematic Pages
To add more pages to the schematic click the Add New Page toolbar button while in Schematic Editor mode. The newly added page becomes the current page. To navigate between pages, select the desired page in the Page selector drop down.

Connecting Components Together

This illustration shows Connection Paths placed between the various component connection points on page 3 of a schematic. Additionally an Off Page Reference named 'A' is shown.  The following illustration shows page 4 of the same schematic. Since the Off Page Reference 'A' is also present and connected to the collector of Q2, the collector of Q2 is connected to the emitter of Q5 (on page 4).

Since the Off Page Reference 'A' is present and connected to the emitter of Q5, Q5's emitter is connected to the collector of Q2 (on page 3).

Creating components, adding them to schematics and connecting them together is the bulk of the functionality of Schematic Publisher. Remember to save your work often. Once you have created a schematic you can print it, publish it to the web, or share your Schematic Publisher files with your friends.

Auto Component Numbering

Auto Number Dialog:

After you select Auto-Number Components... from the Edit menu the dialog at left is invoked. Select the components that you want to be in the same sequentially numbered series. For example if you had electrolytic capacitors, ceramic capacitors, and tantalum capacitors in your schematic you would most likely want them to all be numbered as C1 thru Cn. To accomplish this you would select them all in the list, enter C as the Prefix and enter 1 as the "Begin number sequence at" value. Press OK and voila all of the selected components are numbered for you. Another example would be to select "1/4 Watt 1% Resistors" and "Potentiometers" to have the Prefix R and the "Begin number sequence at" value of 1. The numbering algorithm divides the schematic surface up into a 16 by 16 grid and numbers the 256 resulting positions from 1 through 256. 1 2 3 ... 16 17 18 19 ... 32 240 241 242 ... 256 The components are sorted by the (x,y) position of their upper left corner in this grid and then numbered sequentially.

Getting an Accurate Wiring Net List

• Always place Connection Path ends on schematic component connection points or on Off Page Reference connection points and never on wire segments.
• Do not tie Connection Path ends together unless they all terminate on a schematic component connection point.
• Do not place a schematic component connection point on the mid point or vertice of a Connection Path
• Remember ends to ends always

Always enter a terse but meaningful description for the schematic components you create.

Always give each separate component its own unique designator.
Schematic Publisher considers each component that has a unique Description-Value-Designator trio as a separate component when tallying, with one exception. When you have a gate or op-amp package that contains multiple devices you must give them designators like this IC1-A, IC1-B, IC1-C, etc. When Schematic Publisher sees designators specified in this manner it will count the package as one component. The specification is simply ICn-c where n can be multiple digits (no spaces) and c can be multiple letters (no spaces) the intervening character is a dash '-'.

Do not put power connections on individual gates or op-amps when there are multiple devices in the package. Instead, create a power connection component that has one connector and is set to NOT BE VISIBLE in the parts list. That way you will benefit from not having to show all those power pins and your wire list will be correct.

Additional Features for Web Publishing

Part and Wire List to HTML
Press the Current List to Clipboard HTML button to transfer the currently displayed part or wire list into the clipboard as HTML. The list is presented in table format.

VC State Variable Filter Project Parts List

Qty.	Description	Value	Designators
5	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor(s)	100K	R6, R2, R11, R17, R20
1	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor	120K	R14
2	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor(s)	150K	R26, R28
5	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor(s)	1K	R16, R24, R22, R21, R23
2	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor(s)	20K	R19, R18
1	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor	270K	R9
2	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor(s)	2K	R3, R12
2	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor(s)	39K	R25, R27
1	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor	470 ohm	R13
3	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor(s)	47K	R10, R15, R4
1	1/4 Watt 1% Resistor	9.1K	R8
2	Ceramic Capacitor(s)	470pF	C1, C2
1	LM13700 OP-Amp	LM13700	IC2-B, IC2-A
1	Operational Amplifier	TL084	IC1-D, IC1-C, IC1-A, IC1-B
5	Phone Jack(s)	1/4" Jack	J4, J5, J3, J1, J2
1	Potentiometer	100 ohm	R7
2	Potentiometer(s)	100K	R1, R5
1	Transistor NPN	2N3904	Q1
2	Transistor PNP(s)	2N3906	Q3, Q2

Part and Wire List to XML
Press the Current List to Clipboard XML button to transfer the currently displayed part or wire list into the clipboard as XML. The XML format is "tag normal" and is very straightforward for easy translation via XSLT or import into a database. 

Importing and Exporting Parts Library and Copy Buffer